Category: Uncategorized

Paresh Dave / Reuters: Google says it will bar ads from appearing next to websites, apps, and YouTube channels that exploit, dismiss, or condone the Russia-Ukraine war  —  Alphabet-owned (GOOGL.O) Google will not help websites, apps and YouTube channels sell ads alongside content that it deems exploits …

An attack on a Ukrainian chemical plant released toxic ammonia, forcing locals to stay indoors. Analysts suggest Russia may carry out more such attacks as a form of chemical warfare, and could escalate to deploying chemical weapons

Rita Liao / TechCrunch: Chinese AR startup Rokid raises a $160M Series C, following a $100M raise in 2018, bringing its total funding to $378M  —  Chinese startup Rokid has been through a few stages of transformation over its eight years of existence, and it’s recently raised some new funding to stay afloat.

Tom Warren / The Verge: Sony releases PS4 and PS5 updates; the PS5 will gain Variable Refresh Rate in the coming months, syncing a display’s refresh rate to the PS5’s graphical output  —  Sony says VRR will be available in the coming months on the PS5  —  Sony is planning to release a Variable Refresh […]

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg: Sources: Spotify will rename its live conversation product, from Greenroom to Spotify Live, and plans to integrate the content into its main app in Q2  —  Spotify Technology SA is renaming its live conversation product and integrating the content into its main streaming app to make the service …

The Verge: Microsoft confirms Lapsus$ compromised “a single account” with “limited access” and exfiltrated portions of source code for some of its products  —  Lapsus$ says it has accessed data from Okta, Nvidia, Samsung, and Ubisoft  —  The hacking group Lapsus$ …

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE: DevOps startup Lightlytics, which makes SaaS tools to help model cloud infrastructure, raises a $26M Series A led by EIP  —  DevOps startup Lightlytics Ltd. said today it’s looking to expand its go-to-market strategy after raising $26 million in a new round of funding.

The Information: Sources: Sam Altman’s Worldcoin is raising $100M in a token sale from investors including Andreessen Horowitz, a previous backer, and Khosla, at a $3B valuation  —  Worldcoin, the cryptocurrency startup co-founded by former Y Combinator president Sam Altman, is raising $100 million …

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: The Lapsus$ group releases ~37GB of alleged source code from Microsoft, covering Bing, Cortana, and other services; Microsoft says it is investigating  —  The Lapsus$ hacking group claims to have leaked the source code for Bing, Cortana, and other projects stolen from Microsoft’s internal Azure DevOps server.

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: Alibaba increases its share buyback program from $15B to $25B, sending its Hong Kong-listed shares up by 11%+; Alibaba has so far purchased ~$9.2B in shares  —  – Alibaba said on Tuesday it will increase the size of its share buyback program from $15 billion to $25 billion, effective for a […]

Associated Press: Rights group Global Witness says Facebook approved eight paid ads that it submitted containing hate speech inciting violence and genocide against the Rohingya  —  JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A new report has found that Facebook failed to detect blatant hate speech and calls to violence …

Brandy Betz / CoinDesk: Digital banking app Dave raises $100M in a convertible note from FTX Ventures; FTX US will be the exclusive partner for any crypto offerings by Dave  —  FTX US will serve as the exclusive partner for any crypto offerings offered by Dave.  —  Dave (DAVE), a publicly-traded banking app …

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: A malicious cartoon rendering Android app that steals Facebook credentials has been downloaded 100K times and is still available on the Google Play Store  —  A malicious Android app that steals Facebook credentials has been installed over 100,000 times via the Google Play Store, with the app still available to download.

CTech: Application layer security startup Bionic raises a $65M Series B led by Insight Partners, bringing its total funding to $83M  —  The Israeli startup’s platform automatically reverse engineers applications, delivering a comprehensive inventory with architecture and dataflows …

Financial Times: The CEO of lithography machine maker ASML says chipmakers’ expansion plans will be constrained by a shortage of its critical equipment over the next two years  —  Intel admits expansion to be restricted as it works with ASML to boost capacity  —  Chipmakers’ multibillion-dollar expansion plans …

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: Cascade, which offers a single tool to centralize project management, KPIs, and outcome tracking, raises a $29M Series A led by Telescope Partners  —  Cascade, a strategy execution platform used by companies such as Johnson & Johnson, American Express, and AstraZeneca, has raised $29 million in a series A round of […]

