Larry Page steps down as Alphabet CEO; Sundar Pichai to lead both Alphabet and Google
Our very first founders' letter in our 2004 S-1 began: … We believe those central tenets are still true today. The company is not conventional and continues to make ambitious bets on new technology, ...
Alphabet's leadership change is unlikely to mean much to Google employees or users, since Larry Page has not been focused on Alphabet's core business for years
Peter Kafka / Vox :
Amazon launches a battery-powered portable Echo speaker in India with an enclosed 4,800mAh battery, claims up to 10 hours of continuous music playback
After launching nearly a dozen Echo speaker models in India in two years, Amazon said on Wednesday it is adding a new variant to the mix …
Instagram says it will now require birthdates from new users, in order to improve safety features for minors and better target ads for age-restricted products
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's Instagram said it will require birthdates from all new users starting on Wednesday …
Amazon unveils Local Zones, small data centers far from main AWS regions, general availability of Outposts, and a Verizon partnership for low latency 5G gear
THE AWS TAKE ON EDGE COMPUTING — AWS CEO Andy Jassy (left) and Verizon CEO Hans Vestberg (right) introduce AWS Wavelength Tuesday at re:Invent 2019.
Mozilla removes four Firefox extensions made by Avast and AVG after reports that they were harvesting user data and browsing histories
The four extensions, two from Avast and two from AVG, are still available on the Chrome Web Store. — Mozilla removed today four Firefox extensions …
Plex launches a free, ad-supported streaming service featuring thousands of movies and shows from studios like MGM, available in ~220 countries
Plex today is launching its own ad-supported streaming service, a rival to The Roku Channel, Tubi, Crackle, Vudu's Movies on Us …
Expedia CEO Mark Okerstrom and CFO Alan Pickerill are stepping down, with day-to-day work taken up by Chairman Barry Diller, after a disagreement over strategy
KEY POINTS — Expedia announced Wednesday that CEO Mark Okerstrom and CFO Alan Pickerill are stepping down from their roles at the company.
Google says Focus mode, a Digital Wellbeing feature for Android that mutes notifications, is rolling out to Android 9 and 10 users
At I/O 2019 in May, Google announced the latest Digital Wellbeing features to build on last year's initial launch. In testing for the past several months …
Language learning app Duolingo raises $30M Series F from Alphabet's CapitalG at a $1.5B valuation, more than double the valuation from its 2017 Series E
Popular language learning app Duolingo has raised $30 million in a series F round of funding from Alphabet's investment arm CapitalG.
India, which is increasingly trying to shelter local companies, has erected regulatory hurdles over the past year for how US tech firms operate in the country
New barriers make world's biggest untapped digital market a slog for Walmart, Facebook; taking cues from China's protectionism
Firefox 71 arrives with Picture-in-Picture support on Windows for all video sites, Enhanced Tracking Protection and Lockwise password manager improvements, more
Mozilla today launched Firefox 71 for Windows, Mac, Linux, Android, and iOS. Firefox 71 includes Lockwise password manager improvements …
AWS updates its Arm-powered processor line with Graviton2, which it claims offers 40% better performance over comparable x86-based cloud instances for 20% less
Larry Dignan / ZDNet :
AWS debuts SageMaker Studio, a web-based IDE for machine learning that offers ways to organize, search, and share projects, datasets, notebooks, code, and more
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch :
Flow, which helps companies build a cross-border e-commerce business, raises $37M Series B led by New Enterprise Associates
Flow, a startup that helps brands and retailers build a cross-border e-commerce business, has raised $37 million in Series B funding.
A profile of Hipcamp, a platform for campsite booking where listings include off-grid plots, RV hookups, ski huts, farmhouses, tepees, tree houses, and cabins
Can a startup save the wilderness by disrupting it? — In Northern California, booking a public campsite is a blood sport. Tweets: @annawiener , @erikbl , @lennysan , @gpaddymanning , @daveleebbc , a...
Amazon debuts AI-powered Fraud Detector to find anomalies in transactions, an enterprise search tool, and CodeGuru to spot computationally expensive code
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
A group of four former Google employees who say they were fired for organizing are filing unfair labor practice charges against the company
Welcome to your next installment of Metal Machine Music. James Farrell / SiliconANGLE : Fired workers accuse Google of unfair labor practices Allison Levitsky / Silicon Valley Business Journal : Fired...
