Gmail will get a brand new look, Instagram journeys whereas making an attempt to be TikTok and India blocks Battleground Cell – TechCrunch

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The most learn story this week was about Battlegrounds Cell India, a well-liked battle royale title that has discovered an viewers of tens of thousands and thousands in India. Gamers woke as much as discover the sport all of the sudden blocked from each Google Play and Apple’s App Retailer by order of the Indian authorities. Why? That’s…not precisely clear but, however Manish has the breakdown of all the pieces we all know to this point.

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New Gmail for all: Use Gmail? Don’t be shocked if it seems totally different quickly. The corporate introduced this week that the “Materials You” interface overhaul it has been testing will roll out to all customers within the coming weeks. Don’t like the brand new styling? For now, at the least, yow will discover a toggle hidden within the settings menu to modify it again.

Instagram’s unhealthy transfer(s): As finest anybody can inform, TikTok appears to be consuming Instagram’s lunch. Is the reply for Instagram to develop into extra like TikTok? Current updates — like a give attention to full-screen video and extra content material from individuals you don’t comply with — have made the Insta interface really feel an increasing number of TikTok-y…and, nicely, the complaints have been loud. Instagram is at the least pretending to pay attention, although, and says it’ll be strolling again lots of stated modifications. Perhaps.

Rivian layoffs: Rumors earlier this month steered layoffs had been looming at Rivian; certain sufficient, the corporate confirmed this week that it’s shedding round 6% of its workforce as a part of a “restructuring plan.”

A penny in your prompts?: OpenAI’s DALL-E 2 can generate unimaginable artwork seemingly out of skinny air, however typically getting the precise outcomes you need can require some…finesse. This startup desires to “promote strings of phrases that internet predictable outcomes” on DALL-E 2 and different such programs. An attention-grabbing story made all the higher by its oh-so-Seussian opening picture, which I’ll be aware was created by an precise human (and a lovely one at that).

Meta shutters Tuned: Do you know Meta had a social app for {couples}? In all probability not! Referred to as Tuned, it was a part of Meta’s New Product Experimentation efforts, and it appears this explicit experiment is over. Meta introduced this week that Tuned will go away on September 19. The app was meant to assist {couples} talk and “create a shared scrapbook” of photographs/movies/and so forth. It doesn’t assist that it was launched proper originally of the pandemic, when many {couples} in all probability had no bother protecting in contact as a result of they in all probability weren’t going wherever anyway.

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Is chopping your organization’s inner valuation ever a superb factor? Natasha and Anita targeted on that query on Wednesday’s episode of Equity. In the meantime, on Chain Reaction, Lucas and Anita chatted about Minecraft, saying, “No friggin’ thanks” to NFTs, and Lauren hopped on The TechCrunch Podcast to fill us in on why (as we realized final week) Netflix is bleeding prospects.

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When you’re a TechCrunch+ subscriber, (a) thanks! and (b) we’ve received great things for you this week. Reminiscent of:

3 views on Amazon’s acquisition of One Medical: Like it or hate it, Amazon is shopping for One Medical. Good factor? Unhealthy factor? Alex Wilhelm, Walter Thompson and Miranda Halpern weigh in with their views.

8 fintech VCs on the way to pitch them: What are fintech traders in search of proper now? Mary Ann Azevedo checked in with eight of the highest traders within the house.

Might the CHIPS Act spark one other U.S. startup renaissance?: The U.S. Senate clearly desires extra semiconductor manufacturing occurring stateside — however chip manufacturing is wildly costly. Is that this “potential money injection” a possibility for brand spanking new startups to alter the best way it’s executed? As Haje places it: “These bizarre theories you had been learning as a part of your PhD thesis? Now’s the time to mud ’em off.”