“Colombia’s largest coffee producer” Green Coffee Company raised $25 million in Series C equity funding. Coffee is worth $493 billion worldwide. Smaller coffee companies have emerged alongside legacy brands. I recently reported on Chamberlain Coffee raising venture capital, joining Fellow, Blank Street, and many celebrity coffee brands. Compound Foods and …
Read More »WhatsApp introduces broadcast channels
Meta is testing a broadcast-based messaging feature called Channels on WhatsApp, similar to a recent Instagram update, to give its 2 billion users more conversational options. The company also hopes to make money from this feature. WhatsApp will add an Updates tab for Channels messages. On Instagram, Meta announces channels …
Read More »Large language models get private data from LlamaIndex
Last fall, former Uber research scientist Jerry Liu found “limitations” in OpenAI’s GPT-3 text-generating AI model, the predecessor to GPT-4. LlamaIndex, his open-source project, unlocks the capabilities and use cases of large language models (LLMs) like GPT-3 and GPT-4. “LLMs offer incredible capabilities for knowledge extraction and reasoning—they can perform …
Read More »Apple didn’t announce these iOS 17 features onstage
Apple’s Vision Pro headset dominated WWDC on Monday. Apple will release a major iOS update later this year. Personalized call posters, StandBy mode, live voicemail, and improved sticker experience will be added in iOS 17. Due to time constraints, Apple didn’t mention many new iOS features onstage. The keynote omitted …
Read More »WWDC 2023: Apple Vision Pro, iOS 17, MacBook Air, and more announced
WWDC 2023 keynote was yesterday. Apple starts its Worldwide Developer Conference with a few hours of straight announcements, usually covering OS, watchOS, and new and updated gadgets. The keynote stream includes a BINGO game. You’ve prepared for our predictions by now. Relax while the team summarizes the biggest news. Mac …
Read More »Apple Vision Pro is good and works
After a 30-minute demo of the major features that are ready to test, I was convinced that Apple has delivered a true leapfrog in capability and execution of XR—or mixed reality—with its new Apple Vision Pro. To clarify, I’m not saying it delivers on all promises, is a truly new …
Read More »Another wave of mass-hacks targets company file transfer tools
Hackers exploited a newly discovered vulnerability in a popular file transfer tool used by thousands of organizations to launch a new wave of mass data exfiltration attacks, alarming security researchers. MOVEit Transfer, developed by Ipswitch, a subsidiary of Progress Software, allows organizations to share large files and data sets over …
Read More »Shopify’s Shop app adds “Shop Cash” rewards
Shopify announced Friday that its Shop app will offer Shop Cash rewards. Shopify funds the new program that gives shoppers 1% back on Shop Pay purchases. After a purchase, Shop Pay wallets in the Shop app will show rewards. Shop app purchases can use these rewards. Shoppers can pay with …
Read More »Ella Irwin, Twitter’s trust and safety chief, resigns
Ella Irwin, Twitter’s head of trust and safety, confirmed her resignation to Reuters on Thursday. Irwin replaced Yoel Roth, who left during Elon Musk’s Twitter takeover. Irwin seemed to agree with Musk’s views, which have welcomed neo-Nazis and increased hate speech on Twitter. Roth disagreed. Irwin and Musk hadn’t commented …
Read More »California gig workers get millions for unpaid vehicle expenses
Between 2022 and 2023, Uber, Lyft, DoorDash, and other app-based ride-hail and delivery companies must reimburse California gig workers millions of dollars for unpaid vehicle expenses. Proposition 22, the controversial law that classifies gig workers as independent contractors and offers them limited protections and benefits, mandates the back payments. Gig …
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