WhatsApp announced Thursday that users can now pin up to three messages in a chat to access them easily.
Until now, users could pin only one message on top of a conversation with a contact or a group.
Both Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and WhatsApp head Will Cathcart announced this feature on their respective WhatsApp Channels.
To pin a message, you have to long press on it and select “Pin” from the venue.
This helps you get rid of pinned messages if the information becomes irrelevant on some days.
A new web3 network is being built right now that wants to end Big Tech’s control of your dataMany of the people building Web3 feel like the traditional web ecosystem has taken advantage of users and their data.
It’s the initial team supporting The Graph, a decentralized network that indexes, queries and organizes data.
It has been called the “Google of web3” and aims to organize open blockchain data and make open data a public good.
“Web3 is still being built, we’re still working on building this decentralized internet that is censorship resistant.
“The one thing that’s really important about AI is that it’s all about data,” Kline said.
Apple Pay is no stranger to regulatory controversy.
PayPal — the payments behemoth that has substantial businesses in mobile transactions and point-of-sale technology — was apparently instrumental in the original EU complaint around Apple’s payment monopoly.
The DOJ’s argumentApple today takes a 0.15% fee on any transaction made via Apple Pay.
In the meantime, Apple has continued to develop Apple Pay, launching — for example — its own buy now, pay later offering last autumn (pictured above).
Apple Pay and Apple Wallet are both a small part of Apple’s services revenues — which were upwards of $90 billion in 2023 — or indeed overall revenues.
But one category in particular caught our attention as the DOJ spends quite a bit of time talking about “green bubbles” and “blue bubbles.”When an iPhone user sends a message to another iPhone user, by default that message is sent using Apple’s iMessage protocol.
If an iPhone user texts an Android user — and vice versa — iOS falls back to the older, less secure but universal SMS protocol.
“Apple makes third-party messaging apps on the iPhone worse generally and relative to Apple Messages, Apple’s own messaging app,” the DOJ wrote in its lawsuit.
At this point, you might think: wasn’t the RCS protocol supposed to level up SMS messaging and alleviate these pain points?
It feels a bit odd that the DOJ is front-loading its antitrust lawsuit against Apple with the much talked about “green bubbles” vs. “blue bubbles” debate as there are far more serious and substantive issues.
The Coalition for App Fairness (CAF) released a statement on Thursday cheering on the Department of Justice’s antitrust lawsuit against Apple.
The group includes a number of key app makers, including Epic Games, Spotify, Deezer, Match Group, Proton and others.
In 2020, Epic made it possible for Fortnite players to pay Epic directly, rather than giving a cut to Apple.
Then, Apple removed Epic from the App Store, which sparked a slew of legal proceedings.
In a statement, Apple said: “This lawsuit threatens who we are and the principles that set Apple products apart in fiercely competitive markets.
The suit alleges that the company has a monopoly in the premium smartphone market and uses a variety of illegal tactics to perpetuate that monopoly.
Apple’s monopoly position is not nearly as clear-cut.
Microsoft Windows had well over 90% market share in the relevant market of operating systems for personal computers.
This argument is important because Apple’s market share is much lower globally (only 23%, with number-two Samsung at 16%).
There’s also a host of circumstantial proof, such as Apple’s massive and durable profit margins on iPhone sales.
The company has offered accessibility-focused Xbox peripheral for some time and has introduced the Adaptive line of computing peripherals roughly this time last year.
The Adaptive line got a refresh and a couple of new entries at this week’s virtual Windows event.
This round brings back the Adaptive Mouse, which features thumb support and custom tails 3D printed by Shapeways.
The Adaptive Hub is effectively an adaptive accessory for the other adaptive accessories, allowing for up to three devices and four Adaptive Buttons to be connected wirelessly.
Rounding out Microsoft’s new accessibility accessories is a Surface Pro Keyboard with brighter backlighting and bolder text for users with vision impairments.
Crypto exchange OKX is ceasing services for users in India, it said in an email to customers Thursday, advising them to withdraw their funds by April-end.
The move follows Apple and Google pulling the eponymous app of OKX in the country after an Indian government agency said many crypto exchanges were operating illegally in the South Asian market.
Financial Intelligence Unit, the government agency, named Binance, Kraken, Huobi and Gate.io among apps operating “illegally” in India but hadn’t named OKX in its public statement.
OKX has advised customers in India to close all their active margin positions and withdraw all funds by April 30.
While India-based crypto exchanges continued to require rigorous know-your-customer verifications before onboarding new users, the same hasn’t been true of many global platforms.
Giant Ventures in January closed two new funds totaling $250 million that it will invest in startups on both sides of the Atlantic, and today, TechCrunch has learned exclusively that Frontline Ventures has also raised $200 million across two funds, named Frontline Growth and Frontline Seed.
Frontline has historically invested in both Europe and North America, and its new funds will continue to follow that strategy, betting on B2B software companies.
The new seed fund will favor European ventures, while the growth fund will focus on U.S. startups.
Expansion roadmapO’Donnell told TechCrunch that when it helps portfolio companies navigate expansion to another market, Frontline focuses on four aspects: timing, go-to-market strategy, talent, and organizational design and location.
That’s by order of importance, and a company’s location should be a derivative of the previous three aspects, O’Donnell said.
Globally, a third of the food produced is lost or wasted, and in Kenya, that figure stands at between 20% to 40%.
Farm to Feed, an agri-tech based in Kenya, is one of the fast-risers in the space.
Farm to Feed teams then sort, grade and dispatch the products to clients from its warehouse in Kenya’s Capital, Nairobi.
Data collectionOn top of the e-commerce platform, Van Enk said they are building a data platform by collecting granular data including on climate and drivers of food loss, for better farming outcome and to create a more circular food system.
I do think that food loss is such a huge impact opportunity and also a very good commercial opportunity,” she said.
