Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri will testify before the Senate for the first time as part of a series of hearings about online safety for children and teens. Per The New York Times, Mosseri’s hearing will take place on December 6. Mosseri’s upcoming testimony comes after Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote a letter to Facebook […]
Theranos founder Elizabeth Holmes testifies in her own criminal trial
One of the biggest mysteries in former Theranos founder and CEO Elizabeth Holmes’ high-profile fraud trial was whether or not she would testify. So it was a shock late Friday afternoon when the Stanford dropout took the stand, eleven weeks after the trial began. Now that the prosecution has rested its case — questioning witnesses […]
Niantic raises $300M at a $9B valuation to build the ‘real-world metaverse’
Niantic, the augmented reality platform that’s developing games like Pokémon GO, raised $300 million from Coatue, valuing the company at $9 billion. The San Fransisco-based startup, which initially spun out of Google, will use this money to build what it calls the “real-world metaverse.” As early as August, Niantic founder and CEO John Hanke has […]
Twitter acquires Threader, an app that compiles and shares threads
Twitter announced today that it’s acquiring Threader, an app that lets people compile Twitter threads and share their favorites, making it easier to help people find long threads on the platform. When users reply to a thread, tag Threader’s profile and write the word “compile,” the Threader bot creates a link that presents the thread […]
Facebook launches Shops in Groups and Live Shopping for Creators
Facebook announced today that it’s rolling out new shopping features: Shops in Groups, product recommendations and a test of Live Shopping for Creators. Shops in Groups enables admins of Facebook groups to set up an online store on their associated Facebook Page. It’s up to the admins where this money goes — in the case […]
Bellabeat’s Ivy bracelet tries to do it all — but it can only do some
Wellness startup Bellabeat, which has primarily marketed its wearable health trackers to women, recently introduced Ivy, a stylish, comfortable health tracker with a long-lasting battery life, poised as a prettier version of a Fitbit. But the accompanying subscription “Coach” software supporting the new bracelet feels like it’s still in beta, which is concerning for a product […]
Instagram adds TikTok-like Text-to-Speech and Voice Effects tools to Reels
Instagram added two features to Reels yesterday: text-to-speech and voice effects. These features are popular already on TikTok, but now, creators can use them on Instagram too. This marks yet another effort from Instagram to keep up with TikTok when it comes to short-form video, as Instagram offers big reels bonuses to incentivize creators, Text-to-speech […]
Instagram is offering huge bonuses for posting on Reels, its TikTok clone
Instagram really wants you to post Reels — they’ll even pay you up to $10,000 for one, if you’re lucky. As TikTok surpasses the 1 billion monthly active users mark, competitor platforms like YouTube Shorts, Snapchat Spotlight and Instagram Reels are incentivizing users to post their short-form content on their apps instead. YouTube established a […]
Now you can watch Twitch on your Nintendo Switch
Have you ever had the itch to watch Twitch on Nintendo Switch? Available now as a free download on the Nintendo eShop, the Twitch app lets users watch both live and VOD content on the go in handheld mode, or on the big screen when the Switch is docked. Since Twitch is best known for […]
Niantic reveals its vision for a ‘real-world metaverse,’ releases Lightship AR Developer Kit
AR technology company Niantic, best known for Pokémon GO, announced today that it will launch Lightship, an AR Developer Kit (ARDK) that will make building augmented reality experiences more accessible. This free, openly available technology will help Niantic lay the foundation for its vision of the “real-world metaverse.” In the program’s launch livestream, Niantic CEO […]