Activision Blizzard reports Q3 net bookings down 3% YoY to $1.83B vs. $1.7B est., and MAUs down 6% YoY to 368M; Modern Warfare II made $1B+ in its first 10 days (Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat)

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Activision Blizzard reports Q3 net bookings down 3% YoY to $1.83B vs. $1.7B est., and MAUs down 6% YoY to 368M; Modern Warfare II made $1B+ in its first 10 days  —  Activision Blizzard reported that its bookings for the third quarter ended September 30 fell 3% to $1.83 billion compared […]

End-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal launches its Stories feature out of beta on Android and iOS; users’ Stories will automatically expire after 24 hours (Aisha Malik/TechCrunch)

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: End-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal launches its Stories feature out of beta on Android and iOS; users’ Stories will automatically expire after 24 hours  —  End-to-end encrypted messaging app Signal is rolling out a new Stories feature to all users on Android and iOS, the company announced on Monday.

Source: Twitter is telling advertisers the site added 15M+ mDAUs since the end of Q2, “crossing the quarter billion mark”; Musk also tweeted user numbers are up (Alex Heath/The Verge)

Alex Heath / The Verge: Source: Twitter is telling advertisers the site added 15M+ mDAUs since the end of Q2, “crossing the quarter billion mark”; Musk also tweeted user numbers are up  —  Twitter’s daily user growth hit “all-time highs” during the first full week of Elon Musk owning the platform …

A whole new world of learning via MIT OpenCourseWare videos

Like millions of others during the global Covid-19 lockdowns, Emmanuel Kasigazi, an entrepreneur from Uganda, turned to YouTube to pass the time. But he wasn’t following an influencer or watching music videos. A lifelong learner, Kasigazi was scouring the video-sharing platform for educational resources. Since 2013, when he got his first smartphone, Kasigazi has been […]

UpNano joins MIT.nano Consortium

MIT.nano has announced that UpNano US Inc., a company that manufactures and supplies high-precision and high-resolution 3D printing instruments for academia and industry, has joined the MIT.nano Consortium. This engagement, initially planned for two years, will include locating one of UpNano’s NanoOne 1000 instruments in MIT.nano. “We’re thrilled to welcome UpNano to the MIT.nano Consortium,” […]

Algerian startup Yassir, which offers on-demand ride hailing, banking, and more, raised $150M led by BOND to expand overseas, bringing its funding to $193M (Nicolas Parasie/Bloomberg)

Nicolas Parasie / Bloomberg: Algerian startup Yassir, which offers on-demand ride hailing, banking, and more, raised $150M led by BOND to expand overseas, bringing its funding to $193M  —  Startup Yassir secured $150 million from global investors in North Africa’s largest fundraising as the tech firm seeks to roll out its super app overseas.

Hua Hong Semiconductor, China’s second-largest chipmaker, receives approval for a ~$2.5B Shanghai IPO and plans to use the funds to build a plant in Wuxi, China (Reuters)

Reuters: Hua Hong Semiconductor, China’s second-largest chipmaker, receives approval for a ~$2.5B Shanghai IPO and plans to use the funds to build a plant in Wuxi, China  —  Chinese chip manufacturer Hua Hong Semiconductor Ltd (1347.HK) has received regulatory approval for an 18 billion yuan …

Unity, which makes the eponymous game engine, merges with adtech company ironSource in a $4.4B all-stock deal; Unity stock is down ~75% YTD and ironSource ~50% (Paul Sawers/TechCrunch)

Paul Sawers / TechCrunch: Unity, which makes the eponymous game engine, merges with adtech company ironSource in a $4.4B all-stock deal; Unity stock is down ~75% YTD and ironSource ~50%  —  Unity’s proposed merger with IronSource has formally concluded, with the two companies coming together to create an end …

Elon Musk tweets that “any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended” (Richard Lawler/The Verge)

Richard Lawler / The Verge: Elon Musk tweets that “any Twitter handles engaging in impersonation without clearly specifying ‘parody’ will be permanently suspended”  —  Elon Musk’s Twitter has a new rule for everyone with an account on Twitter to follow, as he announced from his own account …

Apple says it expects iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max shipments to be lower than anticipated due to COVID-19 restrictions at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, China (Joe Rossignol/MacRumors)

Joe Rossignol / MacRumors: Apple says it expects iPhone 14 Pro and 14 Pro Max shipments to be lower than anticipated due to COVID-19 restrictions at a Foxconn factory in Zhengzhou, China  —  Apple today said it expects iPhone 14 Pro and iPhone 14 Pro Max shipments to be lower than the company previously anticipated […]

Sources: Meta plans to lay off thousands of employees this week, with an announcement expected as soon as Wednesday, the first broad layoffs in its history (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Meta plans to lay off thousands of employees this week, with an announcement expected as soon as Wednesday, the first broad layoffs in its history  —  Social-media giant’s planned cuts expected to affect many thousands of its workforce, which exceeded 87,000 as of September

Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy says the company will cut back on dealmaking and hiring as losses mount, amid fierce competition from Amazon and Reliance (Financial Times)

