Despite ban, Twitter downloads surge in China amid COVID protests

Twitter saw a surge in downloads in China as protests against the country’s stringent COVID restrictions erupted nationwide over the last few days.

The social media app ranked 9th amongst all the free iOS apps in China on November 29, up from 150th a week ago, according to according to Apple Censorship, an independent project that tracks censorship in the App Store.

Image Credits: Twitter ranking in the China App Store / Screenshot from SensorTower

Gauging the size of Android downloads is trickier because Google Play is unavailable in China. Android-based app stores are operated by an array of local tech firms like Huawei and Xiaomi, which tend to strictly follow local censorship rules. Apple has also in recent years come under fire for bowing to censorship requests from some governments.

Even when China-based users manage to jump over the “Great Firewall” and get on Twitter, they will likely have a difficult time finding the information they need. Bot accounts are bombarding searches for Chinese cities with tweets of porn, escort ads, and gambling links, making it impossible to look up city-related protest news. It doesn’t help that Elon Musk recently axed the team at Twitter responsible for fighting propaganda and misinformation.

Given the increase in Chinese-language bot activity, which is thought to be state-directed, it’s hard to know how many of the new app installs belong to protestors.

Access to Twitter and other Western internet platforms is increasingly challenging in China as Beijing continues to clamp down on censorship circumvention tools. All VPN providers without government authorization are in effect illegal. In October, a protocol widely used in VPN services experienced an unprecedented blockade in the country. It won’t be a surprise if the authorities move to further tighten the grip on VPN tools following this wave of protests.

Despite ban, Twitter downloads surge in China amid COVID protests by Rita Liao originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/28/despite-ban-twitter-downloads-surge-in-china-amid-covid-protests/

AWS launches Graviton3E, its new Arm-based chip for HPC workloads

Read more about AWS re:Invent 2022 on TechCrunch

At its traditional evening keynote at re:Invent, AWS tonight announced quite a bit of new hardware in its cloud, starting with a new version of its Nitro hypervisor, new instance types, and a new version of its custom Arm-based Graviton chips which was specifically designed for powering high-performance computing workloads. This new Graviton3E chip — a variant of the existing Graviton line — promises significant performance improvements, including 35% better performance for workloads that heavily depend on vector instructions.

These new chips will obviously power new AWS EC2 instance types, starting with the logically dubbed Hpc7G. This new instance type will come in a variety of sizes, with up to 64 vCPUs and 128 GiB of memory. It’ll take until early 2023 before these instances become available, though. For more network-intensive workloads, AWS is also launching a new Graviton 3E instance type (c7gn).

For Intel fans, there are also new Ice Lake-based Xeon-based machines, too.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

All of these new instances will make use of AWS’s new Nitro 5 hardware hypervisor, which the company also announced today. Nitro v5 promises significantly improved latency, up to 40% better performance per watt, and 60% higher PPS. The AWS team made this possible by roughly doubling the number of transistors in the custom Nitro chips.

Image Credits: TechCrunch

“Performance can be hard to achieve when you refuse to budge on things like security and cost,” Peter DeSantis, Senior Vice President of AWS Utility Computing, said in tonight’s keynote. And in many ways, that’s long been the story of AWS’s compute platform and its work on its custom processors.

Read more about AWS re:Invent 2022 on TechCrunch

AWS launches Graviton3E, its new Arm-based chip for HPC workloads by Frederic Lardinois originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/28/aws-launches-graviton3e-its-new-arm-based-chip-for-hpc-workloads/

As Pipe’s founding team departs, tensions rise over allegations

Besides Fin Capital, other VCs to lead investments in Pipe on the part of their investment firms include Marlon Nichols, a managing director at MaC Venture Capital, and Ashton Newhall, a longtime investor with Greenspring Associates and now a partner with StepStone Group, which acquired Greenspring in September of last year.

None responded to requests for comment.

Another investor in Pipe, Matthew Cowan of Next47 Capital, told TechCrunch that he was “not allowed to comment.” 

Other backers in the company include Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global, CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund, 3L, Japan’s SBI Investment, Marc Benioff, Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, Republic and Craft Ventures, which led the company’s $6 million seed funding in February 2020.

