Generative AI platform Cohere lands 500M in funding
Friday, July 26, 2024 by Richard Harris
Cohere, a generative AI startup co-founded by former Google researchers, has successfully raised $500 million in a new funding round. The investment was backed by notable players including Cisco, AMD, and Fujitsu. According to Bloomberg, this round also saw participation from Canadian pension investment manager PSP Investments and Canada’s export credit agency EDC...
Apple Swift Student Challenge winners for 2024
Wednesday, July 24, 2024 by Austin Harris
Apple’s annual Swift Student Challenge recognizes the best in student coding, and this year, it has added a new category to its ranks. Out of 350 winning submissions, 50 students have been named Distinguished Winners for building app playgrounds that stand out for their innovation, creativity, social impact, or inclusivity. These 50 students have been invited to a...
Microsoft outage caused by software update from CrowdStrike
Tuesday, July 23, 2024 by Freeman Lightner
On July 18, a software update released by CrowdStrike, an independent cybersecurity firm, began to affect IT systems worldwide. Although Microsoft was not directly responsible for the incident, the impact on their ecosystem prompted the company to take immediate action to support their customers.
Microsoft outage caused by software update from CrowdStrike affect...
AI agents from Proofs streamline API processes
Monday, July 22, 2024 by Freeman Lightner
Proofs, which uses AI agents to dramatically accelerate the proof-of-concept phase in software sales, has raised $2.6 million in pre-seed financing. The round was led by Earlybird Digital East Fund with support from Expeditions Fund, Step Function Ventures, RTP Global, and a number of prominent angel investors. From today, customers can sign up to a private onboarding w...
Tilting Point lawsuit settles for 500K after violating COPPA and CCPA
Monday, July 22, 2024 by Richard Harris
On June 18, 2024, the California Attorney General and Los Angeles City Attorney settled a case against Tilting Point Media LLC for violating privacy laws related to children's data. The video game developer allegedly breached the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) through their mobile app, &q...
Best astronomy forums launched at ScopeTrader
Monday, July 15, 2024 by Richard Harris
ScopeTrader.com, the astronomy classifieds, marketplace, and news site recently announced the launch of its forum, designed to be the best astronomy forum on the web. The forum is now live and can be accessed with or without registering for an account.
ScopeTrader launches the best astronomy forums
Founded in 2001 by Richard Harris, an active astrophotog...
OpenAI acquires Rockset to enhance data capabilities
Monday, July 15, 2024 by Brittany Hainzinger
OpenAI has acquired Rockset, a company that specializes in real-time analytics databases, for almost $200 million. The acquisition has drawn attention and various reactions from influencers on the social media platform "X", revealing the Social Media Analytics Platform of GlobalData, a leading data and analytics company.
OpenAI acquires Rockset, the real-ti...
SmartBear HaloAI boosts code quality through transformative automation
Monday, July 8, 2024 by Freeman Lightner
SmartBear has launched two innovations that fundamentally change how both API and functional tests are performed, integrating SmartBear HaloAI, trusted AI-driven technology, and marking a significant step forward in the company's AI strategy. GenAI technology, known for automating repetitive and error-prone tasks, enhances efficiency and reduces manual intervention,...
Responsibilities of lead test automation architects
Thursday, July 4, 2024 by Ramcham Floyd T. Gaid
Software Quality Assurance Leaders and QA Automation Architects are in high demand by the work fields of technology, hospitality, financial, advertising, and gaming. Recruiters always look for these professions as they are highly in demand all over the world. They are the workers who cross-check the product in every stage of the software development life cycle based on ...
Open source extensions from Timescale
Thursday, June 27, 2024 by Freeman Lightner
Timescale, the PostgreSQL cloud database company, has unveiled two open-source extensions, pgvectorscale and pgai, which significantly enhance PostgreSQL’s scalability and ease of use for AI applications. Licensed under the open-source PostgreSQL license, these extensions empower developers to build retrieval augmented generation, search, and AI agent applications...
Apple to allow third-party app stores in Japan
Wednesday, June 26, 2024 by Richard Harris
The Japanese parliament has passed the Act on Promotion of Competition for Specified Smartphone Software, a law that compels Apple to allow access to third-party app stores and payment providers on devices that run iOS. The legislation, which was passed by Japan's upper house and will be enforced following Cabinet approval within the next eighteen months, seeks to c...
Sherlocked: The controversial practice of Apple copying apps
Thursday, June 20, 2024 by Richard Harris
In recent years, "Sherlocked" has become a buzzword associated with Apple. This term describes Apple's practice of integrating features from popular third-party apps into its own operating systems, often rendering those apps obsolete. The term originated from Apple's Sherlock search tool, which incorporated features from the third-party tool Watson. At...
