Steve Thomas - IT Consultant

The push to bring iMessage to Android users today adds a new contender. A startup called Beeper, which had been working on a multi-platform messaging aggregator, is now launching a new app called Beeper Mini which will allow Android users to send and receive end-to-end encrypted iMessage chats for just $1.99 per month. Beeper Mini […]

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Instagram’s Twitter/X rival, Threads, is becoming more competitive with the expansion of its keyword search feature to all markets where the app is available. The feature was initially tested in English-speaking markets including Australia and New Zealand in August before expanding to most other English and Spanish-speaking countries, including the U.S. in September. Now, according […]

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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 iPhone App of the Year finalists, which surprisingly included a trio of longtime favorites — hiking app AllTrails, language learning […]

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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 1.9 million downloads (so far) in the month of November alone. Last Saturday, the app also hit a […]

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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 Davis, argues that parents should be responsible for approving their teen’s app downloads and staked Meta’s position in supporting federal legislation […]

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AI is already transforming the way we search, gather information, create, code, decipher data, and more, and now it may democratize the process of building an app, too. A new AI-powered startup called Sutro promises the ability to build entire production-ready apps — including those for web, iOS, and Android — in a matter of […]

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Mastodon, the open source, decentralized alternative to Twitter/X is adding a feature to its app that will help make the transition smoother for newcomers: Lists. The company today announced the Mastodon app for Android is adding the much-in-demand feature, which allows users to create custom lists around specific topics or interests. An update for iOS […]

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Personalized news aggregation app Artifact is taking another step to become a place to discover interesting links of all sorts, not just the latest headlines. After last month adding a way to share organic posts as well as links of any sort through the service, the AI-powered app from Instagram’s co-founders is today adding a […]

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The shutdown of the third-party Reddit app, Apollo, hasn’t stopped developer Christian Selig from continuing to publish iOS apps. Instead, he’s moved on to an Apollo spin-off app called Pixel Pals, which puts cute little virtual pets on top of your iPhone’s Dynamic Island — that is, the black bar at the top of the […]

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Bluesky, the Jack Dorsey-backed Twitter alternative, is getting its first third-party app for mobile users: a new app called Graysky. Though numerous Bluesky projects built on the company’s API are already in the works or in testing, Graysky will be the first to ship to the App Store, where it’s now available for pre-order with […]
There’s some good news and bad news for ChatGPT’s mobile efforts. On the positive side, the AI chatbot continues to see the number of app installs and its revenue grow, with September setting a new record on both fronts: 15.6 million downloads and nearly $4.6 million in gross revenue across its iOS and Android apps […]
Just under a year ago, the buzzy new social app BeReal looked to be on the rise, with reportedly 20 million users launching the app every day to snap their candid photos. However, in the months since, BeReal’s traction has declined, according to a new report from Similarweb, despite its rollout of new features like […]