Week In Review: X Ceo Linda Yaccarino Steps Down

5 days ago

Welcome backmost to Week successful Review! We’ve sewage tons of news for you this week, including a shakeup astatine X, Hugging Face’s caller robot, caller phones from Nothing and Samsung, and a full batch more. Have a awesome weekend!

Off to do thing else: X CEO Linda Yaccarino stepped down this week aft a tumultuous two-year tenure marked by advertiser backlash, Elon Musk’s controversies, and nan platform’s AI troubles. The company’s ad business improved nether her leadership, but nan roadworthy up will still beryllium tough.

See-through: Apple continues to tweak its caller Liquid Glass creation successful iOS 26 beta 3, dialing backmost transparency successful areas for illustration Notifications and Apple Music aft personification complaints astir readability. It’s nan latest measurement successful uncovering nan correct equilibrium earlier nan OS launches this fall.

The cutest: Hugging Face has opened orders for its caller unfastened root desktop robot, Reachy Mini, aimed astatine AI developers. Starting astatine $299, nan build-it-yourself bots are afloat programmable successful Python and integrated pinch nan Hugging Face Hub.

This is TechCrunch’s Week successful Review, wherever we recap nan week’s biggest news. Want this delivered arsenic a newsletter to your inbox each Saturday? Sign up here.

News

Whole batch of Nothing: Nothing’s $799 Phone (3) is its astir eager yet, pinch a quirky caller 2nd screen, AI features, and flagship specs aimed astatine rivaling Samsung and Apple. But mixed reactions to nan creation and pricing whitethorn support it successful “alternative to” alternatively than “replacement for” territory, astatine slightest for now.

Samsung, too: Samsung besides released caller foldable phones this week, nan caller Z Fold7 and nan Z Flip7. It besides released a cheaper foldable phone, nan Z Flip7 FE.

I want this car: Rivian’s caller quad-motor R1T and R1S EVs are here, boasting 1,025 horsepower, getting you from 0 to 60 successful nether 2.5 seconds, and flashy caller package tricks for illustration “kick turn” and RAD Tuner for civilization driving modes. With in-house motors and a deeper package stack, Rivian’s betting this $115,000+ flagship tin clasp nan statement until its much affordable R2s get successful 2026.

Cool, awesome: Elon Musk says xAI’s caller Grok 4 is simply a “maximally truth-seeking AI,” but testing shows the chatbot often consults Musk’s ain X posts and nationalist opinions erstwhile answering arguable questions. The model’s alignment pinch its laminitis raises caller concerns astir objectivity and astir Grok’s readiness for premier time, including being featured successful Teslas, which Musk says is coming adjacent week.

And different one: Apple’s caput of AI models, Ruoming Pang, has near for Meta, wherever he’ll subordinate Zuckerberg’s increasing AI superintelligence unit. The move signals ongoing problem successful Apple’s AI efforts and adds much on-device AI expertise to Meta’s expanding bench.

Safety first? Jack Dorsey spent past play building a Bluetooth-based messaging app called Bitchat, which operates done Bluetooth mesh networks, letting users chat without Wi-Fi aliases compartment service. The app is now successful closed beta, but nan claims that nan app is unafraid are already facing scrutiny by information researchers.

It’s time: After 14 years wrong Intel, RealSense is spinning retired arsenic an independent company pinch $50 cardinal successful backing to standard its 3D stereoscopic imaging tech utilized successful robotics, drones, and more. CEO Nadav Orbach intends to boost go-to-market efforts and amended information features for human-robot relationship arsenic AI-driven request surges.

Analysis

Pulling backmost nan curtain: Slate Auto, a stealthy Michigan-based EV startup backed by Jeff Bezos, stunned nan manufacture by unveiling plans for an ultra-affordable, customizable electrical pickup truck. After 3 years successful nan shadows, nan institution intends to shingle up nan marketplace pinch accumulation targeted for precocious 2026.

Karyne Levy is nan lawman managing editor of TechCrunch. Before joining TC, Karyne was lawman managing editor astatine Protocol, helping negociate a newsroom of much than 40 people. Prior to that she was a elder shaper astatine Scribd, an assigning editor astatine NerdWallet, a elder tech editor astatine Business Insider, and adjunct managing editor astatine CNET, wherever she besides hosted Rumor Has It for CNET TV. She lives extracurricular San Francisco.