Techmeme River
Techmeme River
Monday, August 15, 2022
11:35 PM
Sources: Apple has laid off about 100 recruiter contractors in a rare move in the past week as part of a push to rein in hiring and spending
Bloomberg
11:20 PM
Idaho-based Kochava sues the FTC, claiming the agency is threatening to sue it for marketing geolocation data that might be used to track abortion clinic visits
Wall Street Journal
10:40 PM
Dianxiaomi, an e-commerce SaaS provider for SMBs in China, Southeast Asia, and Latin America, has raised a $110M Series D led by Vision Fund 2 and Sequoia China
TechCrunch
7:50 PM
Filing: Elliott Management sold all of its 10M shares in Twitter in Q2 amid Musk's takeover bid; the hedge fund had no common stock in Twitter as of June 30
Financial Times
7:25 PM
Sources: Apple sets a return-to-office deadline for September 5; employees will come in Tuesdays, Thursdays, and a third day determined by individual teams
Bloomberg
6:35 PM
A judge orders Twitter to give Elon Musk documents from a former Twitter executive Musk said was a key witness but denies Musk's similar request for 21 others
Bloomberg
4:45 PM
Walmart partners with Paramount to include the $4.99/month ad-supported tier of the Paramount+ streaming service as part of its Walmart+ subscription
Reuters
3:15 PM
Zoom pushes an update to fix a flaw, found by Patrick Wardle, in its Mac app's auto-update feature that could let attackers run code with root access
The Verge
3:10 PM
Sources: Walmart agrees to a deal with Paramount Global to offer the Paramount+ streaming service to Walmart+ subscribers, to better compete with Amazon Prime
Wall Street Journal
1:25 PM
Android 13 begins rolling out today to Google's Pixel phones, earlier in the year than the previous two Android annual updates
The Verge
10:55 AM
TikTok rolls out a text-to-image “AI greenscreen”, letting users create a basic background for videos from a text prompt
The Verge
10:45 AM
Meta's openness about BlenderBot 3, even as the bot gives offensive responses, is refreshing in the face of secrecy from others developing conversational AI
Bloomberg
10:10 AM
A look at the rise of digital productivity monitoring for white collar jobs in the US, sometimes used to assign workers scores, determine pay, and more
New York Times
9:40 AM
An in-depth look at Silicon Valley's historical corporate culture, how straight white men benefitted, and efforts by women and minorities to push for change
MIT Technology Review
9:20 AM
Gorgias, which offers AI-powered customer service tools for e-commerce, raised a $30M Series C at a $710M valuation led by Transpose Platform and Shopify
TechCrunch
9:15 AM
Snap says its Snapchat+ subscription, launched in June, now has 1M+ users globally and adds features, including priority Story replies to celebs
Variety
8:55 AM
An in-depth look at the fall of Three Arrows Capital, led by Su Zhu and Kyle Davies, which built a solid reputation only to vaporize billions of dollars
New York Magazine
8:40 AM
Unity Software rejects AppLovin's $17.54B all-stock takeover offer, saying it would proceed with its deal to acquire ironSource for $4.4B in stock
Reuters
8:20 AM
a16z invests in Adam Neumann's residential real estate management startup Flow, sources say ~$350M at a $1B+ valuation, the firm's largest-ever individual check
New York Times
7:50 AM
Meta focusing on Europe makes sense for three reasons: raising ARPU in the region to US levels, facing off regulatory headwinds, and attracting cheaper talent
Bloomberg
7:35 AM
A “jailbreak” for John Deere tractors, helping farmers modify and repair them, highlights issues with securing farm equipment and the right-to-repair debate
Wired
7:25 AM
Galaxy Digital terminates its $1.2B acquisition of crypto custodian BitGo, announced in May 2021, after the service failed to provide audited statements
The Block
7:10 AM
A look at the UK's beleaguered semiconductor industry, which has withered since the 1980s, and efforts to revive domestic production amid a global supply crunch
Financial Times
