Trump’s New Executive Order Aims to Re-examine H-1B Program
President Trump signed his “Buy American, Hire American” executive order on Tuesday, which will put the H-1B visa system under review. The order is designed to ensure that tech jobs that could be going to Americans are not being taken by cheaper foreign labor and to tighten restrictions on foreign contractors bidding on government projects, […]
Google Spotlights Fact-Checkers to Manage Misinformation
Last week, Facebook announced its News Integrity Initiative, another gesture toward fixing the internet’s misinformation epidemic. While the social media giant has received most of the flak for the explosion of fake news, NYC app developers are well aware that it’s not the only platform guilty of disseminating false information. As the search engine, Google […]
Lyft Leans Into “Woke” Image In an Attempt to Unseat Uber
As Uber struggles to shake the bad press that has come to define its year so far, its primary competitor Lyft is seizing its moment and trying to move out of a distant second place in the rideshare market. Ever since the #DeleteUber commotion in January, Lyft’s strategy seems to be to present itself as […]
Facebook Raids Snapchat’s Stories Feature for Its Main App
Facebook has not been subtle in its desire to cut into whatever edge Snapchat has in the startup world, blatantly copying the ephemeral messaging app’s Stories feature for Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp. Now the company’s mobile app development team is rolling out its take on Snapchat’s innovations on the latest update of the main Facebook […]
Amazon Aims to Conquer New Markets with Physical Stores
Last week, one of Amazon Prime Air’s drones dropped off a small box of sunscreen at an exclusive robotics conference in Palm Springs. The package was small, but the shipment itself was huge: it was the company’s first public drone delivery on U.S. soil. We are now well on our way to a future where […]
Senate Dismantles Obama-Era Internet Privacy Protections
For app developers concerned with privacy, yesterday was a dark day. Senate Republicans passed a bill eliminating privacy regulations imposed on broadband providers by the FCC during the final months of the Obama presidency. Those protections would have required ISPs to get consent from the consumer before selling off personal information to a third party. […]
Why Aren’t Developers Chasing the iMessage App Boom?
Messaging apps — which is to say, apps that existing within messaging platforms like iMessage, Line, Messenger, and etc. — have been a huge growth area in the mobile tech industry. Sticker sets alone drove over $250 million in revenue for Line, and Western chat apps have seen similar success stories adding-on services to their […]
H-1B Visa Policy Remains Unclear for Tech Companies
While the Trump administration has made no bones about their policy plans for illegal and unskilled immigrants, immediate plans for overhauling highly-skilled immigration via H–1B visas remains unclear. This is bad news for app developers, since it’s actually an area that needs serious attention — between the lottery-style assignment system and the ease of abuse […]
Huawei will Launch a Google Now AI Assistant Competitor
Huawei isn’t the new kid on the block anymore — in fact, it’s the third-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world. While not the go-to smartphone for San Fran app developers, it’s a household name worldwide thanks to their affordable, dependable hardware. The company is aggressively working towards claiming the second place in the next year, […]
What Happens When App Growth Hacking Backfires
If, like the vast majority of Americans, you have a phone and a few friends, you probably heard of “ChitChat” last week when a “friend” invited you via SMS. You might be thinking the mobile app developers behind the app are celebrating a growth hacking victory. On the contrary, they’re probably in the process of […]