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Four years after being acquired, Hipmunk is shutting down Jan 16, 2020

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If you’re still using Hipmunk for trip planning, it’s time to find another site. Sooner than later, really. The Hipmunk team announced this afternoon that it’ll be shutting down in just one week’s time. Come January 23rd, says the blog post, both the Hipmunk website and app will be shuttered. The team also tweeted: We’re saying goodbye. On Jan. 23, 2020, the Hipmunk product will be retired; the app and website will no longer be available at that time.

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Dear Spotify, add rabbits to your pet playlists Jan 15, 2020

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I there’s one thing I know, it’s that music is the best thing our species has every created. If there are two things I know, it’s the music thing and also that that rabbits aren’t hamsters. Listen, Spotify, I get the whole pet playlists thing. A curated playlist based on your listening preferences and a few sliders to determine an animal’s mood. It’s cute. But as one of millions of rabbit owners in the U.S. alone, someone needs to speak out for this grave oversight.

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Microsoft and NSA say security bug affects millions of Windows 10 computers Jan 15, 2020

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Microsoft has released a security patch for a dangerous vulnerability affecting hundreds of millions of computers running Windows 10. The vulnerability is found in a decades-old Windows cryptographic component, known as CryptoAPI. The component has a range of functions, one of which allows developers digitally sign their software, proving that the software has not been tampered with.

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Visa is acquiring Plaid for $5.3 billion, 2x its final private valuation Jan 14, 2020

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Visa announced today that it is buying financial services API startup Plaid for $5.3 billion. Plaid develops financial services APIs. It is akin to what Stripe does for payments, but instead of facilitating payments, it helps developers share banking and other financial information more easily. It’s the kind of service that makes sense for a company like Visa. The startup bought Quovo two years ago to move beyond just banking, and into broader financial services and investments.

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Tesla surges past $500 on back of analyst upgrade, China momentum Jan 14, 2020

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Today in regular trading, shares of American electric car manufacturer Tesla surged past the $500 mark. Tesla, perhaps the most famous electric vehicle company in the world, has had tumultuous last twelve months on the public markets. The company’s shares have traded as low as $176.99 in the past 52 weeks, and, as has high as $507.50 today. The company is worth $507.28 per share at the moment, valuing Tesla at $91.38 billion according to Google Finance.

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Amazon fires employees for leaking customer email addresses and phone numbers Jan 13, 2020

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Amazon has fired a number of employees after they shared customer email address and phone numbers with a third-party “in violation of our policies.” The email to customers sent Friday afternoon, seen by TechCrunch, said an employee was “terminated” for sharing the data, and that the company is supporting law enforcement in their prosecution. Amazon confirmed the incident in an email to TechCrunch. A spokesperson said a number of employees were fired.

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A closer look at Ballie, Samsung’s friendly robotic ball Jan 13, 2020

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Okay, I’ve slept on it. I was skeptical at first, but after a good night’s sleep, let’s do this. I want a Ballie. All of the people and the pets in the below video seemed super into it. Where did I sign up? Okay, let me back up a second. I’d like a little hands on time with the robotic ball first. Or at very least a more in-depth demo. But once we’ve gotten those out of the way, yeah, totally. Let’s do this. I want my own BB8.

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Congratulations 23andMe users, your genes are finally helping the company make drugs Jan 10, 2020

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All of that genetic material that 23andMe has been collecting is finally being used for commercial drug development — specifically dermatological drugs. The company inked an agreement with Spanish pharmaceutical developer Almirall, which concentrates on medical dermatology treatments, for the development of dermatological treatments based on an antibody developed by 23andMe.

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August Home ditches the bridge and Yale launches a smart lock in Europe Jan 10, 2020

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Assa Abloy, the world’s largest lock maker and the parent company of August Home and Yale, announced some new products at CES this week. The company didn’t talk about doorbell cameras at all — it could be related to recent Ring’s controversies. As a well-known brand when it comes to smart lock in the U.S., August Home is iterating and refining with new products without any groundbreaking change. This time, the company is introducing a new August Wi-Fi Smart Lock.

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Pax unveils a vape that increases transparency around cannabis consumption Jan 09, 2020

Show notes

The new Pax Era Pro vaporizer packs a host of improvements and brings increased transparency to the user. Pop in a pod, and the smartphone companion app displays a wealth of information generally unavailable to the average user. The idea is to provide more peace of mind about what’s in each pod and this system is launching at exactly the right time. The Era Pro uses proprietary cartridges embedded with an NFC tag. Pax calls this affair PodID, and the tags are unique to each cartridge.

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