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After having its infrastructure shuttered, CyanogenMod will live on as Lineage
The days leading up to the holiday have been a real roller coaster ride for Cyanogen fans. Yesterday, Cyanogen Inc. unceremoniously pulled the plug on its support for CyanogenOS in a short post declaring that “all services and Cyanogen-supported nightly builds will be discontinued” by the year’s end. In a post today titled “A Fork in the Road,” the team behind… Read More
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Dutch regulators order T-Mobile to stop offering free music streaming over net neutrality concerns
T-Mobile’s no-data-charge-music-streaming-thing has been going strong since 2014 here in the States, with the company adding services to the offering one by one. The Netherlands version of the promotion ran into significant headwinds this week, however, as regulators at the Dutch Consumer and Markets (AFM) officially ordered the carrier to stop offering the “zero rating”… Read More
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Cyanogen failed to kill Android, now it is shuttering its services and OS as part of a pivot
It’s been a rocky few months for Cyanogen, the ambitious startup that aimed to build a better version of Android than Google. It has laid off staff, let go of its CEO and parted ways with another co-founder — now it is shutting down its services and nightly software builds on December 31. Read More
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Now Snapchat has “Filter Games”
Snapchat wants you to play with your face, not just take pictures of it. New Selfie Lens filter games are starting to appear to users, creating an addicting new Snapchat feature that also inspires competition between friends and could become a powerful ad revenue driver. Snapchat confirms this is the launch of a new, native games feature. Back in March, Snapchat tested a limited run of a… Read More
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Twitter overcharged video advertisers, issues refunds
Now it’s Twitter copying Facebook… but in the worst way. Following several embarrassing disclosures of inaccurate metrics by Facebook, today Business Insider’s Alex Heath broke news that Twitter overcharged some advertisers. Between November 7th and December 12th, a source tells BI that video ad buyers were overcharged up to 35 percent. Twitter apparently informed these… Read More
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Uber explains why it looks like its app is still tracking your location, long after drop-off
Uber responded today to reports that its app continues to check users’ locations even when they hadn’t used the ride-hailing service for days or weeks. The company explained that the issue is being caused by the iOS operating system itself, not direct tracking by its app. Many users had realized that Uber’s app appeared to have recently checked their location, according… Read More
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Facebook kills off exact location sharing in Nearby Friends, adds “Wave”
Nearby Friends didn’t turn into the Foursquare-killer it could have been, but Facebook is still trying to help people meet up in person… with a few changes. Facebook has removed the precise location-sharing feature from Nearby Friends, which now only lets you opt-in to broadcasting your approximate distance from friends and current neighborhood. Unmapped Previously, you could select… Read More
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Twitter didn’t fix itself in 2016 and Wall Street isn’t happy
Layoffs, a borked acquisition and continued tepid user growth defined Twitter in 2016. And these are all things that make Twitter’s future uncertain, which we know Wall Street does not like. Jack Dorsey’s one-year tenure as CEO was more or less defined by a continue decline in its stock price and, amid all its attempts to try and re-make the service and make it more palatable… Read More
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Pokémon Go arrives on the Apple Watch
Following an erroneous report claiming that Niantic’s plans to bring Pokémon Go to the Apple Watch were canceled, the company today put those rumors to rest with more than a mere statement: it has now launched the Apple Watch version of its popular game. The new smartwatch app lets you more easily play Pokémon without having to always pull out your phone. Instead, you can tap to… Read More
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Pana’s travel companion app goes free, can automatically check you into flights
Pana, a travel companion that organizes your plans and sends personalized trip alerts, is now making its app free to challenge rivals like TripIt, Google Trips and others. First launched two years ago, Pana had previously focused on its paid subscription service for individuals and companies needing a 24/7 travel concierge — a move that may have limited its potential market. The… Read More
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Super Mario Run’s buying population is already declining
Super Mario Run may be the first mobile app to pass 40 million downloads in four days’ time on Apple’s App Store, but the game’s payment model has been controversial for its high price of $10 for the full version and limited free play. This has led to roughly half its audience leaving one-star reviews. Despite these complaints, the game has grabbed a huge percentage of… Read More
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BitTorrent Live’s “cable-killer” P2P video app finally hits iOS
Cable companies rule TV because they control the expensive wires and satellites that can deliver low-latency live content at scale. Cable companies can then dictate how much per monthly paying subscriber they offer the channel owners for access because there are few alternatives for live distribution. And the cable companies can charge consumers exorbitant prices because they’re… Read More
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GM taps 500 Startups to find early-stage investments in upcoming classes
GM has made a number of big acquisitions and investments in the past few years. It picked up self-driving company Cruise earlier this year and dropped $500 million into Lyft, Uber’s biggest competitor. For the most part, GM acknowledges that it needs to figure out how to tap into new aspects of the automotive experience, CTO Jon Lauckner said. But all these companies start somewhere. And… Read More
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Zuckerberg implies Facebook is a media company, just “not a traditional media company”
Mark Zuckerberg gave new insights about how he sees Facebook’s role in informing the world today during a Live video one-on-one year-end chat with COO Sheryl Sandberg. Facebook’s CEO also lent support to employees trying to fight fake news today, though reports indicated some employees were dissatisfied by his initially tepid response to the issue. “Facebook is a new kind… Read More
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Facebook’s VIP app Mentions adds Live video drafts, comment blacklists, replay trimming
Facebook is turning its public figures-only Mentions app into a handheld video studio with a slew of new Live broadcasting features rolling out the next few weeks. Mentions on iOS and Android will let broadcasters control brightness and mirroring through an adjustments tray, add category tags, set up comment blocklists, trim their video replays and see their audio, battery and… Read More
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Alphabet tried to convince Wall Street it’s not just a search engine this year
Google (or Alphabet, if you prefer) has long been plagued with a problem with its advertising business: while the number of ads people are clicking on has been growing, the value of those ads has been constantly dropping. Google has always excelled at showing the best ads against a search result, but that business may not last forever as the way people interact with technology starts to… Read More
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Apple’s bulletproof Wall Street growth story came to a halt this year
This year was an interesting one for Apple — but not necessarily in a good way. iPhones aren’t selling the way they used to, the Apple Watch isn’t a big hit and Alphabet is emerging as a bigger and formidable competitor. And that has Wall Street asking some serious questions about Apple’s future. Read More
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Uber losses expected to hit $3 billion in 2016 despite revenue growth
Uber’s losses are growing from $2.2 billion last year to an expected $3 billion this year, according to multiple reports this week from The Information and others. It’s hard to fathom Uber operating so far from profitability at a time when it feels like an established mainstream brand on the global stage. Hip hop stars like Drake or Wiz Khalifa commonly name check… Read More
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Twitter’s CTO Adam Messinger is leaving the company along with VP of product Josh McFarland
Twitter CTO Adam Messinger, who has been the company’s CTO for almost four years and with the company for five years, said today he was leaving the company. Twitter VP of product Josh McFarland is also leaving to join Greylock Partners. Messinger made the announcement in — no surprise — a tweet: After 5 years I’ve decided to leave Twitter and take some time off. Read More
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Facebook Live Audio makes talk radio social, starting with the BBC
Book readings, interviews, and news radio are coming to Facebook thanks to its new Live Audio feature launching today with a few publishers and authors before opening up next year. A complement to its Facebook Live video streaming, it could bring audio-first content like podcasts to the News Feed, and provide a low-bandwidth real-time broadcasting options to publishers in low-connectivity… Read More
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