Author: TechBrunch
Today may be Valentine's Day here in the US, but the dating app market doesn't seem as promising as it used to. As of January of this year, global downloads of dating apps have grown only modestly year-on-year, with 128 million installs, according to new analysis from app intelligence provider data.ai. However, the increase was only 1.9% compared to 29% to reach 128 million installs. An increase seen during the same period last year. Growth has also slowed in the United States, reaching approximately 12.7 million installations as of January 2024, an increase of 2.38% year-on-year, slowing from the approximately…
A misconfigured cloud storage server at auto giant BMW exposed sensitive company information, including private keys and internal data, a TechCrunch investigation found. Can Yoleri, a security researcher at threat intelligence firm SOCRadar, told TechCrunch that he discovered the exposed BMW cloud storage server while regularly scanning the internet. Yorelli said that the Microsoft Azure-hosted storage servers (also known as “buckets”) exposed in BMW's development environment were “incorrectly configured as public instead of private due to a misconfiguration.” . Yoleri added that the storage bucket contained “a script file containing Azure container access information, a private key to access the…
As a customer, it's not fun to interact with a bot when it's clearly a bot that you're engaging with. Rasa is a startup that claims to have developed an infrastructure that enables developers at large enterprises to build “robust” generative, conversational AI assistants. This makes interactions feel more personal and meaningful to users. The company says it accomplishes this by providing infrastructure, CALM (Conversational AI with Language Models), and a low-code user interface. The company's technology has helped it acquire many large customers, primarily in the financial services and telecommunications sectors. These clients include two of his top three…
This is a transcript of the latest episode of Equity, TechCrunch's venture capital-focused podcast. New episodes of Equity air every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. To catch up on Wednesday's show, listen above or read below. On this show, we discuss the week's major startup and venture capital news. transcript 0:10 Hello. Welcome to the TechCrunch podcast Equity. In this podcast, we unpack the numbers and nuances behind the headlines. Today is February 14, 2024. Happy Valentine's Day. Eat some chocolate and relax on the couch. Because you are worth it. This is our Wednesday show, where we dig into the…
If you think growing leaves is easy, think again. Lettuce is not the world's most difficult crop, but as any farmer knows, there are many problems that can arise between planting and harvest. They range from pests to pathogens to rain, but there's no such thing as too little or too much. To protect tender vegetables from the cruel world, many growers are bringing their crops indoors. Vast greenhouses and noisy warehouses provide new homes for crops of all kinds. However, the devil lurks indoors as well, and profit and loss accounting has recently begun. In reality, there are more…
Mark Zuckerberg may be laughing at the competition in the AR/VR headset market, but Apple's Vision Pro is gaining attention, at least among developers. Greg Jozwiak, Apple's senior vice president of worldwide marketing, said Tuesday. announced on X says its “spatial computing” headset comes with more than 1,000 apps specifically designed to take advantage of the new hardware. That's more than the 600-plus apps Apple announced just two weeks ago would be available at device launch, and far more than the 150-plus apps that were available in the days leading up to the Vision Pro's launch. There is. We would…
DuckDuckGo's privacy-focused browser has introduced a new “Sync & Backup” feature that allows users to privately sync and access bookmarks, favorites, and passwords across multiple devices. It's already possible to import bookmarks and passwords from other browsers into DuckDuckGo, but now you can privately sync those bookmarks and passwords between your DuckDuckGo browsers on multiple devices. You do not need to create an account or sign in to use this feature. Also, in keeping with its privacy-first claim, the company assures users that his DuckDuckGo will never see your bookmarks or passwords. DuckDuckGo says the feature works on most Windows,…
UK-based water utility Southern Water has admitted that hackers stole the personal data of 470,000 customers in a recent data breach. Southern Water, which provides water and wastewater services to millions of people in south-east England, said in a statement on Tuesday that it plans to notify “5 to 10 per cent” of its customer base that their personal information has been stolen by hackers. It was announced that. A cyber attack that occurred in January. The utility giant did not say exactly how many people were affected so far. Southern Water spokesperson Simon Fluendi told TechCrunch that the company…
Immersion, a company specializing in haptic feedback technology, has settled a lawsuit with Meta over the use of touch feedback in its Quest VR headset. Immersion said in a press release that it has entered into a license with Meta that allows Immersion's patents to be used in Meta and its affiliates' hardware, software, VR and gaming products. Terms of the deal were not disclosed. “We are pleased to license Meta's haptic technology patent,” Eric Singer, president and CEO of Immersion, said in a statement. “We are excited to license Meta to bring high-quality haptics to their devices.” Founded in…
Hello. Welcome to Equity, the startup business podcast. Uncover the numbers and nuances behind the headlines. Welcome to Wednesday's show. On this show, we talk about the week's major startup and venture capital news. We have a lot of material today, so let's get to work. Brett Taylor's new startup is gaining attention: Known for his work at Facebook, Salesforce, and OpenAI, Taylor's startup Sierra builds conversational AI agents. The company has raised a ton of funding so far, but given that it's not alone in its niche, it may need more money. FlowFi's countercultural decisions: FlowFi builds software that…