The Latest from Ivan Mehta
Twitter gave a gold checkmark to a fake Disney account
In a drive to offer free verification to top organizations, Twitter briefly gave a gold checkmark to a fake Disney account. The gold checkmark indicates that the account belongs to a company. It is r
Twitter reinstates Blue verification mark for top accounts — even if they didn’t pay for it
After removing thousands of legacy verification checkmarks on April 20, Twitter is restoring the Blue tick marks for large accounts — even if they didn’t pay for subscriptions. Over the we
Wavelength is a new app trying to make group chat suck less
There are billions of people using WhatsApp, Telegram, iMessage or even Instagram for group chats. These platforms are ideally designed for “personal conversations” — more specifically individua
Imgur will ban explicit images on its platform this month
Image hosting platform Imgur is set to ban explicit images on its platform from May 15. The company updated its terms of service and said that the company will focus on removing “nudity, pornogr
Google Meet now lets you pause video streams of individual tiles
Google Meet is rolling out a new feature that will allow you to pause the video streams for individual tiles to improve focus on frequent speakers or presenters. To turn off individual feeds, you can
Snap is expanding its AR features to 16 additional music festivals
Snap is expanding its partnership with events company Live Nation to bring AR-focused features to 16 new music festivals. These features include custom AR lenses, partnerships with artists for unique
Snapchat+ subscription now has more than 3 million users
Snap said today that its Snapchat+ paid plan has more than 3 million users. At its Snap Partner Summit event, the company added that in the coming days, Verizon users will have the option to buy Snapc
Netflix’s ad-supported plan gets support for 1080p quality and two concurrent streams
Netflix is upgrading its ad-supported plan in terms of streaming quality and concurrent streams. The company said users subscribed to this plan will be able to see content in 1080p resolution (up from
Elon Musk wants to develop TruthGPT, ‘a maximum truth-seeking AI’
On Tuesday, Elon Musk said in an interview with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson that he wants to develop his own chatbot called TruthGPT, which will be “a maximum truth-seeking AI” — what
Niantic is making a real-world ‘Monster Hunter’ game
While Pokémon GO is still Niantic’s most popular game, the company is trying to diversify its portfolio of games by announcing a new game. Niantic announced a partnership with Capcom today to l
iOS 17 will reportedly set the stage for sideloading apps on iPhone
Apple has kept the iPhone app distribution system closed, allowing users to download the apps only from the App Store. But the company might be adding some gates to this walled garden to let people si
Developers are looking for creative ways to build AI-powered chatbot assistants
Since OpenAI unveiled ChatGPT last year, it has been almost impossible to go a day without a company or developer releasing an AI-powered tool. Now, with the release of new models like OpenAI’s
Twitter introduces 10,000-character-long tweets for Blue subscribers
Twitter has introduced a new feature that will let Blue subscribers post 10,000-character-long posts — as if the social network is trying to compete with a rival newsletter platform. Twitter has als
Twitter partners with eToro to show real-time stock and crypto information
Twitter has partnered with the investment platform eToro to show real-time information about stocks and crypto prices. This expands upon the social network’s Cashtag feature, which provided info
Snap signs new music licensing deals to expand its Sounds library
Snap has signed a deal with multiple music labels to expand its Sounds library, the social app’s product that lets people use song clips in Snaps and Stories. The company said participating labe
User spending goes up by more than 4000% on AI-powered apps
Given the rising interest in generative AI tools like text-based ChatGPT and image-based Midjourney, AI-powered apps are growing in numbers and popularity in both app stores. A report by analytics fir
Elon Musk says Twitter will finally remove legacy checkmarks on 4/20
Elon Musk said that Twitter will finally move to remove the legacy blue checkmarks on April 20 or 4/20 because he can’t let go of that joke. This is the “final date,” he said in a tw
WhatsApp users in Brazil can now pay merchants through the app
WhatsApp is introducing the ability for users to directly pay businesses through chat in Brazil. This means that people in the country can have end-to-end shopping experiences, from discovery to payme
Google launches an auto-archiving feature for Android apps to save space
On Monday, Google launched a new auto-archiving feature, which removes more than 60% of an unused app’s data from an Android phone to save storage space on the device. This will expectedly reduc
YouTube starts presales of NFL Sunday Ticket subscription
YouTube is starting presales of NFL Sunday Ticket subscriptions starting today. The company is selling the add-on to subscribers of the YouTube TV Base plan at $249 for the season. The company is also