Software testing on metaverse technologies
Wednesday, June 19, 2024 by Ramcham Floyd T. Gaid
Metaverse is a new form of a reality where people can meet up using their avatar to be seen in a virtual office where employees can demonstrate the project, discuss the company status, plans and timeline as well as people can be seen working from all over the world. The other possible form of the metaverse is the use of AI and Augmented reality with a special device whe...
How AI and low-code no-code are helping developer teams
Tuesday, June 18, 2024 by Mav Turner
In today’s increasingly crowded consumer landscape, business leaders are under immense pressure to maintain their competitive edge and receive consumer attention. With more than 5.5 million new business applications filed in 2023, leaders must find new and innovative ways to make their company stand out among competitors, all while providing satisfactory service, ...
Overcoming burnout in software QA with surfing
Friday, June 14, 2024 by Ramcham Floyd T. Gaid
Life has been changing and challenging as the future arises. Fear and anxiety is bringing risks to business owners, employees and to our families because of uncertainties of the future. With the technologies evolving rapidly with AI and the Cloud the Metaverse world becomes relevant in the near future. Life is supposed to be lived in happiness with a healthy lifestyle, ...
Self sign up unveiled by amazee io
Wednesday, June 5, 2024 by Brittany Hainzinger
Amazee.io, a Mirantis company, announced the launch of its new self-sign-up capability that simplifies the user experience and enables organizations to autonomously access, set up, and explore the comprehensive developer-first open source application delivery and hosting platform in minutes.
amazee.io, acquired by Mirantis in 2022, is a ZeroOps application delivery h...
TikTok and Instagram stock popularity revealed by new study
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 by Brittany Hainzinger
A new study conducted with the help of global fintech group Plus500 examined each company within the S&P 500 by analyzing the volume of content generated and the corresponding views on TikTok and Instagram. Subsequently, the stock prices were compared between January 3rd, 2023, and April 8th, 2024, to assess the performance of S&P 500 stocks favored by traders o...
Top startups of the decade revealed
Wednesday, May 22, 2024 by Richard Harris
New data has revealed the top 10 most successful startups of the decade. The Startup Success Index, by software development experts at Vention, analyzed a list of 1,220 startups, from CB Insights, against its valuation, the public perception of the company through search volume, its growth score, and the number of employees. Results for each category were converted...
Mobile game store launching from Microsoft in 2024
Monday, May 13, 2024 by Richard Harris
Months on from its acquisition of Activision Blizzard, Microsoft has revealed plans to launch its own mobile game store, with content including Minecraft and Candy Crush set to be available on the platform. Per Xbox president Sarah Bond, the store will be an alternative to the Apple App Store and Google Play, with its launch allowing Microsoft to break away from the res...
Odeeo hires Spotify executive James Cowan
Tuesday, April 30, 2024 by Brittany Hainzinger
Odeeo announced the expansion of its US footprint with the addition of a key industry veteran to the team. Following Odeeo’s 566% net revenue growth and yearly Daily Active User (DAU) growth of 260% in 2023, James Cowan joins as US Commercial Lead as the company expands in the US market this year.
Cowan comes to Odeeo from Spotify, where he spent seven years an...
Social engineering takeover attacks are on the rise
Thursday, April 18, 2024 by Brittany Hainzinger
OpenSSF and the OpenJS Foundation (home to JavaScript projects used by billions of websites worldwide) are alerting open-source project maintainers of social engineering takeover attacks, following new attack attempts they’ve witnessed similar to the XZ Utils incident.
The OpenJS Cross Project Council received suspicious emails, imploring OpenJS to update one o...
Veracode acquires Longbow Security
Thursday, April 18, 2024 by Freeman Lightner
Veracode announced the acquisition of Longbow Security, a security risk management platform for cloud-native environments. The acquisition marks the next exciting phase of Veracode, underscoring the company’s commitment to help organizations effectively manage and reduce application risk across the growing attack surface.
The integration of Longbow in...
Apple shifts position on AI and aquires Darwin AI
Wednesday, April 10, 2024 by Brittany Hainzinger
Apple Inc. is strategically advancing its position in the artificial intelligence (AI) domain, signifying a pivotal shift in the company's approach to integrating AI into its core operations and product ecosystem. The recent innovations and acquisitions underscore the Cupertino-based tech giant’s focus on bringing AI to its offerings while prioritizing user pr...
Leaked data from Shopify plugins developed by Saara
Wednesday, March 27, 2024 by Freeman Lightner
The Cybernews research team discovered that a vast amount of sensitive data of shoppers was exposed to threat actors by the e-commerce giant’s Shopify plugin developer Saara, with millions of orders being leaked.
