Everything Apple

Tuesday, 29 March 2016

Hopper raises $16 million for a travel app that tells you the best time to fly

hopper-2016 Hopper, the makers of a handy travel application that tells you the best time to fly in order to find the best deals, has now raised additional capital to continue to grow its business. It has also scored a partnership with American Airlines which allows it to sell AA’s tickets through its app. In terms of the new investment, the company announced $16 million in a growth funding… Read More

AnkerBox launches charging-as-a-service

AnkerBox_Cafe Screen sizes on smartphones are getting bigger and bigger, but battery tech is lagging behind. As a heavy user of your smartphone, you’ll know that dreaded feeling of your battery marching towards extinction. The most common solution to the problem is to carry a charger or an USB battery pack, but both have downsides — AnkerBox is here to try make life a little bit easier when… Read More

$100M Bitstrips acquisition makes sense now that Snapchat has stickers

04a---How-to-Send-a-Sticker It didn’t quite add up when Fortune broke the news last week that Snapchat would spend a $100 million to acquire Bitstrips, the maker of personalized avatar stickers called Bitmoji. Snapchat didn’t have anywhere to put them. But today, Snapchat launched “Chat 2.0”, a huge product update that includes the ability to send over 200 stickers to friends. Now it’s… Read More

Tinder acquihires Humin to go beyond dating, and get an SF office too

tindermatch Dating app Tinder is acquiring Humin the San Francisco startup which took a high-wire approach to contact management, trying to merge lots of disparate information into one contact app. Terms were undisclosed by TechCrunch understands from multiple sources that this roughly equates to an acqui-hire scenario. Tinder says it is acquiring Humin’s technology and IP, while the founders and… Read More

Snapchat seamlessly combines video, audio, GIFs, stickers in “Chat 2.0”

Snapchat Chat 2.0 Say what you want, how you want. That’s how Snapchat’s reps say CEO Evan Spiegel describes Chat 2.0, a massive set of new features launching today. It lets private conversations morph between mediums depending on what users want to show or tell, and whether they can speak up or must stay silent. As WhatsApp focuses on simplicity and Facebook Messenger chases commerce, Snapchat… Read More

Nintendo’s first smartphone app, Miitomo, arrives in the U.S. and other markets this Thursday

miitomo Nintendo’s first smartphone application, “Miitomo,” now has a U.S. launch date: March 31st. In addition, the company says it will also be available in several other countries at the same time. While the company didn’t detail which countries will also receive the app, it will likely include several European markets, and others available on the list posted here to the… Read More

Monday, 28 March 2016

Pay celebs to text or video message you with TipTalk

BYRON BAY, AUSTRALIA - MARCH 27: Fans react to The Wailers performing live on stage at the 2016 Byron Bay Bluesfest on March 27, 2016 in Byron Bay, Australia. (Photo by Mark Metcalfe/Getty Images) It wasn’t worth it for celebrities to respond to their endless digital fan mail until now. TipTalk lets them set a price for a private text, photo, or video response. The idea is that in their downtime, they could forge deeper relationships with their audience while earning enough to warrant at least a few seconds of their attention. Considering how the public comment reels light up… Read More

Instagrammers really want you to turn on notifications to avoid death by algorithm

Fire Instagram today is an endless sea of meaningless posts asking you to turn on post notifications for each account you follow. Brands and professional Instagrammers are worried that they are going to disappear from your Instagram feed once the company turns on its algorithmic feed. We’ve been there before. When Vine or YouTube switched to an algorithmic feed, brands, YouTubers and Viners… Read More

Friday, 25 March 2016

DARPA kicks off $2m Grand Challenge focused on intelligently splitting up radio spectrum

january_2016_spectrum_wall_chart DARPA has a new Grand Challenge underway, but it’s not an automation moonshot like the self-driving car challenges of the early 2000s or the recent Robotics Challenge. The Defense Department’s R&D wing wants to revolutionize something with a bit less sex appeal, but plenty of real-world applications: radio frequency spectrum splitting. Read More

Live is having a moment

Screenshot 2016-03-23 14.54.13 Twitter, which turned 10 this week, has apparently made Live its entire organizing principle. At an all-hands meeting last month, Mark Zuckerberg declared live video a top priority for Facebook. Clearly, Zuck’s directing his fight toward Twitter’s Periscope, a mobile live streaming app which itself competed fiercely with Meerkat. Read More

Thursday, 24 March 2016

Apple offers a workaround and patch for older iOS devices stuck halfway through the iOS 9.3 update

iOS 9.3 image It seems that some iOS users on older devices are running into a snag during the 9.3 update. If you have an iPhone 5S, iPad Air or earlier model, you might want to wait a few days for the update to the update. Read More

Apple’s iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro are now available for pre-order

iPhone SE - iPhone 6s Plus - 13 Apple’s unveiled its new four-inch iPhone SE and 9.7-inch iPad Pro earlier this week, and now the two devices are up for pre-order in the first wave of countries. Read More