Sarah Perez
Reporter
The Latest from Sarah Perez
Forget Siri. Turn your iPhone’s ‘Action Button’ into a ChatGPT voice assistant instead
With news that OpenAI’s ChatGPT Voice feature is now available to all free users, you can ditch Siri as your main voice assistant on your iPhone — well, specifically on your iPhone 15 Pro
Elon Musk says xAI’s chatbot ‘Grok’ will launch to X Premium+ subscribers next week
Shortly after screenshots emerged showing xAI’s chatbot Grok appearing on X’s web app, X owner Elon Musk confirmed that Grok would be available to all of the company’s Premium+ subsc
Mastodon tackles the problem of ‘reply guys’ with its latest feature
Mastodon’s latest update is tackling a problem Twitter users know all too well: the scourge of the “reply guys.” A colloquial term for the men who regularly reply to women’s po
X loses Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media partnership in latest brand pull-out
Following the advertiser exodus from X, formerly Twitter, over concerns about antisemitic content on the site, X has lost another high-profile brand campaign, as Paris Hilton’s 11:11 Media is al
Yup hacks together a cross-posting app for X, Threads, Bluesky and others
Decentralized social networking may be the future, but in the meantime, there are a lot of Twitter alternatives to keep up with. A new app called Yup aims to help by offering a single place to read fe
eBay to gain $2.2B from sales of its shares in classified biz Adevinta
eBay is unloading its remaining shares in the online classified business Adevinta to private equity firms Permira and Blackstone for $2.2 billion in cash and 20% equity, it said. Adevinta had origina
Flipboard stops tweeting, launches new podcast about decentralized social apps
Social magazine app Flipboard had already committed to joining the “fediverse” — the decentralized social web, which includes apps like Mastodon. Now, it’s doubling down on tho
Screenshots show xAI’s chatbot Grok on X’s web app
Shortly after X announced its plans to test a three-tiered subscription service, X owner Elon Musk teased that his new AI chatbot, xAI’s Grok, would be part of the top-tier subscription, X Premi
Instagram Threads missed a moment to shine, as OpenAI’s drama took place on X
Instagram Threads missed its moment to truly challenge X, this weekend’s OpenAI scandal indicates. Over the past few days, as news spread about the board’s decision to remove Sam Altman as
Advertiser exodus expected to deeply impact X ad revenue, analysis indicates
Even before major brands like Apple, Disney and IBM paused their ad spending on X in the wake of Elon Musk’s endorsement of an antisemitic post, the company formerly known as Twitter had seen it
OpenAI’s leadership moves to Microsoft, propelling its stock up
Microsoft may end up as the real winner of the OpenAI chaos that reigned over the weekend, and its rallying stock price is indicative of that. Upon the shocking news that OpenAI’s board had unex
This Week in Apps: Apple’s iPhone app of the year finalists, plus 7 hidden gems
Is the App Store still a source for new technology innovations or has AI development become the hotter new tech to build for these days? We pondered this question this week when Apple unveiled its iPh
Rooms, an interactive 3D space designer and ‘cozy game,’ arrives on the App Store
Cozy game, interior decorating app, learn-to-code primer or something in between, the interactive, 3D spaces builder known as Rooms has made its way to the App Store. The startup, which earlier raised
X rival Bluesky hits 2M users, says federation coming ‘early next year’
Bluesky, the company building a decentralized alternative to Twitter/X, announced today it has hit 2 million users — up by another million since September, despite remaining an invite-only app.
A Quibi-like app called ReelShort hit record downloads and revenue this month
Was Quibi a failure or just before its time? This month, a short-video app and Quibi-like entertainment service called ReelShort found its way to the top of the App Store, which led to the app gaining
Several popular AI products flagged as unsafe for kids by Common Sense Media
An independent review of popular AI tools has found that many — including Snapchat’s My AI, DALLE, and Stable Diffusion, may not be safe for kids. The new reviews come from Common Sense Me
Threads starts testing hashtags…without the hash
Instagram’s Threads app has been duping Twitter/X in a number of ways, and today it’s adding one more feature that’s been core to the Twitter experience for years: hashtags. Meta CEO
Instagram adds new features, including custom AI stickers, photo filters, a clip hub and more
Alongside a bevy of creator updates, Instagram is adding a new feature that will allow users to create custom stickers for their Reels and Stories using AI. Driven by Meta’s Segment Anything AI
Ads watchdog files FTC complaint against X, formerly Twitter, over unlabeled ads
X, formerly Twitter, was caught running unlabeled ads on its platform in September. Now that issue, which has been ongoing, has been brought to the FTC’s attention. An independent nonprofit Chec
Meta seeks legislation that would require parents to approve teens’ app downloads
Meta wants to shift the burden of monitoring social media usage among teens back to the app stores — and to parents. In a blog post published today, Meta’s global head of Safety, Antigone