Meanwhile, a

On November 22, alternative financing startup Pipe announced that its three co-founders were stepping down from their executive roles and that a search for a new, “veteran” CEO had commenced.

In an exclusive interview, co-founder and former co-CEO Harry Hurst told TechCrunch that the trio were “0-1 builders, not at-scale operators.” He said the company’s revenue was growing year-over-year and that the company had five years of runway.

Finding the right successor could take a while, however. For starters, Pipe — which has raised more than $300 million from investors since it was founded in 2019 — has just one outside board member in Peter Ackerson, a general partner at Fin Capital who himself became a VC just three years ago. Hurst and fellow founders Josh Mangel and Zain Allarakhia are the only other directors on the board.

More, detractors seem bent on raising questions about the way the business has been run. Since that article was published, several sources who wished to remain anonymous — including one investor who says he passed on investing in the startup in its early days — have said that they have “heard” that Pipe made roughly $80 million in loans to one or several crypto mining companies. The outfit or outfits have since gone out of business and the $80 million is believed to have been completely written off, said these individuals.

Asked about the allegations, a company spokesperson told TechCrunch that Pipe did not issue $80 million worth of loans to crypto mining companies and that Pipe did not have to completely “write off” any related receivables. Instead, she confirmed that Pipe “has provided access to financing to crypto mining hosting companies” and said — when asked if Pipe has lost any amount of money on loans to crypto mining entities — that as a private company, Pipe does not share its company financials.

The startup declined to name its crypto mining-related customers, but notably, Pipe had a public partnership with Compass Mining, a now beleaguered crypto mining company that is reportedly facing its own fair share of struggles.

There are other grumblings. One source alleged that Hurst and the other two founders sold millions of dollars’ worth of their own shares in a secondary sale, a practice that became fairly common during the pandemic across numerous young companies. (The founder of Hopin, also founded in 2019, has reportedly cashed out shares worth at least $195 million.) When we asked Hurst last week just how much investors had let the co-founders take off the table already, he declined to answer.

One fintech investor also raised questions about the sophistication of Pipe’s technology. Asked whether there was any related issue with Pipe’s underlying loans, the company’s spokesperson said, While we’ve seen some delinquencies on the platform like many fintechs in this current macro environment, we do not expect buy-side investors to experience losses that haven’t already been communicated to them or a part of the larger risk profile communicated by the company.”

Hurst has apparently been hearing about the conjecture around his company. In a Twitter thread last night, he ranted against “VCs and others hating on our company based on rumors. Pretty obvious there are bad actors with their own agendas spreading BS with no regard for the people it damages.” He also wrote: “As a leader, I won’t let this noise distract us or undermine the incredible hard work our team puts into achieving our mission to empower companies everywhere to grow on their terms.”

Meanwhile, the CEO search continues. Indeed, Pipe’s spokesperson reiterated today what the company said publicly last week, that “Josh [Mangel] is now interim CEO and Harry is still at the company in his new capacity as Vice Chairman. They both want to see Pipe reach its ultimate potential and are committed to finding a new CEO as reported and announced…” 

Once Pipe’s new CEO is named, she added, that individual will assume Hurst’s seat on the board.

As for who is helping with the search, she said the answer is that “many of Pipe’s stakeholders are part of the CEO search process, including senior management and investors.”

 

Image Credits: Twitter

Besides Fin Capital, other VCs to lead investments in Pipe on the part of their investment firms include Marlon Nichols, a managing director at MaC Venture Capital, and Ashton Newhall, a longtime investor with Greenspring Associates and now a partner with StepStone Group, which acquired Greenspring in September of last year.

None responded to requests for comment.

Another investor in Pipe, Matthew Cowan of Next47 Capital, told TechCrunch that he was “not allowed to comment.” 

Other backers in the company include Morgan Stanley’s Counterpoint Global, CreditEase FinTech Investment Fund, 3L, Japan’s SBI Investment, Marc Benioff, Alexis Ohanian’s Seven Seven Six, Republic and Craft Ventures, which led the company’s $6 million seed funding in February 2020.

