apps News of 07/18/19

Facebook’S Regulation Dodge: Let Us, Or China Will

Facebook’s regulation dodge: Let us, or China will image Facebook is leaning on fears of China exporting its authoritarian social values to counter arguments that it should be broken up or slowed down. Its top executives have each claimed that if the U.S. limits its size, blocks its acquisitions, or bans ...

FaceApp Responds To Privacy Concerns 

FaceApp, the AI-powered selfie-editing app that’s been having another viral moment of late, has now responded to a privacy controversy that we covered earlier here . We’ve pasted the company’s full statement at the bottom of ...

ClassPass Introduces A Corporate Wellness Program

ClassPass has set up yet another revenue stream, signing on partners like Facebook, Glossier, Google, Morgan Stanley, Under Armour, Etsy, Southwest Airlines and Gatorade to a corporate wellness program. The program will give employees at these ...

Social Chat App Capture Launches To Take A Shot At Less Viral Success

Social chat app Capture launches to take a shot at less viral success image At first glance launching a new social app may seem as sensible a startup idea as plunging headfirst into shark-infested waters. But with even infamous curtain-ripper Facebook now making grand claims about a ‘pivot to privacy’ it’s ...

Quirk Wants To Make Cognitive Behavioral Therapy More Accessible

Quirk , a YC-backed company, is looking to bring cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) to more people suffering from anxiety or depression. CBT aims to lessen or stop harmful behavior by changing the way people think, stopping them from falling ...

Mercari’S New Instant Pay Feature Transfers Verified Sellers’ Balances To Their Debit Cards Within Minutes

For online sellers, waiting three to five days for e-commerce platforms to transfer their balance is one of their biggest pain points. Mercari is going after rivals with its new Instant Pay feature, which deposits money in a few minutes. Once ...

Highlights From Facebook’S Libra Senate Hearing

Facebook will only build its own Calibra cryptocurrency wallet into Messenger and Whatsapp, and will refuse to embed competing wallets, the head of Calibra David Marcus told the Senate Banking Committee today . Calibra will be interoperable so ...

Amazon Adds Hindi To The Alexa Skills Kit

Users of Amazon’s voice assistant will soon be able to talk to Alexa in Hindi. Amazon announced today that it has added a Hindi voice model to its Alexa Skills Kit for developers. Alexa developers can also update their existing published ...

Facebook Snags Former Vine GM To Run Product For Its New Experimental App Division, NPE Team

Is Facebook preparing to launch a serious competitor to TikTok? If so, the company just picked up some key talent to make that happen. Last week, Facebook announced plans for a new division, called the NPE Team , which will build experimental ...

Waze Now Shows Road Toll Prices Along Your Driving Route

Navigation app Waze is making getting to where you’re going even easier – or at least more transparent. A new feature rolling out today will show you any tolls along your route, including the actual amount you’re going to pay, across ...

Digging Into The Roblox Growth Strategy

Digging into the Roblox growth strategy image Could Roblox create a new entertainment and communication category, something it calls “social co-experience”? When it was a small startup, few observers would have believed in that future. But after 15 years — as told in the origin story of ...

Facebook Answers How Libra Taxes And Anti-Fraud Will Work

Facebook answers how Libra taxes and anti-fraud will work image Facebook provided TechCrunch with new information on how its cryptocurrency will stay legal amidst allegations from President Trump that Libra could facilitate “unlawful behavior”. Facebook and Libra Association executives tell me they ...

Twitter Returns After An Hour-Long Outage

After an hour of sweet freedom, the world has been returned to the grasp of Twitter. At about 2:50 pm ET, the desktop and mobile site were down, displaying a “Something is technically wrong” error. The app was also not working. The site ...

New Google Area 120 Project Shoelace Aims To Connect People Around Shared Interests

New Google Area 120 project Shoelace aims to connect people around shared interests image A new project from Google’s in-house incubator, Area 120 , aims to help people find things to do and others who share your same interests. Through a new app called Shoelace — a name designed to make you think of tying things together ...

How Roblox Avoided The Gaming Graveyard And Grew Into A $2.5b Company

How Roblox avoided the gaming graveyard and grew into a $2.5B company image There are successful companies that grow fast and garner tons of press. Then there’s Roblox, a company which took at least a decade to hit its stride and has, relative to its current level of success, barely gotten any recognition or attention. ...

SEC Approves 1st Consumer RegA+ Token Props For Cross-App Rewards

SEC approves 1st consumer RegA+ token Props for cross-app rewards image After cracking down on ICOs, the SEC just okayed the first two RegA+ tokens that offer an alternative way for anyone to gain a financial stake in a company, even unaccredited investors. Blockstack got approved for a $28 million digital token sale to ...

‘World’S First Bluetooth Hair Straighteners’ Can Be Easily Hacked

Here’s a thing that should have never been a thing: Bluetooth-connected hair straighteners. Glamoriser, a U.K. firm that bills itself as the maker of the “ world’s first Bluetooth hair straighteners “, allows users to link ...

Swit, A Collaboration Suite That Offers “Freedom From Integrations,” Raises $6 Million In Seed Funding

A marketplace dominated by Slack and Microsoft Teams, along with a host of other smaller workplace communication apps, might seem to leave little room for a new entrant, but Swit wants to prove that wrong. The app combines messaging with a roster of ...

Google Maps Now Shows Users Discounts From Nearby Restaurants In India

Google Maps now shows users discounts from nearby restaurants in India image Google said today that it has started to display discounts from restaurants in its Maps app in India as the Mountain View giant works to expand its ever growing reach and relevance in one of its key overseas markets. The company today rolled out ...

India’S Rivigo Raises $65m To Expand Its Freight And Logistics Platform

Rivigo , a tech startup in India that wants to build a more reliable and safer logistics network , has raised $65 million as major investors continue to place big bet on opportunities in overhauling trucking system in the country. The Series E ...