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Dot’s AI really, really wants to get to know you

Sarah Perez — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 18:53:41 +0000

Dot is a new AI companion and chatbot that thrives on getting to know your innermost thoughts and feelings.

Pitch Deck Teardown: Feel Therapeutics’ $3.5M seed deck

Haje Jan Kamps — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 17:15:00 +0000

Feel Therapeutics has a pretty original deck, with some twists we rarely see; the company did a great job telling the overall story.

Style DNA gets a generative AI chatbot that suggests outfit ideas based on your color type

Lauren Forristal — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 15:15:04 +0000

Style DNA, an AI-powered fashion stylist app, creates a personalized style profile from a single selfie. The app is particularly useful for people interested in seasonal color analysis, a process used to determine the best colors to complement an individual’s skin tone. This service can be expensive, with experts charging upwards of $300. However, the […]

Spotify launches a new Basic streaming plan in the US

Aisha Malik — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:31:13 +0000

Spotify is introducing a new “Basic” streaming plan in the United States, the company announced on Friday. The new plan costs $10.99 per month and includes all of the benefits of a Premium plan but without the monthly audiobook listening time. The launch of the new streaming plan comes a few weeks after Spotify increased […]

Meta is tagging real photos as ‘Made with AI,’ say photographers

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 14:25:11 +0000

Photographers say the social media giant is applying a ‘Made with AI’ label to photos they took, causing confusion for users.

Google pauses its experiment to expand real-money games on the Play Store

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 13:14:34 +0000

Google said today that it globally paused its experiment that aimed to allow new kinds of real-money games on the Play Store, citing the challenges that come with the lack of a central authority to approve such apps in some regions. In January, the company said it would start allowing real-money apps widely in June […]

Google is making your movie and TV reviews visible under a new profile page

Ivan Mehta — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 09:35:36 +0000

Google is making reviews of all your movies, TV shows, books, albums and games visible under one profile page starting June 24, according to an email sent to users last month. These profiles are also searchable through Google searches, which can lead to users’ being profiled based on their likes and dislikes. The company launched […]

Language learning app Speak nets $20M, doubles valuation

Kyle Wiggers — Fri, 21 Jun 2024 04:48:19 +0000

Speak, the AI-powered language learning app, has raised new money from investors at double its previous valuation.

Apple releases Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 and Final Cut Camera

Aisha Malik — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 18:33:22 +0000

Apple has released Final Cut Pro for iPad 2 and Final Cut Camera, the company announced on Thursday. Both apps were previously announced during the company’s iPad event in May. Apple also released updates for Final Cut Pro for Mac. The iPad version has been updated with capabilities that are designed to take advantage of […]

Influencer shopping app LTK gets an automatic direct message tool

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 18:13:49 +0000

LTK (formerly LiketoKnow.it and RewardStyle), the influencer shopping app with 40 million monthly users, announced on Thursday the launch of a free direct message tool for creators to instantly share preset responses with followers. The new tool, called LTK DM, is integrated into the posts section of the LTK app. When a creator shares an […]

Instagram now lets users livestream exclusively to their Close Friends list

Aisha Malik — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 15:00:00 +0000

Instagram is introducing the ability for users to broadcast live to just their Close Friends list, the company announced on Thursday. The new “Close Friends on Live” feature allows users to go live with up to three other people. Instagram says the new feature can be used to share what’s on your mind, spontaneously catch […]

Pocket FM partners with ElevenLabs to convert scripts into audio content quickly

Ivan Mehta — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Lightspeed Ventures-backed audio platform Pocket FM announced it has partnered with voice-cloning company ElevenLabs to quickly convert text content, such as script, into audio series using AI. Pocket FM, which raised $103 million in Series D funding in March, told TechCrunch at the time that it was already experimenting with the ability to convert text […]

Roots introduces a screen time app for tracking ‘digital dopamine’

Sarah Perez — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 13:30:40 +0000

Roots is designed to help people get a better handle on what sort of apps are worth spending time on and which are not.

Spotify quietly lets all podcasters upload videos, surpasses 250K shows

Lauren Forristal — Thu, 20 Jun 2024 12:00:00 +0000

Non-hosted podcasters can now upload videos to Spotify. Over 250K video podcasts are on the platform.

Meta AI removes block on election-related queries in India while Google still applies limits

Ivan Mehta — Wed, 19 Jun 2024 10:23:21 +0000

Meta AI removes restrictions around answering election-related queries in India while Google is still restricting them.

FTC refers TikTok child privacy case to Justice Department

Aisha Malik — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 21:01:59 +0000

The agency was investigating the company over potential violations of the Children's Online Privacy Act.

iOS 18 could ‘sherlock’ $400M in app revenue

Sarah Perez — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 19:52:42 +0000

Apple's changes may affect apps that today have an estimated $393 million in revenue and have been downloaded roughly 58 million times over the past year.

Snap previews its real-time image model that can generate AR experiences

Aisha Malik — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 18:52:46 +0000

At the Augmented World Expo on Tuesday, Snap teased an early version of its real-time, on-device image diffusion model that can generate vivid AR experiences. The company also unveiled generative AI tools for AR creators. Snap co-founder and CTO Bobby Murphy said onstage that the model is small enough to run on a smartphone and […]

Meet Seen, a new app for friends to record reactions to TikToks and other content

Lauren Forristal — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 16:31:35 +0000

We all know the feeling when we send a funny TikTok video, anticipating a response from a friend, only to receive a basic laughing emoji or, worse, no reaction at all. Seen aims to solve this with its new social app, where friends record a live video reaction to content you send them. The video […]

Former Snap engineer launches Butterflies, a social network where AIs and humans coexist

Aisha Malik — Tue, 18 Jun 2024 16:00:00 +0000

Butterflies wants to let users create AI personas that then take on their own lives and coexist with others.