Knowing how your cloud application will behave in production usually requires significant development and testing in the environment in which it will be deployed, be that AWS, Azure, Google Cloud, or wherever. But this can be a resource-intensive endeavor, particularly with issues relating to latency (the time it takes to constantly send data) and the costs associated with this.

Swiss startup LocalStack has set out to address this by shifting the development process off the cloud and onto a developer’s local machine (i.e. their laptop), emulating the environment where it will go live. For now, its focus lies on AWS cloud apps, but the company is looking to ramp things up and go multi-cloud.

To back that strategy, the company on Tuesday said it has raised $25 million in a Series A round led by Notable Capital, one of the two entities that branched out of GGV Capital earlier this year.

For context, LocalStack started as an open source project while founder and co-CEO Waldemar Hummer (pictured above right, with co-founder Gerta Sheganaku, and Notable Capital managing partner Glenn Solomon) was at Atlassian in 2017. Initially, they were trying to help one of their Atlassian colleagues work while traveling into the office.

“We had a team member who was commuting on the train to work, and we wanted to get her productive even while being offline on the train,” Hummer told TechCrunch.

The idea germinated as a side project in the intervening years, with Hummer teaming up with Gerta Sheganaku, whom he’d known since his time at the University of Technology in Vienna in 2013, to drive early community adoption for the open source project. They launched as a full-time business in 2021, and after raising a small seed round, were later joined by a third co-founder, Thomas Rausch, who’s now head of engineering at the startup.

“What first got me excited about LocalStack was the increased adoption in the community, especially after LocalStack was publicly endorsed by Jeff Barr (AWS chief evangelist) — the GitHub Stars on the project saw a dramatic jump overnight and has been increasing ever since,” Sheganaku said. “By interacting with the community, we learned that some of the users were working in some of the largest companies of the world, trying to deploy LocalStack not only on their local machines, but also in their CI [continuous integration] pipelines.”

Today, the company counts some 900 paying users, including an impressive roster of self-serve customers including the likes of Apple, Comcast, IBM and Workday. LocalStack also works directly with some customers through an official procurement and onboarding process.

Going local

LocalStack’s offering consists of two core components: One is an emulator, which is basically a Docker image that the user downloads to their local machine with all the necessary AWS APIs. And the second part is a cloud platform, which serves access to additional features such as team collaboration, telemetry data, insights, and more.

The company has also retained some of its open source roots with a community version, making around one-third of its AWS services available through a public repository on GitHub. The additional two-thirds are held behind a private repository for paying customers. This community version serves as a useful tool for onboarding paying customers in the future, though that isn’t always the case.

“In many cases, community users sign up to LocalStack but do not become paying customers,” Sheganaku said. “We see many thousands of community users who have signed up for our web app, but not purchase any of the paid services.”

It’s worth noting that developers are already able to “mock out” certain parts of their infrastructure locally to run tests. There’s also popular frameworks like Testcontainers that can be used to simulate certain cloud services and infrastructure components on a local machine, though that usually has a different look, feel and “experience” to the actual cloud environment.

AWS itself also offers some tools to enable developers to emulate some of its services locally, such as AWS SAM, which supports the likes of AWS Lambda, DynamoDB and a few others. But LocalStack’s selling point is that it supports more than 100 core AWS services, including identity and access management (IAM) via Amazon Cognito, Amazon Kinesis data streams, and Amazon’s interactive query service Athena.

“LocalStack is almost like a drop-in replacement for AWS cloud,” Hummer said. “AWS SAM is really more specific to a certain set of services; LocalStack is much more comprehensive.”

LocalStack had hitherto raised an undisclosed $3 million in seed funding from CRV and Heavybit. Although it has operated largely under the radar, Hummer says it already has “substantial revenue numbers” and a global team of more than 50 operating mostly out of Europe. However, its customer base is substantively in the U.S., where it will now be looking to ramp things up in terms of product and go-to-market strategy — the fresh Series A round will help fund that effort.

