Monday, October 12, 2026
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After repeated delays, Siri AI arrived in the iOS 27 consumer beta in July, finally delivering the personal-context and broad-knowledge assistant Apple long promised, but the launch lands well after such assistants stopped feeling novel.
Outernet, a new app from co-founders Danielle Egan and Athena Leong, helps users turn saved social-media posts about events and places into an organized to-do list for going outside.
WhatsApp is working to restore access after several users reported their accounts were blocked and put "under review" by parent company Meta.
Dictation app Wispr Flow appears to be preparing a meeting notetaker, according to newly updated Terms of Service that add language about processing meeting audio, transcripts, and summaries.
Sam Altman pitched ChatGPT Work as a way to script kids' morning-drive updates, but cartoonist Alex Hirsch's one-line reply went more viral than his original post.
A wave of apps now locks distracting social and streaming apps behind step counts, workouts, or even a photo of grass, giving users a structural way to cut doomscrolling.
India's mobile app market generated a record $345 million in consumer spending during the second quarter, up 35% from a year earlier, driven increasingly by AI, streaming, and productivity apps rather than gaming, according to a new Sensor Tower report.
Google scrapped a new Google Earth feature that let users generate fabricated satellite imagery with AI, just a day after launch, following criticism that it could spread misinformation.
Snapchat says its recommendation systems will no longer surface fully AI-generated videos in Spotlight, reserving discovery for content made by real people.
Reddit is developing a "video Reddit" experience that lets users watch and listen to posts, CEO Steve Huffman said on the company's second-quarter earnings call.
WhatsApp is testing a feature that automatically moves messages from large businesses like banks and airlines into a new "Offers & Updates" folder, TechCrunch has learned exclusively.
Friend, the AI companion necklace that debuted two years ago, has relaunched with a built-in voice and a new $249 price, up from $99 at launch.
LinkedIn is rolling out a "Seems like AI slop" button that lets users flag posts they suspect were written by AI, part of a broader push to cut down on inauthentic content.
Spotify has launched "User Notes," a feature letting users aged 16 and older add personal captions to individual tracks on free and premium plans in select markets.
Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg says large language models are letting the company ship consumer apps faster, with several new launches already out and more on the way.
Netflix has signed a global licensing deal, reportedly worth $500 million, for co-exclusive streaming rights to "The Walking Dead" franchise's 371 episodes.
Spotify's new running mode cues songs to a run's phase and the listener's pace, arriving Wednesday for Premium subscribers on iOS in seven countries.
Winamp and Deezer announced a partnership on Wednesday under which Deezer will power Winamp's upcoming premium music subscription service, using Deezer's white-label technology and global licensed catalog while Winamp keeps its own branding.
Waymo is gradually restoring freeway routes for its robotaxis, starting in Phoenix, more than two months after pausing them over how the vehicles behaved near construction zones.
Google will expand its Play Signal API, which lets Android developers identify younger users, to all markets worldwide by the end of 2026.