6:50 AM
Court docs in Brazil show Microsoft sold approximately 58.5M Xbox One units in total, or half of the PS4's 117.2M sales; Microsoft has long hidden sales figures
GameLuster
6:35 AM
Analysis: Google Maps in the US regularly misleads people looking for abortion providers, instead pointing them towards non-medical crisis pregnancy centers
Bloomberg
6:15 AM
The US' $42.5B broadband budget for underserved areas is withheld until the FCC makes new service maps, which aren't expected by rural providers until late 2023
Wall Street Journal
Sunday, August 14, 2022
11:30 PM
Ahead of the US midterms, a look at TikTok's ongoing struggles to contain misinformation during elections, such as in Australia, France, and Kenya this year
New York Times
9:40 PM
Around two years ago, Apple updated its employee conduct policy to prohibit discrimination on the basis of caste, making it a leader on the issue alongside IBM
Reuters
7:15 PM
Sources: Apple ads team lead Todd Teresi now reports directly to Eddy Cue and wants to increase the group's ad revenues from $4B per year to double digits
Bloomberg
6:30 PM
A look at the growing bipartisan scrutiny of TikTok in the US; email: House officials told staff they did not recommend using the app, citing security concerns
New York Times
3:00 PM
New York City-based Kumospace, which offers video chat and remote work tools with a “virtual office” feel, has raised a $21M Series A led by Lightspeed
TechCrunch
1:00 PM
Big investment firms, including Abrdn, BlackRock, and Charles Schwab, are embracing digital assets despite the crypto crash, as consumer groups raise concerns
Financial Times
11:00 AM
Some computational neuroscientists say self-supervised AI learning models have shown a closer correspondence to brain function than supervised-learning models
Quanta Magazine
9:00 AM
Analysis: Tencent and Alibaba, whose stocks have dropped 60% and 65% respectively since February 2021, have lost more market value than any other stock globally
Bloomberg
5:30 AM
Source: China has blocked Tencent-backed health platform DXY from posting on Weibo, WeChat, and Douyin amid its criticism of China's efforts to fight COVID-19
Nikkei Asia
2:00 AM
A profile of COO Javier Olivan, who has become Meta's “unofficial fixer” and has had a hand in all of the company's major competitive battles and acquisitions
Bloomberg
12:10 AM
D-Wave completed its planned SPAC merger last week, the third quantum computing startup after Rigetti and IonQ to go public via a SPAC deal within the past year
Fast Company
Saturday, August 13, 2022
11:40 PM
Central Payments, a payments tech and card-issuing service for banks, has raised $30M in a deal that spins the company out from the Central Bank of Kansas City
PYMNTS.com
6:55 PM
Uber plans to end its free loyalty program Uber Rewards on November 1, 2022, to focus on its new Uber One membership program for $10 per month or $100 per year
The Verge
4:45 PM
China's internet watchdog publishes a list of 30 algorithms used in popular apps, including WeChat, Taobao, Meituan, and Douyin, with brief usage descriptions
Reuters
2:50 PM
Brooklyn-based Overtime, which shares original sports content on social media, raised a $100M Series D at a $500M valuation, bringing its total funding to $250M
Crunchbase News
12:35 PM
A look at Sam Bankman-Fried's US lobbying to make the CFTC, not the SEC, oversee crypto markets and change how commodity futures markets operate in the US
Los Angeles Times
10:45 AM
Experts say Coinbase's decision to stop emailed price alerts during 2022's crypto crash likely contributed to retail investor losses and was potentially illegal
Mother Jones
8:45 AM
Stable Diffusion, a DALL-E 2-like system now available to 1K+ researchers, raises tricky ethical questions by allowing depictions of public figures and more
TechCrunch
2:00 AM
Amazon's new reality show Ring Nation featuring footage from its Ring home security cameras is the company's latest effort to normalize its surveillance network
VICE
Friday, August 12, 2022
8:40 PM
