Here we go. After letting folks run ads on store pages of other apps, Apple's "temporarily paused" gambling ads. Why? Because people weren't too pleased when enterprising marketers ran slot machine ads on gambling recovery app store pages... Lets see how Apple ends up prioritizing $$$ v customer friendliness.

Wait... They shipped what!?

Duolingo is launching a mathematics app.

Details: Duolingo Math is the company's first foray beyond language and literacy. Some highlights of the new standalone app include:

• Choice of two versions

  • "Elementary": Basic math concepts for kids

  • "Brain Training": Real life mental math skills for adults

• Bite sized lessons & interactive exercises

• Completely free to use (for now)

Why it matters: Duolingo is the clear leader when it comes to language learning. By taking on math, Duolingo's looking to broaden its market opportunity in a way that can eventually replicate across more subject areas.

If Duolingo Math succeeds, it'll unlock a series of strong growth opportunities and help the company claw back its 40% drop in stock price since IPO.

However I do think that Duolingo will find Math to be tough going. Few reasons why:

• 1) Weaker use case: Adult brain training not as compelling as language learning

• 2) Different audience: New marketing focus, limited language product cross-sell

• 3) Split focus: Company will ultimately prioritize resources for language product

• 4) Lots of direct competition: Khan Academy, Numerade, Brilliant, several others

But what do I know... Maybe a cool owl mascot and streaks is all you really need 🤷

Features & products hot off the press

Big tech

• Google increases individual workspace storage limit from 15GB to 1TB

• Google rolled out a web view for Home and Nest

• Meta announced it will release a consumer-grade VR headset next year 

• Apple is working on a 16-inch iPad that blurs the lines with laptops 

• Apple tests an overhauled UI for the iCloud website

• Linkedin is testing new verification and trust-building features

General and early-stage

• Acquia ships an open-source headless CMS offering

• Needl publicly launches its cross-platform application search tool

• Hinge now lets users add pets and Zodiac sign to dating profiles 

• Playstation 5 will soon get a Discord voice chat integration 

• Sigstore ships free software signing service for open source projects

Getting 1% better at building product

• Leadership - How to build trust and grow as a product leader, by Fareed Mosavat

• Execution - Things getting in the way of product execution, by Aakash Gupta

Broader tech happenings

• Turning tides? Tech layoffs have been slowing down since the summer

• Never fun. Autonomous vehicle startup Argo AI is shutting down

• Accredited. Singapore may require consumers pass tests before trading crypto

• Down & to the right. Meta posted a back-to-back quarterly revenue decline

• Gettin' pricey. Spotify CEO indicates that price increases are coming in 2023

Courtesy of mindless Twitter scrolling

@darylginn

@ChrisJBakke

And that’s a wrap for today. Stay tuned for more!

- Amol