We spend a good chunk of our time and money on mobile gaming, a new report says. In 2018, 74% of spending in app stores was driven by games, according to a Monday report from App Annie, which provides companies with mobile data and analytics. Additionally, 33% of all mobile downloads worldwide were games, and …

Succulents were front and center Tuesday after a WordPress outage led some sites to revert to default themes.  The outage, which occurred on WordPress’ VIP Go platform, caused premium blogs to show 503 errors or go back to WordPress’ default themes. In many cases, sites featured artsy shots of succulents before a fix was issued. Outlets such as TechCrunch, 9to5Mac …

Twitter is giving its rules a refresh. The social media platform said Thursday that it’s making its rules easier to understand with simple, clear language. Twitter cut its rules from 2,500 total words to under 600, and it also organized the rules into categories for safety, privacy and authenticity.  “Rules should be easy to understand,” the Twitter Safety account tweeted. “We …

Wikipedia says The North Face violated its terms by swapping photos on the site with its own in order to appear at the top of Google searches.  The Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit that hosts Wikipedia, said Wednesday that The North Face and ad agency Leo Burnett Tailor Made “unethically manipulated” Wikipedia after removing photos on the platform and replacing them with …

AT&T said it’s adding Locast, an app that streams local broadcaster TV for free, to DirecTV and U-Verse starting Thursday. Locast provides access to local broadcast stations including ABC, CBS, NBC and FOX to people with broadband-connected receivers. It’s available in New York, Chicago, Philadelphia, Dallas, Washington DC, Houston, Boston, Denver and Baltimore. AT&T said it’ll still provide its free Local …

Google parent company Alphabet is using internet balloons to provide data to Peru’s earthquake victims. Alphabet’s Loon, started in 2016, uses solar-powered balloons as Wi-Fi carriers to deliver signals from up in the air. The company said Thursday it’s using its balloons to provide LTE to areas of Peru affected by a magnitude 8.0 earthquake that hit earlier this week. Loon …

Uber may be taking its driver ratings one step further.  The ride-hailing company could be testing a feature that lets you add drivers to a list of favorites, according to tipster Jane Manchun Wong. You’d then be able to catch a ride with those drivers again on future trips, according to a screenshot Wong shared on Twitter. Uber is testing …

Snap, the company behind Snapchat, is reportedly seeking licenses that would allow users to add music to their posts on the platform.  The company is hoping to secure broad rights to catalogues from Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment and Warner Music Group, according to a Friday report by The Wall Street Journal. Snapchat users would then have the option …

Comcast is launching a commercial-free, on-demand movie service called Hitz in July, the company said Friday. The service will replace Cinemax in some of Comcast’s packages.   Hitz will include more than 200 movies from a variety of studios, and will be available on Xfinity Premier, Super and other TV packages, according to a Comcast representative.  Although Cinemax won’t be on …

Instagram will now support landscape videos on its IGTV platform. The Facebook-owned photo app said Thursday that it’s adding the capability following requests from creators and viewers. Previously, IGTV only supported vertical videos. Viewers can now also watch landscape videos in full-screen by turning their phone sideways.  “We realize this is an evolution from where IGTV started — we believe …