{"id":609768,"date":"2023-02-19T07:49:07","date_gmt":"2023-02-19T13:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news.sellorbuyhomefast.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/19\/ios-gains-new-emoji-showtime-joins-a-pricier-paramount-and-instagram-launches-channels\/"},"modified":"2023-02-19T07:49:07","modified_gmt":"2023-02-19T13:49:07","slug":"ios-gains-new-emoji-showtime-joins-a-pricier-paramount-and-instagram-launches-channels","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/2023\/02\/19\/ios-gains-new-emoji-showtime-joins-a-pricier-paramount-and-instagram-launches-channels\/","title":{"rendered":"iOS gains new emoji, Showtime joins a pricier Paramount+, and Instagram launches Channels"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Hey, TechCrunch besties. After a week in Korea and the Philippines, it\u2019s great to be back in the States \u2014 and slightly more tan (i.e., burnt) than before. Massive thanks to Henry, who was forced to step in over the past two weeks thanks to my failing to realize that Korean Air does not<\/em> offer in-flight Wi-Fi. Talk about a good sport.<\/p>\n

If you\u2019re wondering about Greg\u2019s status, not to worry \u2014 he\u2019s due to return from a well-deserved parental leave in a month and change. In the meantime, I\u2019m here to nag you about TechCrunch\u2019s upcoming headliner events.<\/p>\n

TechCrunch Early Stage<\/a> is fast approaching \u2014 it\u2019s on April 20 in Boston this year, and it\u2019ll host experts across the venture and tech landscape who\u2019ll speak to solutions in getting a startup off the ground. (Also in Boston: City Spotlight<\/a>, which kicks off February 27.) On the far horizon, there\u2019s TechCrunch Disrupt<\/a> (September 19\u201321), which promises to be an absolute blowout this year. Having taken a peek at the preliminary guest list, let me just say this: It won\u2019t disappoint.<\/p>\n

With those administrative bits out of the way, let\u2019s get on with Week in Review<\/a>. (If you want it in your inbox every Saturday, sign up here<\/a>). Here are the top stories from the past several days!<\/p>\n

most read<\/h2>\n

Dashed ambitions:<\/a><\/strong> Tage<\/a> exclusively reports that allegedly Dash<\/a> CEO Prince Boakye Boampong was temporarily suspended pending an investigation into financial impropriety at the company. Boampong, one of Africa\u2019s best-known serial entrepreneurs, is reportedly accused of engaging in financial misreporting; sources tell TechCrunch that executives repeatedly concealed financials within the firm while laying off employees at will. Prior to Boampong\u2019s alleged suspension, Dash had raised<\/a> tens of millions in venture capital at an over-$200 million valuation.<\/p>\n

New iOS, new emoji:<\/strong><\/a> Apple released the iOS 16.4 developer beta, which brought with it the next set of emoji coming to iPhones. Originally unveiled during the draft phase last year, the emoji span categories like food and drink, activity, objects, animals and symbols. Sarah<\/a> writes that among the highlights are variations on the heart emoji, pushing hand gestures and a \u201cshaking face\u201d emoji. Curious users can check out the new additions by enrolling in Apple\u2019s Developer Program.<\/p>\n

Pony up for Paramount:<\/strong><\/a> Ahead of the launch of \u201cParamount+ with Showtime,\u201d a new TV streaming service bundle that\u2019ll see Showtime integrated<\/a> with Paramount+, Paramount announced that it would be increasing the price of its Paramount+ Premium tier from $9.99 per month to $11.99 per month. It\u2019s not an unexpected move \u2014 Paramount CEO Bob Bakish telegraphed the plans in early December \u2014 but it could nonetheless put Paramount+ with Showtime at a disadvantage as it competes with Warner Bros. Discovery\u2019s upcoming HBO Max\/Discovery+ service<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Feishu is the new Slack:<\/strong><\/a> Feishu, ByteDance\u2019s Slack-like workplace collaboration app, surpassed $100 million in annual recurring revenue last year, Rita<\/a> writes. ByteDance\u2019s heavy investment in Feishu is telling of the state of enterprise software in China. At a time when Silicon Valley investors are heralding product-led growth<\/a>, software in China is still largely counting on sales, marketing and services to recruit users.<\/p>\n

Channeling Instagram:<\/a> <\/strong>Instagram launched a new broadcast chat feature this week called \u201cChannels.\u201d Aisha<\/a> reports that it lets creators share public, one-to-many messages to directly engage with their followers. Channels support text, images, polls, reactions and more. Instagram is starting to test channels with select creators in the U.S. and plans to expand the feature in coming months.<\/p>\n

