Sékr, a startup that offers a mobile app for outdoor enthusiasts and campers, is launching a new AI tool for planning road trips. The new tool, called Copilot, is available…
Instagram is testing a way for creators to experiment with reels without committing to having them displayed on their profiles, giving the social network a possible edge over TikTok and…
Amazon has received approval from the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) to fly its delivery drones longer distances, the company announced on Thursday. Amazon says it can now expand its…
Apps
Kino is a new iPhone app for videographers from the makers of Halide
9:00 am PDT • May 29, 2024
Lux, the startup behind popular pro photography app Halide and others, is venturing into video with its latest app launch. On Wednesday, the company announced Kino, a new video capture app…
Apps
Kinnect’s new app aims to help families record and store generational memories
6:00 am PDT • May 29, 2024
A new startup called Kinnect aims to help people privately save generational memories, traditions, recipes and more. The company’s app, launched this month, lets people create invite-only spaces where they…
Tumblr, the blogging site acquired twice, is launching its “Communities” feature in open beta, the Tumblr Labs division has announced. The feature offers a dedicated space for users to connect…
Hardware
Spotify to shut off Car Thing for good, leading users to demand refunds
12:35 pm PDT • May 23, 2024
Spotify is notifying customers who purchased its Car Thing product that the devices will stop working after December 9, 2024. The company discontinued the device back in July 2022, but…
Apps
Arc Search’s new Call Arc feature lets you ask questions by ‘making a phone call’
7:00 am PDT • May 23, 2024
Call Arc can help answer immediate and small questions, according to the company.
A new startup called Auggie is aiming to give parents a single platform where they can shop for products and connect with each other. The company’s new app, which launched…
Social networking startup and X competitor Bluesky is officially launching DMs (direct messages), the company announced on Wednesday. Later, Bluesky plans to “fully support end-to-end encrypted messaging down the line,”…
Hardware
Meta’s Ray-Ban smart glasses now let you share images directly to your Instagram Story
8:17 am PDT • May 22, 2024
Meta is updating its Ray-Ban smart glasses with new hands-free functionality, the company announced on Wednesday. Most notably, users can now share an image from their smart glasses directly to…
TikTok is the latest tech company to incorporate generative AI into its ads business, as the company announced on Tuesday that it’s launching a new “TikTok Symphony” AI suite for…
Apps
Microsoft’s new ‘Volumetric Apps’ for Quest headsets extend Windows apps into the 3D space
12:20 pm PDT • May 21, 2024
Microsoft announced on Tuesday during its annual Build conference that it’s bringing “Windows Volumetric Apps” to Meta Quest headsets. The partnership will allow Microsoft to bring Windows 365 and local…
“When I heard the released demo, I was shocked, angered and in disbelief that Mr. Altman would pursue a voice that sounded so eerily similar to mine.”
Apps
Meta’s latest experiment borrows from BeReal’s and Snapchat’s core ideas
1:35 pm PDT • May 17, 2024
Meta is once again taking on its competitors by developing a feature that borrows concepts from others — in this case, BeReal and Snapchat. The company is developing a feature…
Apps
YouTube TV’s ‘multiview’ feature is now available on Android phones and tablets
9:43 am PDT • May 17, 2024
YouTube TV has announced that its multiview feature for watching four streams at once is now available on Android phones and tablets. The Android launch comes two months after YouTube…
AI
Sony Music warns tech companies over ‘unauthorized’ use of its content to train AI
9:49 am PDT • May 16, 2024
Sony Music Group has sent letters to more than 700 tech companies and music streaming services to warn them not to use its music to train AI without explicit permission.…
Apps
TikTok tests 60-minute video uploads as it continues to take on YouTube
7:59 am PDT • May 16, 2024
TikTok is testing the ability for users to upload 60-minute videos, the company confirmed to TechCrunch on Thursday. The feature is available to a limited group of users in select…
Users will be able to access the AR content by first searching for a location in Google Maps.
Apps
Google is bringing AI-generated quizzes to academic videos on YouTube
12:45 pm PDT • May 14, 2024
The official launch comes almost a year after YouTube began experimenting with AI-generated quizzes on its mobile app.
The summaries are created based on Gemini’s analysis of insights from Google Maps’ community of more than 300 million contributors.
Hardware
Apple and Google agree on standard to alert people when unknown Bluetooth devices may be tracking them
11:29 am PDT • May 13, 2024
Apple and Google announced on Monday that iPhone and Android users will start seeing alerts when it’s possible that an unknown Bluetooth device is being used to track them. The…
Government & Policy
White House proposes up to $120M to help fund Polar Semiconductor’s chip facility expansion
9:46 am PDT • May 13, 2024
The expansion of Polar Semiconductor’s facility would enable the company to double its U.S. production capacity of sensor and power chips within two years.
Microsoft will launch its own mobile game store in July, the company announced at the Bloomberg Technology Summit on Thursday. Xbox president Sarah Bond shared that the company plans to…
Smart ring maker Oura is launching two new features focused on heart health, the company announced on Friday. The first claims to help users get an idea of their cardiovascular…
Apps
WhatsApp’s latest update streamlines navigation and adds a ‘darker dark mode’
11:00 am PDT • May 9, 2024
WhatsApp is updating its mobile apps for a fresh and more streamlined look, while also introducing a new “darker dark mode,” the company announced on Thursday. The messaging app says…
Apps
TikTok will automatically label AI-generated content created on platforms like DALL·E 3
5:00 am PDT • May 9, 2024
TikTok is starting to automatically label AI-generated content that was made on other platforms, the company announced on Thursday. With this change, if a creator posts content on TikTok that…
Apps
NYT Games launches a Wordle archive with access to more than 1,000 past puzzles
12:04 pm PDT • May 7, 2024
The New York Times Games announced on Tuesday that it’s launching a Wordle archive, offering subscribers access to more than 1,000 past Wordle puzzles. The company has started rolling out the Wordle…
TikTok is suing the United States government in an effort to block a law that would ban TikTok if its parent company, ByteDance, fails to sell it within a year.…
Opera’s in-browser AI product, called Aria, can now summarize text-based web pages on Android. The AI-powered web page summarizing tool quickly condenses news articles, blog posts or research papers in…
