Appfigures: Apple made over $10B from US App Store commissions last year

Over $10 billion — that’s how much revenue Apple’s U.S. App Store raked in last year, according to a new analysis by app intelligence provider Appfigures. The firm’s estimates indicate that U.S. App Store revenue from commissions more than doubled between 2020 and 2024. In 2020

ChatGPT’s deep research tool gets a GitHub connector to answer questions about code

OpenAI is enhancing its AI-powered “deep research” feature with the ability to analyze codebases on GitHub. On Thursday, OpenAI announced what it’s calling the first “connector” for ChatGPT deep research, the company’s tool that searches across the web and othe

Social media startup Fizz sues Instacart and Partiful for trademark infringement over new Fizz app

Social media startup Fizz is suing grocery delivery giant Instacart and party planning app Partiful for trademark infringement, the company announced on Thursday. Earlier this week, Instacart launched a new drinks and snack delivery app for parties called Fizz and announced that Partiful had integ

Instagram Threads is getting video ads

Instagram Threads will begin testing video ads, Meta announced on Thursday. The test, which will make Threads look more like its competitor X, is an expansion of Threads’ advertising initiatives, which began last month with the opening up of ads to global advertisers. The news was announced

PowerSchool paid a hacker’s ransom, but now schools say they are being extorted

Months after the hacked education software maker PowerSchool paid a hacker’s ransom to delete the company’s banks of stolen student data, at least one school district says it is now being extorted by someone who said the data was not destroyed. PowerSchool, which provides its K-12 soft

Google rolls out AI tools to protect Chrome users against scams

Google announced on Thursday that it’s rolling out new AI-powered defenses to help combat scams on Chrome. The tech giant will begin using Gemini Nano, its on-device large language model (LLM), on desktop to protect users against online scams. It’s also launching new AI-powered warnings

China’s Geely moves to take EV startup Zeekr private amid trade war with US

China's Geely Auto wants to take its luxury EV unit Zeekr off the New York Stock Exchange one year after the company's debut, per Zeekr filings.  The take-private offer comes as the Trump administration explores kicking Chinese companies off American stock exchanges, part of a broader

Starlink’s launch in India now a matter of when, not if

Elon Musk’s Starlink has received anticipated state approval in India, opening the door to enter the world’s second-biggest internet market after China — over three years after SpaceX’s previous attempt to launch its satellite-based broadband in the country eventually faile

Sequoia leads $1.5B tender offer for sales automation startup Clay

It took seven years of hard work for Kareem Amin, co-founder and CEO of sales automation startup Clay, to see the company’s product finally take off in 2022. Since then, the startup has experienced explosive growth, reached a valuation exceeding a billion dollars, and expanded its employee co

Bill Gates tells his foundation to spend it all by 2045

The Gates Foundation received a death sentence of sorts today. Microsoft co-founder turned billionaire philanthropist Bill Gates said Thursday that his foundation will have just 20 years to exhaust its coffers and wind down operations. He has pledged to donate 99% of his fortune, which today is wo

Match to lay off 13% of staff

Dating app giant Match Group is laying off 13% of its staff as part of a reorganization that aims to reduce costs, shore up margins, and streamline its organizational structure. The layoff would affect about 325 employees, based on the 2,500 employees Match had as of December 2024, per its annual

Amazon’s newest AI tool is designed to enhance product listings

Amazon said Thursday it is releasing a new generative AI-powered tool to help merchants improve their listings with missing details or attributes. Sellers often have hundreds of products listed on Amazon, and they need to update information related to them from time to time, which can be a cumbers

Asking chatbots for short answers can increase hallucinations, study finds

Turns out, telling an AI chatbot to be concise could make it hallucinate more than it otherwise would have. That’s according to a new study from Giskard, a Paris-based AI testing company developing a holistic benchmark for AI models. In a blog post detailing their findings, researchers at Gi

VC firm Insight Partners confirms personal data stolen during January hack

Venture capital firm Insight Partners said it will alert an unspecified number of people that their personal information was stolen during a cyberattack in January. The VC firm confirmed in an updated statement this week it was planning to notify affected people on a rolling basis beginning “