Sarah Perez, Author at TechCrunch

Apple iOS 18.2 public beta arrives with new AI features, but some remain waitlisted

Sarah Perez — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 21:38:43 +0000

Apple has released the AI-powered version of its latest mobile operating system, iOS 18.2, to its public beta users. The update includes new features like an AI emoji generator app called Genmoji, an Image Playground AI image app, ChatGPT integration with Siri, and visual search using the iPhone 16 cameras, among other things. Previously, these […]

The FTC comes after neobank Dave for misleading marketing, hidden fees

Sarah Perez — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 20:06:57 +0000

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) announced on Tuesday that it will be taking action against the online cash app and neobank Dave, which it says used “misleading marketing to deceive consumers.” At issue is how Dave marketed $500 cash advances to consumers that it rarely offered, and the “Express Fee” it charged if customers wanted […]

‘For You’ feeds fail on election night, offering outdated information, angering users

Sarah Perez — Wed, 06 Nov 2024 15:49:06 +0000

“For You” algorithms that promote the most interesting content across a social network, personalized to the individual user, offered a disjointed, outdated, and nearly unusable experience on election night in the U.S. as they highlighted hours-old posts that no longer reflected the current state of the race. Frustrations were particularly high on Threads, Meta’s X […]

Google ‘fixes’ issues with voting search results that weren’t actually broken

Sarah Perez — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 22:00:26 +0000

Google says it has addressed an issue with its search engine that saw it displaying a “where to vote” panel, which includes a map of polling places, for some specific voting-related searches but not for others. The tech giant even used the word “fixed” to respond to the matter, despite the fact that Google Search […]

Substack is giving out free subscriptions to boost app installs

Sarah Perez — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 19:18:03 +0000

Publishing platform Substack is now pushing users to install its mobile app by offering gifted subscriptions. While Substack itself is available across platforms, including the web, those who want to take advantage of the free subscription offer can only do so after downloading the mobile app to their device. The free subscription offer is being […]

Apple’s new widget puts Election Day updates on your Lock Screen and Home Screen

Sarah Perez — Tue, 05 Nov 2024 17:49:59 +0000

It’s Election Day in the U.S., which means you’re likely glued to the latest news about which presidential candidate is currently in the lead. To help with this, Apple has released a Live Activities widget within its Apple News app that will offer real-time election updates directly on your iPhone or iPad’s Home Screen and […]

Bluesky gears up for Election Day as X goes pro-Trump

Sarah Perez — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 19:20:09 +0000

As Election Day in the U.S. nears, social networking startup Bluesky, now flush with new capital, hopes to demonstrate that its platform can serve as a more trusted, fact-checked alternative to Elon Musk’s X. While the latter is dominated by Musk’s support for the Trump campaign, Bluesky tends to lean left, thanks to its influx […]

The brightest bling of TechCrunch Disrupt 2024

Amanda Silberling, Sarah Perez — Mon, 04 Nov 2024 17:53:48 +0000

At TechCrunch Disrupt, our team sits front and center, furiously typing away at our laptops to publish real-time news from impressive speakers like NFL quarterback-turned-founder Colin Kaepernick, Perplexity AI founder Aravind Srinivas, and Ashton Kutcher. We are a well-oiled machine. Some writers have been covering Disrupt since the old days, before Meta was Meta and […]

Cross-posting social app Openvibe now supports Threads, too

Sarah Perez — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 15:53:01 +0000

The decline of X (formerly Twitter) under Elon Musk has boosted engagement with alternative social networks like Bluesky, Threads, and Mastodon, but it has also challenged early adopters who now have too many places to post. Naturally, some entrepreneurs are working to solve this problem with apps that let you cross-post to multiple platforms at […]

Instagram upgrades DMs with focus on creators

Sarah Perez — Fri, 01 Nov 2024 14:23:10 +0000

Instagram on Friday announced an update to DMs, its direct messages inbox, which will improve the experience for those who receive a lot of inbound messages, like creators and influencers. Now, the app is introducing tools that will allow users to sort and filter their “message requests” — meaning those messages that don’t arrive in […]

WordPress co-founder Matt Mullenweg says a fork would be ‘fantastic’

