TechCrunch Top 3

Image Credits: Google

👓 Google extends reality, kind of: Google today announced a new Android-based extended reality (XR) platform that will support app development on headsets and glasses. This will be launched alongside a headset next year and is available for developer preview. Read more

📝 More models: Today Anthropic started rolling out one of its newest models, Claude Haiku 3.5, for Claude users. This model is particularly good for coding recommendations, data extracting and labeling, and content moderation, according to Anthropic. Read more

👀 OpenAeyes: ChatGPT's Advanced Voice Mode now has video capabilities, so users can point their phones at objects and have ChatGPT respond in real time. The feature can also read a user's device screen. Read more

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Afternoon must-reads

Image Credits: dusanpetkovic / Getty Images

♻️ Return to renewables: Microsoft announced that it's helping to launch the Climate and Communities Investment Coalition with Acadia Infrastructure Capital to invest $9 billion to build 5 gigawatts' worth of renewable power. This comes just days after Google announced its own initiative to invest in renewables. Read more

📈 Embedded data demand: Embeddable helps companies build data-analytics dashboards for their customer-facing data. Despite strong demand, the company has turned away 87% of the companies that have tried to work with it. Read more

🫖 The TikTok tea: Earlier this week, ByteDance filed an emergency motion to temporarily block the law that will ban TikTok in the U.S. unless ByteDance sells it to a domestic entity. Now the Department of Justice is telling the appeal court to reject the motion. The drama! Read more

🧳 A genius integration: Air Canada and United Airlines are the first two launch partners for Apple's Find My "Share Item Location" feature, which will allow people who use AirTags and other connected devices to share that data with airlines to help speed up the process of locating lost luggage. Read more

🤑 Defense dollars: Silicon Valley continues to get increasingly excited about backing defense startups. Humba Ventures, the sister fund of Susa Ventures, just raised $40 million in a new fund to invest in defense and deep tech startups. Read more

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Around the web

😩 It's back! And it doesn't work! Microsoft's Recall feature is back in Windows Insider after it was pulled from test builds for security concerns. Maybe it should have stayed recalled because it's not supposed to record sensitive data it sees in its screen captures. Tests, however, show it does just that. Read more

🇨🇳 China is a customer: Whether to ban China from buying certain U.S. tech on the grounds of national security is a long-standing debate in Washington. But not all tech companies want to lose the customer. The New York Times looks into how the tech industry is lobbying against these bans. Read more

Before you go

Image Credits: Jose Luis Pelaez / Getty Images

Ho, ho, who? OpenAI announced today that for the month of December, users can activate "Santa Mode" to make ChatGPT sound like Santa. What will these tech geniuses come up with next, am I right? Read more