Dutch authorities arrest a Tornado Cash developer suspected of involvement in concealing money laundering, two days after the US sanctioned the crypto mixer
The Block
6:25 PM
Sources: YouTube plans to launch a “channel store” for streaming services as early as Fall 2022 and is talking with partners about subscription revenue sharing
Wall Street Journal
5:00 PM
Hands-on with iOS 16's Lockdown Mode, which aims to protect against highly targeted attacks by disabling link previews in messages, limiting FaceTime, and more
TechCrunch
3:30 PM
Meta is testing having DoorDash deliver Facebook Marketplace purchases; sources: the service delivers items that fit in a car trunk and are up to 15 miles away
Wall Street Journal
2:35 PM
The decentralization of crypto services like Tornado Cash leaves authorities without an enforcement target, making them difficult if not impossible to shut down
Wall Street Journal
12:40 PM
Sources detail Meta's challenges in building encrypted messaging products, including users' apathy toward encryption, which could change with Roe overturned
Platformer
11:42 AM
Sources: before ATT, Apple suggested possible revenue-sharing deals to Meta, like taking a cut from “boosted posts” via IAP and an ad-free Facebook subscription
Wall Street Journal
10:30 AM
US federal prosecutors charge a former Qualcomm VP and three others over allegedly duping the company into paying $150M to acquire tech that it already owned
Los Angeles Times
9:35 AM
India freezes assets worth $46.4M owned by crypto exchange Vauld's local entity for allegedly facilitating “crime-derived” proceeds from predatory lending firms
TechCrunch
8:20 AM
Memo: meditation app Calm laid off 20% of its staff; sources say Calm employed ~400 people and approximately 90 were laid off; Calm had a $2B valuation in 2020
Wall Street Journal
7:15 AM
Singapore-based Merkle Science, a predictive crypto intelligence service with threat detection, risk mitigation, and compliance tools, raised a $24M+ Series A
CoinDesk
7:00 AM
Huawei reports H1 revenue down 5.9% YoY to ~$44.73B and net profit down 52% YoY to ~$2.2B, due to a weak economy, COVID-19 disruptions, and supply chain issues
Reuters
6:45 AM
Sources: Apple tells its assemblers to make 90M of its newest iPhones, on par with 2021; IDC expects the smartphone market to shrink 3.5% in 2022
Bloomberg
6:25 AM
Dutch authorities arrest a developer in Amsterdam suspected to be involved with Tornado Cash, two days after the US sanctioned the crypto mixing service
The Block
3:01 AM
A California bill targeting social media companies for features that could addict minors dies in legislature, after Meta, Twitter, and Snap lobbied against it
Wall Street Journal
Thursday, August 11, 2022
11:20 PM
Samsung's Jay Y. Lee, who spent 18 months in prison for bribery, wins a pardon from South Korea's President, letting him regain his company leadership role
Bloomberg
10:25 PM
Sources: SK Hynix plans to pick a US site for its chip packaging plant that would qualify for CHIPS Act funding by Q1 2023 and hit mass production by 2025-2026
Reuters
9:55 PM
Google agrees to pay $42.7M to settle a court case with Australia's ACCC over misleading some Android users about the collection of personal location data
The Guardian
7:05 PM
LinkedIn rolls out new features to court creators, including a clickable link on images and videos, text post templates, and the option to mix images and videos
TechCrunch
6:25 PM
Frankfurt-based AAA games studio Gunzilla Games has raised $46M led by Republic Capital and plans to handle in-game item trading using NFTs in an upcoming title
Tech.eu
5:10 PM
Chinese chipmaker SMIC reports Q2 revenue up 41.6% YoY to $1.9B, vs. $1.89B est., but net profit fell 25% YoY to $514M, amid lockdowns and harsher US sanctions
South China Morning Post
4:05 PM
Google appears to be testing letting users launch cloud games from Stadia, Amazon's Luna, Xbox Cloud Gaming, and Nvidia's GeForce Now from search results
The Verge
3:00 PM
