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Consumers dropped $200 million on apps on Christmas, up 12 percent from last year
Consumers spent $196 million on apps, in-app purchases and subscriptions on Christmas Day 2017 across the App Store and Google Play, according to new data from Sensor Tower. The report, while excluding Android revenue in China, represents a 12.3 percent increase over last year’s spending of approximately $174 million. That speaks to a still-growing market for apps and games as well as… Read More
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Instagram will now add ‘Recommended’ posts to your feed
Instagram’s feed will now show users recommended posts – a change that earlier this month was spotted while in testing, and has since quietly gone live. The feature, described here in the company’s Help documentation, will suggest posts for you based on those that have been liked by other accounts you follow. The new section, “Recommended for You,” is clearly… Read More
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HQ Trivia arrives on Android in Canada in beta
App-based trivia sensation HQ Trivia is on its way to Android, as the company previously revealed, but a special group of users can access it right now — Canadians. The app is now live in the Canadian Google Play Store, though it’s an “Unreleased” beta version of the live trivia game (via MobileSyrup). HQ Trivia debuted on iOS earlier this year, featuring a twice… Read More
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HQ Trivia is coming soon to Android
HQ Trivia is letting Android users pre-register for the live-streamed trivia game built by the makers of Vine, Rus Yusupov and Colin Kroll. Pre-registering means you’ll get notified the moment HQ Trivia is available for download. HQ, which opened up pre-registration on December 24, had previously marketed its Android app as being available “this Christmas.” Read More
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Pixel art coloring book apps are the newest App Store craze
Has your kid bugged you to let them download Sandbox Coloring? You’re probably not alone. The latest trend blowing up on the App Store is a new twist on the coloring book apps that have been popular for a couple of years. Now, instead of having users pick and choose their colors as before, this new group of coloring book apps – four of which recently snagged spots in the App… Read More
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Inside ‘Fin,’ the elite human/AI assistant
“I have FOMO for the future”, says Sam Lessin. That’s why his startup Fin is working backwards from a far-off tech utopia. One day, computers with some human help will answer our every beck and call. Today, Lessin is teaming them up. Every day, Fin gets smarter. For $1 a minute, 24/7, Fin gets your digital chores done. Message, email, or speak a request and a real person… Read More
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CNN is killing its Snapchat news show only four months after its debut
CNN is giving up on its Snapchat news show, which launch only four months ago. “The Update,” as the program was called, had been designed for Snapchat’s vertical video format, but didn’t feature video produced only for Snapchat, nor did it have dedicated anchors. Instead, the news featured on “The Update” was a curated selection of CNN’s reporting from… Read More
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Talent trickles out of Snapchat as Timehop founder leaves
Less than a year after joining Snapchat, social media nostalgia app Timehop’s founder Jonathan Wegener is departing the company. He tells TechCrunch he wants to build his own thing again, but the fact that the No. 1 teen social network isn’t exciting enough to stay at is telling. Read More
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Civilization VI lands on iPad
In case you wanted something engrossing to keep you distracted from family squabbles this holiday, a special gift just arrived: Civilization VI, which is now available as a $30 purchase for iPad via the App Store. The world building simulation game is possibly the most ambitious and expansive ever to hit the iPad, and it has hefty spec requirements to match – you’ll need at least… Read More
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Apple revises its controversial guidelines on template-based apps
Apple today announced it’s amending the App Store guideline that banned apps created using templates and other app generation services. When the company revised its policies earlier this year, the move was meant to reduce the number of low-quality apps and spam. But the decision ended up impacting a much wider market. Read More
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Snap and Twitter now have roughly the same market cap
While we won’t call this a huge watershed moment per se, something nominally interesting in the world of Weird Social Media Things happened this morning: Snap and Twitter are now worth the same based on their market caps. With some small moves on both companies’ shares, both companies are now hovering around $18.7 billion in market cap. There are some extra mechanics that go into… Read More
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Dating app Hinge rolls out a new feature to reduce ‘ghosting’
Most dating apps match users then leave it up to them to initiate their chat. When Bumble launched, however, it broke new ground by having women make the first move. Today, Hinge is introducing its own take on how conversations on dating apps should be handled with a new feature it’s calling “Your Turn.” The idea with “Your Turn” is that it lets users decide… Read More
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Apple will reportedly unify iOS and Mac apps in 2018
Apple is said to be working on a way to allow developers to build apps that work with touchscreen input on iPhone and iPad, and with mouse and trackpad on Mac devices, to be implemented next year, according to Bloomberg. The system would unify development environments for both of Apple’s main computing platforms, iOS and macOS, allowing them to target all devices with a single app instead… Read More
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Stitch Fix is crashing after its first-ever earnings report
Stitch Fix’s first earnings report is not going well for the company, as its shares went into a tailspin after a significant run up over the past month following its IPO when it delivered its results its most recent fiscal quarter. Stitch Fix, a personalized apparel company that ships a box of recommended items that users can buy or send back, closed up just 1% on its first day of… Read More
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SendBird raises another $16M to help developers add chat functions to a service
If you go to any company’s website these days, you’re probably starting to see some chat functionality more and more often — and for good reason, as it’s a quick way for those companies to get in touch with their potential customers. And SendBird, which launched in February this year out of Y Combinator, has tried to quietly begin eating up this space by giving… Read More
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Instagram launches an alpha testing program on iOS and Android
Are you an early adopter? Okay, but are you a really early adopter who likes to test new, experimental things even if it means you’ll experience crashes and bugs? Then you may be interested to know that Instagram has launched Alpha testing programs on iOS and Android aimed at those who want to test pre-release versions of its popular photo-sharing app. Instagram has been running an… Read More
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Former Nike CFO Don Blair joins Dropbox’s board of directors
As Dropbox continues its inevitable march toward an IPO, it’s going to look to bring in people with a lot of experience handling the operations of larger public companies — and it’s getting one today. Dropbox today said it is adding former Nike CFO Don Blair to the company’s board of directors. Blair will be joining the audit committee, the company said, and comes in with… Read More
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Musical.ly launches $50 million ‘creator fund’ to build out its community
In November, the popular lip-syncing app Musical.ly announced its acquisition by Chinese social media giant Toutiao, owned by Bytedance, in a deal sources said was valued at $800 million to $1 billion. Today, the acquisition has completed, with Musical.ly officially joining Bytedance, the companies said. In addition, Musical.ly announced the launch of a $50 million “Creator Fund”… Read More
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Used car marketplace Shift appoints a co-CEO alongside George Arison
Toby Russell was one of the first people to get Shift founder George Arison into used cars — and now he’s going to be running his company alongside him as Shift said today it is appointing Russell co-CEO of the company. Arison said he was naming Russell co-CEO of the used car marketplace to help split off the role into what each executive would be best at, with Russell handling a… Read More
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