Category: Uncategorized

Cryptocurrencies like bitcoin are being used to raise funds to buy weapons for Ukraine, help refugees swiftly carry money across borders and potentially even aid Russians in evading sanctions

Nanometre-sized semiconductors extracted from mulberry leaves make silkworms and their silk emit a strong red glow

Autonomous ships that can deploy uncrewed underwater vehicles could be used to inspect pipelines, cables and seabed drilling activity

Meaghan Tobin / Rest of World: Amid a trial in India, researchers say blocking Sci-Hub would benefit wealthy North American and European universities that can pay to access published papers  —  Dozens of Indian academics say blocking the site would have catastrophic consequences.  —  The doctoral researchers …

Katie Roof / Bloomberg: Founders Fund raises $5B+ in two new funds across early and late-stage investing, increasing the assets under its management to $11B  —  Founders Fund said that it has closed more than $5 billion in two new funds across both early and late-stage investing, increasing the assets under its management to $11 […]

The Economic Times: CEO Brian Chesky says Airbnb is suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus  —  Home rental company Airbnb Inc is suspending all operations in Russia and Belarus, chief executive officer Brian Chesky said in a tweet on Thursday. … Earlier this week, Airbnb said it is offering free short-term housing …

Kate Clark / The Information: Sources: automation software startup Hyperscience, last valued at $1.65B, laid off 100 staff after missing FY financial targets; CEO Peter Brodsky stepped down  —  In December, automation-software startup Hyperscience said it raised $100 million in venture capital from Tiger Global Management …

Jackie Wattles / CNN: Experts warn that Russia can use satellite signals to geolocate and target Starlink users in Ukraine; Elon Musk says the “probability of being targeted is high”  —  New York (CNN Business)SpaceX CEO Elon Musk sent a truckload of Starlink antennas — which can be used to connect …

Davey Alba / New York Times: US surgeon general formally requests Big Tech turn over information about the scale of COVID-19 misinformation on their platforms before May 2  —  Dr. Vivek Murthy also demanded information from the platforms about the major sources of Covid-19 misinformation.  Companies have until May 2 to submit the data.

A metamaterial inspired by kirigami, the Japanese art of paper cutting, can support nearly 3000 times its own weight

There’s plenty of excitement about a new, decentralised version of the internet. It is largely still a fantasy, but scammers are using it to lure in unsuspecting victims, writes Annalee Newitz

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet: Prominent open source advocate Miguel de Icaza is leaving Microsoft, which he joined in 2016 when it acquired Xamarin  —  Former Xamarin cofounder Miguel de Icaza is leaving Microsoft, the company he joined through acquisition just over six years ago.  —  Well-known open source advocate …

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: A group of 35 former employees at crypto startup incubator ConsenSys allege “serious irregularities” in Swiss court over an asset transfer and demand an audit  —  A group of former employees of the ConsenSys AG is alleging “serious irregularities” at the startup incubator that owns …

Nilay Patel / The Verge: Q&A with Sonos CEO Patrick Spence and CLO Eddie Lazarus on the decision to sue Google for patent infringement, competing with tech giants, Web3, and more  —  Sonos has long accused other tech giants of stealing its patents and technology, but in 2020, it actually sued Google for patent infringement.

Matt Robinson / Bloomberg: Sources: the SEC is probing the NFT market to determine if tokens are like securities, focusing on fractional NFTs, in which a token is broken and sold in units  —  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing creators of NFTs and the crypto exchanges where they trade to determine …

Ron Miller / TechCrunch: Snowflake acquires Streamlit, which offers tools to help companies build machine-learning driven apps, for $800M  —  Snowflake helps customers store and manage oodles of data in the cloud without cloud vendor lock-in.  Streamlit is a startup that developed a popular open source project for building data-based apps.

