Spotify is launching Apple-like ratings for podcasts

If you’ve ever listened to a podcast, you’ve probably heard a host ask you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts in their end credits. Now, that script might flip to “leave a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.” Spotify announced today that it’s implementing a five-star rating system, similar to Apple’s, in an attempt […]

TikTok rolls out GIPHY support, HD videos, cat sound effects, among other new features

In addition to announcing coming changes to its For You feed, TikTok today announced a handful of updates to its lineup of camera and editing tools, including new features for its popular Green Screen effect tool, as well as other updates to video enhancements and sound effects. Among the updates, one highlight is the update […]

TikTok is testing a desktop streaming software called TikTok Live Studio

What if instead of watching your favorite TikTok star stream on Twitch, you could watch them play video games live on TikTok? For the last few days, according to the platform, TikTok has been testing a Windows program called TikTok Live Studio. Once downloaded to your desktop, the program allows users to log in with […]

SQream acquires no-code data platform Panoply

SQream, a well-funded Israel-based data analytics platform, today announced that it has acquired no-code data platform Panoply in an effort to expand its cloud services. At the core of SQream’s service is its GPU-centric “data acceleration platform,” which promises to speed up SQL queries and enable users to run their queries on more data. Panoply, on […]

Noname Security hits $1B valuation after $135M Series C raise

API security is all the rage these days, pushed into the limelight following a spate of high profile security incidents that saw reams of user data exposed or exfiltrated. Peloton spilled users’ private account information; Experian exposed the financial histories of millions of Americans; and Facebook, LinkedIn, and Clubhouse all had user data scraped en […]

Twitch’s ‘Pay-To-Win’ Boost Feature Doesn’t Actually Help People, Surprising No One

It seems Twitch’s controversial “pay-to-win” Boost feature is a bust. There was no positive impact for streamers who took part in a test of the Boost feature, according to a data analyst who crunched the numbers. Read more…

Ubisoft Devs Don’t Understand Company’s NFT Push, Either

Last week Ubisoft revealed its new NFT tech platform, called Quartz, and it didn’t go well. The announcement that Tom Clancy’s Ghost Recon Breakpoint would be the first game to implement cryptocurrency-backed items was downvoted on YouTube over 40,000 …

Apple iCloud, Twitter and Minecraft vulnerable to ‘ubiquitous’ zero-day exploit

A number of popular services, including Apple iCloud, Twitter, Cloudflare, Minecraft and Steam, are reportedly vulnerable to a zero-day exploit affecting a popular Java logging library. The vulnerability, dubbed “Log4Shell” by researchers at LunaSec and credited to Chen Zhaojun of Alibaba, has been found in Apache Log4j, an open source logging utility that’s used in […]

Meta’s Horizon Worlds is available in the US and Canada for 18+ users

The company formerly known as Facebook is taking a step toward its goal to transport us to the metaverse. Now, Horizon Worlds — the Second Life or Minecraft of Meta’s VR apps — is expanding out of invite-only beta, opening up to all users over 18 years old in the U.S. and Canada. This is […]