Podcasts are all the rage, but podcast discovery is a challenge. Today, Spotify announced its acquisition of Podz, a startup that’s trying to solve the problem of podcast discovery. “At Spotify, we are investing to build and scale the world’s best (and most personalized) podcast discovery experience,” the company said. “We believe that Podz’ technology […]
Apple AirTags UX teardown: The trade-off between privacy and user experience
Apple’s AirTags have been out for more than a month. Now that they’ve been out getting lost in the wild, we sent our resident UX analyst to do just that.
With iOS 15, Apple reveals just how far Health has come — and how much further it can go
Apple’s recent Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) keynote was packed with new features for iPhones, Macs and iPads — and like it has done pretty consistently since the debut of its original Health app in 2014, those included updates focused on personal health and wellness. Often, it’s impossible to assess the impact of the work Apple […]
Apple Watch accessory maker Wristcam raises $25M
Last week word got out that Facebook was taking another big step into first-party hardware with the planned launch of its own smartwatch. The most intriguing part of the report was the inclusion of not one but two watches. Other wearable makers have flirted with video and images on wrist-worn devices, but the feature is […]
UK’s CMA opens market study into Apple, Google’s mobile ‘duopoly’
The U.K.’s competition watchdog will take a deep dive look into Apple and Google’s dominance of the mobile ecosystem, it said today — announcing a market study which will examine the pair’s respective smartphone platforms (iOS and Android); their app stores (App Store and Play Store); and web browsers (Safari and Chrome). The Competition and […]
WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires journaling app Day One
Automattic is expanding its lineup of online writing platforms with its acquisition of Day One, a popular journaling app for Mac and Apple mobile devices. The app has been downloaded more than 15 million times since its March 2011 launch on the Mac and iTunes App Store, offering users a private place to share their […]
Everyone you know is a Disney princess, which means AR is queen
This weekend, all of your friends morphed one by one into animated, Pixar-inspired characters. This isn’t a fever dream, and you’re not alone. On Thursday, Snapchat released a Cartoon 3D Style Lens, which uses AR to make you look like a background character from “Frozen.” On Snapchat, over 215 million users have engaged with the […]
Beats Studio Buds offer a compact design, noise-canceling and Android/iOS fast pairing at $150
When they were released in 2019, Powerbeats Pro were standouts. Two-plus years later, they remain one of the more well-rounded wireless earbuds on the market. There are things I would change, of course. Even in 2019, that charging case was ridiculously large. In 2021, the original case is all the more absurd. And, of course, […]
7 new security features Apple quietly announced at WWDC
Apple went big on security and privacy during its Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) keynote this week, showcasing features from on-device Siri audio processing to a new privacy dashboard for iOS that makes it easier than ever to see which apps are collecting your data and when. While typically vocal about security during the Memoji-filled, two-hour-long(!) […]
This Week in Apps: WWDC 21 highlights, Instagram Creator Week recap, Android 12 beta 2 arrives
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app industry continues to grow, with a record 218 billion downloads and $143 billion in global consumer spend in 2020. Consumers last year also spent 3.5 trillion minutes using apps on Android devices […]
Shopify brings on team from augmented reality home design app Primer
In Friday acquisition news, Shopify shared today that they’ve acquired the team from augmented reality startup Primer, which makes an app that lets users visualize what tile, wallpaper or paint will look like on surfaces inside their home. In a blog post, co-founders Adam Debreczeni and Russ Maschmeyer write that Primer’s app and services will […]
Apple announces its 2021 Apple Design Award winners
Apple incorporated the announcement of this year’s Apple Design Award winners into its virtual Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) online event instead of waiting until the event had wrapped, like last year. Ahead of WWDC, Apple previewed the finalists, whose apps and games showcased a combination of technical achievement, design and ingenuity. This evening, Apple announced […]
Apple confirms hiring of Ulrich Kranz, former CEO of EV company Canoo
Apple has hired the former co-founder and CEO of electric vehicle company Canoo to help with the development of the Apple Car, Bloomberg first reported, citing unnamed sources. Apple has confirmed to TechCrunch it has hired Kranz, but did not provide further details into his job responsibilities or title. Kranz resigned his position at Canoo […]
Apple’s latest accessibility features are for those with limb and vocal differences
Apple announced a batch of accessibility features at WWDC 2021 that cover a wide variety of needs, among them a few for people who can’t touch or speak to their devices in the ordinary way. With Assistive Touch, Sound Control, and other improvements, these folks have new options for interacting with an iPhone or Apple […]
Productivity startup Time is Ltd raises $5.6M to be the ‘Google Analytics for company time’
Productivity analytics startup Time is Ltd wants to be the Google Analytics for company time. Or perhaps a sort of “Apple Screen Time” for companies. Whatever the case, the founders reckon that if you can map how time is spent in a company enormous productivity gains can be unlocked and, money better spent. It’s now […]
Dark Sky iOS app and website are likely shutting down at the end of 2022
