Week in Review: Meta reveals its Oakley smart glasses
Welcome back to Week in Review! Lots in store for you today, including Wix’s latest acquisition, Meta’s new smart glasses, a look at the new Digg, and much more. Have a great weekend!
Smart specs: Meta and Oakley have teamed up on a new pair of smart glasses that can record 3K video, play music, handle calls, and respond to Meta AI prompts. They start at $399 and have double the battery life of Meta’s Ray-Bans. A $499 limited-edition Oakley Meta HSTN model will be available starting July 11.
Unicorn watch: Wix bought 6-month-old solo startup Base44 for $80 million in cash after it quickly gained traction as a no-code AI tool for building web apps. Created by a single founder and already profitable, Base44’s rapid rise made scooping it up irresistible.
Sand to the rescue: Finland just turned on the world’s largest sand battery — yes, actual sand — which stores heat to help power the small town of Pornainen’s heating system and cut its carbon emissions. The low-tech, low-cost system is built from discarded fireplace soapstone, is housed in a giant silo, and can store heat for weeks, proving you don’t need fancy lithium to fight climate change. You just need a pile of hot rocks.
This is TechCrunch’s Week in Review, where we recap the week’s biggest news. Want this delivered as a newsletter to your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here.
News
We’re back, baby: VanMoof is back from the brink with the S6, its first e-bike since bankruptcy — and it’s sticking to its signature custom design, despite that being what nearly killed the company. Backed by McLaren tech and a beefed-up repair network, the new VanMoof promises smoother rides, smarter features, and (hopefully) fewer stranded cyclists.
Space lasers: Baiju Bhatt, best known for co-founding Robinhood, is now building lasers in space. His new startup, Aetherflux, has raised $60 million to prove that beaming solar power from orbit isn’t a fantasy, with a demo satellite set to launch next year and early backing from the Department of Defense.
Oh no: One of SpaceX’s Starship rockets exploded during a test in Texas, likely pushing back the vehicle’s next launch, which had been tentatively set for June 29. SpaceX says the blast, caused by a pressurized tank failure, didn’t injure anyone, but it’s yet another setback in a rocky year for the company’s ambitious mega-rocket program.
That lossless feeling: Spotify’s long-awaited lossless audio tier still hasn’t launched, but fresh hints buried in the latest app code suggest that it’s under active development and could be closer than ever. But with years of delays and no official timeline, fans might want to temper their excitement until Spotify confirms the rollout.
I can Digg it: Digg’s reboot has entered alpha testing with a fresh iOS app aimed at becoming an AI-era Reddit alternative. The app offers a clean, simple design with curated communities, AI-powered article summaries, and gamified features like “Gems” and daily leaderboards.
We want you: The U.S. Navy is speeding up how it works with startups, cutting red tape and zeroing in on real wins like saved time and better morale. Department of the Navy CTO Justin Fanelli says it’s leading with problems, hunting for game-changing tech in AI, GPS, and system upgrades. And with Silicon Valley finally paying attention, the Navy’s becoming a go-to partner for innovators ready to shake things up.
Cash ain’t king: Mark Zuckerberg is throwing out massive cash — up to $100 million — to lure top AI talent from OpenAI and DeepMind. But OpenAI’s Sam Altman says none of his key people have bitten, praising his team’s mission over money. Meanwhile, OpenAI keeps pushing ahead with new AI models and even hints at launching an AI-powered social app that could outpace Meta’s own shaky attempts.
Before you go
San Francisco’s latest startup saga? Cluely’s after-party for YC’s AI Startup School blew up on Twitter, drawing 2,000 party crashers, but it became the “most legendary party that never happened” after getting shut down by cops before a single drink was spilled. Founder Roy Lee’s viral marketing may have promised chaos, but the real party’s waiting. Maybe once the weather warms up?
Karyne Levy is the deputy managing editor of TechCrunch. Before joining TC, Karyne was deputy managing editor at Protocol, helping manage a newsroom of more than 40 people. Prior to that she was a senior producer at Scribd, an assigning editor at NerdWallet, a senior tech editor at Business Insider, and assistant managing editor at CNET, where she also hosted Rumor Has It for CNET TV. She lives outside San Francisco.