For now, LocalStack’s core focus is AWS, though the company is also working on adding support for Snowflake, which is a different domain from that of AWS, but has similar challenges as it relates to cloud software development. Snowflake support remains in early-stage “preview” for now, but with the new $25 million in the bank, LocalStack is also gearing up to go multi-cloud, expanding support to Microsoft’s Azure, which Hummer said he hoped would be available some time in 2025.

“We’ve had a lot of requests for Azure,” Hummer said.

In addition to lead backer Notable Capital, LocalStack’s Series A round included participation from existing investors CRV and Heavybit.

The Monster Hunter franchise is bringing, well, monster hunting to your smartphone. Capcom has announced that it’s teaming up with TiMi — the studio behind games like Call of Duty: Mobile and Pokémon Unite — for a spinoff called Monster Hunter Outlanders. It’s described as an “open-world survival game” that’s playable either solo or co-op with up to four players. It sounds like Outlanders will feature the core aspects of a MonHun experience (namely, the exploring, hunting, and crafting) but with live service and social elements typical of a mobile game.

That recent success, combined with TiMi’s history and MonHun’s pedigree as a portable experience, are positive signs this could be more than a mobile cash grab. It might be some time before we get to check out the game for ourselves, however, as it doesn’t currently have a release date. Capcom says there will be “several play tests in advance” of the eventual launch.

Good morning! Let’s play Connections, the NYT’s clever word game that challenges you to group answers in various categories. It can be tough, so read on if you need clues.

What should you do once you’ve finished? Why, play some more word games of course. I’ve also got daily Wordle hints and answers, Strands hints and answers and Quordle hints and answers articles if you need help for those too.

Update 11/12/24: Black Friday isn’t launching any time soon, but we’ve already found some HP laptop deals if you’re interested in buying a device by the popular brand. There’s a chance that these prices will go even lower during the shopping event, but these offers are pretty good if you need a new laptop right now.

With Black Friday deals officially set to start on November 29, you’ve still got some time to prepare for the discounts that the shopping event will bring. However, if you can’t wait until then to buy a new laptop, we highly recommend checking out the early Black Friday HP laptop deals that we’ve gathered here. No matter your budget or the type of laptop that you need, there’s surely something from these offers that will catch your attention.

We’ve also rounded up Black Friday gaming laptop deals if you want a machine primarily for playing video games, Black Friday Dell laptop deals for devices made by another trusted name, and Best Buy Black Friday laptop deals for offers from one of the largest retailers. In any case, you’re going to have to be quick with your purchase if you want to make sure that you’re able to take advantage of the savings, as there’s no guarantee on how long these prices will last.

HP Stream 14 — $199 $249 20% off

The HP Stream 14 is an affordable laptop that’s even cheaper right now following a 20% discount, for savings of $50. It’s perfect for basic functions with its Intel Celeron N4120 processor, Intel UHD Graphics 600, and 4GB of RAM. The device features a 14-inch screen with HD resolution, and while its 64GB eMMC provides limited storage, you can always save your files on cloud storage services or external hard drives.

HP Chromebook Plus x360 14 — $410 $640 35% off

The HP Chromebook Plus x360 14 elevates the Chromebook experience with its Intel Core i3 N305 processor, Intel UHD Graphics, 8GB of RAM, and a 128GB UFS for storage. The Chrome OS-powered device is also a 2-in-1 laptop, allowing you to transform it from laptop mode to tablet mode by folding its 14-inch touchscreen all the way back. It’s on sale at 35% off, for a $230 discount.

HP 255 G10 — $449 $599 25% off

The HP 255 G10 is pretty powerful for its price, which is even lower following a 25% discount for savings of $150. You’ll get the AMD Ryzen 3 7330U processor, integrated AMD graphics, and 16GB of RAM, alongside a 15.6-inch display and 1 TB SSD. The laptop also comes with Windows 11 Pro pre-installed, so you can access the operating system’s more advanced features.

