A startup, Everand, is now bundling ebooks, audiobooks, and book clubs in challenge to Amazon

A startup, Everand, is now bundling ebooks, audiobooks, and book clubs in challenge to Amazon

Audiobook, ebook, or both? Now, you won’t have to choose. The Scribd-owned reading subscription service Everand wants to make the choice unnecessary. On Tuesday, the company took the wraps off a combined subscription that brings together Everand’s catalog of over 1.5 million audiobooks and ebooks with the social book club app Fable, which Everand acquired…

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Strava declares war on scrapers ahead of IPO

Strava declares war on scrapers ahead of IPO

AI companies have grown into data-hungry entities as their models require ever-larger datasets to train on. To meet that need, many AI startups defy long-standing internet conventions — like respecting robots.txt files, which signal to automated crawlers which parts of a website are off-limits — and scrape data aggressively. This has forced websites to restrict…

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TikTok’s road to becoming a super app

TikTok’s road to becoming a super app

Although TikTok is widely described as a social media giant, it’s been gradually moving beyond that category. Over time, the video app added TikTok Shop, a map for local discovery, robust search, games, and so much more. Now, it has recently added hotel booking capabilities and is pursuing a fintech license.  It appears that TikTok…

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I put Google’s 24/7 AI assistant Gemini Spark to work, and it’s actually pretty useful

I put Google’s 24/7 AI assistant Gemini Spark to work, and it’s actually pretty useful

Gemini Spark is Google’s new 24/7 agentic assistant, designed to help you help you “navigate your digital life,” which essentially means getting your online to-dos done, summarizing the things you don’t have time to read (like the entirety of your inbox), or organizing something that would have otherwise involved too much screen time-filled manual labor,…

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Startup Battlefield 200 applications close today

Startup Battlefield 200 applications close today

Today is the final day to apply or nominate a startup for Startup Battlefield 200. Once the clock strikes 11:59 p.m. PT, the window closes on your chance to compete for $100,000 in equity-free funding, gain global visibility, connect directly with investors, and launch on the TechCrunch Disrupt stage. If you’re building a breakout startup — or know a…

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