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 …
Read More »Using Walmart’s new (but glitchy) “Text to Shop” feature firsthand
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 …
Read More »Investors in Jumia reevaluate their holdings, for better and worse
According to the most recent 13G/A filing made public by the asset manager, Baillie Gifford, the Edinburgh-based asset management company long known for its affinity for pre-IPO tech companies, has reduced its holdings in African e-commerce giant Jumia. Baillie Gifford disclosed ownership of 18.75 million Jumia shares, or 13.69% of …
Read More »Stripe plans to leave within the next 12 months
According to sources with knowledge of the situation, fintech startup Stripe has given itself a 12-month deadline to go public, either through a direct listing or by pursuing a transaction on the private market, such as a fundraising event and a tender offer. The news, which was first reported by …
Read More »Finn introduces B2B auto subscriptions in the US
The Munich-based car subscription startup Finn is moving into long-term corporate rentals in addition to individual consumer rentals in the United States. For about the same cost as a lease, car subscription services provide flexibility, maintenance, roadside assistance, and, in many cases, direct delivery of the vehicle to your door. …
Read More »Peacock surpasses 20M subscribers in Q4 despite growing losses
The Peacock streaming service, which is owned by Comcast, had its best quarter since it launched in 2020, adding five million new paying subscribers to bring the total to 20 million, up from the over 15 million in the previous quarter. Peacock had 9 million paying customers in Q1 2021. …
Read More »In TikTok’s expanded DM settings, users can now select who can message them
Users now have a choice in who they want to receive messages from thanks to a covert expansion of TikTok’s direct messaging settings. Now you can choose from everyone, suggested friends, followers you have in common, people you’ve messaged, or nobody. Prior to this modification, only users who had designated …
Read More »According to new research, app downloads were unchanged in the fourth quarter
According to a recent annual report released by data.ai, consumer spending on apps decreased 2% to $167 billion last year, signaling the first-ever slowdown in the global app economy. Downloads were also up 11% year over year, giving the impression that app adoption was still happening and was being particularly …
Read More »Use of a locust antenna to create a robotic sniffer dog
The ability of the natural world, whether it be dogs or ants, to detect diseases and a wide range of chemicals is still unmatched, despite extensive research into the development of electronic sensing devices that can detect scents better than anything biological. A new biohybrid sensing device has thus been …
Read More »Use this always-on VPN to protect your data
Even though our privacy protections are rapidly evolving, accessing the internet can still give snoops and thieves a foot in the door. A gives you back control over your data and provides an always-on, simple-to-use tool. By connecting to a server owned by the network before you log into a …
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