The most popular VTubers, online personalities who use motion-capture-powered manga- and anime-inspired avatars to interact with the world alongside games, over YouTube, and elsewhere, have hundreds of millions of hours of viewership per month, loyal fan bases, lucrative sponsorships, and demand for more. Big tech appears to be taking notice. …

Reddit’s controversial API pricing change that’s driving third-party apps out of business has taken a strange turn. In an AMA today, Reddit co-founder and CEO Steve Huffman, aka u/spez, doubled down on accusations against the developer of the popular third-party app Apollo, which the company had previously accused of operating …

Apollo, a popular third-party Reddit app, will close on June 30, 2023, due to Reddit’s new API pricing plans, which would cost Apollo $20 million per year to operate. This is unsustainable for an indie developer. Christian Selig, the app’s creator, was one of the first to point out that …

Theranos was worth $10 billion ten years ago. Wire fraud indicted her five years ago. Holmes began her 11-year-and-3-month sentence today. A defendant is usually convicted and imprisoned soon after indictment. Holmes’ legal team has played every card to delay her fall, which was once hailed as the next Steve …

Productivity app Portal’s Mac app launched. With vivid backgrounds and natural sounds, the company helps customers focus and work better. The PC and iOS apps share goals. The company reported over a million app downloads. The native Mac program, compatible with Apple silicon, targets professionals who work from home and …

A cybersecurity group claims that a popular Android screen recording software with tens of thousands of downloads on Google’s app store began spying on its users, capturing microphone recordings and other phone data. ESET observed that the Android app “iRecorder — Screen Recorder” released the malicious code as an app …

Everybody has. Shopping online and desperate for a promo code to save money. I was there. Enter Checkmate. The startup wants to end promo/discount/coupon code hunting. For that, it raised $15 million in Series A funding. This raise had some interesting features. Checkmate recently raised $5 million. Raising capital soon …

Before today’s expansion to 11 more global markets, OpenAI’s ChatGPT app was successful in the U.S. and iOS. According to data.ai, the app has reached half a million downloads in its first six days. Only the Trump-backed Twitter clone Truth Social’s February 2022 launch outperformed it. As demand for AI …

OpenAI tweeted that the official ChatGPT mobile app is available in more countries. Last week, OpenAI launched its iOS-only mobile app in the U.S. Europe, South Korea, New Zealand, and more can now download the app from the App Store. Ad-free ChatGPT is free. Since it’s just a chatbot interface, …

Security researchers and digital rights organizations believe the Azerbaijani government used NSO Group spyware to target a government worker, journalists, activists, and Armenia’s human rights ombudsperson as part of a years-long conflict that has sometimes escalated into war. Access Now, a digital rights group that investigated some of the cyberattacks, …