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How Reggie Brown invented Snapchat
Why sexting and a Stanford class led a group of former fraternity brothers to create Snapchat. Read More
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What to expect from Samsung’s next Galaxy flagships
It’s that time of year again. Samsung is getting ready to unpack some shiny new high end smartphones at the world’s biggest mobile confab. And Android fans are getting ready to cheer… Read More
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Script’s app lets parents digitally sign school permission slips and pay for field trips
Schools are often late to taking advantage of new technologies, so today still do much of their business over paper forms. One pain point in particular – for school administrators, teachers and parents alike – is handling permission forms for activities and field trips. A young startup called Script aims to help. Schools can use Script’s app to manage the entire trip… Read More
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Snapchat almost acqui-hired anonymous app Secret
Evan Spiegel secretly tried to hire away the team at Secret, but the price was too high. That’s according to three sources familiar with the deal who spoke to TechCrunch. The information expands and clarifies a report from the new book about Snapchat’s origin story coming out next week called “How to Turn Down a Billion Dollars” by former TechCrunch writer Billy Gallagher. Read More
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Facebook confirms test of a downvote button for flagging comments
How can Facebook promote meaningful interaction between users? By letting them downvote inappropriate comments to hide them. Facebook is now testing a downvote button on a limited set of public Page post comment reels, the company confirms to TechCrunch. But what Facebook does with signals about problematic comments could raise new questions about censorship, and its role as a news editor… Read More
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Apple addresses iOS source code leak, says it appears to be tied to three-year-old software
Earlier this week, iOS source code showed up on GitHub, raising concerns that hackers could find a way to comb the material for vulnerabilities. Apple has yet to confirm or deny the legitimacy of the posted material, but all signs point to it being the real deal — a fact seemingly confirmed by a DMCA takedown notice issued to the platform. Read More
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WhatsApp has launched person-to-person payments into beta in India
WhatsApp has begun testing a new payments feature in India that will allow people to send money to other WhatsApp users, excluding merchant accounts. The feature is currently in beta, according to sources familiar with the company’s plans, but hasn’t been publicly announced because it’s not widely available at this time. The company has been working on support for a… Read More
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Twitter’s fourth-quarter results: The TechCrunch Review
Here at TechCrunch, we cover company earnings on a pretty regular basis. And we promise it’s for a good reason: The success and failure of these publicly-traded companies tends to give us at least one more data point when it comes to calibrating which technologies are exciting to investors, as well as the trajectory of those technologies. One of our favorite companies to cover… Read More
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Snapchat starts selling $10+ captionable AR masks for events
By combining augmented reality with your customizable captions, Snapchat hopes you’ll share more from birthdays and weddings while earning it a little money. Today Snapchat launches Custom Lenses, expanding its 2016-launched on-demand geofilter program so you can make temporary, geofenced AR effects that people can add to their Snaps at a special event. Read More
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Twitter is now worth more than Snap
Adding to what’s already a Very Weird 2018, Twitter now has a bigger market cap than Snapchat maker Snap after posting a thoroughly interesting earnings beat for its fourth quarter this morning. Shares of Twitter rocketed more than 25% this morning following the report, which showed the service is actually able to generate a profit on a GAAP basis. Twitter already wrapped up 2017 with a… Read More
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Facebook Messenger’s ‘Your Emoji’ status tells friends what’s up
Want to let friends know you’re trying to party, hit the gym, focus on work or grab a drink? That’s the idea behind a powerful new feature Facebook Messenger is testing called Your Emoji. Akin to offline meetup app Down to Lunch, it lets you overlay a chosen emoji on your Messenger profile pic for 24 hours as a way to spur conversation and hang outs, or just let people know… Read More
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Elon Musk’s pretty good week keeps rolling as Tesla slides through Q4 with same production targets
Tesla CEO Elon Musk managed to send his Tesla Roadster into space — because why not? — earlier this week, and it looks like his week (and Tesla’s) is still looking up for now following the company’s fourth-quarter results. The company slightly beat Wall Street’s expectations on the financial front, and said it’s still targeting producing 2,500 Model 3… Read More
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The maker of the Turing Phone files for bankruptcy and suspends manufacturing
Turing Robotic’s CEO says the company isn’t done. But it’s definitely hit another significant roadblock in its quest to bring some fun alternative handsets to the market. The Finnish phone maker’s story so far is one of delay after delay, and now it’s announced, via Facebook post, that it’s suspending manufacturing. Read More
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Fitness startup Studio is bringing its audio running classes to Life Fitness treadmills
Studio, a startup that delivers coaching, music and competition to treadmill runners’ smartphones and smartwatches, is getting a boost from treadmill maker Life Fitness. Studio founder and CEO Jason Baptiste explained that through this partnership, Studio’s classes will be available on Life Fitness treadmills in gyms, starting with the ones equipped with the company’s… Read More
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‘Instagram for classwork’ Seesaw in 1/2 of US schools
Kids don’t try their hardest unless they think someone’s watching. Overcrowded classrooms and distracted parents can make pouring effort into school work feel pointless. But Seesaw’s app turns their assignments into social media they share with teachers, peers and mom and dad. Now it’s invading schools across the country and just raised a Series A round from LinkedIn… Read More
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Tinder is launching a new location-based feature set this year
Tinder will launch a series of new features based on location in 2018, its parent company Match Group revealed during this week’s Q4 2017 earnings. The dating app maker has been fairly vague on what these new features will entail, having only described them previously as something that will blur the “distinction between digital and real-life dating, and dating and simply engaging… Read More
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Instagram tests resharing of others’ posts to your Story
Instagram purposefully lacks a “Regram” button to promote original sharing, but it’s easing up on that philosophy when it comes to Stories. Instagram now confirms to TechCrunch that it’s testing an option that lets you share public feed posts from other users to your Story. This could let you add commentary and overlaid stickers to a meme, celebrity post or even a… Read More
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Android smartphone maker Wileyfox confirms it has entered into administration in the UK
It’s been more than a year since the well-funded startup Cyanogen announced that it would shut down its mobile OS development, and since pivoted to self-driving technology. Yet we’re still seeing some fallout among the companies that had pinned their hopes on the original plans of that shooting star. Wileyfox, a smartphone maker that was one of the earliest companies to build… Read More
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Snapchat will not let users broadcast Live
Snapchat is finally getting Live video, but you won’t be able to broadcast. Today Snapchat announced it will pipe snippits of NBC’s Live Olympics coverage directly into its app. But when TechCrunch asked if users would be able to go Live, a Snap spokesperson told us on background that there’s no intention to open up broadcasting to Snapchatters. Read More
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After years of neglect, Snapchat wins in the developing world
Snapchat doubled its Rest of World revenue this quarter. That’s a surprise, considering CEO Evan Spiegel never seemed to care about anyone but U.S. teens. Snapchat’s Android app was buggy. Its videos loaded too slowly on weak connections. And Spiegel even admitted “Historically we’ve really focused our efforts on markets where [high-end phones and broadband mobile… Read More
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