Amazon acquires autonomous robotics startup Rivr

Amazon has acquired Rivr, a startup focused on autonomous robotics. Rivr is based in Zurich and was valued at $110 million in a funding round from August 2024, which both Amazon and its CEO's Bez [...]

Alphabet no longer has a controlling stake in its life sciences business Verily

Alphabet's life sciences business Verily is restructuring and raising money as a new corporate entity. Verily announced that with its $300 million investment round, it will change from an LLC to [...]

Why your biggest tech upgrade this year is a splash of color

For phones, laptops, and other mobile accessories, any color besides black is the new black. [...]

I tested Asus’ new open earbuds for weeks, and I love their great sound and comfort level — but they’re so ugly I’m actually impressed

The Asus Rog Cetra Open earbuds are seriously comfortable, but their high price tag and ugly design make them difficult to wholeheartedly recommend. [...]

Your Phone Pinging Hijacks Your Brain for 7 Seconds, Study Finds

It's tough to ignore the buzz of your phone when a new message arrives. [...]

Today's NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, March 20

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for March 20. [...]

VC Montis raises €50M to back Europe’s energy and industrial tech startups

The Warsaw-based fund, backed by the European Investment Fund and the Polish Development Fund, plans 20–25 pre-seed and seed investments in companies working on energy transition, industrial automat [...]

Can Tinder Fix The Dating Landscape It Helped Ruin?

With more than a dozen new features, including analyzing users’ camera rolls and astrology-based matches, Tinder is trying to lure Gen Z—and bring back those burned out from dating apps. [...]

Meet your company’s new HR reps: AI agents

As companies experiment with agentic systems, top execs at Salesforce and AI-powered HR players like Phenom debate just what AI is good at and the unanswered questions ahead. [...]