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Chroma, backed by Pinterest and Twitter co-founders, sells to AI audio company Bronze

Sarah Perez — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 21:07:54 +0000

Chroma, a startup building a new type of audiovisual entertainment for mobile devices, has been sold. The company, which had financial backing from Twitter and Medium co-founder Biz Stone as well as Pinterest co-founder Evan Sharp, is headed to London-based audio technology company Bronze, an AI music startup. Founded by record producer Lex Dromgoole, who’s […]

Google ships first developer preview of Android 16 to speed up feature rollouts

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 19:00:00 +0000

Google is releasing the first developer preview of Android 16 to speed up feature rollouts in devices. This is a major change in the Android rollout schedule as, over the past few years, Google released its first Android developer beta around Q2, with a stable release coming out post-July. With the new schedule, Android 16’s […]

Google’s Gemini chatbot now has memory

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:10:47 +0000

Google’s Gemini chatbot can now remember things like info about your life, work, and personal preferences. As flagged by posters on X (and Google’s official account), a “memory” feature has begun rolling out to certain Gemini users, including this reporter. Like ChatGPT’s memory, Gemini’s adds context to the current conversation. For example, tell Gemini to […]

What is Bluesky? Everything to know about the X competitor

Amanda Silberling, Cody Corrall, Alyssa Stringer — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

Is the grass greener on the other side? We’re not sure, but the sky is most certainly bluer. It’s been two years since Elon Musk purchased Twitter, now X, leading people to set up shop on alternative platforms. Mastodon, Post, Pebble (two of which have already shuttered operations) and Spill have been presented as potential […]

IRL social app Pie is coming to SF to make you less lonely

Amanda Silberling — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 17:00:00 +0000

After a robust career building Bonobos and advocating for founder mental health, Andy Dunn moved to Chicago with his family. A few years later, he came to a depressing realization: He hadn’t made any new friends. “I don’t think it’s easy to admit to yourself that you don’t have friends,” Dunn told TechCrunch, laughing. “It’s […]

Bluesky tops 20M users, narrowing gap with Instagram Threads

Sarah Perez — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 16:12:02 +0000

Bluesky, the social network and X competitor, has been benefiting from a surge of departures from the Elon Musk-owned app formerly known as Twitter. Today, Bluesky has hit a major milestone: it’s topped 20 million users. What’s more, new data indicates the app’s rapid growth is seeing it close the gap with another prominent X […]

Google Lens can now check prices and inventory when shopping in the real world

Aisha Malik — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

After building out Google Lens to help users shop online more easily, Google is now updating the product to help people shop when they’re in a physical store by offering product insights, price comparisons, and local inventory availability. Alongside this news, the company is bringing new shopping features to Maps, and adding more Google Pay […]

Amazon’s top music plan will now include one audiobook per month

Ivan Mehta — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Amazon said on Tuesday that it will let Amazon Music Unlimited subscribers access one audiobook per month from Audible’s catalog for free. This move aims to counter Spotify’s growth in the audiobook space and also nudge some Amazon Music subscribers to purchase Audible books or plans. The company noted that subscribers of the top plan […]

Microsoft will soon let you clone your voice for Teams meetings

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:30:19 +0000

Microsoft plans to let Teams users clone their voices so they can have their sound-alikes speak to others in meetings in different languages. At Microsoft Ignite 2024 on Tuesday, the company revealed Interpreter in Teams, a tool for Microsoft Teams that delivers “real-time, speech-to-speech” interpretation capabilities. Starting in early 2025, people using Teams for meetings […]

Windows comes to the Meta Quest

Kyle Wiggers — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 13:30:16 +0000

If Windows in mixed reality sounds like your idea of a good time, rejoice. Microsoft said on Tuesday at Microsoft Ignite 2024 it’s bringing the “full capabilities” of Windows 11 to the Meta Quest 3 and Quest 3S in December as part of a public preview. “Full capabilities,” in this context, means that you’ll be […]