Sebastian Sinclair / Blockworks: FTX launches crypto exchange services in Australia, including crypto derivatives and spot market offerings, operating out of a Sydney headquarters  —  FTX is hoping to get ahead of the regulatory curve by appeasing policymakers and working “proactively” with regulators

Adi Robertson / The Verge: Q&A with Margrethe Vestager on EU’s cases against Apple, Google, Meta, and Amazon, how the planned Digital Markets Act may help with antitrust enforcement, more  —  Margrethe Vestager is one of the driving forces behind tech regulation worldwide.  Appointed as the European Commission’s commissioner …

New York Times: Brazil’s Supreme Court reverses its decision to ban Telegram, which it had ordered on Friday, after Telegram suddenly worked to comply with the court’s orders  —  Brazil’s Supreme Court blocked Telegram on Friday.  The messaging app then responded with measures to fight misinformation, and the court quickly lifted its ban.

Alex Sherman / CNBC: A look at the fallout between Bob Chapek and Bob Iger as Disney restructures for a world where streaming dominates and legacy distribution models fade away  —  Bob Iger, left, and Bob Chapek of Disney  —  April 12, 2020.  That’s the day former Disney CEO Bob Iger’s relationship …

Katie Palmer / STAT: Doctors often use Google Translate to talk with non-English speaking patients, but researchers say inaccurate results are common and can lead to serious errors  —  The patient had just undergone a cesarean section, and now was struggling to put words to her pain in her native Taiwanese.

Kevin Williams / Washington Post: Limestone, Tennessee residents were promised economic benefits from a bitcoin mine, but now face constant noise pollution from its computers and cooling fans  —  LIMESTONE, Tenn. — It started as a low hum one day last spring.  Then it got louder, and soon some residents said the noise was like […]

CBS San Francisco: A former Apple employee is facing federal charges for allegedly defrauding Apple out of $10M+ by taking kickbacks, stealing parts, evading taxes, and more  —  CUPERTINO (CBS SF) – A former Apple employee is facing federal charges after he allegedly defrauded the tech giant out of millions …

David McCabe / New York Times: US judge dismisses a DC AG lawsuit against Amazon, which claimed that the company maintained a monopoly by locking wholesalers into anti-competitive agreements  —  The attorney general for the District of Columbia said Amazon made merchants on its site sell at the lowest price they charged on the web […]

S.I. Rosenbaum / Input: A look at TropeTrainer, beloved Torah learning software that helped rabbis prepare kids for bar and bat mitzvahs, which became obsolete after its creator died  —  I can tell you what TropeTrainer was, what it did, and what it meant to people.  I can tell you about the person who made […]

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: How researchers are using self-supervised learning, a branch of AI that has proven effective for handling human language, to better understand animal sounds  —  New kinds of artificial intelligence are enabling scientists to better understand the sounds of the animal world, from whale songs to mouse squeaks

In an analysis of nearly 30,000 websites, 94.7 per cent had at least one potential violation of European laws requiring users’ consent to store their data

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: CEO Pavel Durov apologizes and says Telegram was unresponsive to Brazil’s Supreme Court because the court’s emails were going to the wrong email address  —  Telegram’s founder and CEO Pavel Durov has just put out a statement about why Brazil’s Supreme Court is now suspending the app, and the reason […]

Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE: The state of crypto and the metaverse, as seen at SXSW, is underwhelming and pathetic, showing off only how rich its boosters are and little of social utility  —  The first SXSW in three years was taken over by crypto-mania fueled by marketing hype.  —  It did not really hit […]

Adnan Bhat / Rest of World: Doctors say the rise of fantasy sports apps has led to a spike in gambling addiction in India, where gambling is illegal but fantasy gaming has no clear laws  —  All forms of gambling are illegal in India but there are no clear laws when it comes to fantasy […]

Kim Lyons / The Verge: Instacart plans to add a $0.40 fee to orders “over the next month” that goes to shoppers to help with gas prices, even if shopper’s cars are hybrid or electric  —  The move follows temporary surcharge announcements from Lyft and Uber  —  Grocery delivery platform Instacart announced Friday …

