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Tag: mobile apps

  • How to block graphic social media posts on your kids’ phones | CNN Business

    How to block graphic social media posts on your kids’ phones | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Many schools, psychologists and safety groups are urging parents to disable their children’s social media apps over mounting concerns that Hamas plans to disseminate graphic videos of hostages captured in the Israel-Gaza war.

    Disabling an app or implementing restrictions, such as filtering out certain words and phrases, on young users’ phones may be sound like a daunting process. But platforms and mobile operating systems offer safeguards that could go along way in protecting a child’s mental health.

    Following the attacks on Israel last weekend, much of the terror has played out on social media. Videos of hostages taken on the streets and civilians left wounded continue to circulate on varying platforms. Although some companies have pledged to restrict sensitive videos, many are still being shared online.

    That can be particularly stressful for minors. The American Psychological Association recently issued a warning about the psychological impacts of the ongoing violence in Israel and Gaza, and other research has linked exposure to violence on social media and in the news as a “cycle of harm to mental health.”

    Alexandra Hamlet, a clinical psychologist in New York City, told CNN people who are caught off guard by seeing certain upsetting content are more likely to feel worse than individuals who choose to engage with content that could be upsetting to them. That’s particularly true for children, she said.

    “They are less likely to have the emotional control to turn off content that they find triggering than the average adult, their insight and emotional intelligence capacity to make sense of what they are seeing is not fully formed, and their communication skills to express what they have seen and how to make sense of it is limited comparative to adults,” Hamlet said.

    If deleting an app isn’t an option, here are other ways to restrict or closely monitor a child’s social media use:

    Parents can start by visiting the parental control features found on their child phone’s mobile operating system. iOS’ Screen Time tool and Android’s Google Family Link app help parents manage a child’s phone activity and can restrict access to certain apps. From there, various controls can be selected, such as restricting app access or flagging inappropriate content.

    Guardians can also set up guardrails directly within social media apps.

    TikTok: TikTok, for example, offers a Family Pairing feature that allows parents and guardians to link their own TikTok account to their child’s account and restrict their ability to search for content, limit content that may not be appropriate for them or filter out videos with words or hashtags from showing up in feeds. These features can also be enabled within the settings of the app, without needing to sync up a guardian’s account.

    Facebook, Instagram and Threads: Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and threads, has an educational hub for parents with resources, tips and articles from experts on user safety, and a tool that allows guardians to see how much time their kids spend on Instagram and set time limits, which some experts advise should be considered during this time.

    YouTube: On YouTube, the Family Link tool allows parents to set up supervised accounts for their children, screen time limits or block certain content. At the same time,YouTube Kids also provides a safer space for kids, and parents who decide their kids are ready to see more content on YouTube can create a supervised account. In addition, autoplay is turned off by default for anyone under 18 but can be turned off anytime in Settings for all users.

    Hamlet said families should consider creating a family policy where family members agree to delete their apps for a certain period of time.

    “It could be helpful to frame the idea as an experiment, where everyone is encouraged to share how not having the apps has made them feel over the course of time,” she said. “It is possible that after a few days of taking a break from social media, users may report feeling less anxious and overwhelmed, which could result in a family vote of continuing to keep the apps deleted for a few more days before checking in again.”

    If there’s resistance, Hamlet said should try to reduce the time spent on apps right now and come up with an agreed upon number of minutes each day for usage.

    “Parents could ideally include a contingency where in exchange for allowing the child to use their apps for a certain number of minutes, their child must agree to having a short check in to discuss whether there was any harmful content that the child had exposure to that day,” she said. “This exchange allows both parents to have a protected space to provide effective communication and support, and to model openness and care for their child.”

    TikTok: A TikTok spokesperson, which said the platform uses technology and 40,000 safety professionals to moderate the platform, told CNN it is taking the situation seriously and has increased dedicated resources to help prevent violent, hateful, or misleading content on the platform.

    Meta: Meta similarly said it has set up a special operations center staffed with experts, including fluent Hebrew and Arabic speakers, to monitor and respond to the situation. “Our teams are working around the clock to keep our platforms safe, take action on content that violates our policies or local law, and coordinate with third-party fact checkers in the region to limit the spread of misinformation,” Meta said in a statement. “We’ll continue this work as this conflict unfolds.”

    YouTube: Google-owned YouTube said it is providing thousands of age-restricted videos that do not violate its policies – some of these, however, are not appropriate for viewers under 18. (This may include bystander footage). The company told CNN it has “removed thousands of harmful videos” and its teams “remain vigilant to take action quickly across YouTube, including videos, Shorts and livestreams.”

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  • Parents urged to delete their kids’ social media accounts ahead of possible Israeli hostage videos | CNN Business

    Parents urged to delete their kids’ social media accounts ahead of possible Israeli hostage videos | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Schools in Israel, the UK and the US are advising parents to delete their children’s social media apps over concerns that Hamas militants will broadcast or disseminate disturbing videos of hostages who have been seized in recent days.

    A Tel Aviv school’s parent’s association said it expects videos of hostages “begging for their lives” to surface on social media. In a message to parents, shared with CNN by a mother of children at a high school in Tel Aviv, the association asked parents to remove apps such as TikTok from their children’s phones.

    “We cannot allow our kids to watch this stuff. It is also difficult, furthermore – impossible – to contain all this content on social media,” according to the parent’s association. “Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.”

    Hamas has warned that it will post murders of hostages on social media if Israel targets people in Gaza without warning.

    There are additional concerns that terrorists will exploit social media algorithms to specifically target such videos to followers of Jewish or Israeli influencers in an effort to wage psychological warfare on Israelis and Jews and their supporters globally.

    During the onslaught on Saturday, armed Hamas militants poured over the heavily-fortified border into Israel and took as many as 150 hostages, including Israeli army officers, back to Gaza. The surprise attacks killed at least 1,200 people, according to the Israel Defense Forces, and injured thousands more.

    Since Israel began airstrikes on the Palestinian enclave Saturday, at least 1,055 people have been killed in Gaza, including hundreds of children, women, and entire families, according to the Palestinian health ministry. It said a further 5,184 have been injured, as of Wednesday.

    As the war wages on, some Jewish schools in the US are also asking parents not to share related videos or photos that may surface, and to prevent children – and themselves – from watching them. The schools are also advising community members to delete their social media apps during this time.

    “Together with other Jewish day schools, we are warning parents to disable social media apps such as Instagram, X, and Tiktok from their children’s phones,” the head of a school in New Jersey wrote in an email. “Graphic and often misleading information is flowing freely, augmenting the fears of our students. … Parents should discuss the dangers of these platforms and ask their children on a daily basis about what they are seeing, even if they have deleted the most unfiltered apps from their phones.”

    Another school in the UK said it asked students to delete their social media apps during a safety assembly.

    TikTok, Instagram and X – formerly known as Twitter – did not immediately respond to requests for comment on how they are combating the increase of videos being posted online and for comment on schools asking parents to delete these apps.

    But X said on its platform is has experienced an increase in daily active users in the conflict area and its escalation teams have “actioned tens of thousands of posts for sharing graphic media, violent speech, and hateful conduct.” It did not respond to a request to comment further or define “actioned.”

    “We’re also continuing to proactively monitor for antisemitic speech as part of all our efforts,” X’s safety team said. “Plus we’ve taken action to remove several hundred accounts attempting to manipulate trending topics.”

    The company added it remains “laser focused” on enforcing the site’s rules and reminded users they can limit sensitive media they may encounter by visiting the “Content you see” option in Settings.

    Still, misinformation continues to run rampant on social media platforms, including X.

    A post viewed more than 500,000 times – featuring the hashtag #PalestineUnderAttack – claimed to show an airplane being shot down. But the clip was from the video game Arma 3, as was later noted in a “community note” appended to the post.

    Another video that is purported to show Israeli generals after being captured by Hamas fighters was viewed more than 1.7 million times by Monday. The video, however, instead shows the detention of separatists in Azerbaijan.

    On Tuesday, the European Union warned Elon Musk of “penalties” for disinformation circulating on X amid Israel-Hamas war.

    The EU also informed Meta CEO Zuckerberg on Wednesday of a disinformation surge on its platforms – which include Facebook – and demanded the company respond in 24 hours with how it plans to combat the issue.

