Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy.

The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices alone. And in the U.S., app usage surged ahead of the time spent watching live TV. Currently, the average American watches 3.7 hours of live TV per day, but now spends four hours per day on their mobile devices.

Apps aren’t just a [...]

Welcome to Startups Weekly, a fresh human-first take on this week’s startup news and trends. To get this in your inbox, subscribe here. 

And just like that, TechCrunch Disrupt 2021 has come to an end. I’m exhausted, but it’s hard not to feel optimistic for the future after spending three days hearing vulnerable thoughts from some of the brightest minds in tech, from Canva CEO Melanie Perkins to comic-turned-creator Alexis Gay.

If I had to distill a singular takeaway from the hours of programming, demo floor and Startup Battlefield, it would be this: Disruption needs direction. We’re in the middle of [...]

Welcome back to The TechCrunch Exchange, a weekly startups-and-markets newsletter. It’s inspired by what the weekday Exchange column digs into, but free, and made for your weekend reading. Want it in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here. 

Hello everyone! Disrupt was this week, which meant that I spent more time than usual with my feet up, watching panels and startup pitches. It was good fun, but also meant that I had fewer calls than I might in a more regular week. So, what follows is an abbreviated newsletter that is a touch more observational than reported, if you [...]

Tom Rutledge Contributor Share on Twitter Tom Rutledge is a co-founder of Wapanda, a startup dedicated to realizing the goal of city-led innovation in the taxi and ride-share industry.

If saving the environment is merely a lifestyle choice, the automakers and their latest electric vehicles have got us covered. Tesla’s Plaid touts performance. Leafs, Priuses and Volts preach humility. And Ford is flexing its muscle with launches of electric Mustangs and F-150s.

But if consumers’ choices are going to contribute to a greener future — if they’re going to opt for energy efficiency over flash — they need the ability to [...]

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Hello and welcome to Daily Crunch for September 24, 2021. Hanging in there, everyone? It was more than a busy week, but the TechCrunch team is still ticking along, covering the startup world just for you. If you need to catch up on who won Battlefield this year, the Equity podcast crew has you covered. And with that, let’s begin! — Alex

And the winner of Startup Battlefield is…

The TechCrunch Top 3 China bans crypto [...]

We're getting ahead of ourselves.

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Captured from Earth.

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But is it happy?

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Unprecedented insight into brain activity.

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Simple and effective.

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