Reddit had a rough month after changing its data API. In the past month, Reddit’s CEO gave interviews defending the company’s decision, the social network fought with developers and moderators, and many subreddits went dark and protested. Since the API changes and rate limits went into effect on July 1, …
Read More »Tiny buys HappyFunCorp, which built apps for Twitter, Amazon, and others, for $30M
Tech companies continue to pursue M&A and consolidation in a tight market. Startups, larger tech companies, and their partners are affected by this trend. HappyFunCorp, a product engineering firm that builds apps for Apple, Disney, Amazon, and Twitter, is being acquired by Canadian firm Tiny for $30 million. Tiny is …
Read More »TweetDeck suffers from Musk’s Twitter read limits
Elon Musk limited daily tweet reading over the weekend to prevent data scraping. This measure has affected all Twitter users, but TweetDeck users are reporting major issues, including notifications and columns not loading. Musk initially limited verified users to 6,000 daily posts and unverified users to 600. He raised these …
Read More »Meta is adding Instagram and Messenger parental controls
Today, Meta introduced parental controls for Instagram, Facebook, and Messenger. This includes a new parental supervision hub in Messenger, pre-emptive blocking of unwanted DMs on Messenger and Instagram, and nudges to remind teens to take a break. The U.S., U.K., and Canada will get Meta’s Family Center’s messenger supervision controls …
Read More »Adobe indemnity clause eases enterprise concerns about AI-generated art
Adobe knows enterprise users worry about permissions for generative AI artwork. Adobe Firefly, the company’s generative AI art creation tool, generates copyright claims. The company specifically mentions enterprise customers in its clause statement: With Firefly, Adobe will also be offering enterprise customers an IP indemnity, which means that Adobe would …
Read More »Apple restarts talks for Apple Pay launch in India
According to two sources, Apple has been in talks with NPCI to launch Apple Pay in South Asia, hoping to compete with Walmart’s PhonePe, Google’s GPay, and Paytm. People familiar with the matter said Apple is working on a localized version of Apple Pay that works with UPI, a popular …
Read More »Inflection’s foundation AI model competes with Google and OpenAI LLMs
Inflection, a well-funded AI startup aiming to create “personal AI for everyone,” revealed the large language model powering its Pi conversational agent. Competition is good, but it’s hard to objectively and systematically assess these things’ quality. As measured by computing power used to train them, Inflection-1 is roughly GPT-3.5 (AKA …
Read More »TikTok’s e-commerce initiative targets Amazon and Shein
TikTok is testing a new in-app “Trendy Beat” shopping section that sells ByteDance products. The U.K. is testing the Financial Times-reported feature. Trending videos feature ear wax removal tools in the shopping section. On Thursday, the company told that the new e-commerce initiative is not being tested in the U.S., …
Read More »AI-powered speech-to-text platform Parrot raises $11M Series A
AI affects medicine, law, business, IT, and more. AI-powered transcription is one example. Parrot, a transcription platform for legal and insurance depositions, raised $11 million in a Series A round on Tuesday. Legal experts can now summarize depositions in seconds. Amplify Partners and XYZ Venture Capital led the latest funding, …
Read More »Spotify’s premium subscription will offer HiFi audio
After two years, Spotify will launch its HiFi tier with lossless music streaming through a “Supremium” plan later this year, which may cost more than $9.99 per month. Bloomberg reported that the company is launching this new plan to boost revenue and appease investors seeking a price increase. The non-U.S. …
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