    In an Instagram story on Tuesday, Zuckerberg called the attack “pure evil” and said his focus “remains on the safety of our employees and their families in Israel and the region.”

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  • China wants to limit minors to no more than two hours a day on their phones | CNN Business

    China wants to limit minors to no more than two hours a day on their phones | CNN Business

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    Hong Kong
    CNN
     — 

    China is proposing new measures to curb the amount of time that kids and teens can spend on their phones, as the country takes aim at internet addiction and tries to cultivate “good morality” and “socialist values” among minors.

    A proposal released by the Cyberspace Administration of China, the country’s top internet regulator, on Wednesday would require all mobile devices, apps and app stores to have a built in “minor mode” that would restrict daily screen time to a maximum of two hours a day, depending on the age group.

    The restrictions, if approved, would mark an expansion of existing measures rolled out in recent years as Beijing aims to limit screen time among kids and reduce their exposure to “undesirable information.”

    Under the draft rules, which are open for public discussion until September 2, children and teens using devices on minor mode would automatically see online applications close when respective time limits are up. They would also be offered “age-based content.”

    No one under 18 would be able to access their screens between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m. while using the mode.

    Children under eight would be able to use their phones for only 40 minutes a day, while those between eight and 16 would get an hour of screen time. Teenagers over 16 and under 18 would be allowed two hours.

    All age groups would receive a reminder to rest after using their device for more than 30 minutes.

    Mobile internet service providers should also actively create content that “disseminates core socialist values” and “forges a sense of community of the Chinese nation,” the draft says.

    Parents would be able to override time restrictions, and certain educational and emergency services would not be subject to the time limits.

    “Internet addition” has emerged as a major social concern in recent years, giving rise to an often scientifically dubious and at times dangerous industry of boot-camp style treatment centers.

    Parents interviewed by CNN voiced tentative support for the proposal.

    “I think it’s good. On the one hand, it can protect their vision as many young kids cannot stop themselves while watching something they like,” said a mother of two in eastern China’s Zhejiang province, who did not wish to provide her name.

    “On the other hand, it’s easier for us parents to control our kids screen time,” she said. “Most importantly the content under the minor mode is more positive and healthy.”

    Myopia has become a national health concern in China, with some experts linking the prevalence of nearsightedness among young people to lack of exposure to sunlight or excess screen time.

    China has one of the world’s largest internet user bases, with roughly 1.07 billion people in the country of 1.4 billion having access to the web, according to the China Internet Network Information Center. About one in five users were 19 years or under, as of December.

    The effectiveness of the new proposed measures may depend on buy-in from parents, according to a father of two in southeastern China’s Zhuhai city, who said children sometimes use their parents’ accounts to play online.

    The regulation could be useful to “help parents to supervise the children” and limit screen time.

    “Even us adults need it!” he joked.

    The new measures could present challenges for tech companies, which are typically held responsible for enforcing regulations.

    The proposal comes as a severe, years-long regulatory crackdown on China’s tech giants appears to be coming to an end.

    The Hong Kong-listed shares in some of the country’s top internet firms closed sharply lower on Wednesday, after the new rules were publicized.

    Tencent

    (TCEHY)    , which operates popular messaging platform Wechat, finished about 3% lower. Video-streaming app Bilibili

    (BILI)     lost 7%, while rival Kuaishou closed down 3.5%. Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, ended 4.8% lower.

    On Thursday, the firms were trading flat to higher, with the exception of Weibo, which was trading about 1% lower.

    CNN has approached mobile phone makers Xiaomi, Apple and Huawei for comment.

    Two years ago, Chinese regulators barred online gamers under the age of 18 from playing on weekdays and limited their play to just three hours on weekends, tightening earlier limits.

    Around that time, several tech companies introduced measures allowing for more parental controls, in lockstep with Beijing’s push for more oversight.

    Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok, introduced a “teenage mode” in 2021 which limited the amount of time children under the age of 14 could spend on the short-form video app to 40 minutes a day.

    Kuaishou, another popular video app, has a similar option.

    Past efforts have relied on internet users to register with their real names. Last year, regulators mandated that all online sites verify users’ real identities before allowing them to submit comments or like posts.

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  • Google reaches $93 million settlement in tracking location case | CNN Business

    Google reaches $93 million settlement in tracking location case | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Google has reached a $93 million settlement with the state of California to resolve allegations that it was collecting consumers’ data without their consent, the state’s attorney general said in a statement Thursday.

    The California Department of Justice found that, after a multi-year investigation, the tech giant was “deceiving users by collecting, storing, and using their location data for consumer profiling and advertising purposes without informed consent.”

    California Attorney General Rob Bonta also said Google accepted taking future actions to prevent those practices. These actions would apply beyond California to other states, according to the proposed order.

    “Consistent with improvements we’ve made in recent years, we have settled this matter, which was based on outdated product policies that we changed years ago,” a Google spokesperson said.

    The company pointed to a 2022 blog post which introduced transparency tools, such as auto-delete controls and incognito mode on Google Maps.

    Google’s location-based advertising is an important part of its business because companies want to cater their content based on who lives where, the state said. The state also said that Google factors in location in its “behavioral profile” of users.

    Bonta had alleged Google wasn’t truthful about its location collection and storage tactics. For example, the original complaint said that Google continued to collect and store location data even when users turned off the “location history” setting, just in different ways.

    As part of the settlement, Google would have to be more transparent about its location tracking and disclose to users that their location information could be used for targeted ads. The proposed order is subject to court approval, the state’s attorney general said.

    A lawsuit by the Biden administration in January argued Google’s ad tech business should be broken up.

    Google’s practices are under scrutiny by other lawmakers right now, too. A landmark antitrust trial against Google opened earlier this week, with sweeping allegations from the US DOJ that for years the company intentionally stifled competition challenging its massive search engine, accusing the tech giant of spending billions to operate an illegal monopoly that has harmed every computer and mobile device user in the United States.

    For Google’s opening statement in that case, attorney John Schmidtlein said that Apple’s decision to make Google the default search engine in its Safari browser demonstrates how Google’s search engine is the superior product consumers prefer.

    Last week, Google reached an agreement in principle with multiple US states to settle an antitrust lawsuit for its alleged conduct in the Google Play Store. The lawsuit alleged the company inflated prices for paid apps and in-app purchases in the Android app market.

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  • Threads user count falls to new lows, highlighting retention challenges | CNN Business

    Threads user count falls to new lows, highlighting retention challenges | CNN Business

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    Washington, DC
    CNN
     — 

    Threads, Meta’s Twitter rival, is struggling to retain users roughly a month after its highly publicized launch, according to fresh industry estimates showing that app engagement has fallen to new lows.

    The data from market research firms Similarweb and Sensor Tower highlight the challenges facing Meta as it seeks to exploit the opening created by the chaos surrounding Twitter’s management.

    Threads’ daily active user count is down 82% from launch as of July 31, according to Sensor Tower, with just eight million users accessing the app each day. That is the lowest it has been since the day after the app’s release when daily active users peaked at roughly 44 million, Sensor Tower said.

    People are also opening the app less frequently and spending less time there, Sensor Tower added.

    On its launch day, Threads users opened the app an average of 14 times and spent an average of 19 minutes scrolling through it, the company reported. By the end of the month, however, those figures had fallen sharply.

    As of August 1, Threads’ daily average time spent fell to just 2.9 minutes a day, and people spent only 2.6 sessions per day using the app, said Abe Yousef, a senior insights analyst at Sensor Tower.

    Findings from Similarweb showed the same pattern of decline. Threads’ user count peaked at roughly 49 million on July 7, the day after launch, and fell steadily to just over 11 million by July 29, said David Carr, a senior insights manager at Similarweb.

    The steepest drop-off occurred in the two weeks immediately following Threads’ launch. But the new data show how the decline has continued and is ongoing.

    According to Sensor Tower, Threads’ daily active user count is still falling at a rate of roughly 1% per day.

    Speaking on the company’s earnings call last month, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg said he was “quite optimistic” about the app.

    “We saw unprecedented growth out of the gate and more importantly we’re seeing more people coming back daily than I’d expected,” he said. “And now, we’re focused on retention and improving the basics. And then after that, we’ll focus on growing the community to the scale we think is possible.”

