This Week in Apps: Twitter’s crazy week drives social apps’ growth, Google expands user choice billing

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the weekly TechCrunch series that recaps the latest in mobile OS news, mobile applications and the overall app economy. Global app spending reached $65 billion in the first half of 2022, up only slightly from the $64.4 billion during the same period in 2021, as hypergrowth fueled by…

‘This dude is bullshit’: Elon Musk describes the first time he met now disgraced FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried

Sam Bankman-Fried and Elon Musk Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post via Getty Images, Dimitrios Kambouris/Getty Images Elon Musk said his “bullshit meter was redlining” after meeting with Sam Bankman-Fried before the Twitter takeover to discuss an investment.  His remarks came during a Twitter Space discussion with 60,000 attendees early Saturday morning, per Coinbase.  Musk said he…

Several lawmakers have asked Nancy Pelosi to continue leading the House Democratic caucus, pointing to her ability to maintain discipline: report

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California speaks during a panel at the COP27 United Nations Climate Summit in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt, on November 11, 2022. AP Photo/Peter Dejong Several lawmakers have approached Pelosi about staying on as House Democratic leader, per CNN. In a closely-divided House, some Democrats want to see Pelosi remain in her…

Google’s rolling out a Nest Wifi Pro update to fix slow internet speeds

Image: Google Google says it’s rolling out a software update for the new Nest Wifi Pro early next week to address the slow internet speeds experienced by some users. In a statement to The Verge, Sanjay Noronha, Google Nest Wifi’s product lead, says the company’s “currently investigating reports of a small number of users experiencing…