Lauren Feiner / CNBC: Several US state AGs launch a probe into TikTok, focusing on whether the app’s design and operations negatively impact young users’ physical and mental health  —  – TikTok is under investigation by a bipartisan group of state attorneys general to determine if the popular short-form video …

Converting sunlight into liquid fuel through artificial photosynthesis would be a huge environmental victory – and the latest prototypes look surprisingly effective

How inanimate molecules first arranged themselves into life is one of the great mysteries. The answer could lie in a systematic exploration of chemical space

Machines made of atoms are being used to sew together new materials molecule by molecule, which could open the floodgates to all manner of innovation

Bloomberg: Singapore-based gaming and e-commerce company Sea has lost $132B in market value from its October peak, including $11B in recent days after weak forecasts  —  Sea Ltd., once the hottest stock in the world, has lost more than $130 billion in market value from its peak last year …

Stephen Harrison / Slate: How Russia’s war with Ukraine is playing out on Wikipedia; Russian Wikipedia editors decided to call an invasion what it is, rejecting the Kremlin’s narrative  —  On Thursday, President Vladimir Putin issued the order for Russian forces to invade Ukraine.  Since then, Russians …

Andrew Hutchinson / Social Media Today: Meta releases its Q4 Widely Viewed Content report, showing the most viewed Facebook Page comes from a banned account; Meta would not reveal the account  —  Safe to say that Meta’s efforts to refute the idea that Facebook amplifies divisive political content are not going exactly as it would […]

Alicia Kelso / Restaurant Dive: Doordash says it is acquiring Bbot, which develops ordering and payment tools for restaurants, for an undisclosed amount; Bbot raised a $15M Series A in July  —  Dive Brief:  — DoorDash is acquiring Bbot, a hospitality technology startup that simplifies digital orders and payments processes, the company announced Tuesday.

Eric J. Savitz / Barron’s Online: HPE reports Q1 revenue of $7B, down 2% YoY, Compute revenue of $3B, up 1% YoY, and order growth up 20% YoY, including “as-a-service” orders up 136% YoY  —  Hewlett-Packard Enterprise posted better-than-expected profits, while boosting its earnings forecast for the full fiscal year ending in October.

Thermobaric weapons, sometimes called vacuum bombs, use powdered metal to create a rapidly expanding fireball. Under international law, they must only be used against military targets, not civilians.

Stephanie Condon / ZDNet: Salesforce reports Q4 revenue of $7.33B, up 26% YoY, including $6.8B from subscription and support, up 25%; platform and other, which lumps in Slack, was up 53%  —  The CRM giant beat top and bottom line estimates, with every segment of its Subscription and Support business bringing in more than $1 […]

Nanorobots propelled by magnets can be used repeatedly without fuel, offering a sustainable and cost-effective way to clean up industrial wastewater

The adoption of cryptocurrency as legal tender by El Salvador’s government has attracted enthusiastic tourists, concern from financial institutions and scorn from locals

Washington Post: After dire predictions, Russia has not yet unleashed a crippling cyberattack on Ukraine, leaving the country with functioning internet and infrastructure  —  For more than a decade, military commanders and outside experts have laid out blueprints for how cyberwar would unfold …

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: Symantec details China-linked backdoor Daxin, a Windows kernel driver that can hijack TCP connections to stealthily connect with command-and-control servers  —  Security researchers have discovered Daxin, a China-linked stealthy backdoor specifically designed for deployment in hardened corporate networks …

Bloomberg: The US is expected to put pressure on SMIC, Lenovo, and other Chinese companies to join sanctions on Russia; China is Russia’s biggest electronics supplier  —  Washington is expected to lean on major Chinese companies from Semiconductor Manufacturing International Corp. to Lenovo Group Ltd …

Maxwell Strachan / VICE: Following Ukraine’s request, Binance says banning Russian users would “fly in the face of” crypto’s purpose; NFT market DMarket bans Russians and Belarusians  —  Binance, the world’s largest exchange, said “unilaterally” banning users “would fly in the face of the reason why crypto exists.”

