Sarah Perez
Consumer News Editor
The Latest from Sarah Perez
Amazon Music follows Spotify with an AI playlist generator of its own, Maestro
Amazon Music is now testing Maestro, an AI playlist generator, that lets U.S. customers on iOS and Android create playlists using spoken or written prompts.
Open source Substack rival Ghost may join the fediverse
While the launch of a survey isn't necessarily a commitment to federating Ghost, it is another signal pointing to the broader reshaping of the web that's now underway.
Apple pulls a Game Boy emulator for App Store violations, but says game emulators are allowed
iGBA was an ad-supported copy of the open-source project GBA4iOS that offered a Game Boy game emulator for iOS.
Quibi redux? Short drama apps saw record revenue in Q1 2024
This represents an over 8,000% increase from $1.8 million in the first quarter of 2023, when just 21 apps were available.
Lyrak to take on X by combining the best of Twitter with fediverse integration
Lyrak is a new X rival that aims to differentiate itself by focusing on real-time news and monetization options for creators.
Flipboard deepens its ties to the open source social web (aka the fediverse)
Flipboard users can now see their new followers and other activity around the content they share in the fediverse directly in the Flipboard app.
YouTube is switching to read-only comments for kids in supervised experiences
YouTube’s comments section, historically, has had a bad reputation, but a change rolling out could prevent kids from wading into the comments cesspool. In an email to parents who supervise a chi
Google brings AI-powered editing tools, like Magic Editor, to all Google Photos users for free
Google Photos is getting an AI upgrade. On Wednesday, the tech giant announced that a handful of enhanced editing features previously limited to Pixel devices and paid subscribers — including it
Poe introduces a price-per-message revenue model for AI bot creators
Bot creators now have a new way to make money with Poe, the Quora-owned AI chatbot platform. On Monday, the company introduced a revenue model that allows creators to set a per-message price for their
eBay adds an AI-powered ‘shop the look’ feature to its iOS app
eBay on Tuesday launched a new generative AI-powered feature to appeal to fashion enthusiasts: a “shop the look” section within its iOS mobile app that will suggest a carousel of images an
WordPress.com owner Automattic acquires multiservice messaging app Beeper for $125M
The deal, which was for $125 million according to sources close to the matter, is Automattic's second acquisition of a cross-platform messaging solution.
X adds support for passkeys globally on iOS
X, formerly Twitter, is rolling out support for passkeys, a new and more secure login method compared with traditional passwords, to all iOS users globally. The option debuted in January, but only for
Meta’s X competitor Threads invites developers to sign up for API access, publishes docs
After opening its developer API to select companies for testing in March, Meta’s Twitter/X competitor Threads is now introducing developer documentation and a sign-up sheet for interested partie
Now at the top of the App Store, the Eclipse App is a great companion for Monday’s solar eclipse
The app includes cloud cover forecasts, guides that pinpoint when totality will occur at your exact location, and information about local events, parks and viewing sites in your area.
Spotify launches personalized AI playlists that you can build using prompts
AI playlists will initially become available to users on Android and iOS devices in the U.K. and Australia and will be iterated on in the months ahead.
Snapchat turns off controversial ‘Solar System’ feature by default after bad press
Less than a week after The Wall St. Journal reported on how a Snapchat feature dubbed “solar system” was adding to teens’ anxiety, the company has responded by adjusting how the feat
Meta explains why the NYC/NJ earthquake didn’t trend earlier in the day
Despite its similarities, Instagram Threads is no X. That's not to say people weren't discussing the earthquake on Threads — many were.
X warns that you might lose followers as it does another bot sweep
X is warning users they may see a reduction in their follower counts as the company attempts to clear the network of some spammers and bots in a large sweep. Via an announcement published by X’s
Hoping to stall a ban, TikTok says it generated $14.7B for US small businesses last year
In addition, it says that over 7 million U.S. businesses rely on TikTok and that 224,000 jobs were supported by small business activity on the platform in 2023.
WhatsApp was down in Meta’s second big outage this year
For the second time in just over a month, Meta’s apps, including WhatsApp, and to some extent, Messenger and Instagram, faced outages and intermittent issues. While it’s rare for services