Facebook gets in hot water over its Research app, Foxconn scales back its U.S. factory commitment and TikTok continues to grow like crazy. Here's your Daily Crunch for January 30, 2019.

1. Apple bans Facebook's Research app that paid users for data

In the wake of TechCrunch's investigation, Apple blocked Facebook's Research VPN app before the social network could voluntarily shut it down.

The Research app asked users for root network access to all data passing through their phone in exchange for $20 per month. Apple says that yesterday evening, it revoked the Enterprise Certificate that allows Facebook to distribute the Research app without going through the App Store.

2. Foxconn pulls back on its $10 billion factory commitment

In 2017, Foxconn announced the largest investment of a foreign company in the United States when it selected Mount Pleasant, Wisconsin for a new manufacturing facility. In an interview with Reuters, a special assistant to Foxconn's CEO says that those plans are being scaled back.

3. It's time to pay serious attention to TikTok

The short-form video app hailing from Beijing's ByteDance just had its biggest month ever with the addition of 75 million new users in December — a 275 percent increase from the 20 million it added in December 2017, according a recent report from Sensor Tower.

4. Apple's global active install base of iPhones surpassed 900 million this quarter

It's not surprising that Apple has a massive active install base of iPhones across the globe, but we now finally have an exact number to put behind it.

5. Amex blocks Curve as the fintech startup vows to fight 'anti-competitive' decision

Just 36 hours after Curve, the London fintech that lets you consolidate all of your bank cards into a single Curve card, re-instated support for Amex, the feature has once again been unceremoniously blocked by American Express.

6. AT&T misses on revenue for Q4 2018

AT&T has added 134,000 postpaid phone subscribers over the quarter (analysts had expected more). Revenue is up 15.2 percent year over year, but that's mostly due to AT&T's acquisition of Time Warner.

7. Sinemia drops ticket subscription prices, adds rollover feature

Beginning this week, one-ticket-a-month plans start at $4 per month — down two bucks from before. The price also includes a new rollover feature, letting subscribers carry over one unused ticket per month.

An eavesdropping bug forces Apple to disable group calling, Huawei responds to criminal charges from the DOJ and SAP announces major layoffs. Here's your Daily Crunch for January 29, 2019.

1. Apple disables group calling in FaceTime in response to eavesdropping bug

Apple has disabled the group calling feature within its FaceTime calling service while it works on a patch to fix a nasty bug that allows eavesdropping. Apple's status page shows that group calling via FaceTime is "temporarily unavailable" — that's a stop-gap move while the company works to deliver a more permanent fix.

We were unable to set up a group call when we tried, having earlier been able to do so and replicate the issue.

2. Huawei 'disappointed,' denies charges

The long-simmering battle between the U.S. government and Huawei heated up last night when the U.S. DOJ announced that it is pursuing criminal charges against the Chinese hardware maker. Huawei has, unsurprisingly, denied all wrongdoing.

3. SAP job cuts prove harsh realities of enterprise transformation

While the company tried to put as positive a spin on the announcement as possible, there could be up to 4,000 job cuts as SAP shifts into more modern technologies.

4. Petal raises $30M from Valar to bank the unbanked with credit cards

Petal uses a more holistic and comprehensive underwriting model to determine the creditworthiness of credit card applicants compared to traditional banks that rely predominantly on an applicant's FICO score. The goal is to focus more on cash flows rather than a static score.

5. Casper announces the Glow — a portable, sleep-friendly light

The Casper team sent me a couple of Glows to try out for myself. The result? I found myself getting sleepier as the light dimmed, and I seemed to pass out more quickly and reliably than normal.

6. Home improvement platform Houzz lays off 180, reportedly gears up for public listing

We've confirmed that the company laid off around 110 people in the U.K. and Germany this month, along with an additional 70 in its U.S. home market in Q4 of last year.

7. Screen time inhibits toddler development, study finds

A study has found that kids 2-5 years old who engage in more screen time received worse scores in developmental screening tests. The apparent explanation is simple: when a kid is in front of a screen, they're not talking, walking or playing, the activities during which basic skills are cultivated.