Meanwhile, a Form-D signed by Pipe Senior Counsel Peter Chiaro with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in late September reveals that the company recently secured $7.12 million in debt financing, which could be construed as a positive alternative to the kind of highly structured inside round that many startups are closing currently.

Pipe co-founder and chief business officer Michal Cieplinski, whose name was absent from the company’s announcement last week, was listed as Pipe’s “executive officer” in the filing, which declined to disclose its revenue range.

TechCrunch’s weekly fintech newsletter, The Interchange, launched on May 1! Sign up here to get it in your inbox.

Got a news tip or inside information about a topic we’ve covered? We’d love to hear from you. You can reach me at maryann@techcrunch.com. Or you can drop us a note at tips@techcrunch.com. If you prefer to remain anonymous, click here to contact us, which includes SecureDrop (instructions here) and various encrypted messaging apps.

As Pipe’s founding team departs, tensions rise over allegations by Mary Ann Azevedo originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/28/as-pipes-founding-team-departs-tensions-rise-over-allegations/

Southeast Asia insurtech Igloo increases its Series B to $46M

Igloo, a Singapore-based insurtech focused on underserved communities in Southeast Asia, announced it has raised a Series B extension of $27 million, bringing the round’s total to $46 million. The first tranche of $19 million was announced in March, and led by Cathay innovation with participation from ACA and returning investors OpenSpace.

The newest round was led by the InsuResilience Investment Fund II, which was launched by the German development bank KfW for the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and is managed by impact investor BlueOrchard. Other lead investors were the Women’s World Banking Asset Management (WAM), FinnFund, La Maison and returning investors Cathay Innovation.

Igloo develops its insurance products and then partners with insurers who underwrite their policies. Igloo currently works with 20 global, regional and local insurers across Southeast Asia. It distributes its insurance products through partnerships, and is partnered with over 55 companies in 7 countries. It now offers 15 products, including policies for gig workers, gamers, cars and farmers in Vietnam, and says it has facilitated more than 300 million policies and increased gross written premiums by 30 times since 2019.

Co-founder and CEO Raunak Mehta told TechCrunch that Igloo decided to raise a Series B extension because of investor interest after the first tranche of funds. The extension will give the startup a multiyear runway and will be used for hiring, infrastructure and merger and acquisitions opportunities.

Mehta said that the penetration rate of insurance in much of Southeast Asia is low, less than $100 USD per capita across Indonesia, Vietnam and the Philippines. Igloo was created to make insurance more affordable and relevant to the needs of communities in Southeast Asia. Igloo distributes insurance products that range from 2 cents USD for phone screen protection to $600 USD for comprehensive motor insurance.

Igloo provides the tech stack for its products across Southeast Asia, which Mehta says means the entire insurance value chain, from product discovery to claims, is available on one platform. This makes it faster for it to brings the policies it distributes to market more quickly, and significantly reduce the operational cost of claims.

Mehta said more than 80% of claims are currently managed in an automated or semi-automated way, and that big data management, along with machine learning and artificial intelligence, has enabled it to reduce anti-selection risks, false positives and fraudulent claims. By bringing down the cost of managing claims, Igloo is able to offer lower premium to customers.

An example of Igloo’s insurance policies include ones for gig economy riders that it sells through its partnership with Foodpanda in Thailand, Singapore and the Philippines, and Lozi and Ahamove Vietnam. Its policy for Foodpanda, called PandaCare, includes motor, personal accident and hospitalization income protection for workers.

Another, more recent one, is is Weather Index Insurance product in Vietnam. The policy uses blockchain-backed smart contracts and automates claims payouts by using pre-assigned values for crop losses caused by weather and other natural events. Igloo says the Weather Index Insurance is Vietnam’s first parametric insurance (or a policy that agrees to make pre-agreed payouts based on trigger events like a flood) and its first integration of smart contracts into insurance.

Igloo also provides products that Mehta says directly or indirectly benefits women, through a partnership with Philinsure in the Philippines. They have distributed more than 5 million policies that cover credit default, personal accident, family relief and natural calamity support to women micro-entrepreneurs and their families. In Vietnam, more than 65% of the agents who use Igloo’s Ignite digital platform to sell insurance policies are women, and they are also the main beneficiaries of the Weather Index Insurance product.

