Josh Constine
TechCrunch
San Francisco, CA, United States
Contact Josh
Discover and connect with journalists and influencers around the world, save time on email research, monitor the news, and more.
| Recent: |
|
Recent articles by Josh:
Pinterest employee #1 launches blockchain art market MakersPlace –
Pinterest is a great place to find digital art but a terrible place to sell it. The fact that anything online is infinitely copyable makes it tough for artists to establish a sense of scarcity necessary for their work to be perceived as valuable. → Read More
Snapchat revives growth in Q1 beat with 190M users & $320M revenue –
Snapchat appears to have turned the corner after a year of flat or negative user growth thanks to a strong Q1 2019 earnings report. It reached 190 million daily active users, up from 186 million in Q4 2018 but still down from 191 million a year ago, in part thanks to its newly reengineered Android […] → Read More
Snapchat fully rolls out reengineered Android app, boosting usage –
After a year of its user count shrinking or staying flat, Snapchat is finally growing again, and more growth is likely on the way. That’s because it’s finally completed the rollout of Project Mushroom aka a backend overhaul of its Android app that’s 25 percent smaller and 20 percent faster. Designed for India and other […] → Read More
$35M-funded Omni pivots from storage to rentals via retailers –
Omni simply couldn’t scale storing stuff in giant warehouses while dropping it and off picking it up from people on demand. Storage was designed to bootstrap Omni into peer-to-peer rentals of the goods in its care. → Read More
Smartcar accuses $50M-funded rival Otonomo of API plagiarism –
Ruthless copying is common in tech. Just ask Snapchat. However, it’s typically more conceptual than literal. But car API startup Smartcar claims that its competitor Otonomo copy-and-pasted Smartcar’s API documentation, allegedly plagiarizing it extensively to the point of including the original’s typos and randomly generated strings of code. It’s published a series of side-by-side screenshots […] → Read More
Vine reboot Byte begins beta testing –
Twitter shut down Dom Hoffman’s app Vine, giving away the short-form video goldmine to China’s TikTok. Now a year and half since Hoffman announced he’d reimagine the app as V2 then scrapped that name, his follow-up to Vine called Byte has finally sent out the first 100 invites to its closed beta. Byte will let […] → Read More
3 fixes for Netflix’s “What to watch?” problem
Wasting time every night debating with yourself or your partner about what to watch on Netflix is a drag. It burns people’s time and good will, robs great creators of attention, and leaves Netflix vulnerable to competitors who can solve discovery. → Read More
Instagram hides Like counts in leaked design prototype
“We want your followers to focus on what you share, not how many likes your posts get. During this test, only the person who share a post will see the total number of likes it gets. → Read More
Snapchat CEO Evan Spiegel will reappear at Disrupt SF
He invented modern social media, then had it stolen from him. → Read More
Twitter acquihires highlight sharing app Highly
Quotes from articles work much better than links on Twitter, so the social giant is scooping up the team behind highlight sharing app Highly. → Read More
How-to video maker Jumprope launches to leapfrog YouTube
Sick of pausing and rewinding YouTube tutorials to replay that tricky part? Jumprope is a new instructional social network offering a powerful how-to video slideshow creation tool. → Read More
Facebook prototypes a swipeable hybrid carousel of feed posts & Stories
Feed and Stories unite! Facebook is so eager to preempt the shift to Stories that it might even let us use the same interface of horizontally swipeable cards to sift through News Feed posts. → Read More
Mutiny at HQ Trivia fails to oust CEO
This week’s banishment of host Scott Rogowsky was merely a symptom of the ongoing struggle to decide who will lead HQ Trivia. → Read More
HQ Trivia replaces Quiz Daddy Scott Rogowsky
Quiz Khalifa aka Host Malone aka Trap Trebek aka HQ Trivia’s Scott Rogowsky has been pushed out of the live mobile gaming startup. → Read More
Instagram bug showed Stories to the wrong people
Today in “Facebook apps are too big to manage”, a glitch caused some users’ Instagram Stories trays to show Stories from people they don’t follow. → Read More
Instagram now demotes vaguely “inappropriate” content
Instagram is home to plenty of scantily-clad models and edgy memes that may start to get fewer views starting today. → Read More
New privacy assistant Jumbo fixes your Facebook & Twitter settings
Jumbo could be a nightmare for the tech giants, but a savior for the victims of their shady privacy practices. → Read More
To stop copycats, Snapchat shares itself
Evan Spiegel has finally found a way to fight back against Mark Zuckerberg’s army of clones. For 2.5 years, Snapchat foolishly tried to take the high road versus Facebook, with Spiegel claiming “Our values are hard to copy”. → Read More
Snapchat launches Mario Party-style multiplayer games platform
Snap is unlocking a new revenue stream while giving you something to do in between chats and Stories. Today Snapchat debuts its Snap Games platform that lets you play real-time, multiplayer games while texting and talking with your friends. → Read More
Snapchat will power Stories & ads in other apps
Snapchat’s found an answer to the revenue problem stemming from its halted growth: it will show its ads in other apps with the launch of Snapchat Ad Kit and the Snapchat Audience Network. → Read More