News

Tuesday’s Tencent-owned WeChat app announced Apple’s online store. WeChat’s mini-programs, which include e-commerce, financial services, and transportation, have brought the Cupertino company’s store to the app. This store sells iPhones, iPads, Apple Watches, and Macs. As Reuters notes, Apple already has a store on Alibaba’s Tmall retail platform, Tencent’s rival. …

Confirmed that FrontRow, an Indian celebrity-focused hobby-learning and community platform, has closed. The three-year-old startup created a community where famous artists and athletes taught consumers. Elevation Capital, Eight Roads Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and Not Boring Capital backed the $18 million startup. FrontRow co-founder Ishaan Preet Singh told that the …

Users can now manually revert to the “old” TweetDeck. This may not be possible for long. The “TweetDeck version” option in users’ settings lets those forced onto the new TweetDeck revert. From the edge Twitter has been testing a TweetDeck refresh for years, but users who opted in could opt …

JumpCloud reset API keys to protect customers from a security incident. In an email to customers, the directory, identity, and access management giant reported a “ongoing incident” without details. The company said the resets were “out of an abundance of caution” in a support post. Louisville, Colorado-based technology secures cloud …

Chinese auto chip maker Black Sesame recently filed to go public in Hong Kong, providing a glimpse into the business prospects and challenges of an industry that’s becoming increasingly important amid an autonomous driving boom and China’s semiconductor independence. Black Sesame, founded by Bosch and OmniVision alumni, could challenge Nvidia, …

After days of criticism, Apple removed several predatory lending apps from the App Store in India. Apple removed Pocket Kash, White Kash, Golden Kash, and OK Rupee this week. In recent weeks, the apps reached the top 20 of the App Store’s finance list by offering Indian consumers fast-track lending. …

Today, OpenAI released GPT-4, its latest text-generating model, via its API. All OpenAI API developers “with a history of successful payments” can access GPT-4 this afternoon. The company plans to open access to new developers by the end of the month, then raise availability limits “depending on compute availability.” “Millions …

San Francisco safe streets activists discovered they can disable Cruise and Waymo robotaxis by placing a traffic cone on a vehicle’s hood. The group’s viral “Week of Cone” prank on Twitter and TikTok is a protest against the city’s robotaxi services, which residents are tired of breaking down and blocking …

Twitter may never return. Twitter, the preeminent Twitter of its time, offered a lively, often incoherent mix of paradigm-shifting cultural phenomena (Arab Spring, the Me Too movement, Black Twitter), breaking news, corporate existentialist brand building, tweet-addled U.S. presidents, and hardcore porn. Meta’s Twitter clone Threads just launched, giving us options—maybe …

Rest, heart. Do not add another social network, regardless of FOMO. Resisting the latest fad app is harder than expected. Meta (Facebook) is launching Threads, the millionth Twitter clone and Apple’s number-one app, with unusual calm. Instagram is already promoting Threads. Instagram says, “____, ____ and 1 other posted on …