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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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Signal’s Meredith Whittaker on the Telegram security clash and the ‘edge lords’ at OpenAI 

Among other things, Whittaker is concerned about the concentration of power in the five main social media platforms.

16 hours ago
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Lucid Motors is laying off about 400 employees, or roughly 6% of its workforce, as part of a restructuring ahead of the launch of its first electric SUV later this…

Lucid Motors slashes 400 jobs ahead of crucial SUV launch

Google is investing nearly $350 million in Flipkart, becoming the latest high-profile name to back the Walmart-owned Indian e-commerce startup. The Android-maker will also provide Flipkart with cloud offerings as…

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A Jio Financial unit plans to purchase customer premises equipment and telecom gear worth $4.32 billion from Reliance Retail.

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Foursquare, the location-focused outfit that in 2020 merged with Factual, another location-focused outfit, is joining the parade of companies to make cuts to one of its biggest cost centers –…

Foursquare just laid off 105 employees

“Running with scissors is a cardio exercise that can increase your heart rate and require concentration and focus,” says Google’s new AI search feature. “Some say it can also improve…

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The European Space Agency selected two companies on Wednesday to advance designs of a cargo spacecraft that could establish the continent’s first sovereign access to space.  The two awardees, major…

ESA prepares for the post-ISS era, selects The Exploration Company, Thales Alenia to develop cargo spacecraft

Expressable is a platform that offers one-on-one virtual sessions with speech language pathologists.

Expressable brings speech therapy into the home

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