{"id":58,"date":"2026-05-03T13:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/03\/how-the-internets-favorite-squirrel-dad-made-the-hottest-camera-app-of-2026\/"},"modified":"2026-05-03T13:00:00","modified_gmt":"2026-05-03T13:00:00","slug":"how-the-internets-favorite-squirrel-dad-made-the-hottest-camera-app-of-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/03\/how-the-internets-favorite-squirrel-dad-made-the-hottest-camera-app-of-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"<div>How the internet\u2019s favorite squirrel dad made the hottest camera app of 2026<\/div>"},"content":{"rendered":"<div>\n<figure>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" data-caption=\"Downey at home in LA with one of his channel\u2019s frequent guest stars. | Image: The Verge; Shutterstock\" data-portal-copyright=\"Image: The Verge; Shutterstock\" data-has-syndication-rights=\"1\" src=\"https:\/\/platform.theverge.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2026\/04\/Vrg_illo_squirrel_influencer.jpg?quality=90&amp;strip=all&amp;crop=0,0,100,100\"><figcaption>\n\tDowney at home in LA with one of his channel\u2019s frequent guest stars. | Image: The Verge; Shutterstock\t<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p class=\"has-drop-cap has-text-align-none\">It&#8217;s not hyperbole to call <a href=\"https:\/\/apps.apple.com\/us\/app\/dualshot-recorder\/id6761159805\">DualShot Recorder<\/a> an overnight sensation. <\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">It took only 12 hours from the time it was released to hit number one on the App Store&#8217;s list of top paid apps. It was a surprise success &#8211; but what&#8217;s even more surprising is the app&#8217;s origin story: it all started with a cadre of friendly neighborhood squirrels and their favorite caretaker.<\/p>\n<p class=\"has-text-align-none\">Derrick Downey Jr. built a career on short-form videos documenting his interactions with the squirrels that visit his patio in LA. His <a href=\"https:\/\/www.instagram.com\/derrickdowneyjr\/\">Instagram<\/a> and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.tiktok.com\/@derrickdowneyjr?lang=en\">TikTok accounts<\/a> each have well over a million followers (myself included) who know well the regular cast of characters: Maxine, Richard, \u2026<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/tech\/921690\/dualshot-recorder-iphone-camera-app-derrick-downey-jr\">Read the full story at The Verge.<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Downey at home in LA with one of his channel\u2019s frequent guest stars. | Image: The Verge; Shutterstock It&#8217;s not<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"colormag_page_container_layout":"default_layout","colormag_page_sidebar_layout":"default_layout","footnotes":""},"categories":[29,33,34,5,35,36,17],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-58","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-ai-gadgets","category-apple","category-apps-gadgets","category-gadgets","category-iphone","category-mobile","category-tech"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/paltechnews.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}