The short, strange life of Quibi

“All that is left now is to offer a profound apology for disappointing you and, ultimately, for letting you down,” Jeffrey Katzenberg and Meg Whitman wrote, closing out an open letter posted to Medium. “We cannot thank you enough for being there with us, and for us, every step of the way.”

mmhmm, Phil Libin’s new startup, acquires Memix to add enhanced filters to its video presentation toolkit

Virtual meetings are a fundamental part of how we interact with each other these days, but even when (if!?) we find better ways to mitigate the effects of COVID-19, many think that they will be here to stay. That means there is an opportunity out there to improve how they work — because let&#

Google removes 3 Android apps for children, with 20M+ downloads between them, over data collection violations

When it comes to apps, Android leads the pack with nearly 3 million apps in its official Google Play store. The sheer volume also means that sometimes iffy apps slip through the cracks. Researchers at the International Digital Accountability Council (IDAC), a nonprofit watchdog based out of Boston,

France rebrands contact-tracing app in an effort to boost downloads

Don't call it StopCovid anymore. France's contact-tracing app has been updated and is now called TousAntiCovid, which means “everyone against Covid”. The French government is trying to pivot so that it's no longer a contact-tracing app — or at least not just a contact-trac

Quibi says it will shut down in early December

Quibi is shutting down — we know that much for sure. But when? If you’re looking to blast through all 25 episodes of the Reno 911 revival series before Quibi calls its quits, how long do you actually have? While it seems even Quibi isn’t 100% certain yet, they’ve

Daily Crunch: Facebook Dating comes to Europe

Facebook’s dating feature expands after a regulatory delay, we review the new Amazon Echo and President Donald Trump has an on-the-nose Twitter password. This is your Daily Crunch for October 22, 2020. The big story: Facebook Dating comes to Europe Back in February, Facebook h

HBO Max hits 28.7M subscribers in Q3, but few are over-the-top

AT&T painted a rosy picture of HBO Max adoption during the company’s earnings report on Thursday. Despite not being available on Roku, one of the top streaming platforms in the U.S., AT&T said new HBO Max activations more than doubled from second-quarter levels, reaching 8.6 million i

3 reforms social media platforms should make in light of ‘The Social Dilemma’

“The Social Dilemma” is opening eyes and changing digital lives for Netflix bingers across the globe. The filmmakers explore social media and its effects on society, raising some crucial points about impacts on mental health, politics and the myriad ways firms leverage user data. It int

Spotify takes on radio with its own daily morning show

Spotify’s streaming music service is starting to resemble terrestrial radio with today’s launch of the company’s first daily morning show, “The Get Up.” Like other morning shows designed for commuters, the new program will be led by hosts and will combine news, pop cul

Facebook’s controversial Oversight Board starts reviewing content moderation cases

Facebook’s external body of decision makers will start reviewing cases about what stays on the platform and what goes, beginning today. The new system will elevate some of the platform’s content moderation decisions to a new group called the Facebook Oversight Board, which will make dec

'A Charlie Brown Christmas' is now an Apple TV+ exclusive

On first screening, the network assumed it had a disaster on its hands. It was a quiet cartoon — more of a meditation on seasonal depression than a proper holiday film. The pacing was slow, it was voiced by a cast of amateur children and the soundtrack amounted to little more than the jazz piano

Psykhe secures seed funding to match consumer personalities to fashion products

In an overcrowded market of online fashion brands, consumers are spoilt for choice on what site to visit. They are generally forced to visit each brand one by one, manually filtering down to what they like. Most of the experience is not that great, and past purchase history and cookies aren't m

TikTok rolls out a new notification system for content removals

TikTok says it has rolled out a new notification system to users worldwide that will offer more clarity around content removals. The system, which had been in testing for a few months ahead of its global release, informs a TikTok user when their video has been removed and which policy it violated.

Instacart, in partnership with ALDI, will support SNAP EBT for online groceries

Instacart is making its grocery delivery and pickup services more accessible to lower-income customers by offering customers the ability to pay for groceries using their SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program) benefits. This is the first time Instacart shoppers have been able to use govern