Instagram’s co-founders’ personalized news reader, Artifact, is now open to the public without sign-up. Last month, Instagram founders Kevin Systrom and Mike Krieger unveiled their latest venture as an invite-only experience, promising their news app would later include social features like discussing the news with friends. Today’s launch removes Artifact’s …

On Sunday, Facebook-parent Meta launched Meta Verified, a subscription service that lets users add the blue check mark to their Instagram and Facebook accounts for up to $15 a month by verifying their identity, tapping a new revenue channel that has had mixed results for Twitter. Starting this week in …

AI photo apps: over? AI-powered photo apps like Lensa AI’s “magic avatars” and others that promise to turn text into images have gone viral on the App Store in recent months. Apptopia data shows consumer interest in AI photo apps has fallen as quickly as it rose. The firm tracked …

Google announced the launch of the first Beta for its “Privacy Sandbox” adtech stack proposal, which aims to iterate how ad tracking, targeting, and reporting is done so it appears less creepy for individual users while maintaining an interest-based, behavioral targeting capability on web users’ eyeballs. Google has started letting …

In his second State of the Union address of his term, President Joe Biden will speak to the nation on Tuesday evening. The president is scheduled to comment on data privacy and children’s online safety issues, according to a White House press release. According to the briefing, Biden will urge …

Allow space for yet another play about preventative health: After four years of covert development, Spotify founder Daniel Ek quietly launched a body scanning service in Sweden on Friday, putting an end to rumors about his new “health tech” startup, Neko (via Tech EU). Ek, who described the healthcare system …

Charging a battery In an effort to start up its $1.6 billion gigafactory, Our Next Energy announced this morning that it had closed a sizable $300 million Series B round. The two-and-a-half-year-old company, which closed a $25 million Series A in October 2021 and a $65 million Series A1 in …

According to a Bloomberg report, Meta can proceed with its acquisition of virtual reality startup Within. In a sealed decision, Judge Edward Davila reportedly rejected the FTC’s request to proceed with blocking the transaction. The FTC filed a lawsuit against Meta in July to prevent the company from buying Within, …

As COVID-19 shakes the second-largest economy in the world, China’s smartphone market is experiencing a speed bump after a decade of frantic growth. According to research firm Counterpoint, the nation’s smartphone shipments fell 14% year over year in 2022, hitting a ten-year low. According to Canalys, it was also the …

Text messaging has just become a new method of shopping at Walmart. The retail behemoth just last month introduced its “Text to Shop” service, allowing mobile shoppers on iOS and Android devices to text Walmart the goods they wish to buy from local stores or Walmart.com, as well as quickly …