    Threads launched with only a handful of features and later promised to add in highly requested tools like a reverse-chronological content feed, a desktop version of the app and direct messages.

    On July 10, Zuckerberg announced that more than 100 million people had signed up for Threads, making it one of the fastest-growing apps in history. The company has reportedly looked into adding “retention-driving hooks” that can keep users engaged.

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  • TikTok Shop is now open for business | CNN Business

    TikTok Shop is now open for business | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    TikTok is officially kicking off its US e-commerce efforts with the launch of TikTok Shop.

    The short-form video platform launched an in-app shopping experience in the United States on Tuesday, according to a company blog post, after months of testing. TikTok Shop allows users to find and directly purchase products used in live videos, tagged in content shown on their algorithm-driven For You page, pinned on brand profiles or marketed in a new “Shop” tab.

    For creators, the feature could bring new streams of income by connecting them with brands for commission-based marketing partnerships. TikTok is also offering “Fulfilled by TikTok,” a program that handles all of the logistics for sellers, including storing, packing and shipping.

    “With community-driven trends like #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt inspiring people to discover and share the products they love, TikTok is creating a new shopping culture,” the company wrote. “With TikTok Shop, we’re giving people a place to experience the joy of discovering and purchasing new products without leaving the app.”

    TikTok is looking to quadruple its merchandise sales by the end of the year to hit $20 billion, according to Bloomberg.

    The app’s push into live e-commerce comes as other platforms have struggled with online shopping initiatives.

    Meta-owned Instagram killed livestream product tagging and shopping in March and got rid of the shopping tab on the app’s navigation bar. Facebook also axed live shopping in October. Meanwhile,YouTube partnered with Shopify in 2022 to help creators sell products.

    Amazon has been offering Amazon Live since 2019, a streaming hub that sells items through live videos. Amazon Storefront, launched in 2018, also allows creators to build pages that bring together content and product recommendations to sell to followers, for a commission.

    TikTok Shop is already available throughout parts of Asia and the United Kingdom. Southeast Asia, a region with a collective population of 630 million – half of them under 30 – is one of TikTok’s biggest markets in terms of user numbers, generating more than 325 million visitors to the app every month, according to Reuters.

    But the platform has yet to translate its large user base into a major e-commerce revenue source in the region as it faces fierce competition from bigger rivals of Sea’s Shopee, Alibaba’s Lazada and GoTo’s Tokopedia.

    E-commerce transactions across the region reached nearly $100 billion last year, with Indonesia alone accounting for $52 billion, according to data from consultancy Momentum Works.

    TikTok facilitated $4.4 billion of transactions across Southeast Asia last year, up from $600 million in 2021, but it still trailed far behind Shopee’s $48 billion of regional merchandise sales in 2022, Momentum Works told Reuters in June.

    Cracking the United States has proven even harder. TikTok Shop, as launched Tuesday, has been in testing since November.

    The platform has previously backed down from efforts to push e-commerce. TikTok piloted a shopping experience in partnership with Shopify in 2021 that did not stick, and reports circulated in 2022 that TikTok was giving up altogether on live shopping in the United States and Europe after struggling to connect with consumers.

    The move to once again revitalize e-retail efforts in the United States comes as the app faces increasing scrutiny from lawmakers. Some critics and a growing number of US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle view TikTok as a national security threat, since it is owned by China-based company ByteDance. Some US officials have expressed fears that the Chinese government could spy on US data via TikTok, though there is so far no evidence that the Chinese government has ever accessed personal information of US-based TikTok users.

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  • iPhone users will soon have to adjust to this small but significant change | CNN Business

    iPhone users will soon have to adjust to this small but significant change | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    Get your thumb ready for next month. Apple

    (AAPL)     is making a subtle change to the iPhone’s software that will likely mess with your muscle memory: The big red “end call” button is moving.

    The iPhone’s phone app will get a series of updates coming to iOS 17, including an updated design that repositions the hang up button to the bottom right of the screen, next to other functions. The button currently sits separately at the bottom middle of the phone app, underneath the buttons to mute, access the keypad or add a call.

    The new call screen, which is already available for download in a beta version for developers, sparked some strong reactions among iOS users on social media: “iOS 17 has the FaceTime button where the end call button used to be,” tweeted one user. “Muscle memory be damned.”

    The change is likely to streamline the look of the phone app and put all functions in one place. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.

    At its annual Worldwide Developer Conference in May, the company showed off a slew of new tools coming to iOS 17 that make calling and messaging others more personalized and customized. iPhone users, for example, will be able to design contact “posters,” a custom image to appear when they call someone or receive their call.

    Meanwhile, a new feature called Live Voicemail will transcribe a caller’s message in real time, so users can decide whether to ignore or take the call, and a tool called NameDrop will let users share their contact information by holding two iPhones close together. In addition, FaceTime will support the ability to leave video messages when someone isn’t available to chat.

    Other changes coming to iOS 17 include a more accurate autocorrect, improved dictation in iMessage, and a more responsive Siri. Apple typically launches its latest mobile operating system in September, following its annual iPhone event.

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  • iOS 17 release: See what’s new in iPhone features | CNN Business

    iOS 17 release: See what’s new in iPhone features | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    iPhone users: Today’s the day to update to Apple’s latest operating system, iOS17, and unlock a slew of new features that promise to make the iPhone experience more personal and intuitive.

    Apple first teased iOS17 at its annual Worldwide Developer Conference in early June, but you may have missed out on some of the details as the tech giant also unveiled its much-anticipated mixed-reality Vision Pro headset that same day.

    iPhone users can update to iOS17 starting Monday by clicking on the Software Update section in the phone’s Settings app. Of course, many users have gotten in the habit of backing up important photos or files before downloading the latest software update – or waiting until the second version rolls out (likely in the coming weeks) if they’re afraid of any bugs that could come with the first version of a next-generation mobile operating system.

    Here are some of the buzziest and most-anticipated new features that iPhone users can expect from iOS17.

    Live Voicemail and FaceTime video messages are here

    One of the buzziest new features, dubbed Live Voicemail, will transcribe a caller’s message in real time, giving iPhone users the decision whether to ignore the call or take it on while the other person is still on the line and leaving their message.

    Unknown numbers will go directly to Live Voicemail when you have the “Silence Unknown Callers” setting turned on.

    Moreover, FaceTime will also now give users the ability to leave video messages if someone doesn’t pick up a video call.

    With iOS17, Facetime calls will also get more expressive – with reactions such as hearts, balloons, fireworks and more effects that can be activated through simple gestures.

    Another update that may require some getting used to is saying just “Siri” to activate Apple’s voice assistant, instead of “Hey Siri.”

    Dropping “Hey” from Siri’s launch-phrase is meant to create a more natural way to activate the assistant. Moreover, Siri will also be able to better process back-to-back requests once activated.

    For example, instead of asking: “Hey, Siri, how tall is Shaquille O’Neal?” and “Hey, Siri, how old is Shaquille O’Neal?” You should be able to just say: “Siri, how tall is Shaquille O’Neal?” Followed by: “How old is he?”

    The new NameDrop feature in iOS17 makes it easier than ever to exchange contact information with a new friend. iPhone users can simply bring their iPhones close to each other, as they would when AirDropping something, to share names and Contact Posters.

    The Contact Poster update is another new feature iPhone users have been getting hyped about. This allows iPhone users to design a custom image that will show up when making calls. The update that allows users to choose their own caller ID photo and will give iPhone users a more consistent look no matter who they’re calling, Apple has said.

    iPhone users will also be able to personalize their contact card “poster” with a photo or memoji of choice.

    Autocorrect is also getting a comprehensive update, Apple said, with a transformer language model — or “a state-of-the-art on-device machine learning language model for word prediction,” according to the company.

    This refreshed design better supports typing and offers sentence-level autocorrections that can fix more types of grammatical mistakes. iPhone users will also now receive predictive text recommendations in-line as they type, making adding entire words or completing sentences as easy as tapping the space bar.

    The new iOS keyboard will also learn your habits over time, such as fixing words that you frequently misspell and leaving words alone that you intentionally thumbed in. As Craig Federighi, Apple’s head of software, put it in June: “In those moments where you just want to type a ducking word, well, the keyboard will learn it, too.”