HP Spectre x360 14 — $1,400 $1,900 26% off

The HP Spectre x360 14 is a 2-in-1 laptop that features a 14-inch OLED touchscreen with 2.8K resolution, for impressive visuals whether you’re using it in laptop mode or tablet mode. In terms of performance, it’s pretty fast with the Intel Core Ultra 7 processor, Intel Arc Graphics, and 32GB of RAM. It’s also got a massive 2TB for storage. The laptop will be yours with a 26% discount, or savings of $500.

HP Omen Transcend 16 — $1,600 $2,100 23% off

For a gaming laptop that will be ready for upcoming PC games, go for the HP Omen Transcend 16. It’s equipped with the 14th-generation Intel Core i7 processor, the Nvidia GeForce RTX 4070 graphics card, and 32GB of RAM, and you’ve got plenty of storage space to install games on its 1TB SSD. The gaming laptop also features a 16-inch WQXGA screen, and it’s on sale with a 23% discount that’s equivalent to $500 in savings.

How to choose an HP laptop on Black Friday

HP is one of the best laptop brands, earning a reputation for reliability over recent years. That means you’ll be fine with any HP laptop, but to narrow down your choices on what to buy, you’re going to have to start by determining how much you’re willing to spend. Set a maximum budget and select among the Black Friday HP laptop deals that match — it’s important not to go overboard if you want to have enough cash to take advantage of other offers during the shopping event.

Our laptop buying guide highlights the specifications that you should be looking for, starting with the processor — it’s AMD versus Intel, and you’re fine with either as long as you get the most powerful one that you can afford. Our guide on how much RAM do you need provides an in-depth explanation, but we highly recommend getting at least 8GB of RAM to breeze through basic tasks and at least 16GB of RAM if you’re planning to use more demanding apps or play PC games. Screen size is also important — it goes as small as 13 inches for portability, and as big as 18 inches for a better look at your projects and streaming shows.

How we chose these HP laptop Black Friday deals

We’re here to compare two flagship smartphones once again, this time around from Apple and Huawei. We’ll be comparing the Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Huawei Pura 70 Ultra. Both of these devices are big and powerful, but they’re considerably different in pretty much every way. That’s something you’ll notice the moment you lay your eyes on them, as even their designs are vastly different.

As we usually do, we’ll first list their specifications, and take it from there. Following that, we’ll compare their designs, displays, performance, battery life, camera performance, and audio output. Both of these phones are available across the globe, in various different regions. One thing to note is that the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra does not support Google services. So you won’t have access to Google apps, or the Google Play Store. Huawei’s very own services and app store come pre-installed.

Specs

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Huawei Pura 70 Ultra, respectively

– Screen size:
6.9-inch LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED ( flat, 120Hz, HDR, 2,000 nits)
6.8-inch LTPO OLED display (flat, adaptive 120Hz, HDR, 2,500 nits max brightness)
– Display resolution:
2868 x 1320
2844 x 1260
– SoC:
Apple A18 Pro (3nm)
Huawei Kirin 9010
– RAM:
8GB
16GB (LPDDR5X)
– Storage:
256GB/512GB/1TB (NVMe)
512GB/1TB (UFS 4.0)
– Rear cameras:
48MP (wide, f/1.8 aperture, 1/1.28-inch sensor, 1.22um pixel size, sensor-shift OIS), 48MP (ultrawide, f/2.2 aperture, 0.7um pixel size, PDAF), 12MP (periscope telephoto, f/2.8 aperture, 1/3.06-inch sensor, 1.12um pixel size, 3D sensor-shift OIS, 5x optical zoom).
50MP (f/1.6-f/4.0 variable aperture, 23mm lens, 1-inch type sensor, sensor-shift OIS, PDAF, retractable lens), 40MP (ultrawide, f/2.2 aperture, 13mm lens), 50MP (telemacro, f/2.1 aperture, 90mm lens, 3.5x optical zoom, OIS, PDAF, 5cm macro)
– Front cameras:
12MP (f/1.9 aperture, PDAF, 1/3.6-inch sensor size, OIS)
13MP (wide, f/2.4 aperture, autofocus)
– Battery:
4,685mAh
5,200mAh
– Charging:
38W wired, 25W MagSafe, 15W Qi2 wireless, 7.5W Qi wireless, 4.5W reverse wired (charger not included)
100W wired, 80W wireless, 20W reverse wireless, 18W reverse wired (charger included)
– Dimensions:
163 x 77.6 x 8.3 mm
162.6 x 75.1 x 8.4mm
– Weight:
227 grams
226 grams
– Connectivity:
5G, LTE, NFC, Wi-Fi, USB Type-C, Bluetooth 5.3/5.2
– Security:
Face ID (3D facial scanning)
In-display fingerprint scanner & facial scanning
– OS:
iOS 18
Android 12 with EMUI 14
– Price:
$1,199+
€1,499+
– Buy:
Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max (Apple)
Huawei Pura 70 Ultra (Amazon)