After Apple acquired Dark Sky in March of 2020, we all knew the super-granular weather app was probably headed for shutdown. But while the company announced that the Android app would go dark in July of the same year, things were left a bit more open-ended for the iOS app. There would be “no changes” […]
Apple’s StoreKit 2 simplifies App Store subscriptions and refunds by making them accessible inside apps
If you’ve ever bought a subscription inside an iOS app and later decided you wanted to cancel, upgrade or downgrade, or ask for a refund, you may have had trouble figuring out how to go about making that request or change. Some people today still believe that they can stop their subscription charges simply by […]
Spotlight gets more powerful in iOS 15, even lets you install apps
With the upcoming release of iOS 15 for Apple mobile devices, Apple’s built-in search feature known as Spotlight will become a lot more functional. In what may be one of its bigger updates since it introduced Siri Suggestions, the new version of Spotlight is becoming an alternative to Google for several key queries, including web […]
ProtonMail gets a slick new look, as privacy tech eyes the mainstream
End-to-end encrypted email service ProtonMail has refreshed its design, updating with a cleaner look and a more customizable user interface — including the ability to pick from a bunch of themes (dark and contrasting versions are both in the mix). Last month the Swiss company officially announced passing 50 million users globally, as it turned […]
Ring refuses to say how many users had video footage obtained by police
Ring gets a lot of criticism, not just for its massive surveillance network of home video doorbells and its problematic privacy and security practices, but also for giving that doorbell footage to law enforcement. While Ring is making moves toward transparency, the company refuses to disclose how many users had their data given to police. […]
Apple’s new ShazamKit brings audio recognition to apps, including those on Android
Apple in 2018 closed its $400 million acquisition of music recognition app Shazam. Now, it’s bringing Shazam’s audio recognition capabilities to app developers in the form of the new ShazamKit. The new framework will allow app developers — including those on both Apple platforms and Android — to build apps that can identify music from Shazam’s […]
US PC shipments soar 73% in the first quarter as Apple falls from top spot
With increased demand from the pandemic, Canalys reports that U.S. PC shipments were up 73% over the same period last year. That added up to a total of 34 million units sold. While Apple had a good quarter with sales up 36%, it was surpassed by HP, which sold 11 million units in total with […]
Apple’s RealityKit 2 allows developers to create 3D models for AR using iPhone photos
At its Worldwide Developer Conference, Apple announced a significant update to RealityKit, its suite of technologies that allow developers to get started building AR (augmented reality) experiences. With the launch of RealityKit 2, Apple says developers will have more visual, audio, and animation control when working on their AR experiences. But the most notable part […]
Apple Music launches Spatial Audio and Lossless Audio, adds Spatial Audio playlists
Last month, Apple announced it would soon add lossless audio streaming and Spatial Audio with support for Dolby Atmos to its Apple Music subscription at no extra charge. That upgrade has now gone live, Apple announced this morning — though many noticed the additions actually rolled out yesterday, following the WWDC keynote. The entire Apple […]
Apple’s new encrypted browsing feature won’t be available in China, Saudi Arabia and more: report
Apple announced a handful of privacy-focused updates at its annual software developer conference on Monday. One called Private Relay particularly piques the interest of Chinese users living under the country’s censorship system, for it encrypts all browsing history so nobody can track or intercept the data. As my colleague Roman Dillet explains: When Private Relay […]
Apple finally launches a Screen Time API for app developers
Just after the release of iOS 12 in 2018, Apple introduced its own built-in screen time tracking tools and controls. It then began cracking down on third-party apps that had implemented their own screen time systems, saying they had done so through technologies that risked user privacy. What wasn’t available at the time? A Screen […]
Here’s everything Apple announced at the WWDC 2021 keynote
It’s that time again! This morning Apple kicked off its annual Worldwide Developer Conference the same way it does each year: a keynote jammed to the brim with all the new stuff coming to its various devices. Didn’t have time to tune in to the liveblog or watch the stream? We get it. That’s why […]
Apple’s new App Store Guidelines aim to crack down on fraud and scams
Apple today is releasing a new version of its App Store Review Guidelines, its lengthy document which dictates the rules which apps must abide by in order to be published to its App Store. Among the more notable changes rolling out today are several sections that will see Apple taking a harder stance on App […]
Apple releases torrent of updates, and Wall Street yawns
Today’s WWDC keynote from Apple covered a huge range of updates. From a new macOS to a refreshed watchOS to a new iOS, better privacy controls, FaceTime updates, and even iCloud+, there was something for everyone in the laundry list of new code. Apple’s keynote was essentially what happens when the big tech companies get […]
Apple to introduce A/B testing and in-app events to the App Store
Apple today announced a number of coming changes and improvements to the App Store that will help developers better target their apps to users, get their apps discovered by more people, and even highlight what sort of events are taking place inside their apps to entice new users to download the app and encourage existing […]