Software

A rewards app and social network called Claim raised $4 million in seed funding with Sequoia Capital as the lead investor. The startup wants to make shopping fun, rewarding, and social. With an invite-only beta launch in January, the app targets Boston college and university students. Claim lets friends and …

Spotify reconsidered leaving Uruguay after the government promised copyright law changes would not cost it. For those unfamiliar with Uruguay’s music streaming scene, the story went like this. Last October, Uruguay mandated “fair and equitable” artist pay. Besides the “featured” artist, this included composers, performers, session musicians, and others on …

Instagram announced Wednesday that users can post video notes. Instagram’s status feature, Notes, launched a year ago. You could only post text or emojis to your status update before. A two-second looping video note can now be shared with mutual followers or close friends for 24 hours. Since Instagram already …

Google is making Imagen 2, its AI model that can create and edit images with a text prompt, more widely available to Google Cloud customers using Vertex AI who have been approved. The company isn’t disclosing which data it used to train the new model or offering creators who accidentally …

Last week, Google announced its family of Gemini models and added them to its Bard chatbot. Today, it’s launching a variety of new and updated services for developers. One of these services is AI Studio, formerly MakerSuite. AI Studio is a web-based tool for developers that opens up the Gemini …

Instagram is considering a new feature called “flipside” that lets users create a private side of their profile to post more candid and personal photos for a select group of friends. The feature productizes “finstas”—alternative Instagram accounts where people post their real-life photos instead of their polished public Instagrams. The …

Snapchat announced Tuesday that Snapchat+ subscribers will get some AI-powered features. Most importantly, subscribers can send text-prompted, AI-generated images. In addition to a new AI extend tool, subscribers can now share Dream selfies with friends. Subscribers can use the AI image generator by clicking “AI” on the right. After clicking …

A jury sided with Epic Games over Google in an antitrust case that could change how app marketplaces like Google Play operate on Monday. The unanimous verdict ends the companies’ three-year legal battle. Fortnite creator Epic sued Google in 2020, alleging that its app store practices violated federal and California …

Musk says X, formerly Twitter, will add video to Spaces, its live audio chat feature. Musk claimed X will launch the feature by year’s end, “certainly by early next year.” Musk said SpaceX is adding video as a feature. It’ll be easy to turn the video on or off.” If …

Tumblr’s connection to the “fediverse,” or decentralized social media, appears to be proceeding despite delays. After acquiring Tumblr from Verizon in 2019, Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg tweeted that the site would “soon” support ActivityPub, the protocol behind Mastodon and other decentralized social apps. Tumblr’s progress wasn’t clear after that announcement. …