Author: TechBrunch
Spotify and Epic Games are among Apple critics unhappy with the iPhone maker's revised plan to newly comply with the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA). Shortly after Apple announced the revised plan on Tuesday, which includes looser restrictions and two additional fees, Spotify released a statement to TechCrunch calling the plan “unacceptable” and claiming that Apple is again ignoring the “fundamental requirements” of the DMA. Meanwhile, Epic Games CEO Tim Sweeney called the revisions another case of “bad compliance” with “junk fees.” In the European Union, where new DMA laws have opened up app store competition, Apple continues its…
Thursday is looking to revolutionize traditional online dating in a competitive market. The app, which recently launched in San Francisco, encourages intentional dating by limiting users' access to Thursdays only. At midnight, all matches disappear. The idea is that by limiting usage to just one day a week, potential matches will be encouraged to set up actual dates sooner. Many singles, especially younger users, are abandoning traditional dating apps due to “swipe fatigue,” the exhaustion felt from swiping through countless profiles. This fatigue, combined with other negative experiences like burnout after talking to too many people and getting caught up…
AI companies are gobbling down investor capital and reaching sky-high valuations early in their lifecycles, leading many to say the industry is a bubble. Nick Frosst, co-founder of Cohere, which builds custom AI models for enterprise customers, recently said on TechCrunch's Found podcast that he doesn't think the AI industry is in a bubble. He acknowledges that the industry is in a bubble, but he believes calling it one discredits companies like Cohere that are building features that are truly useful to customers. “We frequently see people using our model, enabling entirely new capabilities that weren't possible before, or automating…
Instagram is rolling out a feature that lets users add up to 20 photos and videos to their feed carousel as the platform embraces the “photo dump” trend. In 2017, Instagram added the ability to post up to 10 photos and videos in a single swipeable carousel post, allowing you to post twice the amount of content. When Instagram first became popular, the app was focused on getting that one perfect photo to share with your followers. As the years went on, the idea of a “photo dump” gained popularity, where users would post a collection of photos and videos…
Boston-based Flint Capital has closed its third fund with $160 million, four times the size of its first fund in 2013. The capital will be split evenly between early and later stage investments, and the firm will focus more on IT, cybersecurity, fintech and digital health startups. The firm's success is largely due to its unique strategy of who it attracts as limited partner investors. The firm is over 10 years old and was founded by partner Dmitry Smirnov, former CEO of Russia-based investment firm FINAM Global, who quickly made an unconventional decision: rather than pursuing traditional LPs like pension…
Elon Musk has agreed to stop using Europeans' X posts as AI training material for his Grok chatbot for now. The Irish Data Protection Commission (DPC), which leads X's privacy oversight under the European Union's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), announced the development in a press release on Thursday, saying it welcomed the social media company's decision to “suspend the processing of personal data for the purposes of training its AI tool, Grok.” It was revealed earlier this week that the DPC had filed suit seeking an injunction against Company X for processing data without consent, and Irish national broadcaster…
Days after Elon Musk's X announced it would sue an advertising industry group over an alleged boycott of its service, the company is removing ads entirely from its top subscription tier. On Wednesday evening, X-account announced that its Premium+ subscription would be “completely” ad-free, raising questions about how the change will affect creators' earnings as part of X's ad revenue-sharing program. Last year, the company, formerly known as Twitter, opened up its advertising revenue-sharing program to creators around the world, allowing them to monetize their accounts through ads that appear in replies to their posts. This has encouraged creators to…
Apple has further revised its compliance plans for the European Union's Digital Markets Act (DMA) rulebook, which since March has required it to give iOS developers more freedom over how they distribute and promote content on the mobile platform. The iPhone maker is already under investigation by the European Commission for allegedly violating the DMA, a market competition regulation that can impose fines of up to 10% of annual worldwide turnover in case of non-compliance (20% in case of repeat violations). In June, the EU confirmed it would be directly investigating Apple's new DMA Business Terms fee structure following complaints…
The rise of neobanks has been fascinating to watch in recent years, with many of them having grown from simply challenging traditional banks to becoming huge players in their own right. Chime and Dave are just a few of these neobanks. At TechCrunch Disrupt 2024, Chime Product Officer Madhu Muthukumar and Dave CEO Jason Wilk talk about how their companies overcame challenging macroeconomic conditions to achieve impressive growth in both customers and revenue. Chime has grown to 7 million active users and is preparing for an IPO, while Dave has 10 million members and is profitable, reporting record revenue of…
Five years ago, numerous apps began implementing dark mode, including YouTube, Twitter, Facebook, Hulu, and WhatsApp. Apple and Google began offering system-wide dark themes for their mobile operating systems in 2018. Wikipedia finally caught up and began implementing dark mode on its website in 2024. If you visited the Wikipedia website on mobile in July, you might have seen a pop-up informing you that dark mode was primetime. Here's how to enable dark mode on mobile: Visit the Wikipedia site. Tap on the hamburger menu at the top. Tap on Settings. In the Color section, select “Dark” as an option.…