Discord acquires Gas, a compliments-based social media app for teens

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin/TechCrunch

On Gas, users sign up with their school, add friends, and answer polls about their classmates. But the questions in the polls are intended to boost users’ confidence, rather than damage it. Teens might be asked to choose which of four friends is the best DJ or has the best smile. Then the person who was chosen will get an anonymous message with their compliment, sent from a vague “boy in 10th grade” or “girl in 11th grade.”

Even though Discord is currently going to keep Gas operating as a stand-alone product, Discord recently announced that it would integrate a selection of apps into its servers. So, it’s possible that we could see these positive community polls on the messaging platform in the future.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/17/discord-acquires-gas-a-compliments-based-social-media-app-for-teens/

Twitter’s third-party client issue is seemingly adeliberate suspension

Image Credits: Bryce Durbin / TechCrunch

Last Friday, a ton of popular Twitter clients including Tweetbot, Twitterrific, and Echofon were down. Users couldn’t log into their accounts or look at their timelines. At first, it looked like a bug in Twitter API, but radio silence from Twitter and new details indicated that the company deliberately limited access to third-party apps.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/16/twitters-third-party-client-issue-is-seemingly-a-deliberate-suspension/

Meta’s ads being found unlawful in the EU is a warning to other ad-funded platforms

Image Credits: Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

“The EDPB binding decisions clarify that Meta unlawfully processed personal data for behavioural advertising. Such advertising is not necessary for the performance of an alleged contract with Facebook and Instagram users. These decisions may also have an important impact on other platforms that have behavioural ads at the centre of their business model,” said EDPB chair, Andrea Jelinek, in a statement.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/12/meta-ads-gdpr-decisions-edpb/

OpenAI begins piloting ChatGPT Professional,a premium version of its viral chatbot

Image Credits: OpenAI

The monetized version of ChatGPT will be called ChatGPT Professional, apparently. That’s according to a waitlist link OpenAI posted in the Discord server, which asks a range of questions about payment preferences including “At what price (per month) would you consider ChatGPT to be so expensive that you would not consider buying it?”

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/11/openai-begins-piloting-chatgpt-professional-a-premium-version-of-its-viral-chatbot

Apple’s mixed-reality headset could arrive this year

Image Credits: Justin Sullivan / Getty Images

Over the past few years, Apple CEO Tim Cook has stated several times that augmented reality is a promising technology. “I think the [AR] promise is even greater in the future. So it’s a critically important part of Apple’s future,” Cook told Kara Swisher back in 2021.

But it sounds like Apple’s upcoming product is going to offer a mixed-reality experience. Users will be able to experience both augmented and virtual reality. Details are still thin about the potential use cases and apps for the headset as it’s easier to control software leaks compared to product leaks.

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/09/apples-mixed-reality-headset-could-arrive-this-year/

The FTC moves to ban noncompete agreements

Image Credits: Saul Loeb-Pool / Getty Images

“The freedom to change jobs is core to economic liberty and to a competitive, thriving economy,” FTC Chair Lina M. Khan said. “Noncompetes block workers from freely switching jobs, depriving them of higher wages and better working conditions, and depriving businesses of a talent pool that they need to build and expand. By ending this practice, the FTC’s proposed rule would promote greater dynamism, innovation, and healthy competition.”

https://techcrunch.com/2023/01/05/the-ftc-moves-to-ban-noncompete-agreements/

Twitter alternative Hive shuts down its app to fix critical security issues

Image Credits: Hive

The team at the newly popular Twitter alternative Hive is in over its head. The company has now taken the fairly radical step of fully shutting down its servers for a couple of days in response to concerns raised by security researchers who discovered a number of critical vulnerabilities on Hive, several of which they say remain unfixed. The issues they found would allow attackers access to all data, including private posts and messages, shared media and even deleted direct messages, as well as the ability to edit other people’s Hive posts.

https://techcrunch.com/2022/12/01/twitter-alternative-hive-shuts-down-its-app-to-fix-critical-security-issues/