Voodoo, a French mobile apps and games publisher, has acquired BeReal for €500 million.
As part of the acquisition, BeReal co-founder and CEO Alexis Barreyat will leave the company after a transition period.
Aymeric Roffé, the CEO of Wizz, one of Voodoo’s social media apps, will take over as CEO of BeReal.
On BeReal, users receive a push notification each day prompting them to post they’re up within a two-minute window.
“Voodoo has a proven track record of driving significant growth in mobile apps,” said BeReal founder Alexis Barreyat, in the press release.
Apple’s WWDC 2024 was packed with announcements about iOS 18, its upcoming version of the iPhone operating system, which introduces a host of new features.
Which devices support iOS 18?
The company says you can download iOS 18 on the following models:iPhone 15iPhone 15 PlusiPhone 15 ProiPhone 15 Pro MaxiPhone 14iPhone 14 PlusiPhone 14 ProiPhone 14 Pro MaxiPhone 13iPhone 13 miniiPhone 13 ProiPhone 13 Pro MaxiPhone 12iPhone 12 miniiPhone 12 ProiPhone 12 Pro MaxiPhone 11iPhone 11 ProiPhone 11 Pro MaxiPhone XSiPhone XS MaxiPhone XRiPhone SE (second generation or later)When will iOS 18 be available to download?
However, if you want to try out iOS 18 a little earlier, the public beta will be available to download next month at beta.apple.com.
You’ll get the most out of the Apple Intelligence features with the iPhone 15 Pro or iPhone 15 Pro Max since they have the A17 Pro chip.
Win-back subscriptionsApple will let developers reach out to customers who have subscribed to the app to win them back with new offers.
Developers can configure which customers they want to reach out to, and based on that, Apple surfaces win-back offers in the App Store.
“Eligible customers can discover win-back offers across the App Store, including on your product page and in editorial selections on the Today, Games and Apps tabs, as well as within your app,” according to Apple.
Image Credits: AppleImproved search suggestionsApple said that it is adding Focus State to the App Store later this year for improved search.
It gave examples of content creator apps offering subscriptions, apps with large catalogs of content (maybe apps that offer sachet subscriptions to different content), and digital content that spans across different apps managed by one developer.
Google is finally making its Gemini Nano AI model available to Pixel 8 and 8a users after teasing it in March.
The June Pixel drop will allow users to access the model as a developer option.
Apart from that, the feature drop includes Display Port connectivity support for Pixel 8 and Pixel 8a, reverse phone number lookup for unknown numbers, fall and crash detection for Pixel Watch 2, and doorbell notifications on the Pixel tablet.
The update brings manual lens picking in the camera to the Pixel 6 Pro, 7 Pro, and Pixel Fold.
Pixel WatchThe newest Pixel drop brings car crash detection to the Pixel Watch 2.
Traffic is down, newsrooms are undergoing layoffs, and publishers fear that AI technologies will only make matters worse.
Entering the fray, news reader startup Particle is teaming up with publishers to seek out a new business model for the AI era, where AI summaries of news don’t have to mean lost revenues.
Now, the company is bringing its first publishing partners into the mix to help it guide its next steps.
As a start, Particle now subscribes to Reuters newswire to help it deliver information about current events in the news.
What Particle isn’t yet ready to reveal is its business model.
Apple announced a deal with OpenAI to bring ChatGPT, OpenAI’s AI-powered chatbot experience, to a range of its devices.
Here’s a roundup of a few of the more noteworthy Apple AI announcements from WWDC 2024.
New SiriSiri got a makeover courtesy of Apple’s overarching generative AI push this year, called Apple Intelligence.
To take advantage of the new Siri, you’ll need an Apple device that supports Apple Intelligence — specifically the iPhone 15 Pro and devices with M1 or newer chips.
Apple Intelligence will have an understanding of who you’re chatting with, Apple says — so if you want to personalize the chat with a custom AI image, you can do so on the fly.
Apple kicked off its weeklong Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC 2024) event today with the customary keynote at 1 p.m. ET/10 a.m. PT.
But the biggest news came with the reveal of Apple Intelligence, the company’s big entrance into the competitive AI market.
You can watch watch the archive over on Apple’s events page, or you can watch the YouTube archive right here and via the embed below.
The latest reports have put a name to Apple’s AI efforts: Apple Intelligence, along with the caveat that not all recent Apple devices will be able to use the new system.
And you can bet that many of iOS 18’s AI features will make their way to macOS 15, as well.
Apple Intelligence, Apple’s new generative AI offering, won’t only be a consumer-facing feature — developers will be able to take advantage of the latest technology too.
In its keynote address at Apple’s Worldwide Developer Conference on Monday, the company announced that developers would be able to integrate the experience powered by Apple Intelligence into their own apps.
For this, Apple demonstrated how an app like Bear Notes would automatically be able to allow users to rewrite, proofread and summarize their notes.
The App Intents framework, which allows for lightweight app-like interactions without the app being installed, will also gain access to Apple Intelligence.
Image Credits: AppleThese intents are defined and tested so they’re easier for developers to adopt, Apple claims.
Developers who want to show off apps, or anyone whose iPhone is currently out of reach, will appreciate a new Continuity feature arriving on the new version of macOS Sequoia.
The new OS, announced at WWDC 2024, will allow users to mirror their iPhone screen directly on their Mac and even control it, like swiping through pages on the Home Screen and launching apps via the Mac’s trackpad.
In addition, as Apple showed, it would make it easier to use Mac apps and iPhone apps alongside each other.
When using the feature, users will be able to use the Mac keyboard to enter text and other input into iPhone apps.
Plus, iPhone notifications will appear alongside Mac notifications when it’s mirrored, and users will also be able to interact with them and take action.
One way to know for sure that you’re at a developer conference: The crowd gets really excited when you announce a new Calculator app.
The addition of the app got (by far) the biggest applause pop at WWDC 2024 so far.
The biggest arrival here is the addition of Math Notes.
The addition feature effect does the math for you.
At once, the feature makes iPad an even more interesting option is the academic segment, though plenty of teachers will no doubt balk at an app that does all of the work for users.