New York Times: A look at China-made hit fantasy RPG Genshin Impact, as China expands into the video game market once dominated by Japan by imitating its Japanese competitors  —  Genshin Impact, a nearly picture-perfect reproduction of Japanese fantasy role-playing games, has raked in billions of dollars …

David Welch / Bloomberg: GM buys SoftBank Vision Fund 1’s stake in Cruise for $2.1B, increasing GM’s ownership to 80%, and says the company will invest another $1.35B in Cruise  —  General Motors Co. bought out the SoftBank Vision Fund 1’s stake in self-driving startup Cruise LLC for $2.1 billion …

James Ball / MIT Technology Review: Russia’s disconnection from Western online services raises fears of a “splinternet”, networks with incompatible protocols diverging from today’s global internet  —  If Russia disconnects from—or is booted from— the internet’s governing bodies, the internet may never be the same again for any of us.

Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft Edge now automatically generates image labels for screen readers on Windows, macOS, and Linux, improving the experience for blind and low vision users  —  Ideal for blind or low vision web users  —  More than half of the images on the web are missing alt text, according to Microsoft.

FinSMEs: Avive, which is building a connected, data-sharing response service for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest emergencies, raises a $22M Series A  —  Avive Solutions, Inc., a San Francisco, CA-based developer of an intelligent AED and connected response platform for out-of-hospital cardiac arrest …

The James Webb Space Telescope has sent back its clearest image yet

The final draft of legislation designed to protect people from “harmful content” online goes before Parliament today, but critics warn it is likely to have unintended negative consequences

Robotic legs with an unconventional design inspired by flightless birds can run 300 per cent more efficiently than the same device would if designed traditionally

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: PayPal expands its services to allow users to send money into Ukraine and temporarily waives fees for customers sending funds to Ukrainian PayPal accounts  —  PayPal is expanding its services to allow its users to send money to Ukrainians, the company announced on Thursday.

PYMNTS.com: New York-based online insurance marketplace Policygenius raises a $125M Series E, bringing its total funding to $225M  —  Policygenius has raised $125 million in new growth capital, the InsurTech firm announced in a news release Thursday (March 17).  —  The company, based in New York City …

Andrew Hayward / Decrypt: Bored Ape Yacht Club’s $APE token hit a peak of $39.40 per token during its airdrop, but later sank as low as $7.50  —  ApeCoin, the Ethereum token built for the expanding Bored Ape Yacht Club NFT ecosystem, launched this morning and rapidly rose in value before shedding much of its […]

Reuters: Sources: Alibaba and Tencent are planning to cut tens of thousands of jobs combined this year as companies try to cope with China’s regulatory crackdown  —  Alibaba Group (9988.HK) and Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) are preparing to cut tens of thousands of jobs combined this year …

Kate Park / TechCrunch: Tokyo-based mobile banking app Kyash raises a $41M Series D from Block, Greyhound, and others; report says it is Block’s first investment in Asia  —  Kyash, a Tokyo-based mobile financial app, has raised $41.2 million (4.9 billion JPY) Series D funding.  —  The round comes from a number …

Dan Taylor / Tech.eu: Grocery delivery app Getir raises a $768M Series E at an $11.8B valuation led by Mubadala with Sequoia Capital, Tiger Global, and others participating  —  Confirming earlier rumours, Getir has reined in $768 million at a decacorn valuation of $11.8 billion.

Tiny sensors that can drift in the breeze like dandelion seeds can help record environmental signals across a wide area

Robotic legs that mimic flightless running birds like emus and use just two motors per leg can run more efficiently than more complex devices

TechCrunch: Sources: Yandex is in negotiations to sell its media unit, including Yandex News and personal recommendations site Yandex Zen, possibly to social network VK  —  Sources say the company is seeking a media exit as top exec hit with sanctions over propaganda charge

Wall Street Journal: French cloud service OVHcloud files an antitrust complaint about Microsoft with the European Commission; sources say complaint focuses on Microsoft’s licensing  —  France’s OVHcloud has filed a complaint that Microsoft is abusing its position to hurt competition

Lucas Matney / TechCrunch: Bored Ape Yacht Club launches ApeCoin, or the $APE token, with 1B in total supply, and forms the ApeCoin DAO, whose founding members include Alexis Ohanian  —  Even among the fastest-growing crypto startups, Yuga Labs has had a particularly explosive year.  —  The startup is behind …