NPR's Planet Money traced the origins of the real-time order-tracking animation now common across delivery and service apps back to Domino's, which built the Pizza Tracker in the mid-2000s after dropping its 30-minute delivery guarantee. The tool launched before the 2006 Super Bowl and let customers watch their order's progress from placement to delivery. Design director Shuya Gong told NPR the pattern has since been adopted by companies like Uber and repair shops, and that she has designed similar trackers for banks and TurboTax.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-22
An Entrepreneur analysis highlights how small businesses near World Cup 2026 host stadiums—bars, vendors, jersey shops and parking operators—saw sales rise 4.1% in June, outpacing 1.8% growth in non-host cities, largely due to a 16.7% jump in spending by visiting fans. The piece notes that nearly 500 terabytes of data flowed through host stadiums during the tournament, forcing local businesses to upgrade their own connectivity to handle surges in mobile ordering, digital payments and foot traffic.
entrepreneur.com
· 2026-09-22
Microsoft announced it is retiring its Microsoft 365 companion apps—Calendar, People, and Files—effective December 16, 2026, after which they will stop functioning and lose support. The company is telling IT administrators to uninstall the apps from managed devices before that date. The move comes roughly a year after Microsoft began automatically pushing these taskbar-integrated apps to Windows 11 enterprise devices running Microsoft 365 desktop clients.
bleepingcomputer.com
· 2026-09-21
A tech guide identifies seven free streaming services offering both on-demand libraries and live, cable-like channel surfing, all available as apps on most major smart TV platforms. These services are ad-supported, meaning viewers get content at no cost but must sit through commercial breaks.
engadget.com
· 2026-09-20
India's telecom regulator TRAI has amended commercial communications rules to require caller-ID and call-management apps to forward user spam reports to a blockchain-based platform run by telecom operators. Truecaller, whose largest market is India with over 350 million monthly users there, has criticized the move as a one-way, anti-competitive data transfer that benefits telecom companies at its expense.
techcrunch.com
· 2026-09-19
Google is rolling out a new Connected App in the Gemini desktop client for Mac that lets the assistant read, search, and send iMessages using an @messages command. The feature appeared in version 1.116.5.889 under Settings > Connected Apps, though the server-side component isn't fully active yet, so the command isn't recognized in prompts as of now. This follows last week's launch of the Gemini app on Windows.
9to5google.com
· 2026-09-18
An FBI memo reportedly advised ICE officers to be cautious of women on dating apps, including those presenting as "tradwives," whose profiles seem tailored to appeal to them. The warning suggests such profiles could be used to identify, track, or expose agents' identities.
gizmodo.com
· 2026-09-18
Android 17 QPR1, rolling out to Pixel devices, reportedly changes how the OS exposes developer and USB debugging status to installed apps. This means apps can no longer easily detect that a device has developer options or debugging enabled, a check many banking and finance apps use to block access.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-18
Code strings found in version 17.59.17.sa.arm64 of the Google app reveal a feature called 'Ephemeral Video Mode' tied to Gemini's internal codename Robin. The strings describe enabling an ephemeral mode specifically for video input during Gemini Live sessions, suggesting Google is testing a way to keep certain video interactions from being saved.
androidauthority.com
· 2026-09-17
A product commentary argues that consumer financial apps repeatedly default to building generic 'document hub' and 'notifications centre' features to satisfy internal stakeholders and legacy compliance needs. The author says these features start simple but balloon into complex, Google Drive- or Gmail-like systems requiring ongoing maintenance and security work. The piece frames refusing to build such features as one of the most important product decisions a team can make.
liamnugent.me
· 2026-09-17
The Advertising Standards Authority has banned five social media adverts, all hosted on Meta platforms, that promoted AI companion and video-generation apps by objectifying and sexualising women. One ad reportedly used sexualised imagery of a girl under 18, while others encouraged users to upload photos of a 'crush' or turn images into explicit videos without consent. Meta had already taken the ads down before the ASA's ruling.
bbc.co.uk
· 2026-09-15
Grindr's CEO George Arison has outlined plans to rebuild the dating app around artificial intelligence, aiming to make it 'AI native' throughout. The vision includes AI-driven matching to suggest potential partners and AI tools that help prioritize which incoming messages users should see first.
fastcompany.com
· 2026-09-15
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