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Daily Crunch: Startup says it has received $1M in preorders for its $60K hydrofoiling personal watercraft

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riderless personal watercraft sitting on a serene body of water at sunset. or maybe sunrise.
Image Credits: Boundary Layer (opens in a new window)

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Hey, folks, welcome back! Below we’ve got some 2022 roundups and even some news. I suspect it’ll get even leaner as the week wears on, but no matter! There will always be stories to share. Now, here is your Wednesday edition of the Daily Crunch. — Hank

The TechCrunch Top 3

  • Sports on Amazon: The tech giant wants to continue its march into broadcasting live sports, adding to its current lineup of Thursday Night Football, Premier League soccer and the like, Aisha reports. Pro tip, Amazon: Add cricket to your plans.
  • Ring true: Movano beat the CES rush and launched Evie, a smart ring focused on women’s health, Brian reports.
  • In the water: Earlier this month, Boundary Layer pivoted to producing personal watercraft that will run interested parties upward of $60,000 once they’re ready. Haje reports that the company has more than $1 million worth of orders.

Dear Sophie: Do employees have to stop working until they get their EAD?

lone figure at entrance to maze hedge that has an American flag at the center
Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

Dear Sophie,

One of our employees is on an H-4 visa and has an Employment Authorization Document. It’s been five months since he filed to renew his EAD, which will expire next month. Is there any way to expedite this process? Does he have to stop working if he doesn’t receive his new EAD card before his old one expires?

Because it’s taking so long to get EAD cards, we’re worried about another of our employees, who has an L-2 visa with an EAD scheduled to expire early next year.

In addition, the H-4 visa employee wants to visit his family in India because it’s been more than three years since he last went. Will he and his family be able to return to the U.S. after four weeks?

— Mindful Manager

Dear Sophie: Do employees have to stop working until they get their EAD?

We also rounded up the best of our climate coverage on TC+ this year. And Tim had a couple more favorites:

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.

  • Twitter trimming: A Norway-based developer told Ivan that she created a tool to help you cull the list of accounts you follow, because she was reaching the follow limit on the platform.
  • Political … tick tock: The U.S. House of Representatives has ordered all staff and lawmakers to delete TikTok from their gov-issued phones, citing “security issues,” Carly writes.
  • Bitcoin mining deal: Galaxy Digital has agreed to acquire Argo Blockchain’s bitcoin mining facility, Helios, for $65 million, Jacquie writes.
  • Code-generating AI: Sounds cool, right? Well, Kyle wrote about a study that found code-generating AI can introduce security vulnerabilities.

2022 in Review

  • Good news!: Amanda, Kyle, Tim, Devin and Rebecca have a roundup of some good news in tech for you. This crop of TC reporters put their heads together to mine 2022 for some tech goodness. Climate tech bolstered by the Inflation Reduction Act and the James Webb Space Telescope are on the list.
  • On the move: Rebecca has compiled the biggest transportation stories that drove the year.
  • Surveying investors: And Karan and Ram give you a glimpse of the investor surveys that we ran on TC+ this year.

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The U.S. government announced sanctions against 12 executives and senior leaders of the Russia-based cybersecurity giant Kaspersky. In a press release, the Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets…

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Style DNA, an AI-powered fashion stylist app, creates a personalized style profile from a single selfie. The app is particularly useful for people interested in seasonal color analysis, a process…

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Cover says what sets it apart is the underlying technology it employs, which has been exclusively licensed from NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

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Spotify is introducing a new “Basic” streaming plan in the United States, the company announced on Friday. The new plan costs $10.99 per month and includes all of the benefits…

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Photographers say the social media giant is applying a ‘Made with AI’ label to photos they took, causing confusion for users.

Meta is tagging real photos as ‘Made with AI,’ say photographers

Website building platform Squarespace is selling Tock, its restaurant reservation service, to American Express in a deal worth $400 million — the exact figure that Squarespace paid for the service…

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Featured Article

Change Healthcare confirms ransomware hackers stole medical records on a ‘substantial proportion’ of Americans

The February ransomware attack on UHG-owned Change Healthcare stands as one of the largest-ever known digital thefts of U.S. medical records.

20 hours ago
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Google said today that it globally paused its experiment that aimed to allow new kinds of real-money games on the Play Store, citing the challenges that come with the lack…

Google pauses its experiment to expand real-money games on the Play Store

Venture firms raised $9.3 billion in Q1 according to PitchBook data, which means this year likely won’t match or surpass 2023’s $81.8 billion total. While emerging managers are feeling the…

Kevin Hartz’s A* raises its second oversubscribed fund in three years

Google is making reviews of all your movies, TV shows, books, albums and games visible under one profile page starting June 24, according to an email sent to users last…

Google is making your movie and TV reviews visible under a new profile page

Zepto, an Indian quick commerce startup, has more than doubled its valuation to $3.6 billion in a new funding round of $665 million.

Zepto, a 10-minute delivery app, raises $665M at $3.6B valuation

Speak, the AI-powered language learning app, has raised new money from investors at double its previous valuation.

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SpaceX unveiled Starlink Mini, a more portable version of its satellite internet product that is small enough to fit inside a backpack.  Early Starlink customers were invited to purchase the…

SpaceX debuts portable Starlink Mini for $599

Ali Rathod-Papier has stepped down from her role as global head of compliance at corporate card expense management startup Brex to join venture firm Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) as a partner…

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U.S. officials imposed the “first of its kind” ban arguing that Kaspersky threatens U.S. national security because of its links to Russia.

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Apple has released Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 and Final Cut Camera, the company announced on Thursday. Both apps were previously announced during the company’s iPad event in May.…

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Paris has quickly established itself as a major European center for AI startups, and now another big deal is in the works.

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