Daily Crunch: Citizen Lab claims Apple’s ‘Lockdown Mode’ helped block spyware attack by hacker group NSO

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Happy Tuesday Crunch, our crunchiest of friends. So happy to see you again.

Yesterday, Haje wondered if he was an AI, so clearly he needs a holiday. Today, shall we bask in the glory of tech news together?

— Christine and Haje

The TechCrunch Top 3
You got blocked: Sometimes technology does what it’s supposed to. In Apple’s case, researchers looking into spyware vulnerabilities said its “Lockdown Mode” was able to thwart the advances of the infamous mercenary hacking provider NSO Group. Lorenzo has more. Also, Apple opens its first retail store in India, but there are…challenges, Manish writes.
Don’t forget your boarding pass: Alaska Airlines is doing away with check-in kiosks in favor of a more modern look to its gate area. Fliers will need to print boarding passes at home or check in using their smartphones, Frederic reports.
Truth seeker: Elon Musk wants to develop his own chatbot called TruthGPT, which he describes as “a maximum truth-seeking AI,” reports Ivan.
Startups and VC
Mansa, a free ad-supported streaming service and content aggregator that offers a curated selection of Black cultural content, launched out of stealth today, Lauren reports. Mansa offers a wide variety of content, from on-demand titles and digital linear (FAST) channels to short-form videos and user-generated content.

And we have another loosely assembled melange of tasty morsels for you:

Like shopping but future-i-er: Christine reports that Rally bags $12 million to build the future of e-commerce checkout.
Eye see what you did there: AI-powered retina scanning startup Mediwhale raises $9 million, Kate reports.
One tool to rule them all: Avalor wants to unify cybersecurity tools by aggregating data, Kyle reports.
I’ll take a large, please: Christine reports that B Capital leads Odeko’s $53 million Series D to help small coffee shops scale.
Welcome to your customer service bot: Ron covers that Ada released an automated generative AI-driven customer service suite.
Fill that pit lest you fall in: Over on TC+, Haje explores 7 common pitfalls for hardware startups and how to avoid them.