Mobile Phone

  Google released the Pixel Slate with much fanfare in late 2018, bringing to fruition its efforts to optimize Chrome OS for the tablet form factor. The device sold boatloads and finally solidified Google’s position in the tablet market. Actually, no — the Pixel Slate sold so poorly that Google …

TikTok announced this morning it has signed a new licensing agreement with Sony Music Entertainment (SME) that will allow the short-form video app to continue to offer songs from Sony Music artists for use by creators on its platform. The agreement will also see the companies partnering on efforts to …

  Google is testing a new feature that could improve discovery for Android apps on Google Play. The company confirmed it’s experimenting with a “Compare Apps” option that would allow Google Play users to quickly and more easily understand the slight differences between otherwise similar apps by comparing specific features …

Apple is today rolling out an update to its video creation app, Clips, which brings much-needed support for vertical videos, allowing for sharing to TikTok and the “Stories” feature in other social apps. The addition is one of several arriving with the release of Clips 3.0, which also introduces support …

  Google is currently moving full-speed ahead with YouTube Music, leaving the aging Play Music in the dust. Despite announcing this change last year, YouTube Music still hasn’t reached feature parity with Play Music. It’s a little bit closer today thanks to the new YTM smartwatch app. However, that app …

Amazon has quietly launched a new augmented reality application that works with QR codes on the company’s shipping boxes to create “interactive, shareable” AR experiences. Called simply “Amazon Augmented Reality,” the retailer describes the app as a “fun way to reuse your Amazon boxes until you’re ready to drop them …

Women-friendly dating and networking app Bumble announced today it’s expanding its C-suite with two new hires: Anu Subramanian as Bumble’s chief financial officer, who hails from Univision, and Selby Drummond as chief brand officer, who is joining from Snap. The additions also create something of a milestone for Bumble, as …

Helicopter parenting turned into surveillance with the debut of family-tracking apps like Life360. While the app can alleviate parental fears when setting younger kids loose in the neighborhood, Life360’s teenage users have hated the app’s location-tracking features so much that avoiding and dissing the app quickly became a TikTok meme. …

Former Apple software engineer and designer Ken Kocienda, whose work included the original iPhone and the development of touchscreen autocorrect, has created his first iOS app, Up Spell. The fast-paced, fun word game challenges users to spell all the words you can in two minutes and uses a lexicon of …

Last year, Instagram announced it was ending support for its standalone mobile messaging app known as Direct, which had allowed users to quickly create and share messages with friends. Shortly thereafter, the company launched Threads, a new messaging app focused on status updates and communication with only those you identified …