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Ashneer Grover, co-founder of Indian fintech unicorn BharatPe, resigns from the company’s board, following a probe into alleged financial irregularities  —  Ashneer Grover, a founder and the public face of BharatPe, has resigned from the board and left the managing director position he held …

Stephanie Condon / ZDNet: Zoom reports Q4 revenue of $1.07B, up 21% YoY, vs $1.05B est., net income of $490.5M, up 88% YoY, and 2,725 customers paying $100K+ annually, up 66% YoY  —  Growth has slowed in comparison to Zoom’s business at the outset of the pandemic, but the company is shifting its focus to […]

About 40 per cent of Europe’s gas comes from Russia, but the European Union is expected to release a new energy strategy to reduce its reliance on Russian imports

Monica Chin / The Verge: Lenovo unveils updated ThinkPads: X13 with Snapdragon chips, X1 Extreme with a 165Hz display, and updated P-series and T-series with new Intel processors  —  A new X13, a new X1 Extreme, and more  —  Lenovo has dumped a whole bunch of new ThinkPads into the world, and there’s some exciting […]

João Carrasqueira / XDA Developers: Lenovo debuts updated Windows 11 and Chromebook IdeaPads with 12th-Gen Intel CPUs and the Tab M10 Plus running Android 12, available in June starting at $190  —  Lenovo has a ton of announcements coming out of MWC 2022, and among them are a handful of new laptops geared towards consumers […]

Rest of World: A look at AcadArena and other “game guilds” in Southeast Asia, which loan out NFTs of in-game creatures as “scholarships” to players of games like Axie Infinity  —  In just a year, guilds boosting players into NFT games raised more than $80 million in Southeast Asia.

Lily Hay Newman / Wired: A profile of iSTARE, an Intel hardware hacking group that analyzes and attacks future generations of chips to find critical flaws before they go into production  —  Researchers at iSTARE have to think like the bad guys, finding critical flaws before processors go to production.

Monica Chin / The Verge: Samsung updates its Galaxy Book Pro laptops with 1080p webcams, Intel 12th Gen CPUs, and brighter AMOLED displays, starting at $1,050 and shipping on April 1  —  There’s a clamshell and a convertible  —  Samsung has announced two updates to its premium Galaxy Book line: the Galaxy Book 2 Pro […]

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Opinion: as Apple prepares to launch an iPhone SE 5G, the company should keep selling the older iPhone SE model and bring its price down to $199  —  Apple is planning to unveil a 5G iPhone SE in March—but the big news could be a price drop for the current model.

Ben Thompson / Stratechery: An interview with Intel CEO Pat Gelsinger about his IDM 2.0 strategy, partnering with TSMC, the Tower Semiconductor acquisition, and learning from AMD’s success  —  Intel has been one of the companies I have focused on from the very beginning of Stratechery.

Wall Street Journal: Analysts: Ukraine conflict could accelerate the fracturing of internet, amid pressure on US tech giants from both Russia and the West to respond to the conflict  —  Conflict could accelerate the fracturing of the internet into the ‘splinternet,’ analysts say

Financial Times: Sources: the UK government has shelved plans for a Silicon Valley rival around Oxford and Cambridge in order to prioritize spending in Northern England  —  UK prime minister’s levelling up agenda means plans for the Oxford-Cambridge Arc have been put on the backburner

Grace Dean / Insider: Customers of sanctioned Russian banks are unable to use their cards with Apple Pay and Google Pay, according to the Central Bank of Russia  —  – Customers of sanction-hit Russian banks are unable to use Apple and Google Pay, Russia’s central bank said.  — These banks include VTB Group …

Jennifer Koons / Axios: The US, EU, UK, and Canada agree to cut off a “certain number of Russian banks” from the SWIFT international payments system  —  The European Union, United States and other western nations on Saturday announced they would cut off a “certain number of Russian banks” …

Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge: Crypto became a viable option for transactions in Ukraine, where Tether is popular, after digital cash transfers were suspended and cash withdrawals limited  —  More than $15 million in cryptocurrency has been donated to Ukrainian groups since Russia attacked the country on February 24th, according to research firm Elliptic.

Reuters: Meta prohibits Russian state media organizations from running ads or monetizing on its platform anywhere in the world  —  Meta Platforms Inc (FB.O) is barring Russian state media from running ads or monetizing on its platform anywhere in the world, the parent company of social media giant Facebook said on Friday.

James Archer / Rock, Paper, Shotgun: Interview with Gabe Newell, Valve president and co-founder, on the Steam Deck, the company’s past and future hardware plans, consolidation in gaming, and more  —  We interview Valve’s co-founder on hardware plans and consolidation in gaming  —  I recently had the chance to grill Gabe Newell …