Category: Uncategorized

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: How Apple’s rumored subscription programs for iPhone and other hardware may work, and why the company may expand its financial services  —  Apple’s in-the-works iPhone hardware subscription service will squeeze more revenue from its giant user base.  Also: The company is building …

Megha Paul / Tech.eu: Deepki, a Parisian provider of an ESG data intelligence platform for real estate, raises a €150M Series C round co-led by One Peak and Highland Europe  —  The Paris-headquartered startup offers a SaaS platform for real estate investors, owners and managers to improve the ESG performance …

Kollen Post / The Block: Interview with Ukraine’s Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, who says the government’s crypto donation platform has raised $70M+ as of April 1  —  Quick Take  — The Block spoke with Alexander Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation.

An analysis of 630 billion words published online suggests that people tend to think of men when using gender-neutral terms, a sexist bias that could be learned by AI models

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: Zipline, Flytrex, and Alphabet’s Wing, which have started commercial drone deliveries in the US, say they are encouraged by the FAA’s evolving regulation  —  Drone companies have been cleared to expand their operations across the U.S., in cities as well as rural areas, at the same time their tech […]

Neil Cybart / Above Avalon: Apple’s hardware categories are now gaining record new users after a 2017/2018 strategy change that let product groups independently update major product lines  —  During Apple’s “Peek Performance” event held last month, the company announced not only a brand new Mac category with the Mac Studio …

Mike Masnick / Techdirt: A deep look at the benefits of content moderation in open forums, and how it can support free speech by creating spaces where more people feel free to talk  —  Obviously over the past few years there’s been all of these debates about the content moderation practices of various websites.

Washington Post: How Binance, which trades on its own exchange and plays a number of roles that pose conflicts of interest, remains mostly unaccountable to its customers  —  On May 19, 2021, Francis Kim thought he had hit it big.  The Australia-based entrepreneur had been dabbling in derivatives trading …

Zac Bowden / Windows Central: In a memo, EVP and CPO Panos Panay says Microsoft is moving Surface Duo OS, SwiftKey, Phone Link, and Microsoft Launcher under a new dedicated Android division  —  A new ‘Microsoft Android’ division houses Duo, SwiftKey, Launcher, and more.  —  What you need to know

Sam Dean / Los Angeles Times: Interview with GoPuff co-founder Rafael Ilishayev, on why the company acquired BevMo, breaking into the California market, responding to drivers’ demands, more  —  When an East Coast startup called Gopuff paid $350 million for BevMo in November 2020, it wasn’t immediately clear …

By sending light through urine it’s possible to generate a hologram that can reveal the presence of bacteria or other signs of disease

Aoyon Ashraf / CoinDesk: Bitcoin mining company PrimeBlock plans to go public via a SPAC merger at a $1.25B valuation; PrimeBlock generated $24.4M in Q4 2021 revenue  —  The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.  —  Bitcoin miner PrimeBlock confirmed its plan to go public through a merger …

Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE: The Discord servers of some NFT projects, including BAYC, were compromised on Friday as part of a phishing scam seeking to trick users into “minting” fake NFTs  —  This isn’t the first hack of Discord-based crypto communities, and it’s not likely to be the last.

A network of 100,000 animals connected by trackers and watched from space could explain extraordinary animal behaviour and help forecast volcanic eruptions, extreme weather and emerging diseases

Kiran Stacey / Financial Times: A look at the eclectic group of pro-crypto lawmakers in Washington, from libertarians to tech utopians, who were galvanized by the recent infrastructure bill  —  A bipartisan mix of libertarians, business champions and tech utopians is uniting on legislation to help the sector grow

Henry Ren / Bloomberg: Three European food delivery stocks, Delivery Hero, Just Eat, and Deliveroo, lost a combined $23.7B, more than half their market value, in the first quarter  —  In a market gripped by concerns over rising interest rates and soaring inflation, investors are avoiding European food delivery companies …

Tiare Tuuhia / Rest of World: How homegrown courier services in French Polynesia are building their own online shopping service to fill the gaps left by e-commerce giants in remote islands  —  E-commerce giants don’t reliably deliver to the remote islands of French Polynesia, so locals made their own online shopping service.

