Netflix says ‘The Queen’s Gambit’ is setting viewership records

“The Queen’s Gambit” is setting viewership records at Netflix, the streaming service said today. Like all the viewership data that Netflix has released this year, these new numbers reflect how many people “chose to watch” — in other words, how many people watched at

Facebook launches ‘Drives,’ a US-only feature for collecting food, clothing and other necessities for people in need

Facebook today is introducing a new feature that will allow users in the U.S. to collect food, clothing and other necessities for people in need. The feature, called “Drives,” is being made available through Facebook’s existing Community Help hub, which is the place where Facebook

Snapchat launches a TikTok-like feed called Spotlight, kick-started by paying creators

After taking on TikTok with music-powered features last month, Snapchat this morning is officially launching a dedicated place within its app where users can watch short, entertaining videos in a vertically scrollable, TikTok-like feed. This new feature, called Spotlight, will showcase the communit

The promise and challenge of Roblox’s future in China

In a much-anticipated move, California-based gaming firm Roblox filed to go public last week. One aspect driving the future growth of the children- and community-focused gaming platform is its China entry, which it fleshes out in detail for the first time in its IPO prospectus. How Roblox avoided t

Byju’s-owned Indian startup WhiteHat Jr sues critics

Karan Bajaj, an Indian entrepreneur who teaches meditation and in his recent book invites others to live a life away from the noise, is going after the most vocal critics of his startup. Bajaj, founder of coding platform WhiteHat Jr, has filed a defamation case against Pradeep Poonia, an engineer w

Hulu UX teardown: 5 user experience fails and how to fix them

Hulu is the first major streaming platform to offer a social watching experience. And with most major league sports now being allowed to resume behind closed doors, Hulu's combined proposition with ESPN will likely help entertain the service’s 30+ million users over the winter months. But

This Week in Apps: Apple slashes commissions, Twitter launches Fleets, warnings about Parler

"">Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the technewss series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. "">The app industry is as hot as ever, with a record 204 billion downloads and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019. People are

Google, Facebook and Twitter threaten to leave Pakistan over censorship law

Global internet companies Facebook, Google and Twitter and others have banded together and threatened to leave Pakistan after the South Asian nation granted blanket powers to local regulators to censor digital content. Earlier this week, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan granted the Pakistan Telec

Neatsy wants to reduce sneaker returns with 3D foot scans

U.S.-based startup Neatsy AI is using the iPhone’s depth-sensing FaceID selfie camera as a foot scanner to capture 3D models for predicting a comfortable sneaker fit. Its app, currently soft launched for iOS but due to launch officially next month, asks the user a few basic questions about sn

India approves Reliance’s $3.4 billion deal with Future Group, brings new headache to Amazon

The Indian watchdog Competition Commission (CCI) of India said on Friday it has approved the $3.4 billion deal between the nation's two largest retail giants, Future Group and Reliance Retail, posing a new headache for American e-commerce group Amazon, which had raised objections over the deal.

Daily Crunch: Verizon sells HuffPost to BuzzFeed

HuffPost has a new owner, Facebook says its misinformation-fighting AI is getting smarter and Affirm files to go public. This is your Daily Crunch for November 19, 2020. The big story: Verizon sells HuffPost to BuzzFeed technewss’s parent company Verizon Media has sold HuffPo

Thank you, Chrome team

Since Chrome came out back in 2008, it’s been a constant companion in my life. In fact, Chrome’s launch is how I helped get the startup I worked for at the time onto technewss for the first time. We did shots to celebrate. Chrome rocked, and we were Day One Fans. But ov

Facebook details AI advances in catching misinformation and hate speech

Facebook’s battle against misinformation will never be over at this rate, but that doesn’t mean the company has given up. On the contrary it is only by dint of constant improvement to its automated systems that it is able to keep itself even remotely free of hate speech and misinformati

Verizon partners with Apple to launch 5G Fleet Swap

Apple and Verizon today announced a new partnership that will make it easier for their business partners to go all-in on 5G. Fleet Swap, as the program is called, allows businesses to trade in their entire fleet of smartphones — no matter whether they are currently a Verizon customer or not &