The insurtech’s distribution partners include telecoms like Telkomsel, AIS and Mobifone, and e-commerce platforms like Shopee, Lazada, Bukalapak and JD.ID. It also works with financial service providers, like AEON, Gcash and UnionBank, to sell policies for their customer base, and provides products for insuring goods in transit and protecting fleet drivers through logistics platforms like Ahamove, Shippit, Loship and Locad.

Other Southeast Asia-based insurtechs that want to increase insurance penetration in the region and have raised large Series B rounds include Indonesia’s Fuse and PasarPolis and Thailand’s Sunday.

Southeast Asia insurtech Igloo increases its Series B to $46M by Catherine Shu originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/28/igloo-series-b-extension/

EV SPAC Faraday Future ousts its CEO

Faraday Future, the troubled EV startup-turned-publicly-traded company, has shuffled its executive ranks once again.

The board fired its CEO Carsten Breitfeld, according to a regulatory filing posted Monday after the markets closed. Brietfeld, who was the former co-founder of failed EV startup Byton, took the leadership role at Faraday Future in September 2019.

The board said Monday it appointed Xuefeng Chen, a former and longtime Chery Jaguar Land Rover executive who most recently led Faraday Future’s China division, as its new CEO. As Faraday’s new global CEO, Chen will receive a base annual salary of $900,000, a performance-based bonus of up to $600,000 and a cash signing and retention bonus of $500,000. The retention bonus must be returned if Chen resigns or is terminated without cause in the next 36 months. Chen will also receive restricted stocks and performance-based restricted stock units.

The CEO upheaval is the latest in a string of internal drama and financial problems that have plagued the company for years. Even its public debut at CES 2016 was controversial.

The messiness at the company has only ramped up since it went public through a merger with Property Solutions Acquisition Corp. in July 2021. Investigations, a restructuring and a going concern warning are just a few of the dramatic turn of events in the past 18 months.

Breitfeld’s dismissal comes just a week since the company warned it might not be able to continue operating over the next year and that it was uncertain when its first FF 91 luxury EVs would be delivered.

The company has repeatedly delayed the FF 91 vehicle, which as of November 17 had received only 369 non-binding preorders. While Faraday Future did appear to snag a $350 million lifeline in recent weeks, it may not be enough to sustain its operations or deliver on its long-promised vehicle.

EV SPAC Faraday Future ousts its CEO by Kirsten Korosec originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/28/ev-spac-faraday-future-ousts-its-ceo/

Elon Musk’s next trick? Picking a fight with Apple

After decimating Twitter’s workforce, imperiling its infrastructure and emptying its ad coffers all within his first month at the company, it’s on to the next thing for Elon Musk.

The erratic billionaire picked a fight with Apple in a series of tweets on Monday, bracing for a battle — or perhaps just another volley of tweets — that would comfortably position the perpetually aggrieved Twitter owner as the David to Apple’s Goliath.

Musk is now claiming that Apple threatened to “withhold” Twitter from the App Store, implying that the iPhone maker might take action against the social app over changes under its new ownership without offering any evidence. TechCrunch has reached out to Apple for clarification, but for now we don’t know if Apple really contacted Twitter over content moderation concerns or something else entirely.

Twitter’s new owner also claims that Apple has pulled most of its advertising on the platform, which seems possible or even likely considering how many other major ad buyers have done the same since Musk’s takeover, citing concerns about brand safety and content moderation changes.

Whatever is really going on here, a few things are true. For one, Twitter needs to stay in the App Store and to do so it needs to clear Apple’s low bar for content moderation, which Truth Social and Parler — apps with far less mature algorithmic content moderation systems — have managed to do. Even with Musk’s threatened policy changes and his deep cuts to moderation teams, Twitter would likely still remain on Apple’s good side if those apps pulled it off.

It’s also true that Apple’s rules for what gets an app get kicked out of the App Store are vague and arbitrarily enforced. Apple warns against “content that is offensive, insensitive, upsetting, intended to disgust, in exceptionally poor taste, or just plain creepy,” which would seem to rule out a lot of social apps, pre-Musk Twitter included, if it really came down to it.

