Category: Uncategorized

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 […]

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: An analysis of 19.3M NFTs across ~8,400 collections: one in three have little or no trading activity, and another third trade below their original minting cost  —  For every Bored Ape and CryptoPunk there is a Baby Baller, one of the thousands of NFT projects that have faltered not long after […]

Dan Taylor / Tech.eu: Leapsome, a Berlin-based startup helping HR teams automate employee feedback and training processes, raises a $60M Series A led by Insight Partners  —  Bootstrapped since 2016, Berllin-based “People Enablement” platform Leapsome has raised $60 million in a Series A round as it sets out to dominate the American market.

Megha Paul / Tech.eu: Paris-based Lucca, which provides SMBs with tools to automate HR and administrative tasks, raises €65M from One Peak Partners, after 20 years of self-financing  —  The new funding will enable the platform to build its product portfolio further and expand internationally in Spain and Switzerland

Will Oremus / Washington Post: Social media platforms are hastily rewriting rules on hate and propaganda amid the war on Ukraine, setting precedents that may haunt them in the future  —  A month ago, praising a neo-Nazi militia or calling for violence against Russians could get you suspended from Facebook in Ukraine.

Wall Street Journal: Sources: health startups Cerebral and Done pressured clinicians to use looser pandemic rules and prescribe stimulants, often via 30 minute online consultations  —  Digital companies such as Cerebral and Done seized on looser pandemic rules for prescribing ADHD drugs like Adderall.

FinSMEs: Data Vault Holdings, which lets businesses monetize their data assets through its cloud-based exchange, raises a $30.5M Series A from undisclosed investors  —  Data Vault Holdings, a New York-based provider of a cloud-based platform for the delivery of branded data-backed cryptocurrencies, raised $30.5M in Series A funding.

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: Google releases a Chrome update for Windows, Mac, and Linux to fix a high-severity zero-day exploited in the wild, the second such patch for Chrome in 2022  —  Google has released Chrome 99.0.4844.84 for Windows, Mac, and Linux users to address a high-severity zero-day bug exploited in the wild.

Adi Robertson / The Verge: Ukraine will start selling 54 NFTs next week chronicling the war’s first three days to support its army and civilians, replacing a canceled crypto airdrop plan  —  Proceeds will go toward Ukraine’s army and civilians  —  Ukraine’s government is raising funds by selling non-fungible tokens …

Ann-Marie Alcántara / Wall Street Journal: Brands including Forever 21, DKNY, and Estée Lauder have joined the first Metaverse Fashion Week, which began on Thursday and runs until Sunday in Decentraland  —  Brands including Forever 21, DKNY and Estée Lauder are using the digital event in part to study how consumers will shop in virtual […]

Miles Kruppa / Financial Times: As some crypto startups seek to avoid oversight, VCs are passing on board seats to win deals; investors in FTX, which has raised $1.8B+, have no board seats  —  Founders of digital asset groups seek to avoid investor oversight in new Silicon Valley trend  —  Jack Lu received eight proposals […]

FinSMEs: Ohio-based Triple Whale, an analytics platform for Shopify customers, raises a $27.7M extended Series A led by Elephant VC  —  Triple Whale, a Columbus, Ohio – based operating system for Shopify brands, raised $27.7M in an extended Series A funding.  —  Triple Whale’s latest funding round consists …

Reuters: The US FCC adds Kaspersky Lab, China Telecom Americas, and China Mobile International USA to its national security threat list, barring them from its USF funds  —  The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Friday added Russia’s AO Kaspersky Lab, China Telecom (Americas) Corp (0728.HK) …

The TickleFoot device stimulates the most ticklish spots of the human foot. Researchers hope it could help beat stress by inducing uncontrolled laughter

The TickleFoot device stimulates the most ticklish spots of the human foot – for women it was found to be the centre of the arch, while for men it is slightly closer to the toes

Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE: A unit of 12 Google Fiber workers in Kansas City, Missouri, becomes the first NLRB-recognized bargaining unit of the Alphabet Workers Union, a branch of the CWA  —  “We’re really hoping that we’re the first in a line of dominos.”  —  Lauren Kaori Gurley  —  Google Fiber workers in Kansas […]

The European Union is close to agreeing the Digital Markets Act, which would require big tech firms to open up their services to wider competition

Daniel Michaels / Wall Street Journal: The EU and US announce a preliminary transatlantic data pact bur reveal few details, after the EU declared the previous pact illegal in 2020  —  Agreement could assuage concerns of companies with operations on both sides of the Atlantic  —  BRUSSELS—The U.S. and the European Union reached …

Jane Zhang / Bloomberg: Meituan reports Q4 revenue of $7.78B, up 31% YoY, and a net loss of $830M, amid weakening Chinese consumer spending and regulatory pressures  —  Meituan’s revenue slowed for the third straight quarter after weakening Chinese consumer spending and regulatory pressures constrained its online food and travel businesses.

David Gilbert / VICE: A look at Lantern, an app backed by the US’ Open Technology Fund that has spent the last two years building a peer-to-peer network to bypass Russian censorship  —  Backed with funding from the U.S. government’s Open Technology Fund, Lantern has spent two years building a peer-to-peer network inside Russia.

Samuel Stolton / Politico: EU lawmakers reach a provisional agreement on the DMA, which will mandate messaging service interoperability, prohibit self-preferencing practices, and more  —  The European Union today adopted landmark rules clamping down on anti-competitive abuses by the world’s largest technology platforms …

Kellen Browning / New York Times: Netflix says it is buying Boss Fight Entertainment, a mobile game developer with 130 employees; it is Netflix’s third studio purchase since last summer  —  The acquisition is the company’s third since it announced plans to move into video games last summer.

Adi Robertson / The Verge: The DOJ arrest and charge two men with wire fraud and money laundering over a $1.1M NFT rug pull scheme for their collection named “Frosties”  —  They’d already announced a follow-up series  —  US government prosecutors have charged two men with fraud and money laundering over a cryptocurrency “rug pull” […]

Handling soft fruit is challenging for robots, but a machine-learning system was able to conquer the task by imitating how a person does it

A robot trained by machine learning that imitates a human demonstrator can successfully peel a banana without smashing it to smithereens

Existing flexible screens are either too power-hungry, fragile or expensive to be used in most electronic devices, but a new material could enable more practical versions

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch: French startup Weglot, a website translation tool that is compatible with major CMSes and platforms, raises a €45M Series A from Partech  —  French startup Weglot has closed a $50 million Series A funding round (€45 million) from Partech.  The company has built a translation solution for websites.

Brody Ford / Bloomberg: TikTok creators say a glitch in the registration process for TikTok’s creator fund has prevented sign-ups for weeks; the fund started at $200M in 2020  —  Many rising TikTok stars who recently qualified to be paid for their popular videos have been shut out of the registration system …

Mehul Srivastava / Financial Times: An inside look at Ukrainian efforts to repel Russian cyberattacks on critical infrastructure, as some worry that early success might be unwound over time  —  As Russian troops massed on the border on January 14, dozens of Ukrainian government websites were defaced with the words “be afraid and wait for […]

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Stephen Wilhite, one of the lead creators of the GIF, has died at 74; Wilhite worked on the GIF while employed by CompuServe in the 1980s  —  It’s pronounced ‘jif’  —  Stephen Wilhite, one of the lead inventors of the GIF, died last week from COVID at the age of […]

Dave Lee / Financial Times: Instacart will build micro-fulfillment warehouses for grocery retailers to support 15-minute deliveries, launching in the “coming months” starting with Publix  —  Company embarks on ‘new trajectory’ with grocery retailers as it seeks to fend off fierce competition