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Huawei Pura 70 Ultra: Design

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is made out of titanium, aluminum, and glass. The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra, on the other hand, combines aluminum and vegan leather. Both smartphones have rounded corners, but that’s where the similarities end. Apple’s handset has a flat frame all around, while it also has a flat display and a flat backplate. The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra’s frame is rounded, while its display is flat, but it’s micro-curved on all sides. The same goes for its backplate, actually.

There is a pill-shaped cutout on the iPhone 16 Pro Max’s display, while the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra has a pill-shaped cutout. They both have very thin and uniform bezels, by the way. Apple’s handset includes more buttons, though. It has the power/lock button on the right, along with the Camera Control button. On the left, it has the volume up and down buttons, along with the Action Button. The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra has only the standard power/lock and volume up and down buttons, and they’re all on the right side.

They both have their camera islands in the same place, in the top-left corner on the back. The thing is, those camera islands do look fairly different. The iPhone 16 Pro Max has its recognizable setup, a squarish camera island. The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra has one of the oddest-looking camera setups out there, though it surely is recognizable as well. There’s no specific shape to it.

The two smartphones have alsmost identical height, but the iPhone 16 Pro Max is a bit wider. They’re also almost identical in terms of thickness. Apple’s phone does have a slightly larger display, so the difference in dimensions is not surprising. The difference in weight, on the other hand is only 1 gram. Both devices are also water and dust-resistant. They’re IP68 certified.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Huawei Pura 70 Ultra: Display

The Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max features a 6.9-inch 2868 x 1320 LTPO Super Retina XDR OLED display. That panel is flat, and it supports an adaptive 120Hz refresh rate (1-120Hz). Dolby Vision is supported, as is HDR10 content. The peak brightness here is 2,000 nits, and the screen-to-body ratio is at around 91%. The display aspect ratio is 19.5:9, while the Ceramic Shield glass protects this panel.

The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra, on the other hand, has a 6.8-inch 2844 x 1260 LTPO OLED display. That panel is flat, and it can project up to 1 billion colors. HDR content is supported, while the refresh rate goes from 1 to 120Hz, it’s adaptive. The peak brightness this display can offer is 2,000 nits. The screen-to-body ratio is at around 89%, while we’re looking at a 460 ppi, which is in line with what the other phone offers.

Both of these displays are great, actually. They’re not only very vivid, but they’re sharp and big. The viewing angles are also great. The touch response from both display is on point, and they also get bright enough in pretty much any situation. The color tuning is a bit different, though. The protection these two displays offer is also on point. The panel on Huawei’s phone has the advantage of offering high-frequency PWM dimming, though.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Huawei Pura 70 Ultra: Performance

The iPhone 16 Pro Max is fueled by the Apple A18 Pro processor, a 3nm chip. That chip is paired with 8GB of RAM and NVMe flash storage. The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra ships with the Kirin 9010 chip, a 7nm processor from Huawei. Huawei also included 16GB of LPDDR5X RAM here, along with up to 1TB of UFS 4.0 flash storage. Neither of these two smartphones offers expandable storage, by the way.

