# AI Hardware Inflation, Platform UX Shifts, and Autonomous Mobility Infrastructure

**Podcast:** TechCrunch Daily Crunch
**Published:** 2026-06-27

## Transcript

This is TechCrunch.
Streaming war noch nie so wow.
Meditieren, Yoga, Joggen, nichts entspannt mich.
Echt?
Mich entspannt meine Steuer total.
Steuer?
Wie Finanzamt?
Die Steuererklärung?
Ja, ich habe ganz locker über 1000 Euro zurückbekommen.
Hast du geheime Connections?
Nö, nur die Visu-Steuer-App.
Wow, und das ist einfach?
Klar, die macht fast alles automatisch.
Plötzlich fühle ich mich so entspannt.
Hol dir dein Geld zurück.
Tiefenentspannt mit Visu-Steuer.
Robo-taxies drive miles just to get cleaned and charged, and now a new startup wants to fix that.
I'm Emron Shaikh, and the weekend edition of the Daily Crunch starts right now.
Looks like YouTube's rolling out a series of changes to shorts.
including a new method that lets users shrink the duration of short-form videos.
The Google-owned platform announced that Shorts now comes with a setting that allows users to double their playback speed if the Shorts weren't already short enough for you.
Now, the point of making what is an already brief experience even briefer is to let users, well, absorb information more quickly or find your favorite part faster, the platform said.
In an apparent bid for a more positive web, YouTube has also nixed the short's dislike button.
Instead of disliking a video, users will now have to rely on the...
not interested and don't recommend this channel functions to disincentivize certain kinds of content.
Similarly, instead of clicking on a thumbs up button if they like a video, users will now have access to a heart emoji.
Finally, YouTube is also introducing a new clear screen mode, which is designed to temporarily hide all icons and text from your playback view, giving users a clean view of their content unencumbered by floating distractions.
In gaming news, just a few hours after Apple announced price increases across its hardware lineup, Microsoft revealed that Xbox game consoles are also getting more expensive.
Now, in addition to that, the company announced that it's discontinuing its 2TB model.
Starting August 1st, Xbox console prices will increase worldwide.
The 512GB models will cost $100 more, while the 1TB versions are set to rise by $150.
The company says the increases are being driven by rising memory and console storage prices, with costs more than 2.5x higher than previous levels.
Microsoft warned that these prices could double by the fall of 2027.
The move comes less than a year after the company raised Xbox prices in the U.S.
last October.
As previously mentioned, the announcement follows Apple's own round of price hikes, affecting products such as Macs and iPads.
And of course, Apple cited the same industry-wide pressures, pointing to soaring memory and storage costs fueled by unprecedented demand for, you guessed it, AI infrastructure and data centers.
And finally, Redwood City, California-based startup ASEAN Labs is making parking space-sized automated pods that can be scattered throughout cities to inspect, clean, and charge robo-taxis.
The company, co-founded by the team behind battery-swapping startup Pushme, calls them robotic pit stops for the robo-taxi industry.
And the ideas caught the attention of investors.
ACN Labs has raised $10 million in a seed round led by Crane Venture Partners TechCrunch has learned.
ACN Labs is still in the early stages, though.
The seed funds will be used to build five prototypes of these pods, grow its six-person robotics and engineering team to about a dozen, and secure the real estate needed to build out its network, according to its co-founder and CEO.
And folks, that's your Daily Crunch.
Today's stories were reported by Kirsten Korosek, Lucas Ropak, and more awesome TechCrunch journalists.
We'll see you here on Tuesday, and until then, find us at TechCrunch.com.