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Casetify launches iPhone cases that look like Crocs with Jibbtiz. Yes, for real.

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via https://ift.tt/ulhDesU Have you ever wanted an iPhone case that looks like a pair of Crocs? You know, the ugly-but-comfy slip-on shoes covered in holes that you can optionally decorate with colorful push-pins? You haven’t ? Well, apparently some designer at smartphone case maker Casetify saw a pair of Crocs and thought to themselves, wow, that would make for a great iPhone case!! No, we’re not kidding. Casetify this month launched a new series of iPhone cases that look exactly like Crocs shoes, complete with their trypophobia-inducing holes and sets of pushpin decorations that allow you to personalize your phone case with things like flowers, rainbows, smiley faces, and… uhhh …a stick of butter. A piece of toast. A snail. A motel keychain?? I’m sorry, but what the actual **** is going on here? These cases are selling for $52! While TechCrunch doesn’t typically cover smartphone cases or accessories, when we saw this new product line we knew we had to make an exception beca...

Sonos Era 100 and Era 300 review: The next generation of great, reliable multi-room sound

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via https://ift.tt/KdNa0qu Sonos has two new speakers going on sale Tuesday, March 28, and they’re both significant new models that occupy a couple of key spots in the overall Sonos line-up: The Era 100 is essentially the replacement for the Sonos One, arguably the ‘default’ starter speaker for anyone looking to build out a Sonos system. The Era 300, its larger sibling, is the first Sonos speaker to support spatial audio, and occupies a place somewhere between the now-defunct Play:3 and the Sonos Five. We took both for a test drive, and found plenty of reasons to get excited about Sonos’ Era era. The basics The Sonos Era 100 basically drops in as a replacement for the Sonos One in the existing product lineup, and it’s got a design to match. Unlike the Sonos One, the Era 100 is a true rounded cylinder (instead of a 3D rounded rectangle like the One) and is slightly taller than the One, but with a more svelte appearance overall thanks to being more narrow side-to-side. Image Credits...

Pinterest brings shopping capabilities to Shuffles, its collage-making app

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via https://ift.tt/jfAeVL4 Pinterest announced today that it’s testing ways to integrate Shuffles collage content into Pinterest, starting with shopping. Shuffles, which is Pinterest’s collage-making app , launched to general public last November. To use Shuffles, users build collages using Pinterest’s own photo library or by snapping photos of objects they want to include with their iPhone’s camera. The iOS-only app is available in the U.S., Canada, Great Britain, Ireland, Australia and New Zealand. Shuffles will now have all of the shopping capabilities as regular pins. Users will be able to tap individual cutouts used in collages, see the brand, price, and other product metadata along with similar products to shop. “Unlike typical product exploration, Shuffles bring an interactivity that makes the experience inspirational and fun,” the company said in a blog post. “Gen-Z is curating fresh, relevant content alongside their peers, which is quickly making for a marketplace of trend...

This Week in Apps: TikTok goes to Congress, apps connect to ChatGPT, Microsoft’s mobile games store plan

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via https://ift.tt/P3h5QtB Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. The app economy in 2023 hit a few snags, as consumer spending last year dropped for the first time by 2% to $167 billion , according to data.ai’s “State of Mobile” report. However, downloads are continuing to grow, up 11% year-over-year in 2022 to reach 255 billion. Consumers are also spending more time in mobile apps than ever before. On Android devices alone, hours spent in 2022 grew 9%, reaching 4.1 trillion. This Week in Apps offers a way to keep up with this fast-moving industry in one place with the latest from the world of apps, including news, updates, startup fundings, mergers and acquisitions, and much more. Do you want This Week in Apps in your inbox every Saturday? Sign up here: techcrunch.com/newsletters Top Stories TikTok tries to avoid a ban in U.S. congressional hearing Image Credit...

Framework refines its laptops and adds a cute way to reuse old parts

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via https://ift.tt/V04z6qd Framework is one of a few companies leading the charge against disposable electronics, in particular laptops. It just showed off some new models, but also a unique case that you can slot your old parts into to form a new (old) desktop or home media PC. After reviewing last year’s Framework 13 and finding it a perfectly nice, conscience-soothing alternative to the usual suspects, I did begin to wonder what happens to the old parts when you decide to upgrade. New board? Great, slot it in. And the old one goes… where? Their clever answer is this collaboration with Cooler Master : a $40 custom case that works with Framework parts, so as you upgrade your laptop, you also assemble a desktop. Actually it’s small enough that you could tuck it away and use it as a media server or something. Honestly, it’s nice just to have a place to store the parts. Image Credits: Framework The new Framework 13 is… not actually a new laptop, exactly, but a new set of parts...

Hivemapper is 1M kilometers closer to goal of beating Google Maps

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via https://ift.tt/Mlk9fj1 Hivemapper, the startup that puts dashcams on ride-hail and delivery vehicles to map the world, is getting a little closer to its goal of toppling the B2B mapping empire that Google has built. With only 2% of the world’s roads mapped, Hivemapper is still very much the underdog in this fight. But Gabe Nelson, Hivemapper’s head of operations, reckons the startup is reaching an inflection point that will lead to exponential scale. Hivemapper said Thursday it collected more than 1 million kilometers (about 620,000 miles) of unique street level imagery. Compared to Google’s 60 million kilometers, that’s small potatoes. However, Hivemapper collected this data within three months of launching. It took Google from 2007 to 2019 to collect 16.1 million kilometers of unique road data. Now, the startup aims to map 10 million unique road kilometers by early next year. Hivemapper relies on individual contributors around the world to collect its street view data, rat...

Microsoft launches Loop, its Notion competitor, in public preview

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via https://ift.tt/ut0TNdC Microsoft Loop, a Notion-like hub for managing tasks and projects that sync across Microsoft 365 apps and services, launched in public preview today. Loop is available to users with a Microsoft Account or Azure Active Directory account. A companion app for iOS and Android is set to arrive soon; Microsoft didn’t provide firm timing. Unveiled at Ignite 2021, Loop is in some ways Microsoft’s answer to Google Workspace Spaces, which provides dashboards for real-time, digital-first project collaboration. As with most team-based productivity platforms, Loop has progress-tracking tools for projects and two-way sync with services including Trello. So what’s unique about it? Well, Loop consists of three main elements — Loop components, Loop pages and Loop workspaces — that together can be used to paste real-time blocks of content into apps like Outlook, Microsoft Teams and Word. (My colleague Frederic Lardinois once compared the experience to the ill-fated Google...