Key findings from the Cybernews report, covering the data breach on the Shopify plugins developed by Saara
Researchers discovered a publicly acc...
Playground gaming integrated into Le Monde daily newspaper
Tuesday, March 26, 2024 by Freeman Lightner
kr3m is broadening its global outreach with the launch of a new, exciting project. The company's online gaming platform, "Playground," has been integrated into the digital services offered by Le Monde, the premier daily newspaper in France. This partnership represents kr3m's inaugural foray into markets beyond German-speaking countries, signaling the b...
Forge API launches for game developers
Thursday, March 21, 2024 by Richard Harris
Forge has launched Forge API. Designed to empower game developers by providing a seamless solution for creating and managing "battle pass" experiences, the Forge API allows them to reach new gamers, drive sustained engagement, and reward players for their commitment. The full toolkit is available today and interested developers can learn more and get...
Epic Games defeats Apple in court
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 by Richard Harris
Apple’s iron-clad grip on its developer program may be losing its hold. Every day, Apple turns away hundreds of developers trying to enter their program. However, Epic Games wasn't folding to Apple. "Epic Games has entertained and benefited millions of users with Fortnite, Genshin Impact, and other games. Their application to have their flagship store on ...
Neopets saw rapid growth for 2023
Tuesday, March 19, 2024 by Richard Harris
The almost 25-year-old legendary virtual pet game Neopets is delighted to present a strong 2023 business performance, following its transition into an independent entity known as World of Neopia, Inc. in July 2023. Since that transition, Neopets has experienced a remarkable turnaround, boasting an unprecedented 100% increase in monthly active users (MAU) and a new ...
AI skills training predictions from OReilly Media
Friday, March 15, 2024 by Richard Harris
In the year since OpenAI launched GPT-4, there's been no shortage of predictions about its impact on the workforce. An easy reply to all this fear is AI is not going to replace humans, but humans with AI are going to replace humans without AI. While this statement is true, this attitude also blames the victim: if you lose your job, it’s your own faul...
Conversational AI platform Loora to break down language barriers
Monday, March 4, 2024 by Richard Harris
Loora announced that it raised $12M in a Series A financing round from lead investor QP Ventures, with participation from new investor Hearst Ventures and existing investors Emerge and Two Lanterns Venture Partners, among others. The new funding, which comes just eight months after Loora’s launch from stealth with a $9.25M seed funding round, will enable the compa...
Gecko edge computing from Akamai takes to cloud computing
Tuesday, February 20, 2024 by Freeman Lightner
Akamai Technologies, the cloud company has unveiled plans to embed cloud computing capabilities into its massive edge network. Akamai’s Generalized Edge Compute (Gecko) advances Akamai’s strategy to be the cloud computing platform for companies that want to deliver better experiences by running workloads closer to users, devices, and sources of data.
Akam...
Face authentication for vehicles unveiled at MWC 24 by trinamiX
Friday, February 2, 2024 by Richard Harris
Visitors to the Mobile World Congress can find out more about trinamiX’s sensing solutions for consumer electronics and automotive and experience them up close at booth E68 in hall 6 from February 26th to 29th. trinamiX GmbH is bringing its Face Authentication with liveness detection for smartphones and vehicles to Barcelona. The company will also showcase its Con...
AI game development platform modl appoints new leadership
Wednesday, January 31, 2024 by Freeman Lightner
modl.ai announced today the appointment of James Gwertzman as the new Chairman of its Board of Directors. As Chairman of the Board, Gwertzman will play a critical role in advising modl.ai through its next phase of growth and development in the AI and games industry.
"I'm thrilled to join modl.ai’s world-class team of developers and researchers. Game de...
AI 3D model search engine features coming to Toggle3D
Tuesday, January 30, 2024 by Brittany Hainzinger
Toggle3D.ai, the all-in-one 3D modeling solution harnessing the power of generative AI to convert CAD files, apply 4K texturing, and seamlessly publish 4K 3D models, is excited to report a 75% jump in usage in Q4. The Toggle3D platform currently has 27,192 users, and 26,504 or 97% of the users are active and have logged in within the last 30 days. The Company is fo...
Most popular digital gaming store in US is Amazon says Statista
Wednesday, January 24, 2024 by Freeman Lightner
A recent survey from data company Statista claims that Amazon is the most popular digital gaming store among United States gamers. The survey was conducted among 5,111 individuals who play video games and have spent money on digital purchases. The survey, which allowed multiple answers, asked the respondents "Where have you spent money online on digital video games...