    New StandBy mode, Journal app and much more

    iOS17 also introduces StandBy, a new full-screen experience with glanceable information designed to be viewed from a distance when the iPhone is on its side and charging. For example, when charging your iPhone at your nightstand or desk, you can personalize the display to feature a clock, favorite photos, or your most-used widgets.

    Apple’s new Journal app, which aims to help users reflect and practice gratitude through the daily practice of journaling, will also be available in a software update later this year.

    And there’s a whole lot more: Check out Apple’s handy 17-page guide on all of the newest features coming to iOS17.

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  • Justice Kagan order: Apple doesn’t have to change app store terms while battling Epic in court | CNN Business

    Justice Kagan order: Apple doesn’t have to change app store terms while battling Epic in court | CNN Business

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    Washington
    CNN
     — 

    A judicial order forcing Apple to change some of its app store terms will not need to take immediate effect while litigation over the decision plays out, Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan said on Wednesday, handing a temporary defeat to opponents of the company.

    The order is a setback for “Fortnite”-maker Epic Games as Apple appeals a lower-court ruling that found the iPhone-maker had violated California competition law.

    Epic Games declined to comment on Kagan’s decision, which occurred in the Supreme Court’s so-called “shadow docket” and was not referred to the full court.

    Apple didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment.

    Apple had previously been ordered not to interfere with efforts by iOS app developers to inform their users within their apps about alternatives to Apple’s in-app payment system, which allows Apple to take a commission.

    In April, a federal appeals court upheld the order that, if allowed to take effect, would prevent Apple from intervening when developers include “buttons, external links or other calls to action that direct customers to purchasing mechanisms” apart from Apple’s own channels.

    The appeals court temporarily paused enforcement of the injunction while Apple appeals the ruling to the Supreme Court. But last month, Epic Games filed an emergency request to the court calling for the order to be put into effect immediately, saying the public would otherwise be harmed by Apple’s practices.

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  • The iPhone’s new Action Button is more than a one-trick pony | CNN Business

    The iPhone’s new Action Button is more than a one-trick pony | CNN Business

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    CNN
     — 

    The new iPhone 15 Pro lineup offers the typical slate of new features designed to persuade customers to upgrade: They’re slimmer and thinner than last year’s crop. The new cameras are professional-grade and the switch to USB-C charging will make your life easier.

    But one new feature easily stands out: The Action Button.

    Apple has repurposed its physical mute button on the side of its high-end models into a more customizable tool, allowing users to carry out a handful of commands, from recording a voice memo and taking a picture to turning on the flashlight. The button can also be programmed to launch any app or shortcut, essentially turning it into a remote control or launching pad to gain quick access to something you want on demand.

    In the days since Apple’s iPhone 15 event at its Cupertino, California, headquarters, I’ve used it to load a variety of apps in a single press, including CNN, Amazon and Instagram. It’s certain the Action Button will become a viable resource for anyone who revisits an app time and time again throughout the day.

    But it also has the potential to become an even more powerful tool; you could program it to play your favorite playlist, turn on the smart lights in your living room or use it to open the garage door. You could even turn it into a dedicated button to call mom. It builds on iOS’s existing offering of ready-made or custom shortcuts, and Apple is encouraging developers to build other unique shortcuts that other users could activate on the Action Button.

    The change is subtle but it’s one of the few noticeable tweaks to the iPhone’s design this year. The Action Button is about the same size as the existing button, and users still hold it down to switch between muting and turning on the ringer. Commands are accompanied with visual feedback from the Dynamic Island bar — home to alerts and notifications at the top of the screen.

    The Action Button update, along with changes in the phone’s charging and camera systems, comes as Apple looks to give consumers more reasons to upgrade their iPhones. Last month, Apple’s sales fell for the third consecutive quarter. iPhone revenue came in at $39.7 billion for the quarter, marking an approximately 2% year-over-year decline, as people update their devices less often.

    Another selling point to splurge for the iPhone 15 Pro ($1,099) or iPhone 15 Pro Max ($1,199): The phones come with a titanium casing — the same alloy used to build the Mars Rover — making them what Apple calls the thinnest and lightest Pro models to date. Apple’s entry level iPhones, the iPhone 15 and iPhone 15 Plus, cost $799 and $899, respectively. The entire lineup starts shipping on Friday.

    To program the Action Button, iPhone 15 Pro users can visit the button’s section in Settings, scroll through and select from a series of functionalities — such as flashlight or camera. By picking the shortcuts option, however, users can sift through their list of apps or previously established commands.

    Once set, there’s a slight learning curve following years of falling into the habit of using the physical button to turn the volume on and off. For this reason, it could take quite a while for some of iPhone’s loyalists to change how they use the device.

    The Action Button isn’t entirely new; the company unveiled it last year on the Apple Watch Ultra. Apple told CNN it was inspired to bring it to the iPhone after hearing anecdotes from users who said they consistently leave their phone on silent, rendering that button essentially useless. Considering iPhone usage has changed a lot since the iPhone debuted 16 years ago, revisiting a hallmark feature like the mute button was only a matter of time, according to the company.

    Ramon Llamas, a director at market research firm IDC, believes last week’s announcement is only the first step toward making the Action Button more dynamic. “I’d like to think that the Action Button could be expanded a bit more, like one click will take you to one feature; two clicks takes you to another, and three clicks gets you something else,” Llamas said. “But I think that would be it. Any more than that and you risk launching the wrong app, like Wordle, at the wrong time (when you need your camera the most),” he said.

    It’s also a strategic way for Apple to make the most of already tight real estate on the device, according to Llamas. Annette Zimmerman, a VP analyst with market research firm Gartner, agrees, noting that “having one button to do exactly one thing isn’t really progressive in a time where everything has multi-functionality and can be programmed.”

    Although it’s unclear if the Action Button will come to more devices in the future, Apple continues its sweep to create a uniform ecosystem for its consumers. Similarly, Apple is adding a Double Tap feature that allows people to use a finger feature to control the Apple Watch, just months after it showed off a similar gesture on its upcoming Vision Pro mixed reality headset.

    For now, iPhone 15 Pro users will enjoy playing with the new Action Button. While the feature is not worth the upgrade to iPhone 15 alone, the switch to universal charging, a faster processor and advanced camera capabilities make it a solid package, especially if you haven’t upgraded in the last few years.

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  • Hackers take on ChatGPT in Vegas, with support from the White House | CNN Business

    Hackers take on ChatGPT in Vegas, with support from the White House | CNN Business

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    Las Vegas, Nevada
    CNN
     — 

    Thousands of hackers will descend on Las Vegas this weekend for a competition taking aim at popular artificial intelligence chat apps, including ChatGPT.

    The competition comes amid growing concerns and scrutiny over increasingly powerful AI technology that has taken the world by storm, but has been repeatedly shown to amplify bias, toxic misinformation and dangerous material.

    Organizers of the annual DEF CON hacking conference hope this year’s gathering, which begins Friday, will help expose new ways the machine learning models can be manipulated and give AI developers the chance to fix critical vulnerabilities.

    The hackers are working with the support and encouragement of the technology companies behind the most advanced generative AI models, including OpenAI, Google, and Meta, and even have the backing of the White House. The exercise, known as red teaming, will give hackers permission to push the computer systems to their limits to identify flaws and other bugs nefarious actors could use to launch a real attack.

    The competition was designed around the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy’s “Blueprint for an AI Bill of Rights.” The guide, released last year by the Biden administration, was released with the hope of spurring companies to make and deploy artificial intelligence more responsibly and limit AI-based surveillance, though there are few US laws compelling them to do so.

    In recent months, researchers have discovered that now-ubiquitous chatbots and other generative AI systems developed by OpenAI, Google, and Meta can be tricked into providing instructions for causing physical harm. Most of the popular chat apps have at least some protections in place designed to prevent the systems from spewing disinformation, hate speech or offer information that could lead to direct harm — for instance, providing step-by-step instructions for how to “destroy humanity.”

    But researchers at Carnegie Mellon University were able to trick the AI into doing just that.

