The best apps download superpowers to your smartphone. The Verge covers the new and noteworthy Android apps, iPhone apps, and games, highlighting great design, impressive utility, and novel features. If it belongs on your phone, you’ll find it on The Verge.
If you use Slack for things like “sending messages,” an outage tracker shows a known issue since around 10:30AM ET. Some people have reported being unable to access Slack via desktop apps at all, while others aren’t getting updates from all of their channels.
There’s still no ETA for when things should go back to normal.
[slack-status.com]
Inside this chatbot is an assistant that can remember and do stuff for you. Sometimes.
That’s apparently how Tumblr started its email to timeline app Tapestry that eventually led to a grant, according to a Tapestry blog post we saw via TechCrunch.
Thanks to the grant, the Tapestry team will start work on native macOS support.
[blog.iconfactory.com]
Instead of accessing Google Tasks through Calendar, Gmail, or another app, now you can view and manage all the items on your to-do list from its own webpage: tasks.google.com, as spotted earlier by 9to5Google.
[9to5google.com]
Under the Digital Services Act, Apple must display the contact information for developers considered “traders” on the App Store. On Tuesday, Apple said it had removed “apps without trader status” in the EU, adding that it will reinstate them once developers provide the required information, as reported earlier by TechCrunch.
The online reservation platform has launched a slate of new features, pricing updates, and a “full-on-charm offensive,” to lure high-profile restaurants away from its biggest rival, reports New York Magazine:
The strategy is working. Estela, Raf’s, Altro Paradiso, Scarr’s Pizza, and Win Son are just some of the restaurants that have moved from Resy to OpenTable since last summer. Meanwhile, newer spots like Demo, Strange Delight, Bar Kabawa, Gjelina, and Zimmi’s — hip places one might automatically assume are on Resy — launched on OpenTable right out of the gate. Don Angie and San Sabino are in the process of making the switch, too.
[grubstreet.com]
Apple told employees in a recent meeting that it’s considering the change, according to Mark Gurman in today’s issue of Power On for Bloomberg. The ads would be similar to those in Google Maps, with businesses paying to show up higher in search results or stand out on the map itself.
The change wouldn’t necessarily be soon, as Gurman writes that there is “no timeline or active engineering being done.”
[bloomberg.com]
In addition to adding features for pro photographers, the second public beta of Android 16 being released today lets you quickly access Google Wallet by double pressing your device’s power button, as discovered by Android Authority’s Mishaal Rahman.
Previously, double pressing the power button on a Pixel device launched the default camera app, but there’s now a new settings option (under System > Gesture) that will instead launch the default wallet app.
A new interface update adds search and quick navigation buttons to the main screen on the right side, so you don’t have to tap to make the top bar appear to start your next trip, 9to5Google and autoevolution report. The new shortcut button lets you tap to quickly begin navigating to home or work based on the time of day.
The company completed its acquisition of meal-planning software startup Intent and plans to launch personalized meal features to fit users’ dietary needs, make nutrition logging easier, automate grocery lists, and even add ingredients to online store carts.
Pixelmator, Pixelmator Pro, and Photomator are now officially part of Apple. As noticed by MacRumors, all of Pixelmator’s apps are showing a pop-up message confirming that the deal announced back in November has been finalized.
At least for now, the key question of what Apple will do with Pixelmator’s software remains unanswered. Will it carry on as a standalone offering and be the second coming of Aperture? Or are we going to see a Photos Plus subscription debut at WWDC in a matter of months?
A developer named Isaac Gemal spent a few hours coding using Anthropic’s Claude last week to make WikiTok, a site with a TikTok-like presentation, but instead of vertical videos, you swipe through random Wikipedia article previews you can tap to read, ArsTechnica reports.
Gemal reportedly has no plans for an algorithm, and “liking” a post saves it to a list locally, according to the developer.
It’s no surprise that you can’t find it on Google TV or Apple’s tvOS after the federal TikTok ban, but Axios found that TV makers LG, Amazon, and Vizio also stopped offering the app for download.
It’s understandable. After all, who wants to risk hundreds of billions in fines to offer a social video app designed for smartphone screens?
