Author: TechBrunch

YouTube celebrity MrBeast (real name Jimmy Donaldson) is in talks to join multiple bids for TikTok's U.S. operations. But he hasn't picked just one yet. First, on Monday, Employer.com CEO Jesse Tinsley said MrBeast is part of an all-cash bid for TikTok that he is leading. This was reiterated in a press release issued by the law firm representing Tinsley's group. But Matthew Hiltzik, a spokesman for Mr.Beast, told The Associated Press on Wednesday that Donaldson is in “ongoing discussions” with multiple bidders, but has not signed an “exclusive” contract with any of them. He said it was not tied.…

In a well-timed announcement that was perhaps intended to draw attention away from OpenAI's Operators, Anthropic Tuesday announced a new feature for its developer API called Citations. This allows developers to “root” answers from the Claude family of AI into source documents such as emails. According to Anthropic, Citations allows AI models to provide detailed references to the “exact sentences and passages” of documents used to generate responses. As of Thursday afternoon, Citations is available in both Anthropic's API and Google's Vertex AI platform. As Anthropic explains in a blog post about citations, developers can add source files so that…

While Meta lures TikTok creators to Instagram and Facebook with cash bonuses, its X competitor, Instagram Threads, is currently catering to creators, brands, and others who need more specialized tools to manage their presence on the app. Making other people's work easier. On Thursday, Instagram head Adam Mosseri announced a handful of new features coming to Threads, including ways to schedule posts and see more metrics within Insights. In a post on the social network, Mosseri shared that users can now schedule posts in threads and view metrics for individual posts within the Insights dashboard. This provides Threads users with…

Autograph, the NFT company co-founded by Tom Brady, is merging with digital fitness company Future. As part of the merger, Mr. Brady will join Future's board of directors and serve as co-chairman. Brady co-founded Autograph in 2021 to find a way to connect athletes and artists with their fans, and eventually launched an NFT marketplace, raising more than $200 million worth a total of $3.1 billion, according to Pitchbook. It is said that they have procured the following. Late last year, the company removed the NFT component and relaunched itself as a platform that tracks and rewards fan engagement. The…

Security researchers have discovered a hidden, undisclosed feature in the Waymo app that allows you to display any text of your choice on the robotaxi's top display. Jane Manchun Wong, a prominent security researcher, posted an image to X on Saturday that included her X handle and other text on the top display of a Waymo car (officially known as a “dome”). did. “We hacked Waymo to display weird text like empty strings, ‘Won Jane’, and emojis as car IDs. Please don’t ban me or patch me, @waymo ( lol),” she wrote. Wong, who lives in San Francisco, told TechCrunch…

Epic Games is adding third-party games to the mobile app store and helping developers cover the associated iOS fees. The company is launching a free games program and will cover the cost of all titles from developers who participate in the program on iOS or iPadOS devices. With this program, Epic brings new free games to the store every month. The game will be available worldwide on Android and on iOS in the European Union. The company's mobile store launched in August and featured first-party titles such as Fortnite and Rocket League. With this expansion, Epic Games adds the first…

After releasing two developer beta versions last year, Google introduced the first public beta of Android 16 on Thursday. New features include live updates on the lock screen (such as live activity on iOS), an advanced professional video (APV) codec for high-quality video recording, and the ability for developers to adapt apps to different screen sizes and aspect ratios. Contains a framework for doing so. For consumers, support for live updates will be the most visible change. Apple introduced Live Activity in iOS 16 in 2022 to show ever-changing updates on delivery status, workouts, sports scores, and more. Android now…

Despite a decline in active users, social network X has grown in-app revenue over the past year, according to new data. Global consumer spending on X mobile apps on both iOS and Android increased 76.3% year over year when comparing two similar periods in January, according to data from app intelligence firm Appfigures. But other data shows that X's daily active users are declining as usage of rivals like Bluesky and Threads increases. According to an analysis conducted by Appfigures, global consumer spending on iOS and Android at Company X reached $7.6 million from January 1 to 20, 2024. During…

Kirva Perumalsamy co-founded Rollfi in 2021, during the heyday of cryptocurrencies, to help businesses process their crypto payroll. When cryptocurrencies crashed, Rollfi pivoted to being an embedded payroll company, partnering with financial services companies to provide payroll and benefits services to their customers. The pivot was successful enough to acquire Rollfi for an undisclosed amount. Priority Tech Ventures is a division of Priority Technology Holdings, a publicly traded payments and banking technology provider. Rollfi had raised $3.25 million before exiting. Speaking to TechCrunch, Perumalsamy said the company was in the midst of raising capital when the opportunity to sell arose.…

Perplexity, an AI-powered search engine, has launched a type of “agent” called Perplexity Assistant. Perplexity says the assistant uses reasoning, search, and apps to help with daily tasks. Perplexity Assistant will be available in the Perplexity app on Android devices starting Thursday, and the company says it can perform “multi-app actions” such as hailing a ride or searching for a song. Perplexity's search engine is functional, allowing Perplexity Assistant to access the web. Perplexity says this allows the assistant to do things like find the right date and time or create a calendar entry to remind you of an event.…