French startup Alan is better known for its health insurance products — they now insure 200,000 people. But it has been slowly building a superapp for your health and expanding with new services. Today, the company announced its first acquisition ever with the acquisition of Jour for $20 million. This is going to be the
Read MorePipe, a two-year-old startup that aims to be the “Nasdaq for revenue,” announced today it has snagged former Stripe EIC Sid Orlando and HubSpot’s ex-Chief Strategy Officer Brad Coffey to serve on its executive team. The Miami-based fintech also revealed today its first expansion outside of the United States with its entry into the U.K.
Read MoreCredit: Dhruv Bhutani / Android Authority WhatsApp is working on a new message reporting system. The feature will allow users to report single messages to WhatsApp from contacts or businesses. This seems an alternative to the contact reporting system already available. WhatsApp came under stiff scrutiny for an investigation into its message reporting and moderation
Read MoreNew York-based Blackbird.AI has closed a $10 million Series A as it prepares to launched the next version of its disinformation intelligence platform this fall. The Series A is led by Dorilton Ventures, along with new investors including Generation Ventures, Trousdale Ventures, StartFast Ventures and Richard Clarke, former chief counter-terrorism advisor for the National Security
Read MoreIt’s time to get cozy this week! What you need to know Nintendo Switch Online is a subscription service that offers free Game Trials to its subscribers. Subscribers can play Story of Seasons: Pioneers of Olive Town for free for one week. The trial runs from September 22 to September 29, 2021. Nintendo’s subscription service
Read MoreCredit: Amazon Netflix has launched a free tier in Kenya. This is only for Android devices and gives access to a fourth of the catalog. Users on this tier can’t download or cast content though. Netflix is no stranger to offering cheaper plans and other more accessible ways to start streaming. Now, it looks like
Read More“We look forward to working with the film’s exceptional team and to the economic benefits a film of this scale will bring to Virginia workers and businesses.” What you need to know Apple TV+ film Raymond and Ray will begin filming this fall. Virginia Governor Ralph Northan announced the title would be filmed in Virginia.
Read MoreSmall and medium businesses regularly face cashflow problems. But if that’s an already-inconvenient predicament, it has been exacerbated to the breaking point for too many during the Covid-19 pandemic. Now, a UK startup called MarketFinance — which has built a loans platform to help SMBs stay afloat through those leaner times — is announcing a
Read MoreHarry Baker / UploadVR: Netflix releases Eden Unearthed, a free VR game for Oculus Quest that appears to be related to a Netflix anime series — Netflix has released a VR game called Eden Unearthed on App Lab for Oculus Quest, available now for free. — The release has come as a surprise, with very
Read MoreYou’ll have to be a new Apple Music customer… What you need to know Apple has launched a brand new Apple Music deal for Beats and AirPods customers. New subscribers can get six months of free Apple Music with some purchases. It’s available for all Apple’s AirPods and some Beats headphones too. Apple has today
Read MoreSnap To mark the International Week of the Deaf, Snapchat has created custom stickers and three AR Lenses to encourage users to fingerspell, the company said Tuesday. The new features were designed by incorporating feedback and guidance from deaf and hard-of-hearing employees at the company, and using AI and computer vision technology developed by Hungarian
Read MoreWhile there are still plenty of folks out there tinkering with custom 3D printers, it’s safe to say that most people these days are using a commercially-available machine. The prices are just so low now, even on the resin printers, that unless you have some application that requires exacting specifications, it just doesn’t make a
Read More“Great news! We’ve automatically upgraded your iCloud storage plan to iCloud+ at no additional charge.” What you need to know Apple released iOS 15 yesterday. It includes a new iCloud+ feature that gives paid users more security features. Apple has started to email customers confirming they’ve been upgraded to the new service. Apple is sending
Read MoreComcast appears to be planning to offer TVs running its own software across at least two territories, according to recent reports from Protocol and The Financial Times. In the US, the TVs will reportedly be branded as XClass TVs. Originally manufactured by Hisense, the 43 and 50-inch sets will run Comcast’s X1 operating system, which
Read MorePew Research Center: Survey: 47% of US Facebook users regularly get news on the platform, down from 54% in 2020; 29% of US TikTok users regularly get news from the app, up from 22% — More than half of Twitter user get news on the site regularly — To better examine the ways Americans get
Read MoreFrench startup Sorare has announced that it has raised a significant funding round. SoftBank’s Vision Fund 2 has led a $680 million Series B round, which values the company at $4.3 billion. Sorare has built a fantasty football (soccer) platform based on NFTs, or non-fungible tokens. Each digital card is registered as a unique token
Read MoreJoseph Wengier Contributor Share on Twitter Joseph Wengier competed in five Paralympics and won nine gold medals. He promotes the advancement of a more inclusive internet as an ambassador for accessibility technology company UserWay. After winning my first gold medal in the 1972 Paralympics, I went out with the swim team for a celebratory dinner.
Read MoreCredit: Apple Apple launched the new iPhone 13 lineup just last week. The company’s latest Android flagship competitors come in four flavors — iPhone 13, iPhone 13 Mini, iPhone 13 Pro, and iPhone 13 Pro Max. While Apple presented the new iPhones with much aplomb, some may argue that they offer very few upgrades over
Read MoreCredit: Robert Triggs / Android Authority Olympus has reportedly stated that there’s no partnership between it and Samsung. This comes after rumors earlier this year of a partnership for the Galaxy S22 series. Olympus told Android Authority that there’s nothing to talk about or announce. Loads of Galaxy S22 series rumors and leaks have appeared
Read MoreImage: Netflix Netflix is launching a new free Android mobile plan in Kenya that will allow users to watch a limited selection of its catalog, including full seasons of select shows. Netflix announced that beginning this week, the new ad-free Netflix mobile plan for Android gives users the option to sign up without having to
Read MoreYear-old startup Capiter announced last week that it raised a $33 million Series A to digitize Egypt’s traditional offline retail market. It’s looking to take a large pie in the budding e-commerce and retail play, where multiple startups are pulling their weight including Cartona, also a year-old startup out of Egypt. Today, Cartona is announcing that
Read MoreTelis Demos / Wall Street Journal: As the SEC mulls a ban on payment for order flow, a look at some alternative revenue streams for commission-free trading apps like Robinhood — Some brokerage customers aren’t happy that Robinhood and its rivals sell their orders. Even if regulators ban that practice …
Read MoreRyan Weeks / The Block: Paris-based Sorare, a soccer-focused NFT trading platform, raises $680M Series B led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a $4.3B valuation — Quick Take — The fundraise values the Paris-based NFT startup at $4.3 billion. — It comes off a period of rapid growth for Sorare, which now boasts 600,000
Read MoreDespite the best efforts of scientists around the world, the current global pandemic continues onward. But even if you aren’t working on a new vaccine or trying to curb the virus with some other seemingly miraculous technology, there are a few other ways to help prevent the spread of the virus. By now we all
Read MoreAmit Gurbaxani / Billboard: Gaana, India’s leading music streaming service, has seen low paid sub growth; India’s audio streaming market is 38% ad-supported, below only China and Venezuela — Ad-based listening is booming, outpacing subscriptions. Now streaming service Gaana wants to convert listeners into customers.
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