Apple’s smartphone does have a much more powerful and more advanced chip. It’s several generations ahead, and that’s because of the US ban. Huawei had to get creative. Despite that, however, the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra does offer really good performance. We did not have any issues with its performance during our testing, it did a great job. Both phones are very fluid during regular, everyday use, even when you really push them.

Where you will start noticing a difference is in gaming, and some other intensive stuff, such as video processing speed, if you’re handling huge files. The iPhone 16 Pro Max can handle pretty much every mobile game out there with ease. The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is okay for gaming, but the most demanding games can make the phone struggle a bit. Also, the availability of high-profile games on AppGallery is not exactly on par with the Google Play Store, so that may not be the best choice for gaming for several reasons.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Huawei Pura 70 Ultra: Battery

Apple’s handset includes a 4,685mAh battery on the inside. The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra, on the flip side, has a 5,200mAh battery. Apple’s iPhones usually have smaller battery packs than their Android counterparts, so don’t pay too much attention to that difference. In fact, the iPhone 16 Pro Max does seem to offer better battery life, even though the battery life on the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is truly great.

Both of these smartphones are road warriors. They can last for a long time on a single charge. The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra is perfectly capable of getting over the 7-hour screen-on-time mark, as long as you’re not gaming or doing many other demanding tasks. It’s entirely possible to get to that point. The iPhone 16 Pro Max can push things even further, though, it really does offer outstanding battery life. There are a lot of factors to consider, however, so your mileage may vary, of course.

In terms of charging, the iPhone 16 Pro Max cannot match the Huawei Pura 70 Ultra. Huawei’s flagship supports 100W wired, 80W wireless, 20W reverse wireless, and 18W reverse wired charging. The iPhone 16 Pro Max supports 38W wired, 25W MagSafe wireless, 15W Qi2 wireless, 7.5W Qi wireless, and 4.5W reverse wired charging. Huawei’s handset will charge much faster both via a wire and wirelessly. It also comes with a charger in the box, unlike the iPhone 16 Pro Max.

Apple iPhone 16 Pro Max vs Huawei Pura 70 Ultra: Cameras

Both phones have three cameras on the back, but the setups are different. The iPhone 16 Pro Max includes a 48-megapixel main camera (1/1.28-inch sensor), a 48-megapixel ultrawide unit, and a 12-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (5x optical zoom). The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra has a 50-megapixel main camera (f/1.6-4.0 variable aperture, 1-inch type sensor), a 40-megapixel ultrawide unit, and a 50-megapixel periscope telephoto camera (3.5x optical zoom, macro).

The thing is, both of these smartphones actually do a fantastic job with photos. Both of them lean towards warmer color tones, and both can provide very balanced images. They also handle HDR situations without a problem. The Huawei Pura 70 Ultra’s main camera does a better job in low light, though, especially if you pixel peep. The images do turn out sharper, which is not surprising considering the benefit in the sensor size and variable aperture. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is not far behind.

The images are comparable in good lighting, however, in terms of quality, despite the fact they’re different. Huawei also has the edge when it comes to telephoto shots, at least up to 5x. 5x and 6x shots are better on the iPhone 16 Pro Max, while everything above that is a tossup. Both ultrawide cameras do a good job, they’re comparable in terms of quality. The iPhone 16 Pro Max is still better when it comes to video quality.

Audio

Both smartphones do include stereo speakers, but the difference between them is considerable. The ones on the iPhone 16 Pro Max are notably louder, especially when played side-by-side with what the Pura 70 Ultra has to offer. The quality seems a bit better too, but both sound outputs are good.

Neither phone includes an audio jack, however. You’ll need to use their Type-C ports if you’d like to connect your wired headphones. If you opt to do things wirelessly, however, you’ll be glad to know that the iPhone 16 Pro Max and Huawei Pura 70 Ultra offers Bluetooth 5.3 and 5.2 respectively.