Instagram will soon let you reset your recommendation algorithm

Aisha Malik — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Instagram is testing the ability for users to reset their recommendations, the company announced on Tuesday. By resetting your recommendations, you would be starting fresh and retraining the app’s algorithm about the content you enjoy across your Explore page, home feed, and Reels tab. The feature is geared toward users who feel like their content […]

Yuka, the app that rates food and makeup, now lets users complain to companies directly

Lauren Forristal — Tue, 19 Nov 2024 05:00:00 +0000

Yuka is a popular health app that allows users to scan the barcodes of food items to quickly see a health ranking based on additives, sugar, saturated fat, and fiber. It also scans cosmetic products, highlighting any harmful substances like endocrine disruptors, carcinogens, allergens, and irritants. Yuka then recommends healthier options, helping consumers make more […]

DoorDash’s app can now import your grocery list for faster shopping

Lauren Forristal — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 21:19:50 +0000

While online grocery shopping is generally convenient, manually adding items to your cart one by one can become a bit of a chore. To address this, food and grocery shopping app DoorDash has launched a new feature that allows you to sync your grocery list to the app. The app will then suggest what to […]

Mastodon sees a boost from the ‘X exodus,’ too, founder says

Sarah Perez — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 18:44:43 +0000

Decentralized social network Mastodon is also seeing some uplift from the X “exodus,” founder Eugen Rochko shared on the platform just ahead of the weekend. While the Twitter-like startup Bluesky has been capturing headlines and attention for its rapid adoption among former X users, a smaller group has apparently turned to the open source networking […]

Partiful is Google’s ‘best app’ of 2024

Sarah Perez — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 17:31:18 +0000

Partiful, the New York-based event-planning app that’s taking on older solutions like Evite, Eventbrite, and Facebook Events, has been named Google’s app of the year, the tech giant announced on Monday as part of its “best apps and games of 2024” list. The list also highlighted the top game, AFK Journey, alongside other category winners […]

India orders Meta to curb WhatsApp data sharing, levies $25M fine

Manish Singh — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 16:00:34 +0000

India’s competition watchdog has ordered WhatsApp to stop sharing user data with other Meta units for advertising purposes for five years and also levied a fine of $25.4 million for antitrust violations related to WhatsApp’s controversial 2021 privacy policy. The Competition Commission of India, which began the investigation in 2021, found that WhatsApp’s “take-it-or-leave-it” privacy […]

Xiaomi taps PhonePe’s app store for India smartphones

Manish Singh — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 12:31:40 +0000

Xiaomi will replace its app store with fintech PhonePe’s offering for customers in India starting in January. The move is a major win for the Indian startup, as well as a sign of further recalibration for the Chinese hardware giant in one of its biggest markets outside its home country. Xiaomi, the second largest smartphone […]

Roblox no longer allows users under 13 to message others outside of games

Aisha Malik — Mon, 18 Nov 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Roblox will not let users under the age of 13 message others outside of games and experiences on the platform, the company said Friday. Roblox also announced a series of other built-in protections for young users, such as age-gating certain experiences, along with enhanced parental controls. Roblox has been criticized for failing to protect children […]

TikTok parent ByteDance reportedly values itself at $300B

Anthony Ha — Sat, 16 Nov 2024 17:26:40 +0000

ByteDance, the Chinese company that owns TikTok, valued itself at $300 billion in a recent share buyback offer, according to a new report in The Wall Street Journal. That number might sound familiar, as the WSJ previously reported on a ByteDance buyback offer at a $300 billion valuation back in September 2022. But a year […]

Unlike X, Bluesky says it won’t train AI on your posts

Aisha Malik — Fri, 15 Nov 2024 21:26:11 +0000

Bluesky, a social network that’s experiencing a surge in users this week as users abandon X, says it has “no intention” of using user content to train generative AI tools. The social network made the announcement on the same day that X (formerly Twitter) is implementing its new terms of service that allow the platform […]