Launches

“Stay Connected: Life360 Introduces Flight Landing Notifications for Keeping Loved Ones Informed”

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Family location services company Life360 has launched a new notification for its apps to automatically alert friends and family when you reach a destination after taking a flight. Life360 said that the feature uses phone sensors to measure location, altitude and speed to determine if you are taking a flight. Plus, its algorithms can detect takeoff and landing times, and alert family members when you connect to the network post-landing. The company said the landing notification feature is a useful alternative to online flight trackers or waiting for the traveler to send updates to their circle. The company’s CEO Chris Hulls told TechCrunch that the company wants to focus on safety and protection updates for users’ inner circle.

“Breaking News: Google Expands Find My Device Network to US and Canada”

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Google is launching its upgraded Find My Device network in the U.S. and Canada, the company announced on Monday. Find My Device’s crowdsourced network of over a billion Android devices can help users find their misplaced Android devices and everyday items. The Find My Device Network, which is similar to Apple’s Find My network, works with devices running Android 9+. The new Find My Device network also integrates with Nest smart home gadgets and shows a lost device’s proximity to home Nest devices. “Multi-layered protections built into the Find My Device network help keep you safe and your personal information private, while keeping you in control of the devices connected to the Find My Device network.

Discover New Eateries with Uber Eats’ Latest Video Feed, Inspired by TikTok!

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Uber Eats is launching a TikTok-like short-form video feed to boost discovery and help restaurants showcase their dishes. With this launch, Uber Eats now joins numerous other popular apps that have launched their own short-form video feeds following TikTok’s rise in popularity, including Instagram, YouTube, Snapchat, and Netflix to name a few. The new Uber Eats short-form videos are visible in carousels placed across the app, including the homescreen. Verma also shared that in order to further support merchants, the company has revamped its Uber Eats Manager software and added personalized growth recommendations. Uber Eats announced today that it now has more than one million merchants around the world on its platform, across 11,000 cities in six continents.

“Create Your Own Personalized AI Playlists on Spotify with Custom Prompts!”

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Spotify already found success with its popular AI DJ feature, and now the streaming music service is bringing AI to playlist creation. The company on Monday introduced AI playlists into beta, a new option that allows users to generate a playlist based on written prompts. In terms of the technology, Spotify says it’s using large language models (LLMs) to understand the user’s intent. A pop-up menu appears showing the AI Playlist as a new option alongside the existing “Playlist” and “Blend” options. Ahead of AI playlists, Spotify launched a similar feature, Niche Mixes, that allowed users to create personalized playlists using prompts, but the product did not leverage AI technology and was more limited in terms of its language understanding.

“Silent Debut: Amazon Introduces Bazaar for Quick Fashion and Lifestyle Offerings in India”

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Amazon has quietly introduced a “special store” called Bazaar in India, featuring affordable and trendy fashion and lifestyle products, as it ramps up efforts against Walmart-owned Flipkart and Reliance’s Ajio, which have made deeper inroads in the Indian fast-fashion market. “India e-commerce category mix is changing; Mobiles and Consumer electronics share is declining. Fashion has seen the strongest growth since FY19, and now holds the highest category share,” Bernstein analysts wrote in a note last month. India is a key overseas market for Amazon, which has invested more than $11 billion in the country to date. The fast-fashion e-commerce market has gained significant traction in India in recent years, with local startups drawing inspiration from global pioneers like Zara, H&M, and Uniqlo.

“Collaborative Journals Come to Life with Retro: The Premier Photo-Sharing App for Best Friends”

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It’s a flexible way to share photos with your favorite people and create visual records of whatever matters in your life. Retro’s main feature is a way to share your most important photos of the past week with your favorite people. Retro’s answer to this use-case is journals: A new flexible way to share photos as a group. You can also have a journal with your partner to share important moments you’ve spent together without spamming all your friends on Retro. Building a social consumer app involves many experimentations — and journals are one of those experimentations.

“Ex-Snap AI Executive Debuts Higgsfield in Challenge Against OpenAI’s Sora Video Generator”

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OpenAI captivated the tech world a few months back with a generative AI model, Sora, that turns scene descriptions into original videos — no cameras or film crews required. So he launched Higgsfield AI, an AI-powered video creation and editing platform designed for more tailored, personalized applications. In fact, Mashrabov sees social media — and social media marketing — as Higgsfield’s principle money-making niche. So we believe video generative AI solutions will be a core solution in helping them to achieve it.”Of course, Higgsfield isn’t immune from the broader challenges facing generative AI startups. It’s well-established that generative AI models like the kind powering Diffuse can “regurgitate” training data.

Introducing StoryBlend: The Ultimate Short-Form Storytelling App with a Perfect Fusion of Videos and Text

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Agnes Kozera and David Kierzkowski, the co-founders of podcast sponsorship marketplace Podcorn, today launched their newest app—Storiaverse, a short-form entertainment platform that offers a multi-format reading experience, combining animated video and written content. Available on iOS and Android devices, Storiaverse caters to graphic novel readers and adult animation fans who want to discover original stories in a short-form, animated format. At launch, Storiaverse offers 25 original titles spanning genres such as science fiction, fantasy, horror, mystery, and comedy. Additionally, TikTok star and independent animator King Science (Science Akbar) is teaming up to create an exclusive story on the app. There are currently over 100 creators working with Storiaverse and more than 100 stories in development.

Oura’s Launch of a Fresh Labs Section for Experimenting with Innovative Features

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Smart ring manufacturer Oura is introducing a new section in its app called Oura Labs to test out new features and get user feedback. Oura said that Symptom Radar will monitor biometric signals such as body temperature range, respiratory rate, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability. “Oura Labs is our approach to recreate internal engagement for new features with users in a structured and formal way. Users will get to see a lot of early-stage ideas in Oura Labs,” Patel said. Users can provide direct feedback about these experimental features along with general feedback for the product through Oura Labs.

“Fisker’s Revenue Loss, Robinhood’s Credit Card Debut, and Google’s Travel Planning Revolution”

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And Manish wrote about the resignation of Stability AI founder and CEO Emad Mostaque late last week. AI-powered itineraries: In an upgrade to its Search Generative Experience, Google has added the ability for users to ask Google Search to plan a travel itinerary. Using AI, Search will draw on ideas from websites around the web along with reviews, photos and other details. Robinhood’s new card: Nine months after acquiring credit card startup X1 for $95 million, Robinhood on Wednesday announced the launch of its new Gold Card, powered by X1’s technology, with a list of features that could make Apple Card users envious. Bonus roundSpotify tests online learning: In its ongoing efforts to get its 600 million+ users to spend more time and money on its platform, Spotify is spinning up a new line of content: e-learning.