Forget AirPods. These wireless earbuds are all under $50, and they work great - CNET

If you don't want to spend a bundle on AirPods or Galaxy Buds Live, you can still get a great pair of wireless earbuds.

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2021 Lucid Air vs. Tesla Model S: EVs go head-to-head video - Roadshow

Lucid is out to beat Tesla at its own game with luxury, range and style.

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Best wine subscription and clubs for 2020: The Panel, Winc, Vinebox and more compared - CNET

Yes, there’s a perfect wine subscription service for everyone.

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Wi-Fi 6 is the fastest standard yet. Wi-Fi 6E will be even better - CNET

Wi-Fi is expanding into the 6GHz band, giving new Wi-Fi 6E devices an exclusive multilane expressway for faster internet traffic. Here are the details.

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The best DIY home security system to buy in 2020 - CNET

Keep an eye on your house with our favorite do-it-yourself security system.

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What's the best cheap VPN? We found three good options - CNET

Online privacy while working from home during coronavirus doesn't have to cost a fortune. Protect your online life with a cheap VPN service.

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GOP COVID relief bill fails in Senate: What are the next steps for stimulus check and package? - CNET

A new "skinny" coronavirus relief act failed to pass the Senate -- so what's the fate of economic aid?

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The best DIY home security system to buy in 2020 - CNET

Keep an eye on your house with our favorite do-it-yourself security system.

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The best cheap Dell laptop deals for September 2020

We’ve sorted through the big online retailers to bring you the best Dell laptop deals available right now.

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The best laptop deals for September 2020: Dell, HP, Apple, and more

Whether you need a new laptop for school or work, we put together a list of the best laptop deals right now.

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The best cheap gaming laptop deals for September 2020

These are the best cheap gaming laptop deals you can score, including picks that ring in at less than $500.

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Next stimulus checks: What to expect video - CNET

If there's another stimulus check payment, here's what we expect will and won't change the second time around.

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Stimulus check money: You and your family could get $1,200 or more with another relief payment - CNET

Here's how much you could expect if the IRS sends out an additional round of stimulus checks in 2020.

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TikTok witches are fighting for the online future of witchcraft - CNET

Forget stake-burnings. Contemporary witches face a new set of challenges, and this time, they're online.

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The best cheap desktop computer deals for September 2020

We’ve rounded upsome of the best desktop PC deals out there, covering a spectrum of features and prices.

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How to tell if your smartphone battery needs to be replaced

Those tiny lithium-ion powerhouses in your smartphone have a limited life span. Here's how to determine when to replace your smartphone battery.

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Extra Crunch Friday roundup: Edtech funding surges, Poland VC survey, inside Shift’s SPAC plan, more

I live in San Francisco, but I work an East Coast schedule to get a jump on the news day. So I’d already been at my desk for a couple of hours on Wednesday morning when I looked up and saw this:

What color is the sky this morning pic.twitter.com/nt5dZp5wWc

— Walter Thompson (@YourProtagonist) September 9, 2020

As unsettling as it was to see the natural environment so transformed, I still got my work done. This is not to boast: I have a desk job and a working air filter. (People who make deliveries in the toxic air or are homeschooling their children while working from home during a global pandemic, however, impress the hell out of me.)

Not coincidentally, two of the Extra Crunch stories that ran since our Tuesday newsletter tie directly into what’s going on outside my window:

As this guest post predicted, a suboptimal attempt I made to track a delayed package using interactive voice response (IVR) indeed poisoned my customer experience, and;

Sheltering in place to avoid the novel coronavirus — and wildfire smoke — is fueling growth in the video-game industry, perhaps one factor in Unity Software Inc.’s plan to go public ahead of competitor Epic Games. In a two-part series, we looked at how the company has expanded beyond games and shared a detailed financial breakdown.

We covered a lot of ground this week, so scroll down or visit the recently redesigned Extra Crunch home page. If you’d like to receive this roundup via email each Tuesday and Friday, please click here.

Thanks very much for reading Extra Crunch; I hope you have a relaxing and safe weekend.