Michael H. Keller / New York Times: To avoid erroneously flagging CSAM, Meta’s training docs tell content moderators to “err on the side of an adult” when judging people’s age in photos or videos  —  The company reports millions of photos and videos of suspected child sexual abuse each year.

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: Researchers: an allegedly Russia-tied wiper malware, AcidRain, which shares similarities with the malware VPNFilter, was behind the attack on Viasat in February  —  AcidRain is the seventh wiper associated with the Russian invasion of Ukraine  —  Viasat—the high-speed-satellite-broadband …

Russia says its POM-3 landmines use artificial intelligence to distinguish between soldiers and civilians, though arms experts doubt if it really works

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: New York-based Black Crow AI, which delivers predictive analytics to e-commerce retailers, raises a $25M Series A led by Imaginary Ventures  —  In the pandemic era, where digital storefronts have become a matter of course for retailers, data analytics is proving its worth.

A robot made of magnetic slime with a custard-like consistency can navigate narrow passages, grasp objects and fix broken circuits.

Slime that can be controlled by a magnetic field can navigate tight spaces and grasp objects, making it ideal for possible uses inside the body

Tracy Wang / CoinDesk: Avalanche is now the fourth largest blockchain for DeFi protocols by “total value locked”, at $10B+, ahead of Solana, with its AVAX token rising 2,800% in 2021  —  To the crypto-conscious, blockchain industry conferences have become annual pilgrimages of sorts …

Shirin Ghaffary / Vox: Analysis: majority of the most-viewed Reels on Meta’s platforms are anonymous or reposted; Meta says Reels is Instagram’s biggest engagement growth contributor  —  Facebook’s pivot back to video shows how badly it needs young people.  —  Meta, the parent company of Facebook, needs to stay relevant.

CNBC: A look at 3C, a “grassroots” group of SMBs against Big Tech regulation, financed by Google and Amazon, which claims support from SMBs that haven’t heard of it  —  – The Connected Commerce Council, which pitches itself as a grassroots movement representing small business owners …

Kul Bhushan / Tech in Asia: India-based social commerce startup Citymall, which targets consumers in Tier 2, 3, and 4 towns, raises a $75M Series C led by Norwest Venture Partners  —  Citymall, an India-based social commerce startup, has raised US$75 million in a series C round led by Norwest Venture Partners.

Nate Raymond / Reuters: A judge invalidates Massachusetts’ fiduciary duty rule against Robinhood that underlies a 2020 suit accusing the firm of encouraging users to place risky trades  —  A Massachusetts judge on Wednesday dealt state securities regulators a major setback in their enforcement action …

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: Chainalysis: $1B+ in crypto was stolen from bridge-related exploits in a little over a year across seven incidents; Dune: $21B+ is locked on Ethereum bridges  —  The hack of a so-called bridge supporting Axie Infinity’s play-to-earn game revealed this week highlights the increasingly problematic nature …

An artificial intelligence trained to mimic the logic circuits of an ordinary computer can run code within itself, potentially speeding up certain calculations

Scientists at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant say that radioactive material was stolen by looters during the Russian invasion of Ukraine

Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg: The UK’s FCA extends a key deadline, set for Thursday, for approving crypto companies; the FCA has so far approved 33 companies  —  The U.K.’s financial regulator is extending a Thursday deadline for its approval of crypto operations, giving a dozen firms more time to get their applications or affairs in […]

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Cyberpion, which helps companies secure outside-facing assets and infrastructure, raises a $27M Series A led by U.S. Venture Partners  —  It’s no secret that digital supply chains are increasingly under attack as hackers look to use this vector to get access to company networks and confidential information.

