| | | | | | | |

This Week in Apps: Apple’s iPhone app of the year finalists, plus 7 hidden gems

Is the App Store still a source for new technology innovations or has AI development become the hotter new tech to build for these days? We pondered this question this week when Apple unveiled its iPhone App of the Year finalists, which surprisingly included a trio of longtime favorites — hiking app AllTrails, language learning…

| | | | | | |

Rising interest rates are helping more than just fintech-focused companies

It’s notable that interest rates have risen so much that revenue from cash holdings have grown large enough that their positive earnings impact is broadening. © 2023 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only. Visit Site Source: TechCrunch Author: Alex Wilhelm

| | | | | | | |

Rooms, an interactive 3D space designer and ‘cozy game,’ arrives on the App Store

Cozy game, interior decorating app, learn-to-code primer, or something in between, the interactive, 3D spaces builder known as Rooms has made its way to the App Store. The startup, which earlier raised $10 million in seed funding led by a16z, offers a way to design 3D spaces — its “rooms” — that are filled with…

| | | | |

Wattpad Premium subscribers now have access to 5 free monthly Wattpad Originals

Wattpad announced today “Premium Picks,” a new offering that gives Premium and Premium+ subscribers monthly access to five free Wattpad Originals—the recently launched freemium model where select authors can choose to monetize chapters. Instead of paying to unlock content, members are now given five Wattpad Originals each month at no additional cost. The selection is…

| | | | | | | |

Change in X’s terms indicate EU researchers will get API access

After taking over Twitter last year, Elon Musk famously yanked API access from third-party apps and changed API pricing tiers to make it difficult for researchers to access and study the platform’s data. Now the company he’s since renamed X has backtracked in the European Union where legal obligations in the bloc’s Digital Services Act…

| | |

Signal details costs of keeping its private messaging service alive

What price privacy? End-to-end encrypted (E2EE) messaging app Signal has put out an interesting overview of the costs required to develop and maintain its pro-privacy systems which shield user data from tracking by default. The blog post, penned by Signal president Meredith Whittaker and developer Joshua Lund, reveals it’s currently spends around $14 million per…

| | | | |

Instafest now lets you create a music festival poster through a playlist link

Instafest, the app which went viral last year before Spotify Wrapped was officially unveiled, now lets you create a music festival poster based on artists that you have in a particular playlist. The app’s developer,  Anshay Saboo, has added more themes and customization options as well. Users can create a music festival poster through a…

| | | |

X rival Bluesky hits 2M users, says federation coming ‘early next year’

Bluesky, the company building a decentralized alternative to Twitter/X, announced today it has hit 2 million users — up by another million since September, despite remaining an invite-only app. It also revealed its timeframe regarding other key goals, indicating that it planned to have a public web interface go live by the end of the…

| | |

YouTube now allows monetization on videos with breastfeeding nudity and ‘non-sexually graphic dancing’

YouTube is updating its guidelines to allow new types of content to monetize adult content, including videos that display nudity while breastfeeding and non-sexually graphic dancing. With this new update, creators can now earn more ad revenue on breastfeeding content where a child is present in the video, even if the areola is visible. In…

| | | | | | | | |

Meta brings us a step closer to AI-generated movies

Like “Avengers” director Joe Russo, I’m becoming increasingly convinced that fully AI-generated movies and TV shows will be possible within our lifetimes. A host of AI unveilings over the past few months, in particular OpenAI’s ultra-realistic-sounding text-to-speech engine, have given glimpses into this brave new frontier. But Meta’s announcement today put our AI-generated content future…