Lapse has been been gaining some traction in the market — claiming millions of users, 100 million photos captured each month and a coveted, consistent top-10 ranking in the U.S. app store for photographic apps.
Now it’s announcing a new round of funding of $30 million to take its ambitions to the next level.
The company’s ethos may have an old school feel to it, but some of the mechanics of how the app operates are anything but.
Lapse has come under some scrutiny — see our story here — for how it has used growth-hacking and forced invites to expand the number of installs of its app.
(“Buh-bye, Lapse!” one of my more cranky and frustrated friends told me when I asked her to download the app to connect with me.)
The new update has a scan feature, which lets users scan a physical document and import the text to listen to it later.
The company is introducing a feature to let users read their emails by integrating their Gmail accounts.
The app can also help users import their PDF attachments into the Speechify app.
For instance, read later app Pocket, which is owned by Mozilla, has an in-app text-to-speech feature.
Speechify wants to stand out in this market and wants to become a one-stop shop for anyone thinking about reading experiences by offering all kinds of integrations.
But the Ring Car Camera?
You do have to know who your customers are, though, and that’s where the Ring Car Camera found itself straddling multiple domains without a clear foothold in any.
Ring Car Camera did have some exciting innovations.
Moreover, discontinuing the Ring Car Camera may prompt a reassessment of consumer expectations regarding dash cams and automotive security devices.
The discontinuation of the Ring Car Camera is likely the final nail in the coffin of that project, too.
Reddit users wonder if the next big meme stock is Reddit itself Reddit invites power users in on its IPO, but other Redditors are also considering an investmentJeremiah Johnson says he has “an embarrassing amount” of Reddit karma.
They’re also wondering if Reddit could be the next meme stock, which could prove lucrative or disastrous.
Though she wasn’t invited to invest early, she plans to buy stock in Reddit once it officially goes public.
“Reddit is really dependent on power users who moderate the site, and because they’ve given those power users actual power, power users did for a day or two literally make the site unusable,” Johnson said.
Max Spero, a startup founder in his twenties, plans to buy Reddit stock post-IPO because he’s a fan of the platform, which he’s been using for 11 years.
Instagram is developing an opt-in “Friend Map” feature that would allow users to see their friends’ locations in real time, a Meta spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch on Monday.
Instagram would also be coming for Apple and its “Find My” map feature that lets users see where their friends and family are currently located.
According to screenshots posted on Threads by Paluzzi, Instagram’s Friend Map would allow users to choose who can see their location.
Post by @alex193a View on ThreadsThe Friend Map would allow users to leave short messages, or “Notes,” on the map for others to see.
After cutting into one of Google’s core businesses, Instagram may now be looking to take on Snapchat and Apple with its Friend Map.
While the bookmarking icon is within easy reach on X at the bottom of the post, the new feature on Threads is a bit more hidden.
That’s because Instagram is rolling out new Threads features in phases over time, not to all of the Threads user base at once.
Bookmarks aren’t the only new feature being spotted by Threads users.
Another Threads user noticed they’ve now begun to receive notifications from Threads and Facebook in their Instagram notifications.
In another effort to grow its app, Threads also began testing a cross-posting feature from Facebook to Threads, the company confirmed last week.
Admittedly Apple iWatch uses have had it since October last year, but as of today at Mobile World Congress, the Doublepoint startup has launched the updated version of its popular WowMouse gesture-touch control app for Android smartwatches.
Launched at CES in January, the free app now supports Google’s Pixel Watch 2, having already garnered around 30,000 downloads by Samsung Galaxy users since CES, according to the company.
As with the iWatch gestures, the WowMouse app creates a sort of ‘wrist-based’ mouse, using taps fed via Bluetooth to the watch to allow users to control headsets, phones, tablets, computers and other devices.
On his stand at the Four Years From Now section of MWC, founder Ohto Pentikäinen told me: “Gestures are a big theme nowadays, with Apple Vision Pro coming out.
We see people doing these pinches all over the streets nowadays!
Google is hopeful it will soon be able to ‘unpause’ the ability of its multimodal generative AI tool, Gemini, to depict people, per DeepMind founder, Demis Hassabis.
The capability to respond to prompts for images of humans should be back online in the “next few weeks”, he said today.
Asked by moderator, Wired’s Steven Levy, to explain what went wrong with the image generation feature, Hassabis sidestepped a detailed technical explanation.
Instead he suggested the issue was caused by Google failing to identify instances when users are basically after what he described as a “universal depiction”.
The issue is “very complex”, he suggested — likely demanding a whole-of-society mobilization and response to determine and enforce limits.
Networking app BeScene launches today to bring filmmakers and other creatives (actors/actresses, animators, cinematographers, costume designers, directors, editors, producers, production assistants, script coordinators, writers and so forth) a Tinder-like experience to help build connections within the entertainment industry.
“The simplicity and familiarity allow each user to find what they need quickly and in a way that is meaningful: through real human connections,” Armistead says.
Former Tinder executives attempted a similar strategy in 2018 with a networking app called Ripple, which uses the familiar swipe mechanism to match professionals with each other.
HUSSLUP, another like-minded networking app for the film biz, also has a swipe feature, however, it’s more aligned with LinkedIn since it provides job search and posting capabilities.
While BeScene hasn’t raised any external funding yet, the company gathered $250,000 from friends and family in 2022.
Through FlowGPT, users can build their own GenAI-powered apps and make them publicly available, earning tips for their contributions.
“Creative,” “Programming,” “Game” “Academic”), while creators get options for customizing the behavior — and appearance — of GenAI apps.
I say model the creator recommends because FlowGPT apps really, at their core, are prompts — prompts that prime models to respond in certain ways.
Many of these apps could potentially cause harm, like therapy apps and apps that advertise themselves as authoritative health resources.
It’s the wild west of GenAI apps — and the toggle’s ineffective to the point where I barely notice a difference in app selection with it switched on.
