Mitchel Broussard

Although Nintendo, Niantic, and The Pokémon Company have a few good reasons to celebrate the launch of their new augmented reality mobile game Pokémon Go, a couple of incidents related to the game have already begun sprouting up over the past few days, bringing to light a few cautionary tales for everyone delving into the game. Because it requires players to travel to real-world destinations...

The Walt Disney Company is nearing a deal that will net it a one-third stake in Major League Baseball Advanced Media, the streaming division of MLB whose business is valued at around $3.5 billion (via Bloomberg). According to those close to the deal, an agreement between the two companies has not yet been officially finalized, but once it is the contract will allow Disney to purchase another 33...

Audio technology company Bose this week announced a new wireless Bluetooth speaker aimed at creating a do-it-yourself workflow for kids interested in electronics. Called the BOSEbuild Speaker Cube, the $150 kit connects with a companion Bose app, giving users a step-by-step set of instructions to build a fully functioning Bluetooth speaker, along with other experiments and activities (via TechCrun...

T-Mobile today announced that the iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s Plus will be available in "select MetroPCS stores in Florida" beginning tomorrow, July 1, with a nationwide rollout expected to launch soon. T-Mobile acquired MetroPCS -- which is a prepaid alternative to traditional subsidized carriers -- back in 2013, but this will mark the first time Apple's iPhone will appear as an option on MetroPCS'...

Following last summer's inaugural, one-day sale event called "Prime Day," Amazon this morning confirmed that it will be bringing back the Black Friday-like discounts this summer on July 12 (via Fortune). The company is referring to the second entry of Prime Day as the "biggest Amazon event ever," exceeding over 100,000 deals when it launches at midnight PT on the 12th. As last year, Prime Day...

A new image found on microblogging service Weibo shows off what Lightning adaptor EarPods might look like if Apple launches the iPhone 7 without a 3.5mm headphone jack, which has been gaining traction since it was first rumored last November. The images, discovered by iPhone7.nl (Google Translate), are almost certainly a knockoff due to a disproportionate Lightning plug that appears far wider...

Over the past few weeks, some Apple Watch wearers have noticed that a growing portion of Apple's band inventory has been marked as "sold out," with many styles, sizes, and colors, now included in that group. While Apple has made it clear that its first foray into fashion accessories will follow a "seasonal" cycle, with certain styles leaving its store forever once sold out, the array of bands...

Ahead of the Fourth of July holiday in the United States, ride hailing app Uber today announced a suite of safety improvements for its driver app, aimed at "predicting, preventing and reducing the number of crashes on the road." The update comes in partnership with Mothers Against Drunk Driving and the Governor's Highway Safety Association, and focuses on parsing out more information to the...

Apple "is being more conservative" when placing its orders with chip assembler Advanced Semiconductor Engineering, once again suggesting that the 2016 "iPhone 7" will face a weaker demand in comparison to normal cycles, due to a dearth of hardware innovation in the handset (via Nikkei). Apple wasn't specifically mentioned during ASE's recent shareholder meeting, but a reference to "the big client ...

Amazon has announced that a new feature called "Page Flip" will be rolling out to its iOS and Android apps, Fire tablets, and Kindle e-readers as a free, over-the-air update beginning today. The feature gives users a digital approximation of skimming through a book, making "it easy to explore books while always saving your place." When activated, Page Flip pins the current page to the bottom ...

After a few weeks of new iOS 10 features slowly being discovered by beta testers, one new 3D Touch-enabled shortcut was stumbled upon recently that will let users prioritize the bulk download of apps. When more than one app is installing, users on iOS 10 can 3D Touch to select "Prioritize Download" and temporarily pause the installation of other apps while the selected one gains favor. On...

Facebook has never specified the exact methods it uses to present friend suggestions within its "People You May Know" tab, but a new report by Fusion suggests that a shared GPS data point could be a bigger factor in curating friendship than Facebook wants users to know. A nameless source told the site that he suspected the social network of digging into his location information to curate...

Following in the footsteps of a few changes and additions to its social networking features, Twitter today announced that a new photo-enhancing suite of stickers will be coming to iOS and Android users "over the next few weeks." The update will let users place Twitter's custom "rotating sets of stickers" onto any photo -- along with the hundreds of emojis offered on iOS and Android -- to...

One of Apple's newest apps revealed at WWDC this month was a meditation-enabling Apple Watch app called Breathe that will encourage users to take a break every day to focus on the rhythm of their breathing patterns. In a recent interview with BuzzFeed, Apple’s director of fitness for health technologies, Jay Blahnik, discussed the benefits of "mindfulness" apps like Breathe, and the research...

Twitter has confirmed to TechCrunch that all of its first party iOS app users will today begin to see a new location-based feature that aggregates tweets tagged to a specific geographic location. Called "Twitter Location Feeds," the update lets users scroll through tweets and profiles surrounding locations like the headquarters of a business, sporting event, music festival, or an entire city....

Ride hailing app Uber has begun testing a version of its app in six United States cities, with a new UI that makes periods of surge pricing more subtle to discover for users. Surge pricing is a term dedicated to windows when riders greatly exceed drivers, resulting in heightened fare prices due to the increased demand. When this would happen prior to Uber's new test, anyone signing into the...

After Netflix CEO Reed Hastings said that the company is keeping an "open mind" in regards to offering offline viewing to its customers, a new report from LightReading this week hints that the feature could be coming to the streaming platform "by the end of the year" (via Gizmodo). The information comes from industry insider Dan Taitz -- COO of Penthera, a company that works on mobile video --...

Apple Music is gearing up for a launch within Korea, according to a few local media outlets within the country. As reported by The Korea Herald, no firm date has been given for the launch yet, but an official from a music copyright association in Korea confirmed that contract negotiations with Apple have gone through, so the debut is expected sometime soon. “We formed a contract with Apple...

SanDisk recently announced a new line of cases for the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6s, aiming to give users expanded storage capabilities without needing to upgrade their iPhone model. Called the iXpand Memory Case and available in 32GB, 64GB, and 128GB, SanDisk's new cases ensure durable protection for Apple's smartphone while adding to the iPhone's base storage capacity via the Lightning port....

Shenzhen Baili, the Chinese company that claimed the iPhone 6 violated the patent of its 100c smartphone, is reported to "barely exist" following its victory in the Beijing Intellectual Property Office against Apple. In response to Shenzhen Baili's patent lawsuit, The Wall Street Journal investigated the company, along with its parent Digione, and found that the latter company had collapsed,...