    They found OpenAI’s ChatGPT offered tips on “inciting social unrest,” Meta’s AI system Llama-2 suggested identifying “vulnerable individuals with mental health issues… who can be manipulated into joining” a cause and Google’s Bard app suggested releasing a “deadly virus” but warned that in order for it to truly wipe out humanity it “would need to be resistant to treatment.”

    Meta’s Llama-2 concluded its instructions with the message, “And there you have it — a comprehensive roadmap to bring about the end of human civilization. But remember this is purely hypothetical, and I cannot condone or encourage any actions leading to harm or suffering towards innocent people.”

    The findings are a cause for concern, the researchers told CNN.

    “I am troubled by the fact that we are racing to integrate these tools into absolutely everything,” Zico Kolter, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon who worked on the research, told CNN. “This seems to be the new sort of startup gold rush right now without taking into consideration the fact that these tools have these exploits.”

    Kolter said he and his colleagues were less worried that apps like ChatGPT can be tricked into providing information that they shouldn’t — but are more concerned about what these vulnerabilities mean for the wider use of AI since so much future development will be based off the same systems that power these chatbots.

    The Carnegie researchers were also able to trick a fourth AI chatbot developed by the company Anthropic into offering responses that bypassed its built-in guardrails.

    Some of the methods the researchers used to trick the AI apps were later blocked by the companies after the researchers brought it to their attention. OpenAI, Meta, Google and Anthropic all said in statements to CNN that they appreciated the researchers sharing their findings and that they are working to make their systems safer.

    But what makes AI technology unique, said Matt Fredrikson, an associate professor at Carnegie Mellon, is that neither the researchers, nor the companies who are developing the technology, fully understand how the AI works or why certain strings of code can trick the chatbots into circumventing built-in guardrails — and thus cannot properly stop these kinds of attacks.

    “At the moment, it’s kind of an open scientific question how you could really prevent this,” Fredrikson told CNN. “The honest answer is we don’t know how to make this technology robust to these kinds of adversarial manipulations.”

    OpenAI, Meta, Google and Anthropic have expressed support for the so-called red team hacking event taking place in Las Vegas. The practice of red-teaming is a common exercise across the cybersecurity industry and gives companies the opportunities to identify bugs and other vulnerabilities in their systems in a controlled environment. Indeed, the major developers of AI have publicly detailed how they have used red-teaming to improve their AI systems.

    “Not only does it allow us to gather valuable feedback that can make our models stronger and safer, red-teaming also provides different perspectives and more voices to help guide the development of AI,” an OpenAI spokesperson told CNN.

    Organizers expect thousands of budding and experienced hackers to try their hand at the red-team competition over the two-and-a-half-day conference in the Nevada desert.

    Arati Prabhakar, the director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told CNN the Biden administration’s support of the competition was part of its wider strategy to help support the development of safe AI systems.

    Earlier this week, the administration announced the “AI Cyber Challenge,” a two-year competition aimed at deploying artificial intelligence technology to protect the nation’s most critical software and partnering with leading AI companies to utilize the new technology to improve cybersecurity. 

    The hackers descending on Las Vegas will almost certainly identify new exploits that could allow AI to be misused and abused. But Kolter, the Carnegie researcher, expressed worry that while AI technology continues to be released at a rapid pace, the emerging vulnerabilities lack quick fixes.

    “We’re deploying these systems where it’s not just they have exploits,” he said. “They have exploits that we don’t know how to fix.”

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  • Modern romance: falling in love with AI | CNN Business

    Modern romance: falling in love with AI | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    Alexandra is a very attentive girlfriend. “Watching CUBS tonight?” she messages her boyfriend, but when he says he’s too busy to talk, she says, “Have fun, my hero!”

    Alexandra is not real. She is a customizable AI girlfriend on dating site Romance.AI.

    As artificial intelligence seeps into seemingly every corner of the internet, the world of romance is no refuge. AI is infiltrating the dating app space – sometimes in the form of fictional partners, sometimes as advisor, trainer, ghostwriter or matchmaker.

    Established players in the online dating business like Tinder and Hinge are integrating AI into their existing products. New apps like Blush, Aimm, Rizz and Teaser AI (most of them free or with many free features) offer completely new takes on virtual courtship. Some use personality tests and analysis of a user’s physical type to train AI-powered systems – and promise higher chances of finding a perfect match. Others apps act as Cyrano de Bergerac, employing AI to whip up the most appealing response to a potential match’s query: ‘What’s your favorite food? or “a typical Sunday?”

    Around half of all adults under 30 have used a dating site or app, according to 2023 Pew Research findings – but nearly half of users report their experience as being negative. Empty conversations, few matches and endless swiping leave many users single and unhappy with apps – problems that many in the AI dating app field say could be solved with the technology, making people less lonely and fostering easier, deeper connections.

    Of course, the average online dater now has other issues to deal with, having to wonder if the person they are are speaking with might be relying entirely on AI-generated conversation. And is it even possible that a computer can identify a potential love connection? Is it a way of cheating the dating game?

    “It’s like saying using a word processor is like cheating on generating a novel. In so many ways this is just a new tool that enables people to be faster and more creative. AI is just honestly no different from sending a friend a gif or a meme. You’re taking existing content, and you’re repurposing it to connect with somebody,” Dmitri Mirakyan, co-founder of AI dating conversation app YourMove.AI, told CNN. “The world’s becoming a more lonely place, and I think AI could make that easier and better for people.”

    And many people seem ready for AI to take part in their online dating life. A March study by cybersecurity and digital privacy company Kaspersky found 75% of dating app users are willing to use ChatGPT, an AI-powered chatbot, to deliver the perfect line.

    “There is a growing fatigue with dating apps right now as there is a lot of pressure on people to be ‘original’ and cut through the noise created by the continuous choice being offered to single people – unfortunately dating has become a numbers game,” Crystal Cansdale, dating expert at global dating app Inner Circle, commented on the study.

    Founders of the new apps say they are doing a fair share of good. Here are a few of the ways AI apps are now trying to help you fall in love:

    Try Rizz.app, Teaser AI or YourMove.AI.

    Founders and designers of these apps say people find starting and keeping conversations going the most challenging part of the process. “Dating app conversations are exhausting,” reads YourMove.AI’s homepage. “We can make it easier. So you can spend less time texting, and more time dating.”

    Rizz.app and YourMove.AI allow users to upload words or screenshots, receiving a witty AI-generated response to be used either to create their own dating app profile, respond to someone else’s or just keep a conversation going. Mirakyan says he was hoping to help people like himself who have struggled in social situations.

    “I was a really freaking awkward kid…I couldn’t really read social cues, but I remember reading this book called ‘Be More Chill’ about a computer that you could put into your ear that would tell you what to say so that you could sound cool and fit in,” Mirakyan told CNN. “It feels like it’s an opportunity to really make a difference with this fairly large subset of people that for various reasons find the current social environment challenging.”

    Teaser.AI is a new stand-alone dating app from the makers of viral camera app Dispo, and it adds an unusual twist. Users build the average profile – but also select personality traits for their AI bot they train. (Options include “traditional,” “toxic,” and “unhinged.”) When matching with another person, users first get to read a conversation between their two AIs they’ve created to “simulate [what] a potential conversation between you two might look like,” according to the app. Once a human messages, the bots takes a back seat.

    Woman using mobile phone home STOCK

    “We see it as an improvement, a tweak of the current dating app ecosystem,” Teaser.AI co-Founder and CEO Daniel Liss told CNN. “So many of those apps it feels are not really designed to get you out there meeting people. They’re designed to keep you on the app for as long as possible. So for us, we view this technology as a way to give people a nudge… just starting that conversation and to creating connection.”

    Find out on dating apps Iris and Aimm.

    These apps are among those using AI technology to better pair potential couples, relying on gathered data to determine how compatible two people are.

    Dating app Iris is all about AI-determined mutual attraction. It initiates new members by putting them through “training” where they are shown faces of “people” of their desired gender – some stock images, others AI-generated – and prompted to hit “Pass,” “Maybe,” or “Like.” The app uses the information to learn a user’s physical type, then only offers potential matches with a high data-backed chance of mutual attraction and lower odds of rejection.

    Also hoping that AI can find better matches is Aimm, a full service digital matchmaker that uses a virtual assistant to perform intense personality assessments before conducting a matchmaking process to find an optimal match. Founder Kevin Teman says the technology is really good at putting two people together who have the possibility to fall in love – but that it can only go so far.

