TechCrunch Mixtape

Welcome to the first episode of TechCrunch Mixtape (formerly CTRL+T).

In this episode, join Senior Reporter Megan Rose Dickey and Editorial Director Henry Pickavet at San Quentin State Prison for The Last Mile’s demo day and graduation. The Last Mile is a program that provides business and technology training to incarcerated individuals, preparing them for reentry into society.

Apple released the public beta of iOS 12 this week and Megan and Henry downloaded it so they could play with the new Memoji feature. Their feelings are mixed. Also this week Microsoft improved its facial recognition technology to better detect darker skin tones. Some improvement. And finally, they spoke to Karla Monterroso, CEO of Code2040, an organization dedicated to ensuring equal representation of black and Latinx people in tech.

Want to go to Disrupt SF 2018? Yeah, you do. Visit the Disrupt SF 2018 hub and get a special 15% discount if you use code CONTROLT.

Links:

Apple just released the first iOS 12 beta to everyone

Microsoft’s facial recognition just got better at identifying people

Welcome back to CTRL+T. This week, Megan Rose Dickey and Henry Pickavet talk about the World Health Organization identifying 'gaming disorder' as a mental health issue. We disagree. Gamers gonna game. Also this week we were joined by Adina Tecklu, VC at Canaan Partners. She was here to talk about Canaan Beta, which is essentially a fund within the larger Canaan fund designed to seek out "category-defining and category-creating companies."

Between electric scooter permit applications and drunk passenger patents, Uber was doing too much this week.

This week is Apple's big developer conference, creatively called Worldwide Developers Conference (or WWDC), and TechCrunch was there. Each year the company showcases the things developers will be able to do in upcoming versions of their various operating systems (iOS, macOS, tvOS, and watchOS). While there were a bunch of features that didn't really elicit much excitement from either of us, there was one in particular that we are quite looking forward to: Memoji. We talk about it all and what messaging means out there in that big bad world of ours.

Next up was Kanye West. This week he announced that his latest album, ye, wouldn't be available exclusively on Tidal like his 2016 release Pablo had been. And these days you can't have a conversation about the rapper without discussing his recent comments about American slavery having been a choice. So we got into that.

Tinder released a new feature that helps people connect based on places both have visited, but is it as sketchy as people say it is? Amazon's Alexa recorded a couple's conversation and then sent it to someone else, which is undoubtedly sketchy. All that and more on CTRL+T.

Yes uberAIR is a thing and one day the company wants to make taxis fly you around your congested cities. But first, regular readers of TechCrunch might already know about the root canal Megan was told to get by a startup. Click play so you can hear the story first-hand. Till next week, y'all.

Your hosts: Megan Rose Dickey and Henry Pickavet

Megan and Henry are coming to you on a Monday this week because why not? On the show: Facebook's dating play, Hulu passes 20 million subscribers, Handmaid's Tale decompression and MoviePass competitor Sinemia launches $4.99 per month subscriptions.

Henry's back this week and tells a harrowing tale about his appendix. Then he and Megan get into the fight to deliver your groceries, Amazon's desire to put packages in all kinds of places, and the overabundance of scooters that have taken over SF's streets.

Your hosts: Megan Rose Dickey and Henry Pickavet

On this week's episode, Megan Rose Dickey chats with Kevin Adler of Miracle Messages, a non-profit organization that aims to connect homeless people with their loved ones.