At the same time that Musk is portraying Apple as a censor, he’s also railing against the fees the company charges apps that operate in its ecosystem. Musk calls this a “secret 30% tax” but in reality Apple’s cut is well-documented and much discussed. Epic Games and Apple went to court over Apple’s fees in 2020, with Epic arguing that the iPhone maker wields monopoly power in the software market.

Whether intentional or not, Musk reigniting the App Store antitrust battle is timely. Epic’s ongoing fight with Apple is kicking off again in appeals court and Congress could be poised for another push to pass the Open Markets Act, a bipartisan bill that would crack open the App Store and “tear down coercive anticompetitive walls in the app economy,” according to its sponsors.

It’s also possible that Apple actually has cautioned Musk that reinstating thousands of accounts banned for stuff like hate speech and harassment might nudge the app afoul of the App Store’s actually quite lenient content moderation requirements. In that case, Musk could position himself as a high-profile champion of the anti-Apple crowd, joining Epic’s whole thing and making nice with regulators who are rightfully concerned over Musk’s Twitter plans (or lack thereof).

But even then, Twitter needs Apple in both the short- and long-term and Apple certainly doesn’t need Twitter. And fighting on yet another front would stretch Musk’s attention even more when he should probably be focused on the basics, like running his myriad other companies or, say, not bankrupting Twitter. You can be mad that Apple takes 30% of what you make on the iPhone, but 30% of zero is still zero.

At the end of the day, Musk, the world’s richest man and maker of luxury cars and spaceships, generally seems to enjoy portraying himself as a scrappy upstart fighting against larger powers that be. If Musk wants to re-create that dynamic at Twitter, Apple is arguably one of the only entities that can still make the hugely influential social media company look like the little guy. Musk might be the Twitter boss now, but he knows that turning everyone against the big boss is a good way to maintain the approval of the miscellaneous internet devotees who affirm his existing beliefs and vote in his deeply unscientific tweet polls, so maybe it’s just about that.

Whatever inspired his anti-Apple tirade, waging a war on Apple is probably a losing fight. But it’s a fresh conflict that diverts attention from Musk’s embarrassing and seemingly endless parade of catastrophes as he fumbles Twitter’s policy, personnel and product alike, possibly running one of the world’s biggest social networks into the ground in the process.

Elon Musk’s next trick? Picking a fight with Apple by Taylor Hatmaker originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/28/elon-musk-twitter-vs-apple/

Move over, operators — consultants are the new nontraditional VC

Operating experience has become a buzzword over the last few years as venture capitalists pump up their resumes in a quest to set themselves apart from other sources of startup capital. Now, it seems that we are seeing the next evolution of that trend.

This year has seen a wave of startup consultant firms looking to raise venture funds of their own to take stakes in companies they are already working with or that align with their practice. In theory, this makes total sense because both consultants and venture capitalists have the same goal at the end of the day: helping companies grow.

“Most come on board because we provide the capital, ‘plus.’ What is that plus? The plus with us is storytelling.” FNDR CEO James Vincent

But why are so many consultant-led venture capital funds launching now? It’s a particularly rough time in the broader venture market, and economy in general, in addition to being one of the toughest periods for emerging managers and first-time fundraisers. It’s worth noting that all of these funds are raising outside capital as opposed to investing off their balance sheets.

For one thing, the startups they were already working with were asking them to.

Move over, operators — consultants are the new nontraditional VC by Rebecca Szkutak originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/28/move-over-operators-consultants-are-the-new-nontraditional-vc/

Daily Crunch: WhatsApp rolls out new ‘Message Yourself’ feature globally

Over the last two years, intelligent calendar platform Reclaim.ai raised $10 million “using a more incremental approach,” writes co-founder Henry Shapiro.

“We’ve done all this without giving up a single board seat, and Reclaim employees continue to own over two-thirds of the company’s equity,” rejecting conventional wisdom that founders should “raise as much as you can as fast as you can.”

