• The day that changed your phone forever

    The day that changed your phone forever

    There are a lot of links in this piece, many of which were difficult to resurrect on today’s web. Make sure you take the time to explore! I’ve also tried to avoid technical jargon, so even if you don’t know your Swift from a hole in the ground, you can still follow along. Touching the Future For…

  • Google is bringing messaging to its Tez payment app in India

    Google is bringing messaging to its Tez payment app in India

    Messaging and payments continue to converge in India after Google added chat features to its Tez payment app in India. The move follows the introduction of peer-to-peer payments inside WhatsApp in India, its largest country worldwide with over 200 million users, last month and it now allows users of Tez to communicate directly with contacts…

  • Snap is reportedly laying off around 100 employees

    Snap is reportedly laying off around 100 employees

    Snap is laying off around 100 employees that are part of its engineering staff, according to multiple reports from CNBC and Cheddar. The company expects to lay off as many as 100 people in the engineering department, according to those reports. It’s another sign of potentially re-aligning efforts as it looks to remake itself into…

  • Begin, a new app from Ryan Block, uses natural language to generate tasks from your Slack

    Begin, a new app from Ryan Block, uses natural language to generate tasks from your Slack

    Over two years after leaving Aol (now known as Oath) back in September 2015 to build a new startup, serial entrepreneur Ryan Block, with co-founder Brian LeRoux, is finally taking the wraps off the new venture: Begin, an intelligent app designed to help you keep track of things that you have to do, and when…

  • MoviePass update removes ‘unused’ location requests from iOS app

    MoviePass update removes ‘unused’ location requests from iOS app

    MoviePass has issued an update for its iOS app that removes “unused app location capability,” apparently a response to widespread concern after the company’s CEO said: “We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards.” An earlier statement from the company was “exploring utilizing location-based marketing,” though the…

  • Square’s Cash app now supports direct deposits for your paycheck

    Square’s Cash app now supports direct deposits for your paycheck

    It seems like each new feature Square adds to its Cash app brings it one step closer to being a de-facto bank account for its users. Case in point, the app just rolled out support for ACH direct deposits, meaning users can now get their paycheck or other deposits put directly into their Cash app…

  • Atom Tickets raises $60M Series C for its movie booking app

    Atom Tickets raises $60M Series C for its movie booking app

    Atom Tickets, an app that combines online movie ticket booking with social features, said today that it has raised a $60 million Series C led by Fidelity Investments, with participation from returning investors Lionsgate, Disney and Twentieth Century Fox Film. All three studios contributed to Atom Tickets’ $50 million Series B, which was announced two…

  • FanDuel’s new March Madness game lets casual fans pick teams instead of players

    FanDuel’s new March Madness game lets casual fans pick teams instead of players

    Over the last year or so daily fantasy sports companies like FanDuel and DraftKings have shifted their focus towards building products that are simple enough for even casual sports fans to play. Today FanDuel is announcing their latest product designed for casual sports fans, called Bracket Pick’em. The game is dead simple – users pick five…

  • Snapchat finally adds @ mention tagging

    Snapchat finally adds @ mention tagging

    Snapchat now lets you @-tag someone in your Story, creating a swipe up “more” option that shows the tagged person’s name, handle, Bitmoji, and an Add button so you can follow them too. The feature could let friends call each other out in Stories, or promote their favorite influencers by making it easy for people…

  • This startup just raised $5 million to automate the clunky real estate appraisal process

    This startup just raised $5 million to automate the clunky real estate appraisal process

    When Noah Isaacs and John Meadows were best friends growing up in Berkeley, Calif., they dreamed of remaining friends for life. What they didn’t imagine was living together in New York and starting a company together — yet they have. It’s called Bowery Valuation, and it’s aiming to bring commercial real estate appraisals — currently…