Mitchel Broussard

Following in the wake of a few additions to the Instagram app that largely fell in line with rival service Snapchat -- including 24-hour long posts and an "Events" channel -- recently the popular photo sharing app announced a feature lacking in Snapchat, which will suggest new Stories for users to follow (via TechCrunch). The suggestions will be based on who you already follow and the topics...

Tim Cook has posted an open letter on Apple's website in response to the European Commission's ruling that Apple must pay 13 billion euros ($14.5 billion) in back taxes dating from 2003 through 2014. Cook's letter begins by discussing Apple's long history in Ireland, which dates back to a small facility that housed 60 employees in 1980. That statistic has now expanded to 6,000 employees...

Verizon today announced a new marketing push for "LTE Advanced" technology that brings 50 percent faster peak wireless data speeds to 461 cities across the United States. The company marks LTE Advanced as the latest improvement on current 4G LTE technology, which it first introduced in 2010. Besides a collection of major cities, Verizon LTE Advanced will cover "loads of less-served places...

Following image leaks of two new Fitbit fitness trackers, the company today officially announced the Fitbit Charge 2 and Fitbit Flex 2. In addition, the Fitbit Blaze and Fitbit Alta wearables will receive a software update soon that brings new notifications, clock faces, and move reminders. Fitbit Charge 2 (left) and Fitbit Flex 2 (right) Starting with the Fitbit Charge 2, the new device...

After placing the winning $815,000 bid on the rare "Celebration" Apple-1 computer last week, Glenn Dellimore spoke with Business Insider about his reasons for purchasing the computer. Dellimore made the decision with his wife, Shannnon, and the two were not only prepared to pay up to $2 million for the piece of Apple history, but both see it only increasing in value over the years. The...

Following a recent string of high-profile stories centered around cruel tweets, Twitter is said be gearing up to launch a new tweet moderation feature that will let users filter content they see by using keywords (via Bloomberg). Any subsequent tweet with the specifically designated harmful words would be blocked from the user's timeline and invisible to them, but still posted for anyone else to...

Following tradition, a new report out of Apple's supply chain is hinting that the company "may need to contend with a supply shortage" for the iPhone 7 and iPhone 7 Plus, citing vague issues with "faulty components" as the central problem (via Nikkei). Similar stories have emerged before the launch of the new iPhone nearly every year, stemming from Apple's annual late-summer production ramp-up...

Apple Music may have lost a major exclusivity deal with artist Lady Gaga and her label Interscope, with rumors suggesting the company's streaming music service was in place to exclusively launch not only the upcoming single "Perfect Illusion," but the singer's entire fifth studio album. Lady Gaga began voicing support of Apple Music before the service even launched last year. Interscope...

Drone manufacturer DJI today launched the Osmo+ camera, the company's first handheld gimbal with an integrated zoom camera that delivers "unprecedented stability and image quality for handheld still photography and video creation." DJI's new gimbal system is compatible with iOS and the DJI GO app [Direct Link] and packs in technology that the company compares similarly to its new Zenmuse Z3 zoom...

Popular video platform YouTube is reportedly seeking to greatly expand its social features with a new section called "Backstage," where users can share photos, polls, links, text posts, and videos to anyone subscribed to their channel (via VentureBeat). According to internal sources at YouTube, Backstage will launch in the fall both on the company's mobile apps and desktop. The initial soft...

Apple is working on its own social networking app, in the style of Facebook and Snapchat, according to a new report from Bloomberg. The company, "seeking to capitalize on the popularity of social networks," will focus on video in the new app, letting users record a video, edit it, apply a filter, add doodles, and then send it out to friends. Apple's goal is said to make the app quick and easy to...

In the wake of the much-anticipated launch of Frank Ocean's new album "Blonde," Universal Music Group CEO Lucian Grainge has sent out an email to UMG executives, saying that the company is prohibiting the practice of exclusive music streaming moving forward (via The Lefsetz Letter). The email officially ends "all future exclusives with Universal artists," meaning popular artists like Kendrick...

A handful of photos claimed to show packaging for a device called the "iPhone 6 SE" have surfaced online today, presumably countering rumors that the next iPhone will be called the iPhone 7, but the photos have quite clearly been digitally altered. The photos have circulated on a number of sites with varying amounts of redaction, but the highest quality, least edited versions we've found were...

LG recently unveiled a trio of new Bluetooth speaker collections ahead of the IFA 2016 tech conference taking place in Berlin September 2-7. The new speakers are called the PH2, PH3, and PH4 and "run the range from casual to audiophile grade" in order to suit the listening style of each LG customer. The cheapest speaker starts with the small PH2, measuring 3.8 inches in diameter and just 1.5...

Lyft co-founder and president John Zimmer today refuted reports from over the weekend that the ride-hailing company was seeking out buyers for a potential purchase -- reportedly including Apple -- outright telling Business Insider that "Lyft is not seeking a buyer." According to Zimmer, Lyft itself was approached for a purchase opportunity, which was misconstrued in reports by The New York Times...

After launching its point-of-sale system app in the United States in 2013, Shopify today announced that both the company's POS app and physical hardware will finally be made available to business owners in the United Kingdom (via TechCrunch). The app and "Tap, Chip, and Swipe" card reader work in conjunction to accept various kinds of retail payments from customers, while also providing merchants ...

After weeks of intense usage, new data from Axiom Capital Management (via Bloomberg) paints a picture of Pokémon Go's overall waning popularity as August comes to a close. With research lead by Senior Analyst Victor Anthony, the investment advising firm collected various user engagement statistics -- and even figured out how much attention Pokémon Go brought to augmented reality gaming -- in a...

Nike today updated its popular "Nike+ Running" iOS app with a new name, "Nike+ Run Club," as well as introducing various user interface changes and features (via Fast Company). The big new addition centers around "coaching plans" that let users choose a workout and running plan, which then dynamically adapt to the specific progress made by each user. Some of these plans include categories like ...

NPR posted an audio interview with singer Barbra Streisand over the weekend, focusing on Streisand's North American tour of her new album Encore: Movie Partners Sing Broadway. In the middle of the 8-minute interview Apple gets mentioned briefly, specifically regarding the way that voice assistant Siri has mispronounced Streisand's name over the last five years. Siri uses a hard 'z' sound when...

Apple has acquired personal health and wellness startup Gliimpse, continuing its push into the health and fitness landscape that it began focusing on with the launch of the Apple Watch. The company made the acquisition earlier in the year, according to Fast Company, but Apple has now confirmed the purchase with its usual response: "Apple buys smaller technology companies from time to time,...