Sarah Perez
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The Latest from Sarah Perez
Apple brings contactless student IDs to a dozen more universities
Ahead of the upcoming school year, Apple this morning announced it’s bringing contactless student IDs in Apple Wallet to several more U.S. universities. The expansion will allow more than 100,00
Walmart tops US online grocery market, with 62% more customers than next nearest rival
Walmart is dominating the U.S. online grocery market, according to new research out this week from the analysts at Second Measure. The nationwide retailer today offers grocery pickup and delivery in n
Roku expands its free, live TV selection with 5 more channels, including fubo’s Sports Network
The Roku Channel continues to expand beyond ad-supported movies and premium subscriptions with today’s announcement of the addition of several more live TV channels available to anyone with a Ro
Venmo launches instant transfers to bank accounts
PayPal -owned payments app Venmo today announced support for instant transfers to U.S. bank accounts. The feature is an optional alternative to Venmo’s standard bank transfer service, which typi
Roblox announces new game-creation tools and marketplace, $100M in 2019 developer revenue
A week after gaming platform Roblox announced its new milestone of 100 million monthly users — topping Minecraft — the company said at its fifth annual developer conference that its develo
Nike launches a subscription service for kids’ shoes, Nike Adventure Club
Just in time for back-to-school shopping, Nike today officially announced its entry into the subscription service market with the launch of a “sneaker club” for kids called Nike Adventure
Twitter’s latest test lets users subscribe to a tweet’s replies
Twitter in more recent months has been focused on making conversations on its platform easier to follow, participate in and, in some cases, block. The company’s latest test, announced via a twee
TikTok tests an Instagram-style grid and other changes
Short-form video app TikTok, the fourth most downloaded app in the world as of last quarter, is working on several new seemingly Instagram-inspired features — including a Discover page, a grid-s
Lyft expands its PIN feature for airport pickups to LaGuardia
Lyft has announced an expansion of its new program designed to make airport pickups less confusing for riders and drivers alike, by directing riders to a designated pickup spot where they’ll sho
Twitter tests a new way to label replies
Twitter is testing a new way to make conversation threads easier to follow, with the launch of a new test that labels notable replies with special icons. If the original poster replies somewhere in th
Instagram will now warn you before your account gets deleted, offer in-app appeals
Instagram this morning announced several changes to its moderation policy, the most significant of which is that it will now warn users if their account could become disabled before that actually take
The FTC looks to change children’s privacy law following complaints about YouTube
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission is considering an update to the laws governing children’s privacy online, known as the COPPA Rule (or, the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act). The
Storytelling community Wattpad launches Paid Stories and its ad-free subscription globally
Online storytelling community Wattpad, also now a content feeder for streaming services and other media companies, is taking its two consumer-facing paid products global. Wattpad Premium, the ad-free
Twitter launches the ‘Hide Replies’ feature, in hopes of civilizing conversations
Twitter today is beginning its test of a radical and controversial change to its service with the launch of a new “Hide Replies” feature. Effectively, this option gives users the ability t
For World Emoji Day, the Unicode Consortium redesigns its site to be more user-friendly
Ahead of World Emoji Day on Wednesday, July 17, Apple and Google announced plans to bring an expanded set of emoji to their respective platforms. Today, the Unicode Consortium, the nonprofit organizat
Spotify partners with Disney on a new streaming hub aimed at families
In an effort likely aimed at boosting family memberships, Spotify this morning announced a new partnership with Disney on the creation of a Disney Hub on its streaming service. Here, Disney fans in se
Amazon sells over 175M items during Prime Day 2019, more than Black Friday & Cyber Monday combined
Amid worker protests and antitrust investigations, Amazon’s Prime Day sales event carried on as usual — and that means it again set new records for the online retailer. This time, Amazon s
Amazon Prime Day sees competition from more than expected number of retailers
Amazon’s Prime Day continues to gain competition from rival retailers piggybacking on the annual event with their own sales. Ahead of this year’s Prime Day, RetailMeNot had forecast that t
Jeffrey Katzenberg’s Quibi partners with NBC News for a daily news show aimed at millennials
NBC News today announced an exclusive partnership with Jeffrey Katzenberg’s upcoming mobile streaming service, Quibi, which will see the media company becoming the first major producer for the s
Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick are again Prime Day’s best selling devices (so far!)
Amazon Prime members again snapped up loss leaders like the Echo Dot and Fire TV Stick with Alexa Remote on the first day of Amazon Prime Day 2019, which has now been stretched out to a 48-hour sale.