Developer platforms are all about trust, and Twitter lost it

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Amir Shevat Contributor Share on Twitter Amir Shevat is an angel investor and an author at O’Reilly. Previously, he held executive roles at Twitter, Twitch, Slack, Google, and Microsoft. More posts by this contributor Hard questions about bot ethics Twitter is where the world shares its opinions and aspirations; it’s where brands, celebrities, and politicians … Read more

How to use Instagram’s new Notes feature

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Illustration by Samar Haddad / The Verge Instagram is adding several new features to its app, and the first to roll out is called Notes. The feature allows you to send short 60-character messages to groups of your Instagram friends; the message will hang around for 24 hours before it disappears. It’s an interesting idea … Read more

Spotify’s grand plan to monetize developers via its open source Backstage project

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With nearly a third of the global music-streaming market share, Spotify needs little in the way of introduction. Some 456 million people consume music, podcasts and audiobooks through Spotify each month, 42% of which pay a monthly fee while the rest are subjected to advertisements. Indeed, ads and subscriptions have been the cornerstone of Spotify’s … Read more

US claims major DDoS-for-hire takedown, but some ‘seized’ sites still load

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U.S. officials say they have seized dozens of domains linked to some of the world’s leading distributed denial-of-service sites for-hire websites. But TechCrunch found that several of the seized sites are still active. In a press release on Wednesday, the U.S. Department of Justice announced the takedown of 48 domains associated with some of the world’s … Read more

Presto can now make Santa, celebrities, ‘appear’ in your drive-thru

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The next time you go through a quick-serve restaurant’s drive-thru lane, you might hear a familiar “ho, ho, ho” over the speaker. Presto Automation, a publicly traded restaurant technology company, has introduced a new automated custom voice feature for its Presto Voice, where restaurants can use almost any voice they want — celebrities, restaurant brand … Read more

Protect AI lands a $13.5M investment to harden AI projects from attack

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Seeking to bring greater security to AI systems, Protect AI today raised $13.5 million in a seed-funding round co-led by Acrew Capital and Boldstart Ventures with participation from Knollwood Capital, Pelion Ventures and Aviso Ventures. Ian Swanson, the co-founder and CEO, said that the capital will be put toward product development and customer outreach as … Read more