Financial Times: Flipkart CEO Kalyan Krishnamurthy says the company will cut back on dealmaking and hiring as losses mount, amid fierce competition from Amazon and Reliance  —  CEO Krishnamurthy insists country’s ecommerce sector remains ‘vibrant’  —  Flipkart’s chief executive says the Walmart-owned ecommerce group …

A look at Twitter’s chaotic first week under Elon Musk, who is acting like a poker player on tilt trying too hard to get his money back all at once (Dave Karpf/The Future, Now and Then)

Dave Karpf / The Future, Now and Then: A look at Twitter’s chaotic first week under Elon Musk, who is acting like a poker player on tilt trying too hard to get his money back all at once  —  Well, Elon’s first week running Twitter has gone worse than I expected.  I said last week […]

Hands-on with Matter devices at an official launch event; Matter has a long way to go before it delivers on a promise of an interoperable and simple smart home (Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The Verge)

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge: Hands-on with Matter devices at an official launch event; Matter has a long way to go before it delivers on a promise of an interoperable and simple smart home  —  At the official launch event for Matter this week, I saw a lot of exciting things: a Google Nest […]

The US DOJ seizes internet domains for Z-Library, a repository that went viral on TikTok for offering 11M+ books, including pirated textbooks, and 84M articles (Bill Toulas/BleepingComputer)

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer: The US DOJ seizes internet domains for Z-Library, a repository that went viral on TikTok for offering 11M+ books, including pirated textbooks, and 84M articles  —  Internet domains for the popular Z-Library online eBook repository were seized early this morning by the U.S. Department of Justice, preventing easy access to the […]

A Twitter product lead says the new Blue subscription isn’t live yet, but some users may see updates “because we are testing and pushing changes in real-time” (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: A Twitter product lead says the new Blue subscription isn’t live yet, but some users may see updates “because we are testing and pushing changes in real-time”  —  Just days after newly minted Twitter CEO Elon Musk floated changes to Twitter’s system for verifying user accounts …

A look at the Rust programming language after 12 years, evolving from side project to robust ecosystem, as developers praise its security, ease, and performance (Lily Hay Newman/Wired)

Lily Hay Newman / Wired: A look at the Rust programming language after 12 years, evolving from side project to robust ecosystem, as developers praise its security, ease, and performance  —  Rust makes it impossible to introduce some of the most common security vulnerabilities.  And its adoption can’t come soon enough.

As chess explodes on Twitch, a look at Chess.com’s Global Championship, its first in-person event since 2018, and “fair play” measures amid a cheating scandal (Jordan Pearson/VICE)

Jordan Pearson / VICE: As chess explodes on Twitch, a look at Chess.com’s Global Championship, its first in-person event since 2018, and “fair play” measures amid a cheating scandal  —  Cheating allegations have changed how chess is played, just as the game is shifting into looking a lot more like esports.

El Salvador’s Bitcoin “revolution” is failing miserably and behind the debacle are crypto evangelists from wealthier countries who cheered on President Bukele (Zeke Faux/Bloomberg)

Zeke Faux / Bloomberg: El Salvador’s Bitcoin “revolution” is failing miserably and behind the debacle are crypto evangelists from wealthier countries who cheered on President Bukele  —  On an estuary along the coast of El Salvador, a few miles west of the Conchagua volcano, about 70 families live in a settlement called Flor de Mangle.

Filing: Apple settles lawsuit against an ex-employee accused of stealing trade secrets and sharing them with the media; he will pay an undisclosed sum to Apple (Jay Peters/The Verge)

Jay Peters / The Verge: Filing: Apple settles lawsuit against an ex-employee accused of stealing trade secrets and sharing them with the media; he will pay an undisclosed sum to Apple  —  Apple has settled its lawsuit against Simon Lancaster, a former design architect, who the company accused of stealing trade secrets and sharing them […]

The US DOJ charges two former MoviePass executives in a securities fraud case for allegedly trying to artificially inflate parent company HMNY’s stock price (Jason Guerrasio/Insider)

Jason Guerrasio / Insider: The US DOJ charges two former MoviePass executives in a securities fraud case for allegedly trying to artificially inflate parent company HMNY’s stock price  —  – Lowe and Farnsworth have been charged in a securities fraud case by the Department of Justice.

Sources: Apple is building a live TV ad network and talking to ad partners as part of its deal to stream Major League Soccer games starting in February 2023 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg: Sources: Apple is building a live TV ad network and talking to ad partners as part of its deal to stream Major League Soccer games starting in February 2023  —  Apple Inc. is building an advertising network for live television as part of its deal to stream Major League Soccer games next year …

Video on the record

Among the Pulitzer Prizes awarded in 2021 was a citation for a teenager who changed history with her cell phone. The Pulitzer committee acknowledged Darnella Frazier “for courageously recording the murder of George Floyd, a video that spurred protests against police brutality around the world, highlighting the crucial role of citizens in journalists’ quest for […]

MIT engineers develop a low-cost terahertz camera

Terahertz radiation, whose wavelengths lie between those of microwaves and visible light, can penetrate many nonmetallic materials and detect signatures of certain molecules. These handy qualities could lend themselves to a wide array of applications, including airport security scanning, industrial quality control, astrophysical observations, nondestructive characterization of materials, and wireless communications with higher bandwidth than […]