Vizion.ai launches its managed Elasticsearch service

Setting up Elasticsearch, the open-source system that many companies large and small use to power their distributed search and analytics engines, isn’t the hardest thing. What is very hard, though, is to provision the right amount of resources to run the service, especially when your users’ demand comes in spikes, without overpaying for unused capacity. […]

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Kong raises $43M Series C for its API platform

Kong, the open core API management and lifecycle management company previously known as Mashape, today announced that it has raised a $43 million Series C round led by Index Ventures. Previous investors Andreessen Horowitz and Charles River Ventures (CRV), as well as new investors GGV Capital and World Innovation Lab also participated. With this round, […]

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Vonage brings number programmability to its business service

Chances are you still mostly think of Vonage as a consumer VOIP player, but in recent years, the company also launched its Vonage Business Cloud (VBC) platform and acquired Nexmo, an API-based communications service that competes directly with many of Twilio’s core services. Today, Vonage is bringing its VBC service and Nexmo a bit closer […]

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Transportation Weekly: Waymo unleashes laser bear, Bird spreads its wings, Lyft tightens its belt

Welcome back to Transportation Weekly; I’m your host Kirsten Korosec, senior transportation reporter at TechCrunch . This is the fifth edition of our newsletter and we love the reader feedback. Keep it coming. Never heard of TechCrunch’s Transportation Weekly? Catch up here, here and here. As I’ve written before, consider this a soft launch. Follow […]

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Car alarms with security flaws put 3 million vehicles at risk of hijack

Two popular car alarm systems have fixed security vulnerabilities that allowed researchers to remotely track, hijack and take control of vehicles with the alarms installed. The systems, built by Russian alarm maker Pandora and California-based Viper — or Clifford in the U.K., were vulnerable to an easily manipulated server-side API, according to researchers at Pen […]

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The gaming clips service, Medal has bought Donate Bot for direct donations, and payments

The Los Angeles-based video gaming clipping service, Medal, has made its first acquisition as it rolls out new features to its user base. The company has acquired the Discord -based donations and payments service Donate Bot to enable direct payments and other types of transactions directly on its site. Now, the company is rolling out […]

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Outdoor Tech’s Chips ski helmet speakers are a hot mess of security flaws

Sometimes the “smartest” gadgets come with the shoddiest security. Alan Monie, a security researcher at U.K. cybersecurity firm Pen Test Partners, bought and tested a pair of Chips 2.0 wireless speakers, built by California-based Outdoor Tech, only to find they’re a security nightmare. The in-helmet speakers allow users to listen to music on the go, […]

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Amazon stops selling stick-on Dash buttons

Amazon has confirmed it’s retired physical stick-on Dash buttons from sale — in favor of virtual alternatives that let Prime Members tap a digital button to reorder a staple product. It also points to its Dash Replenishment service — which offers an API for device makers wanting to build Internet connected appliances that can automatically […]

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Polis, the door-to-door marketer, raises another $2.5 million

Polis founder Kendall Tucker began her professional life as a campaign organizer in local Democratic politics, but — seeing an opportunity in her one-on-one conversations with everyday folks — has built a business taking that shoe leather approach to political campaigns to the business world. Now the company she founded to test her thesis that […]

View More Polis, the door-to-door marketer, raises another $2.5 million

Medal.tv’s clipping service allows gamers to share the moments of their digital lives

As online gaming becomes the new social forum for living out virtual lives, a new startup called Medal.tv has raised $3.5 million for its in-game clipping service to capture and share the Kodak moments and digital memories that are increasingly happening in places like Fortnite or Apex Legends. Digital worlds like Fortnite are now far more […]

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Even years later, Twitter doesn’t delete your direct messages

When does “delete” really mean delete? Not always or even at all if you’re Twitter . Twitter retains direct messages for years, including messages you and others have deleted, but also data sent to and from accounts that have been deactivated and suspended. Security researcher Karan Saini found years-old messages found in a file from an […]

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Lenovo Watch X was riddled with security bugs, researcher says

Lenovo’s Watch X was widely panned as “absolutely terrible.” As it turns out, so was its security. The low-end $50 smart watch was one of Lenovo’s cheapest smart watches. Available only for the China market, anyone who wants one has to buy one directly from the mainland. Lucky for Erez Yalon, head of security research at […]

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