Sarah Perez — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 19:17:22 +0000

WordPress co-founder and Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg, speaking on stage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Wednesday, said he’s not worried that the recent legal drama between his company, Automattic, and WordPress host WP Engine may lead to a fork of the open source WordPress software. In fact, he said, he’d welcome it. “There might be […]

Tony Fadell takes a shot at Sam Altman in TechCrunch Disrupt interview

Sarah Perez — Wed, 30 Oct 2024 00:38:41 +0000

Creator of the iPod, Nest Labs founder, and investor Tony Fadell took a shot at OpenAI CEO Sam Altman on Tuesday during a spirited interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 in San Francisco. Speaking about his understanding of the longer history of AI development before the large language model (LLM) craze and the serious issues with […]

Ashton Kutcher’s Sound Ventures backs Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs in continued AI push

Sarah Perez — Tue, 29 Oct 2024 21:58:53 +0000

Ashton Kutcher’s VC firm, Sound Ventures, co-led by general partners Guy Oseary and Effie Epstein, is betting on AI — including with an investment in Fei-Fei Li’s World Labs, the investors confirmed onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 on Tuesday. The startup, founded by Li, the Stanford professor dubbed the “Godmother of AI,” has already raised […]

Vinod Khosla calls out Trump’s ‘depraved values’ and Musk’s role in spreading misinformation

Sarah Perez — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 21:59:12 +0000

Storied investor Vinod Khosla, founder and partner at Khosla Ventures, and more recently one of the first checks into OpenAI, veered off topic during a Monday interview at TechCrunch Disrupt 2024 focused on the future of AI. After talking about AI’s future and risks, he took a moment to deliver a stringent warning about the […]

Wiz CEO says company was targeted with deepfake attack that used his voice

Sarah Perez — Mon, 28 Oct 2024 18:10:46 +0000

Even cybersecurity companies aren’t safe from deepfake attacks. Speaking onstage at TechCrunch Disrupt in San Francisco, Wiz’s CEO and co-founder Assaf Rappaport, who recently turned down a $23 billion acquisition offer from Google, noted that his employees had been targeted by a deepfake attack just two weeks ago. “Dozens of my employees got a voice […]

The fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor called Loops

Sarah Perez — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 17:44:17 +0000

Similar to how Mastodon offers an open source, distributed version of X, the fediverse is getting its own TikTok competitor. This week, an app called Loops began accepting signups on its new platform for sharing short, looping videos. Still in the early stages, Loops is not yet open sourced, nor has it completed its integration […]

Apple upgrades TestFlight with redesigned invites, testing criteria, and more

Sarah Perez — Fri, 25 Oct 2024 14:43:25 +0000

Alongside the Apple Intelligence-powered iOS 18 updates for consumers and developers, Apple is rolling out a sizable refresh to its app testing platform for developers, TestFlight. Developers will have more control over who can join their beta and how an app’s new features are shared with testers. They’ll also be able to view metrics related […]

Notion’s email product is nearing launch

Sarah Perez, Ivan Mehta — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:11:34 +0000

Notion seems to be close to launching its email product called Notion Mail according to multiple sources. Earlier this year, Notion acquired Skiff, a privacy-focused email service and app. At the time, Skiff said that it would provide a 12-month sunset window to users so that they have enough time to migrate to a different […]

After selling Anchor to Spotify, co-founders reunite to build AI educational startup Oboe

Sarah Perez — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:00:00 +0000

The co-founders who sold their last startup to Spotify are working on a new project: an AI-powered educational startup called Oboe backed by a $4 million seed investment. The new company, hailing from Nir Zicherman and Michael Mignano, aims to democratize access to learning the way that their prior startup, Anchor, made it possible for […]

From Goodreads’ founder, Smashing debuts its AI-powered app for online readers

Sarah Perez — Thu, 24 Oct 2024 14:00:00 +0000

Smashing, a new app curating the best of the web from Goodreads co-founder Otis Chandler, is now available to the public. Like Goodreads, the app aims to create a community around content. But this time, instead of books, the focus is on web content — like news articles, blog posts, social media posts, podcasts, and […]