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A physicist has proposed repurposing over-the-horizon radar technology, originally developed for Cold War early-warning systems, to track sea ice conditions across the Arctic. The approach would bounce radar signals off the ionosphere to cover vast distances, potentially monitoring shipping lanes that are becoming more navigable as ice melts.
TechCrunch has announced a lineup of Side Events accompanying Disrupt 2026 in San Francisco, held alongside the main conference at Moscone West. Organizers include KOTRA, which is hosting a Korea-US networking night and offering complimentary Expo+ passes to qualified applicants, WayFounder's Born2Global founder networking event featuring 18 Korean startups, and Enterprise Ireland's returning 'Irish Shark Tank' event. SafetyWing and Descope are also listed as new event hosts for 2026.
Apple is launching Apple Pay in India with Axis Bank as its sole initial banking partner, according to people familiar with the matter. The service will support only eligible Axis Bank Visa and Mastercard cards at select enabled merchants, leaving out RuPay and India's dominant UPI system entirely at launch.
The US government has launched America.gov, an AI-powered chatbot that answers natural-language questions using only official government sources. An executive order names it the single entry point for federal online services and directs its integration with Login.gov, with plans to add functions like Medicare enrollment and passport applications next year. Google confirmed Gemini powers part of the tool, and National Design Studio official Joe Gebbia said it also uses SpaceXAI's Grok, though SpaceXAI has not confirmed this.
Google announced new subscription billing tools for Google Play, including usage-based billing that lets apps like AI services charge from a prepaid balance that auto-tops-up. It's also adding multi-quantity subscriptions for organizations, mixed one-time/subscription checkouts, and cross-developer subscription bundles, alongside tests of smarter grace periods, cancellation discounts, and winback offers.
Eric Gullichsen, who served on Nvidia's Technical Advisory Board from 1993 to 1996, says he was granted 25,000 stock options but only 15,625 vested before he left, due to a discrepancy over whether his options were meant to vest quarterly or annually. He argues that after 30 years of stock splits, the missing 9,375 options would now be worth roughly $1 billion, and he is disputing Nvidia's account of the vesting terms.
Oxford professor Nick Eyre's model compares today's global final energy demand of 416 exajoules with a projected post-transition figure of 247 exajoules, achieved by electrifying suitable sectors and running the rest on hydrogen. Under this scenario electricity demand itself rises from 110 to 189 exajoules, even as overall energy use falls sharply, largely because electrified transport and heating are far more efficient than fossil-fuel equivalents.
The US government has launched America.gov, an AI-powered chatbot portal that draws on more than 29,000 official sources to answer questions about federal benefits, forms, fees, deadlines, and eligibility. Google serves as the technology partner behind the platform, which supports PDF uploads and voice input similar to Gemini. At launch the tool only provides information and guidance, with plans to support actual form filing, applications, and renewals starting in 2027.
Nvidia launched the Open Agent Safety Platform, a consortium of over 100 companies aimed at preventing rogue AI agent behavior, with Anthropic as a supporter but OpenAI, Amazon, Google and Apple notably absent from the list. An OpenAI spokesperson told TechCrunch the company supports Nvidia's effort and is already collaborating with Nvidia on agent security tools, including OpenShell, an open-source sandboxing system meant to contain agents.
Apple has pushed new beta firmware, build 9B5042a, to AirPods Pro 3, AirPods Pro 2, AirPods 5, AirPods 4, and AirPods Max 2. This compares to the current public release, build 9A348, with AirPods 5 currently running 9A350. The update's specific changes have not been disclosed, and users can opt into beta testing through the AirPods settings on iPhone.
SpaceX has told NASA and private space station developers including Axiom Space, Voyager Space, and Vast Space that it intends to stop flying Crew Dragon and Falcon 9 missions to low-Earth orbit after supporting the International Space Station through 2030. The move threatens the crew transportation backbone for NASA's two-decade effort to build a commercial human spaceflight market in orbit.
In an opinion piece, Oxylabs' founder describes how the company grew into a $3.6 billion web data business after receiving a $130 million investment from Warburg Pincus — its first outside funding in over a decade. The founder outlines lessons learned building the firm since its 2015 launch, including balancing experimentation with reliable core products, patenting early, prioritizing compliance and know-your-customer checks, and maintaining fiscal discipline before raising capital.