Salesforce under pressure:<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Salesforce is looking for new ways to cut costs as activist investors put pressure on the company. This week, Salesforce implemented stricter performance measurements for engineering, with some salespeople being put under pressure to quit or succumb to harsh performance policies of their own. As Ron<\/a> writes, it\u2019s\u00a0probably related to the fact that activist investors have been circling<\/a> the company, undoubtedly pushing management to increase productivity and reduce expenditures.<\/p>\n

Safety concerns dog Tesla:<\/a> <\/strong>Tesla this week issued a recall of its Full Self-Driving (FSD) beta software, an advanced driver-assistance system that federal regulators say<\/a> could allow vehicles to act unsafe around intersections. Affecting over 362,000 vehicles, the recall was motivated in part, Telsa disclosed, by concerns that FSD-driven vehicles might respond insufficiently to changes in posted speed limits, among other concerns. FSD beta software \u2014 from its name and Musk\u2019s promises around its capabilities to its rollout and safety concerns \u2014 has been controversial<\/a>, attracting scrutiny from regulatory agencies.<\/p>\n

Snapping up users:<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Snapchat now has over 750 million monthly active users (MAUs). The company announced the milestone during its Investor Day on Thursday, Sarah<\/a> reports. Snapchat said it sees a path to reaching over 1 billion people in the next two to three years, but whether it\u2019ll actually achieve that remains to be seen. In any case, 750 MAUs puts Snapchat ahead of Pinterest (450 million) but behind Facebook (2.96 billion).<\/p>\n

A Tetris movie:<\/a> <\/strong>Apple TV+ this week released the first trailer for its movie \u201cTetris,\u201d based on the origin story of the popular puzzle video game. Starring Taron Egerton, who plays American video game salesman Henk Rogers, \u201cTetris\u201d tells the story of Rogers and his mission to secure the distribution rights of the game. The movie will premiere at South by Southwest film festival in March, after which Apple will release it worldwide on Apple TV+ (on March 31).<\/p>\n

audio<\/h2>\n

TechCrunch has a wonderful lineup of audio programming, in case you weren\u2019t aware. In other words, we\u2019ve got podcasts for days. This week on Equity<\/a>, Mary Ann<\/a> and Becca<\/a> got on the mic to talk about Descope\u2019s $53 million seed round, Phenomenal Ventures\u2019 new fund and a Mexican neobank\u2019s latest raise. On Found<\/a>, Darrell<\/a> and Becca<\/a> talked with Alex Rappaport, the CEO and co-founder of ZwitterCo, which makes it practical for industries to recycle water and enhance product recovery with new filtration technology. And over at TechCrunch Live<\/a>, the crew went live (not to be repetitive) with CFO-turned-CEO Christina Ross and her Mayfield Fund partner, Rajeev Batra, to talk about the story behind Ross\u2019 company, Cube, and how it meets its customers where they\u2019re at.<\/p>\n

TechCrunch+<\/h2>\n
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TC+ subscribers get access to in-depth commentary, analysis and surveys \u2014 which you know if you\u2019re already a subscriber. If you\u2019re not, consider signing up<\/a>. Here are a few highlights from this week:<\/em><\/p>\n

An egg, but not:<\/strong><\/a> Price parity with traditional foods is one of the main challenges for alternative protein startups. However, the avian flu, a shortage of cage-free eggs and a subsequent rise in prices in late 2022 seems to provide an \u201cin\u201d for alternative egg companies to show they can compete. Christine<\/a> takes a deep dive.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Down but not out:<\/strong><\/a> Natasha M<\/a> writes how an emerging class of founders is reminding the tech ecosystem how collapse can be an activator. Laid-off talent is flocking to build startups within all sectors, from climate to crypto to the creator economy. And they\u2019re hoping to course-correct where their alma maters \u2014 both Big Tech companies and small upstarts alike \u2014 went wrong.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Is the tech jobs market as bad as it seems?:<\/a>\u00a0<\/strong>Ron<\/a> investigates the state of the tech jobs market, finding that \u2014 while some numbers are down \u2014 it\u2019s not a clear-cut matter. His top-level observation? Tech workers, especially those with specialized skills like engineering, data science, AI and cybersecurity, continue to be in demand as supply lags behind the number of open jobs.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n

Read More<\/a>
\n Kyle Wiggers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Hey, TechCrunch besties. After a week in Korea and the Philippines, it\u2019s great to be back in the States \u2014 and slightly more tan (i.e., burnt) than before. Massive thanks to Henry, who was forced to step in over the past two weeks thanks to my failing to realize that Korean Air does not offer<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":609769,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22295,28111,46],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-609768","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-emoji","8":"category-gains","9":"category-technology"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609768","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=609768"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/609768\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/609769"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=609768"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=609768"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/newsycanuse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=609768"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}