Walter Thompson
Senior Editor
@yourprotagonist

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Bear and bull cases for Unity’s IPO

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

In a two-part series that ran on TechCrunch and Extra Crunch, former media columnist Eric Peckham returned to share his analysis of Unity Software Inc.’s S-1 filing.

Part one is a deep dive that explains how the company has grown beyond gaming to develop multiple revenue streams and where it’s headed.

For part two on Extra Crunch, he studied the company’s numbers to offer some context for its approximately $11 billion valuation.

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10 Poland-based investors discuss trends, opportunities and the road ahead

Image Credits: Edwin Remsberg (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

As we’ve covered previously, the COVID-19 pandemic is making the world a lot smaller.

Investors who focus on their own backyards still have an advantage, but the ability to set up a quick coffee meeting with a promising investor is no longer one of them.

Even though some VCs are cutting first checks after Zoom calls, regional investors’ personal networks are still a trump card. Tourists will always rely on guide books, however, which is why we continue to survey investors around the world.

A Dealroom report issued this summer determined that 97 VC funds backed more than 1,600 funding rounds in Poland last year. With over 2,400 early- and late-stage startups and 400,000 engineers in the country, it’s easy to see why foreign investors are taking notice.

Editor-at-large Mike Butcher reached out to several investors who focus on Warsaw and Poland in general to learn more about the startups fueling their interest across fintech, gaming, security and other sectors:

• Bryony Cooper, managing partner, Arkley Brinc VC
• Anna Wnuk-Błażejczyk, investor relations manager, Experior.vc
• Rafał Roszak, investment director, YouNick Mint
• Michal Mroczkowski, partner, Market One Capital
• Marcus Erken, partner, Sunfish Partners
• Borys Musielak, partner, SMOK Ventures
• Mathias Åsberg, partner, Nextgrid
• Kuba Dudek, SpeedUp Venture Capital Group
• Marcin Laczynski, partner, Next Road Ventures
• Michał Rokosz, partner, Inovo Venture Partners

We’ll run the conclusion of his survey next Tuesday.

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Brands that hyper-personalize will win the next decade

Image Credits: cnythzl (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

Even for fledgling startups, creating a robust customer service channel — or at least one that doesn’t annoy people — is a reliable way to keep users in the sales funnel.

Using AI and automation is fine, but now that consumers have grown used to asking phones and smart speakers to predict the weather and read recipe instructions, their expectations are higher than ever.

If you’re trying to figure out what people want from hyper-personalized customer experiences and how you can operationalize AI to give them what they’re after, start here.

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VCs pour funding into edtech startups as COVID-19 shakes up the market

Image Credits: Nigel Sussman (opens in a new window)

For today’s edition of The Exchange, Natasha Mascarenhas joined Alex Wilhelm to examine how the pandemic-fueled surge of interest in edtech is manifesting on the funding front.

The numbers suggest that funding will far surpass the sector’s high-water mark set in 2018, so the duo studied the numbers through August 31, which included a number of mega-rounds that exceeded $100 million.

“Now the challenge for the sector will be keeping its growth alive in 2021, showing investors that their 2020 bets were not merely wagers made during a single, overheated year,” they conclude.

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How to respond to a data breach

Image Credits: WhataWin (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

The odds are low that someone’s going to enter my home and steal my belongings. I still lock my door when I leave the house, however, and my valuables are insured. I’m an optimist, not a fool.

Similarly: Is your startup’s cybersecurity strategy based on optimism, or do you have an actual response plan in case of a data breach?

Security reporter Zack Whittaker has seen some shambolic reactions to security lapses, which is why he turned in a post-mortem about a corporation that got it right.

“Once in a while, a company’s response almost makes up for the daily deluge of hypocrisy, obfuscation and downright lies,” says Zack.

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Shift’s George Arison shares 6 tips for taking your company public via a SPAC

Image Credits: Eric Burger/EyeEm (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

There’s a lot of buzz about special purpose acquisition companies these days.