In a TC+ post, Shapiro reviews the process they used to identify follow-on investors, shares the email template used to pitch the SAFE, and explains why “a larger cap table means more founder control.”

To get a roundup of TechCrunch’s biggest and most important stories delivered to your inbox every day at 3 p.m. PDT, subscribe here.

We’re joining the Cyber Monday fun with 25% off annual subscriptions to TechCrunch+ content and analysis starting today until Wednesday, November 30. Plus, today only, get 50% off tickets to discover the vast unknown and attend TechCrunch Sessions: Space in Los Angeles!

Okay, we haven’t done a newsletter since Wednesday, and while the U.S. team was chillin’ like villains, the rest of the team was hard at work, so here’s some of the highlights from the last half-week of TechCrunchy goodness! — Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3

  • Talking to yourself just went digital: Instead of having that internal monologue stay in your head, now you can play out all of your thoughts to yourself in WhatsApp, Jagmeet writes. The messaging platform began rolling out an easier way to talk to yourself today after completing beta testing.
  • Great Wall of porn: That’s how Rita and Catherine describe the bot surge in China that is making it difficult to get any legitimate Twitter search results when trying to find out something about Chinese cities. Why, you ask? Rita writes that “the surge in such bot content coincides with an unprecedented wave of (COVID) protests that have swept across major Chinese cities and universities over the weekend.”
  • Your calendar, only more productive: Get ready for your calendar to be more than just a place to record things you have to do that day. Romain writes about Amie, a startup that grabbed $7 million to link your unscheduled to-do list with your calendar. The app also enables users to be social with coworkers.

Startups and VC

Dubai-based mass transit and shared mobility services provider SWVL has carried out its second round of layoffs, affecting 50% of its remaining headcount, Tage reports. The news is coming six months after SWVL laid off 32% (over 400 employees) of its workforce in a “portfolio optimization program” effort geared toward achieving positive cash flow next year.

There’s a couple of new funds in town, too! Harri reports that Early Light Ventures plots a second, $15 million fund for software ‘underdogs,’ while Mike writes that BackingMinds raises a new €50 million fund to fund normally overlooked entrepreneurs. He also writes about Pact, an all-women led VC for mission-driven startups, backed by Anne Hathaway.

And we have five more for you:

Lessons for raising $10M without giving up a board seat

Image Credits: Ihor Reshetniak (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Over the last two years, intelligent calendar platform Reclaim.ai raised $10 million “using a more incremental approach,” writes co-founder Henry Shapiro.

“We’ve done all this without giving up a single board seat, and Reclaim employees continue to own over two-thirds of the company’s equity,” rejecting conventional wisdom that founders should “raise as much as you can as fast as you can.”

In a TC+ post, Shapiro reviews the process they used to identify follow-on investors, shares the email template used to pitch the SAFE, and explains why “a larger cap table means more founder control.”

Three more from the TC+ team:

TechCrunch+ is our membership program that helps founders and startup teams get ahead of the pack. You can sign up here. Use code “DC” for a 15% discount on an annual subscription!

Big Tech Inc.

Amazon’s recent cost-cutting measures seem to be affecting more than just its delivery business. Manish writes that the company is shutting down its wholesale distribution business, called Amazon Distribution, in India. Amazon had started this unit to help neighborhood stores secure inventory. The company didn’t say why it was closing this particular business down, but Manish notes that this is the third such Amazon unit to be shuttered in India.

Meanwhile, Natasha L reports that Meta has gotten itself into trouble again with the European Union’s General Data Protection Regulation (aka, the agency that regulates data protection). Facebook’s parent company is being hit with $275 million in penalties for what the agency said was breaches in data protection that resulted in some 530 million users’ personal information being leaked.

Now enjoy six more:

Daily Crunch: WhatsApp rolls out new ‘Message Yourself’ feature globally by Christine Hall originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/28/daily-crunch-whatsapp-rolls-out-new-message-yourself-feature-globally/

Max Q: Thank you

More news from TC and beyond

Hello and welcome back to Max Q. I hope everyone had a restful Thanksgiving with loved ones. As it was a holiday week, this is an abbreviated version of the regular newsletter, and I’m writing it on Wednesday, November 23. Before we get to the news, I wanted to give a heartfelt thank you to all Max Q subscribers. Doing this would be literally and figuratively pointless without you.

