The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here.
1. Unfolding the Samsung Galaxy Fold
After eight years of teasing a folding device, Samsung finally pulled the trigger with an announcement at its developer’s conference late last year. But the device itself remained mysterious.
Earlier this week, Brian Heater finally held the Galaxy Fold in his hands, and he was pretty impressed.
2. YouTube’s algorithm added 9/11 facts to a live stream of the Notre-Dame Cathedral fire
Some viewers following live coverage of the Notre-Dame Cathedral broadcast on YouTube were met with a strangely out-of-place info box offering facts about the September 11 attacks. Ironically, the feature is supposed to fact check topics that generate misinformation on the platform.
3. Hulu buys back AT&T’s minority stake in streaming service now valued at $15 billion
Disney now has a 67 percent ownership stake in Hulu — which it gained, in part, through its $71 billion acquisition of 21st Century Fox. Comcast has a 33 percent stake.
4. I asked the US government for my immigration file and all I got were these stupid photos
The “I” in question is our security reporter Zack Whittaker, who filed a Freedom of Information request with U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services to obtain all of the files the government had collected on him in order to process his green card application. Seven months later, disappointment.
5. TikTok downloads ordered to be blocked on iOS and Android in India over porn and other illegal content
Video app TikTok has become a global success, but it stumbled hard in one of the world’s biggest mobile markets, India, over illicit content.
6. Smart speakers’ installed base to top 200 million by year end
Canalys forecasts the installed base will grow by 82.4 percent, from 114 million units in 2018 to 207.9 million in 2019.
7. Salesforce ‘acquires’ Salesforce.org for $300M in a wider refocus on the nonprofit sector
The company announced that it will integrate Salesforce.org — which had been a reseller of Salesforce software and services to the nonprofit sector — into Salesforce itself as part of a new nonprofit and education vertical.