Washington Post: Meta paid Republican consulting firm Targeted Victory to orchestrate a campaign against TikTok in the US, including placing op-eps in regional news outlets  —  Facebook parent company Meta is paying one of the biggest Republican consulting firms in the country to orchestrate a nationwide campaign seeking …

Rita Liao / TechCrunch: Chinese AR glasses maker Nreal raises a $60M Series C extension led by Alibaba, bringing its total funding to $200M in the past 12 months  —  China’s augmented reality startup Nreal is on a roll.  The company, which hopes to bring AR to the masses by making bright-color, lightweight smart glasses […]

Jay Peters / The Verge: Meta updates Messenger with Slack-like shortcuts, /silent to reply without a notification and @everyone to notify all, and plans to add more, like /pay and /gif  —  There’s also one that pings everyone, so please use it responsibly  —  Meta, the parent company of Facebook …

Michail / GSMArena.com: Counterpoint: Motorola was the third largest smartphone OEM in the US in 2021, with a 10% market share, up 131% YoY, filling the void left by LG’s exit  —  LG officially shut down its mobile division last April which left a sizeable hole in the US smartphone market and based …

Krystal Hu / Reuters: Steven Mnuchin’s Liberty Strategic Capital acquires a majority stake in enterprise security company Zimperium for $525M; SoftBank will retain a minority stake  —  Liberty Strategic Capital, a Washington D.C.-based private equity fund founded by former U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Spotify is testing a vertically scrolling feed for podcasts in its main app, featuring an automatically selected 60-second audio preview  —  Spotify acquired podcast discovery platform Podz last summer for roughly $49.4 million, per a Securities and Exchange Commission filing …

Ivan Levingston / Bloomberg: Enterprise software company Celonis acquires German startup Process Analytics Factory, which makes tools for Microsoft apps, for $100M in cash and stock  —  Software startup Celonis, currently valued at $11 billion, has purchased Process Analytics Factory GmbH in order to expand its offering across Microsoft Corp. products.

Lily Hay Newman / Wired: Leaked documents show Okta’s contractor Sitel first sent a Lapsus$ breach notification to Okta on January 25, and a detailed “Intrusion Timeline” on March 17  —  Documents shed some light on how Okta and its subprocessor Sitel reacted to a breach, but they don’t explain the apparent lack of urgency.

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC: Spotify rolls out an advisory for content that mentions COVID-19, two months after promising the feature amid controversy over Joe Rogan’s podcast  —  – Spotify is rolling out a Covid content advisory tab on podcasts and other content that mentions the coronavirus.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: HR and payroll platform Papaya Global is acquiring Azimo, a London-based money transfer service; source: the deal is worth between $150M and $200M  —  Six months after raising $250 million, Papaya Global is making a key acquisition to expand its cloud-based HR and payroll platform globally on the heels of major […]

A device made from glass microbeads could offer 100 times more processing power than other DNA computers

Squids’ stretchy skin changes colour in response to varying light levels, inspiring scientists to create a plastic that changes its heat absorption when stretched

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: Huawei reports 2021 revenue dropped 28.5% YoY to $99.9B, its first-ever yearly revenue decline as US sanctions continue, but net profit rose 75.9% YoY to $17.8B  —  – In 2021, Huawei brought in revenue of 636.8 billion Chinese yuan ($99.9 billion), a 28.5% year-on-year decline.

Nikkei Asia: Sources: Apple plans to cut iPhone SE orders by ~20% for the next quarter, as war and inflation dampen demand, and reduces AirPods orders by 10M+ for 2022  —  Lower orders to suppliers are early sign of pressure on tech industry  —  The war in Ukraine is causing supply chain turmoil …

Gene Munster / Loup: Apple heavily relies on China for manufacturing, but its plan to invest $430B in the US over five years is a promising sign of ramped up diversification  —  The global supply chain will likely change rapidly over the next decade, shifting away from China.  Apple saw it coming in 2018 …

Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post: Sources detail NHTSA’s difficulties regulating Tesla as it rolls out self-driving features, resorting to threats and flattery in exchanges with Elon Musk  —  SAN FRANCISCO — The first time Washington regulators tried to investigate Tesla’s Autopilot software, CEO Elon Musk was irate.

Hartley Charlton / MacRumors: Kuo: camera bump on the iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max smartphones will increase about five percent in each dimension due to a larger 48MP sensor  —  The increased size of the iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max’s rear camera array is due to all-new 48-megapixel Wide camera […]