How to use Instagram’s new Notes feature

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

by

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

Artifact wants to record your family history in podcast-like audio recordings

by

After Ross Chanin’s grandfather died, Chanin mourned not only him, but the fact that he’d never gotten a chance to hear more about his grandfather’s life. Over a conversation with a journalist friend, George Quraishi, it became clear to Chanin that Quraishi’s skill set — interviewing and audio editing — could be conducive to capturing … Read more