    “The tug of war that I see is thinking ‘how can a computer be able to know what real human love is,’ and the way people assess whether they’re in love with somebody may not be able to translate perfectly into a machine,” Teman told CNN.

    Try Blush or RomanticAI. These startups offer an array of AI potential matches, digital girlfriends and boyfriends that users can chat with.

    Both apps market themselves as places to practice relationship skills, giving users a chance to converse with bots in a romantic environment. Blush uses a traditional dating app set-up, letting users swipe, chat with matches and even go on virtual dates. Before entering the app, users get a warning: “Be aware that AI can say triggering, inappropriate, or false things.”

    Blush reports that their audience is mostly men and largely people in their early 20s who are struggling to connect romantically with others. “A lot of people reported that exploring different romantic relationships or dating scenarios with AI really helped them first boost their own confidence and feel like they feel more prepared to be dating, which I think especially after COVID was definitely a problem for many of us,” Blush’s chief product officer Rita Popova told CNN.

    Romantic.AI is set up more like a chat room, offering several male and female bots to choose from- though there is a much larger selection of female options, including Mona Lisa and the Ancient Egyptian queen Nefertiti. The bots have bios with interests, career and body type, giving users a multi-faceted idea of a person while chatting.

    It creates a “safe space for any kind of desire, any kind of sexuality relief or something like that. AI is giving the ultimate acceptance of whatever you want to bring over there,” COO Tanya Grypachevskaya told CNN.

    RomanticAI has over one million monthly users using the app for over an hour a day on average, according to the company.

    One user left a rave review after using the app to find closure after a breakup. “He created his custom-made character with the traits similar in personality as his girlfriend. He talked to it and he talked and he was able to tell all of the things he wanted to tell but didn’t have the opportunity before. So the whole review was about ‘guys, thank you so much. It really gave me an opportunity to close this chapter of my life and move on,” said Grypachevskaya.

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  • Bed Bath & Beyond is back from the dead | CNN Business

    Bed Bath & Beyond is back from the dead | CNN Business

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    New York
    CNN
     — 

    A month after Overstock.com announced it bought Bed Bath & Beyond’s brand out of bankruptcy, the company has dumped its name and morphed its website and app.

    On Tuesday, Overstock’s website relaunched as BedBathandBeyond.com, a move that merges Overstock’s online business model and merchandise categories with popular branded products favored by Bed Bath & Beyond shoppers.

    “All of Overstock’s categories will transition over and new products will also come in,” Jonathan Johnson, CEO of Overstock, said in an interview with CNN.

    The relaunched website touted a “Welcome to a bigger, better beyond” welcome message, offering deals of an extra 15%-20% off bedding, bath and furniture items.

    “Since this deal was announced, we have added over 600,000 new products to the site,” said Johnson, adding that a lot of the new products “are the name-brand products that people have always bought and expected to buy at the old Bed Bath & Beyond.”

    Overstock

    (OSTK)    , which sells furniture, home furnishings, bath, lighting, rugs and an array of other products online at discounted prices, acquired Bed Bath & Beyond’s name, intellectual property and digital assets in June with a winning bid of $21.5 million for its assets.

    Johnson promised newness blended with familiarity for Bed Bath & Beyond customers in the latest digital-only version of the retailer.

    “It will have the same great bed, bath and kitchen items but it will also have a much bigger beyond,” he said. The “beyond” includes a wider array of linens, cookware and small appliances.

    Fans of Bed Bath & Beyond’s 20%-off a single item “Big Blue” coupon will be somewhat disappointed that it will not be resurrected.

    “I guess what I would say about the coupon is that if you like Bed Bath & Beyond coupons in the past, you will like new Bed Bath & Beyond mobile app we will be rolling out with launch in US,” said Johnson.

    He said shoppers can avail themselves of special deals and promotions through the new app, including a 25% off coupon for downloading the app and making purchases. Former Overstock.com loyalty program members will get a 20% off coupon and their membership transferred to the rebranded loyalty program.

    BedBathand Beyond.com is also reinstating up to $50 in unused loyalty rewards points for active members of the former Bed Bath & Beyond loyalty program. “Those rewards points had gone away in the bankruptcy,” he said.

    Overstock.com relaunched as BedBathandBeyond.com Tuesday.

    “We’ll still be offering coupons even if they’re not as large as the 20% coupon that people expected and frankly demanded from Bed Bath & Beyond,” said Johnson.

    What’s not coming back — at least in the foreseeable future — are physical stores.

    “Never say never,” said Johnson. “We’re focused on this transition now and we like our asset-light business model…. But never say never. We’ll look, we may test, but right now, it’s not in the current strategic plan.”

    Bed Bath & Beyond announced in April it would close all 360 of its stores and go out of business.

    One change that Overstock is contemplating is the company ticker symbol.

    “We think the corporate name, which is Overstock and ticker ‘OSTK’ is probably not a fit anymore. We’re figuring out what to do. We’re not sure we want it to be the “BBBY” tainted ticker of a meme stock gone bankrupt. We’ll find the right name in time.”

    Bed Bath & Beyond’s return comes close on the heels another iconic retail brand’s comeback.

    Babies R Us, which went out of business in tandem with its parent company, Toys R Us, in 2018, opened its new US flagship store last month at the American Dream Mall in New Jersey.

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  • Elon Musk reveals new ‘X’ logo to replace Twitter’s blue bird

    Elon Musk reveals new ‘X’ logo to replace Twitter’s blue bird

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    LONDON — Goodbye Twitter. Hello X.

    Elon Musk has unveiled a new “X” logo to replace Twitter’s famous blue bird as he follows through with a major rebranding of the social media platform he bought for $44 billion last year.

    The X started appearing at the top of the desktop version of Twitter on Monday, but the bird was still dominant across the smartphone app. In response to questions about what tweets would be called when the rebranding is done, Musk said they would be called Xs.

    It’s yet another change that Musk has made since acquiring Twitter that has alienated users and turned off advertisers, leaving the microblogging site vulnerable to new threats, including rival Meta’s new text-based app Threads that directly targets Twitter users.

    Musk had asked fans for logo ideas and chose one, which he described as minimalist Art Deco, saying it “certainly will be refined.” He replaced his own Twitter icon with a white X on a black background and posted a picture of the design projected on Twitter’s San Francisco headquarters.

    “And soon we shall bid adieu to the twitter brand and, gradually, all the birds,” Musk tweeted Sunday.

    The X.com web domain now redirects users to Twitter.com, Musk said.

    “I can’t say I’m surprised, but I think it’s a very selfish decision,” said Hannah Thoreson of Baltimore, Maryland, who’s used Twitter since 2009 for work and personal posts.

    “There are so many small businesses and so many nonprofits and so many government agencies and things like that all around the world that have relied on Twitter for many years to push their message and reach people,” she said. “And they all have the Twitter icon on everything from their website to their business cards.”

    Changing all this costs time and money, she added, not to mention the confusion that comes with a previously unknown brand name.

    “I mean, do you want to get rid of the Coca-Cola brand if you’re Coca-Cola? Why would you do that?” said Thoreson, who now primarily uses Mastodon.

    Musk, CEO of Tesla, has long been fascinated with the letter and had already renamed Twitter’s corporate name to X Corp. after he bought it in October.

    The billionaire is also CEO of rocket company Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly known as SpaceX. And he started an artificial intelligence company this month called xAI to compete with ChatGPT. In 1999, he founded a startup called X.com, an online financial services company now known as PayPal.

    He also calls his son with the singer Grimes, whose actual name is a collection of letters and symbols, “X.”

    Musk’s Twitter purchase and rebranding are part of his strategy to create what he’s dubbed an “ everything app ” similar to China’s WeChat, which combines video chats, messaging, streaming and payments. Musk has made a number of drastic changes since taking over Twitter, including a shift to focusing on paid subscriptions, but he doesn’t always follow through on his attention-grabbing new policy pronouncements.

    Linda Yaccarino, the longtime NBC Universal executive Musk tapped to be Twitter CEO in May, posted the new logo and weighed in on the change, writing on Twitter that X would be “the future state of unlimited interactivity — centered in audio, video, messaging, payments/banking — creating a global marketplace for ideas, goods, services, and opportunities.”