Used-car marketplace Shift announced its SPAC in June 2020, and is on track to complete the process in the next few months, so co-founder/co-CEO George Arison wrote an Extra Crunch guest post to share what he has learned.

Step one: “If you go the SPAC route, you’ll need to become an expert at financial engineering.”

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Dear Sophie: What is a J-1 visa and how can we use it?

Image Credits: Sophie Alcorn

Dear Sophie:

I am a software engineer and have been looking at job postings in the U.S. I’ve heard from my friends about J-1 Visa Training or J-1 Research.

What is a J-1 status? What are the requirements to qualify? Do I need to find a U.S. employer willing to sponsor me before I apply for one? Can I get a visa? How long could I stay?

— Determined in Delhi

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As direct listing looms, Palantir insiders are accelerating stock sales

Image Credits: Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg (opens in a new window) / Getty Images

While we count down to the September 23 premiere of NYSE: PLTR, Danny Crichton looked at the “robust secondary market” that has allowed some investors to acquire shares early.

“Given the number of people involved and the number of shares bought and sold over the past 18 months, we can get some insight regarding how insiders perceive Palantir’s value,” he writes.

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Use ‘productive paranoia’ to build cybersecurity culture at your startup

Image Credits: JakeOlimb / Getty Images

Zack Whittaker interviewed Bugcrowd CTO, founder and chairman Casey Ellis about the best practices he recommends for creating a startup culture that takes security seriously.

“It’s an everyone problem,” said Ellis, who encouraged founders to promote the notion of “productive paranoia.”

Now that the threat envelope includes everyone from marketing to engineering, employees need to “internalize the fact that bad stuff can and does happen if you do it wrong,” Ellis said.

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DC FanDome Saturday: Get ready for Harley Quinn, Black Lightning, the Batmobile - CNET

Another day of DC fan fun arrives on Sept. 12, and this time it's all on demand for 24 hours.

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Lifx Clean is a $70 smart bulb that kills bacteria and disinfects your home - CNET

Coming later this year, the Lifx Clean full-color smart bulb uses HEV light to kill bacteria on objects and surfaces.

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Unicorn layoffs prompt more startups to consider acqui-hiring

Alex Zajaczkowski was just months into her role at Toast, a restaurant point-of-sale software company, when she was let go during COVID-19 layoffs. Toast, last valued at $5 billion, cut 50% of its staff through layoffs and furloughs.

Zajaczkowski said she started applying for jobs within a week.

“I think I got on the boat a little bit quicker than others because I wanted that security a little bit faster,” she said. She and former Toast colleagues formed a Slack to communicate about layoffs, their job searches and what lay ahead. Toast created an opt-in spreadsheet for recruiters that listed laid-off employees.

The sheet brought Zajaczkowski to Stavvy, an online mortgage startup also based in Boston, for an interview. Today, a majority of Stavvy’s team are ex-Toasters, including Zajaczkowski.

“I think one of the benefits of recruiting from an organization that is sort of an iconic Boston company, is that you know what the hiring practices are,” Ligris said. “There’s been a level of vetting that has occurred.”

Stavvy’s onboarding of former Toast employees suggests that the layoffs which rocked startups in March could be an opportunity for smaller startups to scoop up star talent that already has chemistry. While acqui-hiring is not a new concept, it has new weight in an environment reeling from mass layoffs and a shift to remote-first work.

Stavvy co-founders Kosta Ligris and Josh Feinblum, though, say hiring a pod of employees can backfire without proper diligence.

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Here's when Disney is reopening its global theme parks following COVID-19 closures - CNET

Disney World, Disneyland, Tokyo Disney and Disneyland Paris plan to reopen in July.

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Stimulus check: Who counts as a dependent on your taxes, and how much money could you get? - CNET

If a second round of stimulus payments gets approved, you may be eligible for more money based on your dependents. Here's how to find out.

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Stimulus check: Eligibility, fine print, income limit and how the first payment might determine the next rescue package - CNET

There's still a possibility the IRS could send a second $1,200 maximum check this year. But some outstanding questions remain and the original CARES Act can help offer clues as to what a second round of payments would look like.

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