Toyota has been a holdout from CarPlay, Apple’s in-dash infotainment system that works with your iPhone. The automaker and its luxury brand Lexus have yet to offer it in any models, despite most other car companies giving in on at least a few vehicles (which tends to later to broader ...
Read More »Senator John Thune has some questions for Apple
A top U.S. lawmaker, Republican Sen. John Thune, has penned a letter to Apple with further questions about slowing older models of the iPhone via Apple’s mobile operating system, iOS. Senator Thune, Chair of the Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, asked how Apple came to the conclusion to replace batteries ...
Read More »YouTube’s in-app messaging and Community tab may make their way to YouTube TV, YouTube Music
YouTube may bring its set of social features, including the in-app messaging system and “Community” tab for creators, to its wider suite of apps. Specifically, the company is interested in porting those features to its YouTube TV app aimed at cord cutters, as well as its Music app. The company won’t ...
Read More »Facebook feed change sacrifices time spent and news outlets for ‘well-being’
Facebook is making a huge change to its News Feed algorithm to prioritize friends and posts that spark comments between them at the expense of public content, news outlets and, importantly, the total time spent and ads you see on the social network. CEO Mark Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook today, ...
Read More »Snapchat’s big redesign bashed in 83% of user reviews
Confusingly jamming Stories in between private messages has sparked backlash amongst the first users of Snapchat’s sweeping redesign. In the few countries including the U.K., Australia, and Canada where the redesign is widely available, 83 percent of App Store reviews (1,941) for the update are negative with one or two ...
Read More »Dell’s new app brings mobile notifications to the desktop
I’ll be honest, Dell wasn’t at the top of our list of must-visit companies at this year’s CES, but the PC stalwart is actually showcasing a couple of interesting new products at the show. On the software front, mobile connect is a free offering that will be bundled with all ...
Read More »What is Snapchat, now Story sharing has stopped growing?
In a betrayal of loyalty signaling poor morale, a massive dump of Snapchat’s usage stats has leaked. The most worrisome is that the number of users posting Stories has shown zero growth, an even worse performance than Snapchat’s total user growth that was sluggish this year. It appears Instagram’s Stories ...
Read More »Google brings its different payment platforms together under the Google Pay brand
Google is simplifying the way it presents its different payments tools to consumers, uniting them under a new brand called Google Pay. In a Google blog post, Vice President of Product Management for Payments Pali Bhat described this as more of a rebranding than a change to the underlying products ...
Read More »App revenue climbed 35 percent to $60 billion in 2017
Global app revenue climbed 35 percent in 2017 to reach nearly $60 billion, according to a new report today from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, which measured paid apps, subscriptions, and in-app purchases across both Apple’s App Store and Google Play. However, Apple is the one pulling in the most ...
Read More »The light and dark of AI-powered smartphones
Analyst Gartner put out a 10-strong listicle this week identifying what it dubbed “high-impact” uses for AI-powered features on smartphones that it suggests will enable device vendors to provide “more value” to customers via the medium of “more advanced” user experiences. It’s also predicting that, by 2022, a full 80 ...
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