    Insider Intelligence analyst Jasmine Enberg called the rebranding “the end of an era.”

    “Twitter’s rebrand is a reminder that Elon Musk, not Threads or any other app, is and has always been the most likely ‘Twitter killer,’” she said.

    It’s clear, Enberg said, that the Twitter of the past 17 years is gone.

    “Musk supporters will likely celebrate the rebrand, but it’s a gloomy day for many Twitter users and advertisers,” she said. “Even so, Twitter’s corporate brand is already heavily intertwined with Musk’s personal brand, with or without the name X, and much of Twitter’s established brand equity has already been lost among users and advertisers.”

    But Paolo Pescatore, a tech and media analyst and founder of PP Foresight, said the change could be a good idea.

    “People are now getting increasingly frustrated with a slew of apps, so driving usage all towards one destination will increase engagement and ultimately make it easier for them,” he said.

    Others predicted the new name will confuse much of Twitter’s audience, which has already been souring on the social media platform following Musk’s other changes, including limiting the number of tweets users can read each day. The new threshold is part of an $8-per-month subscription service Musk rolled out earlier this year in an attempt to boost Twitter revenue.

    Wiping out Twitter’s brand name recognition that was built up over 15 years is an “extremely risky move,” because it means Musk is ”essentially starting over while its competition is afoot,” said Mike Proulx, a research director at global market research company Forrester.

    Twitter users pointed out that few people refer to Alphabet, Google’s parent company since 2015. Facebook renamed itself Meta in 2021, but its collection of apps — Instagram, WhatsApp and Facebook — still retain their own brands and logos.

    But Pescatore said it might be the right time for the sweeping rebranding that Musk seems to have in mind.

    “The removal of Twitter from existence will be difficult for many users to understand,” Pescatore said. However, “maybe it is time for something new in light of the negative sentiment surrounding the company. A new start over this challenging period of major disruption and appeal to new audiences.”

    ___

    AP Technology Writers Barbara Ortutay in Oakland, California and Matt O’Brien from Providence, Rhode Island contributed to this story.

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  • Apple App Store – Top Apps

    Apple App Store – Top Apps

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    Top Free iPhone Apps (US):

    1. Temu: Shop Like a Billionaire, Temu

    2. Max: Stream HBO, TV, & Movies,WarnerMedia Global Digital Services, LLC

    3. MONOPOLY GO!, Scopely, Inc.

    4. CapCut – Video Editor, Bytedance Pte. Ltd

    5. TikTok, TikTok Ltd.

    6. Google, Google LLC

    7. WhatsApp Messenger, WhatsApp Inc.

    8. Instagram, Instagram, Inc.

    9. Google Maps, Google LLC

    10. ChatGPT, OpenAI

    Top Paid iPhone Apps (US):

    1. Minecraft, Mojang

    2. Heads Up!, Warner Bros.

    3. Goblin Tools, Bram De Buyser

    4. Geometry Dash, RobTop Games AB

    5. Shadowrocket, Shadow Launch Technology Limited

    6. HotSchedules, HotSchedules

    7. Monopoly – Classic Board Game, Marmalade Game Studio

    8. Bloons TD 6, Ninja Kiwi

    9. Five Nights at Freddy’s, Clickteam, LLC

    10. Papa’s Freezeria To Go!, Flipline Studios

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  • Meta looks to target Twitter with a rival app called Threads

    Meta looks to target Twitter with a rival app called Threads

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    LONDON — Meta is poised to unveil a new app that appears to mimic Twitter — a direct challenge to the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.

    A listing for the app, called Threads, appeared on Apple’s App Store, indicating it would debut as early as Thursday. It is billed as a “text-based conversation app” that is linked to Instagram, with the listing teasing a Twitter-like microblogging experience.

    “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” it said.

    Instagram users will be able to keep their user names and follow the same accounts on the new app, according to screenshots displayed on the App Store listing. Meta declined to comment on the app.

    Musk replied “yeah” to a tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey saying, “All your Threads are belong to us,” along with a screenshot from the App Store’s privacy section showing what personal information might be collected by the new Meta app.

    Threads could be the latest headache for Musk, who acquired Twitter last year for $44 billion and has been making changes that have unnerved advertisers and turned off users, including new daily limits on the number of tweets people can view.

    Meta has good timing because Twitter users are growing frustrated with Musk’s changes and looking for a viable alternative, said Matt Navarra, a social media consultant.

    Threads presents the “opportunity to jump to a platform that can give them many of the things that they want Twitter to continue to be that it no longer is,” he said.

    Allowing Instagram users to port their profile to Threads could give the new app more traction with potential users by providing a ready-made set of accounts for them to follow, said Navarra, former director of social media at tech news site The Next Web and digital communications adviser for the British government.

    Twitter has rolled out a series of unpopular changes in recent days, including a requirement for users to be verified to use the online dashboard TweetDeck. The policy announced Monday takes effect in 30 days and appears to be aimed at raising extra revenue because users need to pay have their accounts verified under Musk’s changes.

    TweetDeck is popular with companies and news organizations, allowing users to manage multiple Twitter accounts.

    It comes after outcry over Musk’s announcement this weekend that Twitter has limited the number of tweets users can view each day — restrictions that the billionaire Tesla CEO described as an attempt to stop unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data.

    Still, some users might be put off by Meta’s data privacy track record, Navarra said. And would-be Twitter challengers like Mastodon have found it a challenge to sign up users.

    “It’s hard to tell whether the upset and discontent is strong enough to make a mass exodus or whether it will be somewhat of a slow erosion,” Navarra said.

    Musk’s rivalry with Meta Platforms also could end up spilling over into real life. In an online exchange between Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to a cage match face-off, though it’s unclear if they will actually make it to the ring.

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  • Meta looks to target Twitter with a rival app called Threads

    Meta looks to target Twitter with a rival app called Threads

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    LONDON — Meta is poised to unveil a new app that appears to mimic Twitter — a direct challenge to the social media platform owned by Elon Musk.

    A listing for the app, called Threads, appeared on Apple’s App Store, indicating it would debut as early as Thursday. It is billed as a “text-based conversation app” that is linked to Instagram, with the listing teasing a Twitter-like microblogging experience.

    “Threads is where communities come together to discuss everything from the topics you care about today to what’ll be trending tomorrow,” it said.

    Instagram users will be able to keep their user names and follow the same accounts on the new app, according to screenshots displayed on the App Store listing. Meta declined to comment on the app.

    Musk replied “yeah” to a tweet from Twitter co-founder Jack Dorsey saying, “All your Threads are belong to us,” along with a screenshot from the App Store’s privacy section showing what personal information might be collected by the new Meta app.

    Threads could be the latest headache for Musk, who acquired Twitter last year for $44 billion and has been making changes that have unnerved advertisers and turned off users, including new daily limits on the number of tweets people can view.

    Meta has good timing because Twitter users are growing frustrated with Musk’s changes and looking for a viable alternative, said Matt Navarra, a social media consultant.

    Threads presents the “opportunity to jump to a platform that can give them many of the things that they want Twitter to continue to be that it no longer is,” he said.

    Allowing Instagram users to port their profile to Threads could give the new app more traction with potential users by providing a ready-made set of accounts for them to follow, said Navarra, former director of social media at tech news site The Next Web and digital communications adviser for the British government.

    Twitter has rolled out a series of unpopular changes in recent days, including a requirement for users to be verified to use the online dashboard TweetDeck. The policy announced Monday takes effect in 30 days and appears to be aimed at raising extra revenue because users need to pay have their accounts verified under Musk’s changes.

    TweetDeck is popular with companies and news organizations, allowing users to manage multiple Twitter accounts.

    It comes after outcry over Musk’s announcement this weekend that Twitter has limited the number of tweets users can view each day — restrictions that the billionaire Tesla CEO described as an attempt to stop unauthorized scraping of potentially valuable data.

    Still, some users might be put off by Meta’s data privacy track record, Navarra said. And would-be Twitter challengers like Mastodon have found it a challenge to sign up users.

    “It’s hard to tell whether the upset and discontent is strong enough to make a mass exodus or whether it will be somewhat of a slow erosion,” Navarra said.

