Sarah Perez
Writer
The Latest from Sarah Perez
Chirp debuts a faster, feature-filled Twitter app for Apple Watch
Chirp, a Twitter client preferred by hundreds of thousands of Apple Watch users, is getting its biggest upgrade since its arrival last year. Now redesigned for watchOS 6, the new version of Chirp incl
Spotify Wrapped expands to include your favorite music from the decade, plus podcaster metrics
Spotify’s annual “Wrapped” feature, which allows listeners to look back on their favorite music from the year, is expanding in 2019 to include a whole decade’s worth of favorit
YouTube warns creators of subscriber count declines amid purge of closed accounts
YouTube is warning creators they may see their subscriber numbers decline this week as the result of a purge that will remove closed accounts from YouTube metrics. Closed accounts could refer to those
Reddit’s monthly active user base grew 30% to reach 430M in 2019
In a year-end retrospective released this morning, Reddit says its user base grew 30% this year to reach 430 million monthly active users, as of the end of October. Its users also contributed 199 mill
Plex launches a free, ad-supported streaming service in over 200 countries
Plex today is launching its own ad-supported streaming service, a rival to The Roku Channel, Tubi, Crackle, Vudu’s Movies on Us and others that offer a way to stream movies and TV for free witho
Pandora’s revamped, more personalized app rolls out to all users
Pandora’s redesigned mobile app experience is today available to all users, following a limited rollout that began in October. The update expands on Pandora’s personalization capabilities
Android’s ‘Focus Mode’ exits beta, adds new scheduling features
Google is expanding its suite of “Digital Wellbeing” tools for Android devices with a new feature, Focus Mode, launching today. This feature allows users to turn off distractions — l
Walmart tops Amazon as most-downloaded US shopping app on Black Friday
Amazon says Cyber Monday 2019 has now become the retailer’s biggest shopping day of all time, based on the number of items sold worldwide. However, in the U.S., a different trend took shape over
Google Photos adds a chat feature to its app
An argument could be made that Google has over-indulged in its creation of way too many messaging apps in years past. But today’s launch of a new messaging service — this time within the c
Apple and Google reveal the best apps and games of 2019
Continuing their annual tradition, Apple and Google have released their list of the best apps and games of 2019. Apple, for the first time, held a real-world event to celebrate its winners, where it c
Cyber Monday totalled $9.4B in US online sales, smartphones accounted for a record $3B
Cyber Monday — the final day of the extended Thanksgiving weekend that traditionally kicks off holiday season spend — broke another e-commerce record: US shoppers racked up a total of $9.4
Facebook updates crisis response tools, adds WhatsApp integration
Facebook is expanding Crisis Response, its disaster-reporting and communications feature that’s been used in 300 crises in more than 80 countries. The company today is announcing several new fea
Twitter launches a Privacy Center to centralize its data protection efforts
Twitter today is launching a new resource that aims to serve as the central place for everything related to the company’s efforts around privacy and data protection. The new site, the Twitter Pr
Amazon debuts automatic speech recognition service, Amazon Transcribe Medical
Amazon is expanding its automatic transcription service for AWS, Amazon Transcribe, to include support for medical speech, the company announced this morning at its AWS re:Invent conference. The new m
This Week in Apps: Apple Arcade updates, TikTok distances itself from China, Kardashians send shady app to No. 1
Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the Extra Crunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. What are developers talking about? Wha
Twitter tests new conversation features from twttr prototype, rollout planned for 2020
Twttr, the prototype app Twitter launched earlier this year, has been testing new ways to display conversations, including through the use of threaded replies and other visual cues. Now, those feature
Fabric’s new app helps parents with the hard stuff, including wills, life insurance & shared finances
A new app called Fabric aims to make it simpler for parents to plan for their family’s long-term financial well-being. The goal is to offer parents a one-stop-shop that includes the ability to a
US online shoppers already spent $50B in November, holiday season on track for $143.7B
Facing a shorter holiday shopping season this year, U.S. retailers started rolling out their Black Friday deals earlier than usual. That move has paid off, according to new e-commerce data shared by A
Google is giving away 3 months of Disney+ to new Chromebook owners
Google is hoping to juice holiday sales of Chromebooks by tacking on a subscription to the hot new streaming service, Disney+. The company on Monday announced it would give Chromebook buyers three, fr
Studs wants to modernize the ear piercing experience for Gen Z teens
A startup called Studs wants to reinvent the ear-piercing experience for Generation Z. Today, consumers only have two options to choose from when they want their ears pierced — the traditional &