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The owner of WordPress has bought Beeper, the app that flipped the bird to Apple’s iMessage supremacy
WordPress and Tumblr owner Automattic has bought Beeper, the maker of the Beeper Mini app that challenged Apple’s iMessage dominion late last year. Although it ultimately lost that battle, the incident gave the DOJ more ammunition in its antitrust suit against the iPhone maker.
Tumblr and WordPress posts will reportedly be used for OpenAI and Midjourney training
Tumblr and WordPress are reportedly set to strike deals to sell user data to artificial intelligence companies OpenAI and Midjourney. The platforms’ parent company, Automattic, is nearing completion of an agreement to provide data to help train the AI companies’ models.
Tumblr’s staff is reportedly reduced to a skeleton crew
Tumblr, a flailing social media site from a bygone era, may be run by a skeleton crew from now on. An alleged internal memo from parent company Automattic has made the rounds on social platforms, stating it has “not gotten the expected results from our effort.”
Tumblr's building a TikTok inspired feed in bid to grow its user base
Tumblr is planning a major revamp of its platform that will bring algorithmic recommendations to users’ feeds, according to a memo published on the Tumblr Staff blog.
Tumblr will review its moderation algorithms after a porn ban-related settlement
NYC's human rights commission said the ban disproportionately affected LGBTQ+ users.
Tumblr bloggers can soon charge for access to their posts
The platform is testing paid subscriptions with the Post+ feature.
Tumblr's parent company is buying popular podcast app Pocket Casts
Automattic 'will explore building deep integrations with WordPress.com and Pocket Casts.'
Verizon will sell Tumblr to the owner of WordPress
The rumors of Verizon selling Tumblr turned out to have merit. Verizon (Engadget's parent company) is selling the social network to Automattic, the company behind the blogging tool WordPress. It's not disclosing the size of the deal, but Automattic is taking on 200 employees as part of the exchange. Automattic chief Matt Mullenweg told the Wall Street Journal that this is his company's largest acquisition both in terms of cost and sheer staff count.
Six more tech companies join fight to save net neutrality
Opposition to the FCC's repeal of net neutrality grew this week, as six more tech companies filed suit against it. Etsy, Kickstarter, Foursquare, Shutterstock, Automattic and Expa petitioned the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit as part of a group called the Coalition for Internet Openness. The group's goal is to stop the FCC from overturning the rules that ensure a free and open internet.
New photo app is all Selfies, all the time
We know what you're thinking, but a new app called Selfies is actually kind of fun, considering that it's a barely-promoted one-off from Automattic (the company responsible for WordPress). It told TechCrunch that Selfies was in development for eight weeks or so as part of the Gravatar universal avatar app before it became a separate thing. Trying the app showed that its basic-ness is part of the kick, since it let us post our own pic right after logging on. (We also found it to be a little rough around the edges with a few crashes.) Right now, there's just a single public feed showing ever photo, but the company has plans to filter the best content soon. You can try it now for yourself, but only on Android -- the company narrowly picked that platform to launch it first thanks to a user poll.
WordPress app update adds new Native Reader and improved account management
Wordpress has updated its iOS app to version 3.7 to provide readers with an improved browsing experience. The app's new Reader is designed to enhance the user experience by being rebuilt from the ground up with 100 percent native code, an improvement from the original Reader's blend of JavaScript and native code. Account management has also been improved, although it may take some users a while to notice as the improvements are entirely under-the-hood. Visually, the app looks the same, but WordPress owners Automattic have improved how the app connects to the various services used to manage WP sites. The iOS app now does a better job of connecting to Jetpack, the online Reader and notification features. In addition to these improvements and the usual bug fixes, version 3.7 changes how the View Admin feature works, at it now opens a page in Safari instead of inside the app. Finally, the update is rounded out with the addition of Thai language support. WordPress is already working on the iOS 7 version of the app, and has launched a new blog for fans to follow the progress of their mobile development. You can find version 3.7 of the WordPress app now in the iTunes store.
Automattic buys third-party Wordpress app Poster to improve its own mobile apps
Automattic, the company behind Wordpress, has purchased the iOS Wordpress client Poster. Developer Tom Witkin is joining Wordpress' mobile team with the aim of bringing his app's unique features to Wordpress' own app. Sadly, progress for Wordpress means Poster is no longer available in the app store, but there's a bright spot for those who've already picked it up. Users who already own the app will be able to re-download it from their accounts and Witkin has announced that he will continue to provide support. Poster brought a number of features not found in the company's own apps to Wordpress users, including Dropbox integration for importing articles from the cloud, support for Markdown and the ability to choose your own URL slug for posts. While it's sad to see Poster leave the App Store, it's nice to know Wordpress' own apps will most likely be seeing these improvements in the future.
Simplenote acquired by Automattic, makers of WordPress
Popular Mac and iOS note-taking app Simplenote has a new owner. Simperium, the company behind it, is now a part of Automattic, the creator of WordPress. In a blog post on the app's new site, Simperium co-founders Michael Johnston and Fred Cheng announced the sale and talked a bit about what it means for the future of Simplenote. According to Johnston and Cheng, Automattic plans to put more resources behind Simplenote development including improvements to Simperium, the data-syncing service it utilizes. Automattic was able to secure the Simplenote.com domain and has set up a new blog there -- utilizing WordPress, of course -- to keep users updated on exactly what to expect from forthcoming releases.