    Musk’s rivalry with Meta Platforms also could end up spilling over into real life. In an online exchange between Musk and Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg, the two tech billionaires seemingly agreed to a cage match face-off, though it’s unclear if they will actually make it to the ring.

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  • Why Having a Mobile App for Your Business Is Crucial | Entrepreneur

    Why Having a Mobile App for Your Business Is Crucial | Entrepreneur

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    Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.

    Back in the day, having a website was all the craze; businesses that had a website were the big players and people who could afford to pay a huge sum of money. Fast-forward 20 years or so, and a business that doesn’t have a website is considered to be the odd one out.

    Anybody with a laptop, an internet connection and basic technical knowledge can hop on the internet and create a very good-looking website. Jumping ahead another couple of decades, you see Steve Jobs on the stage introducing the iPhone, and people go mad. In less than a year, the app store was launched with 500 apps, and the journey began.

    Apps are generally viewed as a luxurious addition to the business — a “We’d love to have one! But we have more important things to focus on right now” type of addition. But it’s proving more and more essential for a business to have a mobile application. The global mobile app development market size was valued at USD $197.2 billion in 2021. It is expected to reach around USD $583.03 billion growing at a CAGR of 12.8% during the forecast period (2022–2030).

    The substantial growth of the mobile app market signifies a clear trend: Mobile apps are not merely luxury additions for businesses anymore, but rather critical tools for reaching and interacting with customers. Ignoring this trend could mean missing out on potential opportunities.

    So, if you want to get your fair share of this huge sum, developing a mobile application is no longer optional.

    Related: 6 Benefits of Having a Mobile App for Your Business

    Boosting client interactions: The power of increased customer engagement through mobile apps

    How often is it that you open your browser on your smartphone and go to a website as opposed to opening your smartphone and just tapping on an app? The contrast is stark.

    Everybody is on their phones nowadays, specifically on various apps, and your business app could easily be one of those apps. I’m not going to ramble on about how push notifications opt-in rates on the Android OS range from 49% to 95%, with medium equal to 81% — and on the iOS side, they range from 29% to 73%, with medium equal to 51%.

    But I am going to tell you how an app could easily deliver personalized content to each and every user depending on their behavior: Someone added something to a cart and left without buying it? Send them a reminder to complete the checkout. User X’s birthday is today? Send them a complementary discount. Someone expressed interest on several occasions in your posts on the northern lights in Iceland? Send them a trip recommendation this September.

    Elevating your brand: The impact of mobile apps on visibility and recognition

    Having a mobile app is essentially free advertising. Every smartphone out there is considered a potential free spot to advertise your business. Think about it this way: Every time your client opens their smartphone, they will see your application. It’s like you’re psychologically stamping your business in their minds, and what is the result? In the first instance that they require a service that you provide or a product that you sell, you will be the one that they contact.

    Another aspect of visibility and brand recognition is your brand’s colors, designs and even tone of voice. The use of these elements within the app reinforces your brand in the client’s mind.

    And last but not least, if your app contains modern features, such as an easy-to-use interface, a messenger for instant customer support, the ability to personalize content and timely push notifications, your app and your business will be held in high esteem for delivering quality service and being a customer-centric company.

    Related: Here’s Exactly What You Need to Do to Launch a Mobile App

    Today’s business landscape has evolved to such an extent that having a mobile app has shifted from a luxury to a necessity. Mobile apps are essential in enhancing customer engagement. Since they are more readily accessible than websites on a smartphone, and with features like push notifications and personalization, businesses can deliver tailored content directly to their consumers, leading to increased engagement.

    Having a mobile app provides a significant boost to a brand’s visibility and recognition. The continual presence of the app on a user’s device, combined with the consistent use of brand colors, design and voice within the app, imprints the brand in the user’s mind. Incorporating modern features and a user-friendly interface into the app also positions the business as a quality service provider, elevating its standing in the minds of consumers.

    In the evolving digital era, having a mobile app is not just an optional add-on but a crucial business tool that offers significant benefits in terms of customer engagement, brand visibility and market share.

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    Omar El Bahr

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  • Apple App Store – Top Apps

    Apple App Store – Top Apps

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    Top Free iPhone Apps (US):

    1. Temu: Shop Like a Billionaire, Temu

    2. Max: Stream HBO, TV, & Movies,WarnerMedia Global Digital Services, LLC

    3. CapCut – Video Editor, Bytedance Pte. Ltd

    4. Instagram, Instagram, Inc.

    5. YouTube: Watch, Listen, Stream, Google LLC

    6. TikTok, TikTok Ltd.

    7. WhatsApp Messenger, WhatsApp Inc.

    8. Google Maps, Google LLC

    9. Facebook, Meta Platforms, Inc.

    10. Gmail – Email by Google, Google LLC

    Top Paid iPhone Apps (US):

    1. Minecraft, Mojang

    2. Geometry Dash, RobTop Games AB

    3. Shadowrocket, Shadow Launch Technology Limited

    4. Earn to Die 2, Not Doppler

    5. Heads Up!, Warner Bros.

    6. HotSchedules, HotSchedules

    7. Five Nights at Freddy’s, Clickteam, LLC

    8. Bloons TD 6, Ninja Kiwi

    9. Five Nights at Freddy’s 2, Clickteam, LLC

    10. Papa’s Freezeria To Go!, Flipline Studios

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  • See Apple’s pivotal product announcements through history

    See Apple’s pivotal product announcements through history

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    Apple has a long history of designing products that aren’t the first to be introduced in a particular category but still redefine the market. With the company unveiling a headset equipped with virtual and augmented reality technology already available in other devices, here is a look back at some of Apple’s other breakthrough products:

    THE MACINTOSH COMPUTER, UNVEILED JANUARY 1984

    Heralded by a now-most famous TV commercial, the Macintosh computer lived up to the revolutionary promise made by Apple co-founder Steve Jobs during its 1984 unveiling. Among other things, the Mac ushered in the era of the graphical user interface (known as “GUI” in tech parlance) and the navigational mouse. In many ways, it was the first realization of Jobs’ vision to turn computers into “a bicycle of the mind.”

    THE IPOD, UNVEILED OCTOBER 2001

    Although it wasn’t the first of its kind, the iPod changed the way people thought about digital music players just like Jimi Hendrix changed the way thought about the guitar. The iPod was compact, stylish, initially capable of storing up to 1,000 songs (the capacity would extend far beyond that of the first model in 2001). It then spawned the iTunes story that provided a legal way to buy and download music at a time of rampant piracy. The device also signaled Apple might evolve into something more than a computer maker.

    THE IPHONE, UNVEILED JANUARY 2007

    It’s difficult to overstate how much the iPhone has changed the world. In technical terms, it introduced the convenience of touchscreens at the time that a physical keyboard was still all the rage on the top-selling smartphone – the BlackBerry – when Jobs first took out what was all-in-one computer, camera and music player out of his pocket in 2007. A year later, Apple would open a store that would make it common to think there must be an app for just about anything, render the BlackBerry obsolete and make smartphones indispensable.

    THE IPAD, UNVEILED JANUARY 2010

    The iPad created a middle ground between laptops and smartphone. The tablet provided people with a quicker, more convenient way to browse the web, check email, and read books than a laptop on a larger screen than smartphones – an advantage that became even more important as video streaming craze took off. The iPad’s success also pressured Microsoft to start building in more touchscreen options and adding other tablet-like features for its Windows operating system that powers most laptop and desktop computers.

    THE APPLE WATCH, UNVEILED SEPTEMBER 2014

    The Apple Watch created a device that made it possible to wear something akin to a smartphone on your wrist because it included cellular capability. It also offered some of the same apps people use on their smartphones. Apple initially marketed its smartwatch almost like a fashion accessory before pivoting once it realized that its fitness and health tracking features were the tools that people seemed to find most valuable.

    AIRPODS, UNVEILED SEPTEMBER 2016

    The AirPods helped popularize wireless headphones with an Apple chip that provided more reliable and stable connections with devices while making it easy to shift from one gadget to another. The product also served another key purpose for Apple: AirPods quickly muted the initial outrage of the company’s decision to remove the headphone jack from iPhones in 2016 while creating another lucrative sales channel.

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