Some companies are hiring B2B influencers, mostly on LinkedIn, to pitch to other companies; LinkedIn says 11M+ users have enabled “creator mode” as of July 2022
Bloomberg
1:40 PM
CryptoCompare: Coinbase's market share of global spot trading volume among the top 15 crypto exchanges fell from 10.7% in January 2022 to 6.3% in July 2022
Bloomberg
12:45 PM
Mailchimp is suspending the accounts of crypto-related creators and media outlets, telling some that crypto content conflicts with its Acceptable Use Policy
Decrypt
11:50 AM
Mailchimp co-founder Ben Chestnut plans to step down as CEO after 21 years and transition to a founder-advisor role; Intuit's Rania Succar will take over
Atlanta Business Journal
11:40 AM
The US FEC approves Google's proposal to keep campaign emails from being marked as spam, after GOP lawmakers said Gmail was censoring right-wing emails
The Verge
10:25 AM
Researchers bought 5G IoT plans from 10 carriers and found security flaws exposing private SIM card data and, in some cases, large streams of other users' data
Wired
9:25 AM
Twitter outlines its Civic Integrity Policy ahead of the 2022 US midterm elections, including redesigned tweet labels and “prebunks” for misleading narratives
Twitter
9:15 AM
Stockholm-based Superblocks, whose drag-and-drop tools help companies build internal apps, raised $37M led by Kleiner Perkins, Greenoaks, Spark, and Meritech
TechCrunch
9:05 AM
A look at livestreamed e-commerce, already mature and established in China, which TikTok, YouTube, Meta, Amazon, and others want to bring to the US and Europe
Financial Times
8:30 AM
A detailed look at how Facebook and Instagram for iOS open links with a custom in-app browser, letting Meta track every interaction including entering passwords
Felix Krause
8:00 AM
As Flutterwave prepares for an IPO, the Nigerian payments startup faces allegations of financial impropriety, a culture of harassment and bullying, and more
Bloomberg
7:40 AM
The US FTC seeks public comment on federal online privacy rules, which could take years to enact, and is considering various paths, such as focusing on children
Wall Street Journal
7:25 AM
Twitter lets Saudi official and MBS aide Bader al-Asaker, who is implicated in a plot to recruit Twitter staff, keep his verified account with 2.1M+ followers
The Guardian
7:15 AM
After the Nebraska abortion case, Meta tests more E2EE chats and backups in Messenger, and says default E2EE messages and calls will roll out globally in 2023
Wired
6:55 AM
FundamentalVR, a cross-platform simulation tool for medical and health care workers, raised $20M led by EQT Life Sciences, bringing its total funding to $30M+
TechCrunch
6:45 AM
In its first known crypto probe, the US FTC compels crypto exchange BitMart to turn over information about a December 2021 hack leading to $150M-$200M in losses
Bloomberg
6:35 AM
Google says Search info snippets will use its latest AI model, Multitask Unified Model, to find consensus in results and expands its “About this result” tool
Engadget
5:55 AM
Docs and sources: how two men in Phoenix, Arizona ran one of the largest known YouTube music royalty scams, leading to a 30-count indictment in November 2021
Billboard
4:25 AM
Microsoft and CISA warn users about DogWalk, a now-patched actively exploited RCE vulnerability in Windows 7, 10, 11, and Server 2008 through 2022
BleepingComputer
2:35 AM
Ethereum's third and final proof-of-stake test merge goes live on the Goerli test network, a dress rehearsal for the mainnet merge planned for September 2022
The Block
1:50 AM
Los Angeles-based Boulevard, whose tools let beauty and wellness salons book appointments, message clients, and accept payments, has raised a $70M Series C
TechCrunch
1:00 AM
India's central bank releases guidelines for digital lending, which is projected to reach $350B in India by 2023, after complaints over harsh recovery tactics
Bloomberg
12:35 AM
Hong Kong-based Insilico Medicine, which uses machine learning to identify potential drug targets, raised $35M from Prosperity7, bringing its Series D to $95M
TechCrunch