In this issue:

  • Orion greets the moon
  • News from ispace, Metaspectral and more

Orion, meet Moon. Moon, meet Orion.

The spacecraft Orion made a historic fly-by of the moon last week, completing a key maneuver as part of its 25-day test flight. The spacecraft, which NASA hopes will eventually carry astronauts, was carried to orbit by the super-heavy Space Launch System during the rocket’s maiden flight earlier this month.

Orion’s journey is at the heart of the Artemis I mission. Artemis is the name NASA has given to its human spaceflight program to the moon, and (as the name suggests) this mission is the first in what the agency hopes will be many — up to four in this decade alone. But before we go about launching up astronauts, NASA is using this first mission to test the Orion capsule and ensure it’s safe to carry humans.

What does Thanksgiving weekend have in store for Orion? Well, quite a lot. Read more by clicking on the link above.

Orion is due to make its splashdown to Earth on December 11, and that will be the capstone to the mission. During the return to Earth, NASA engineers will carefully monitor the performance of the heat shield and other critical components on the spacecraft. Once the capsule lands in the Pacific, it’ll be fished out and returned to the agency for further inspection.

Orion took this selfie when it was just 81 miles above the lunar surface. Image Credits: NASA

More news from TC and beyond

  • CAPSTONE officially entered its target orbit around the moon. The spacecraft will collect data on that orbit, which could be key for future Artemis missions. (NASA)
  • NASA selected Rocket Lab as its new launch parter for the TROPICS missions. The two launches, which will carry two satellites each to orbit, are expected to launch from Virginia no earlier than May 1. (TechCrunch)
  • Rosotics, a 3D printing startup, closed a $750,000 pre-seed round to develop a more efficient 3D printer. (Payload)
  • Rocket Lab completed the launch rehearsal for the upcoming Electron mission on December 7. It will mark the first time the company has launched a rocket from U.S. soil. (Rocket Lab)
  • Starlink is available across all of Alaska and Canada. (SpaceX)
  • Stells, a startup founded in 2021, is developing a rover called Mobile Power Rover (MPR-1) that would be able to provide power via wireless charging to lunar spacecraft. (TechCrunch)
  • The U.S. Space Force signed a cooperative research agreement, also known as a CRADA, with Blue Origin for development on the New Glenn rocket. (Satellite)

 

We’re offering to Max Q subscribers free tickets to TechCrunch’s in-person space event. Find out more about the event and get your free ticket by clicking here.

Max Q is brought to you by me, Aria Alamalhodaei. If you enjoy reading Max Q, consider forwarding it to a friend. 

Max Q: Thank you by Aria Alamalhodaei originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/28/max-q-thank-you/

Nufa lets you live up to unrealistic beauty standards at the tap of an app

It isn’t like Instagram is a beacon of truth as it is, but things are about to get a lot worse, as Nufa takes any image and sculpts you into the “after” picture dream that every gym owner wants to project into our souls as they continue on their mission to make us all look like body-building beasts with cleavage out the wazoo and abs for days.

The new mobile app “seamlessly transforms the human body into a picture in one click,” as it considers muscle structure, body type, skin color, body position and even tattoos to provide a “digital experience that hardly differs from real body transformation pics.”

“For women, we have an additional feature of transforming the breast from the 1st to the 5th size that works even with neckline clothes,” Nufa’s head of Analytics, Artem Petrikeev, said in an email to TechCrunch. “We are changing body pics similar to how Faceapp changes selfies.”

Can we be done making ourselves feel less than already?

But hey, if this is your jam, I guess you, too, can see what you’d look like if you conformed to completely unrealistic beauty standards. You do you, boo, but if you install this app, perhaps think about what it is you’re buying into. You’re perfect as you are, and if you don’t believe that, think about where that belief came from.

Nufa lets you live up to unrealistic beauty standards at the tap of an app by Haje Jan Kamps originally published on TechCrunch

https://techcrunch.com/2022/11/28/nufa-ai/