Researchers achieve new cryptography milestones, including factoring the largest RSA key size ever, largely thanks to improved algorithms, not better hardware
795-bit factoring and discrete logarithms achieved using more efficient algorithms. — 34 with 24 posters participating Tweets: @nholzschuch , @dangoodin001 , and @arstechnica Tweets: Nicolas Holzsch...
Reddit publishes its 2019 retrospective: 430M MAUs, up 30% YoY, with 199M posts, 1.7B comments, and 32B upvotes; Bill Gates AMA had the most upvotes with 110K
In a year-end retrospective released this morning, Reddit says its user base grew 30% this year to reach 430 million monthly active users, as of the end of October.
Huawei's reputation in China, once unimpeachable, has been dented by a labor dispute over severance pay with an employee, who was recently freed from jail
When an executive wrote about her house arrest in Canada, an outcry about a former employee's treatment arose on social media. Tweets: @nytimes , @liyuan6 , @liyuan6 , and @maryhui Tweets: @nytimes : ...
Google says 80% of Android apps now encrypt network traffic by default, due to a policy introduced in Android 9, up from less than 20% a year ago
Google has announced that 80% of Android apps now encrypt all traffic by default, thanks to the increased uptake of transport layer security (TLS).
Qualcomm debuts a new in-screen ultrasonic fingerprint sensor with a much larger input area, after mixed results from its last attempt found in the Galaxy S10
Shara Tibken / CNET :
Genius sues Google and LyricFind alleging anticompetitive behavior and that song lyrics on its service were stolen, asking for over $400M in damages
Dani Deahl / The Verge :
Sources: Facebook's NPE team is exploring the creation of apps for podcasts, travel, workplace services, and newsletters, although these may never be released
The social network is exploring new product areas through a team dedicated to building the company's future. Tweets: @caseynewton and @ceciliakang Tweets: Casey Newton / @caseynewton : As best as I ca...
Kustomer, an omnichannel CRM platform for enterprise customer service, raises $60M Series E led by Coatue, bringing its total raised to ~$173M
Kustomer, a CRM startup that's taking on the likes of Zendesk, Salesforce, and many other bigger and older providers, has closed yet another round of funding …
Nintendo says it has partnered with Tencent to sell the Switch in China, starting on December 10 for ~$300
SEC filing: Sequoia Capital has raised nearly $1B for later-stage US investments and ~$2.4B for venture and growth deals in China
Noted Silicon Valley venture capital fund Sequoia Capital has raised nearly $1 billion for later-stage U.S. investments and roughly $2.4 billion for venture …
Google adds a chat feature to Google Photos, rolling out over the next week to iOS, Android, and the web
use it before it's axed Pranob Mehrotra / XDA Developers : Google Photos adds private messaging to make it easier to share photos Pradeep / MSPoweruser : Google adds new private messaging feature in G...
YouTube claims users spend 70% less time on “borderline” content, like conspiracies, since it tweaked recommendations in January but fails to offer more details
and in the great Silicon Valley tradition it lacks the underlying figures or anything comparative https://www.washingtonpost.com/ ... See also Mediagazer
Qualcomm announces Snapdragon 865, a new flagship processor that lacks integrated 5G, and unveils a less powerful Snapdragon 765 processor with integrated 5G
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge :
Postmates shuts Mexico City office laying off employees; sources say at least several dozen have been laid off including people across its offices in the US
@sal19 @CNBC https://www.cnbc.com/... Deirdre Bosa / @dee_bosa : Friendly reminder: CEO told @SquawkCNBC a few weeks ago that Postmates has enough capital to get to profitability https://twitter.com/....
Xiaomi launches Mi Credit in India, a digital lending platform that offers users credit between ~$70 and ~$1,400, in partnership with ZestMoney, others
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Panorays, which offers an automated cybersecurity lifecycle management platform, raises $15M Series A led by Oak HC/FT
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
GitGuardian, a real-time monitoring platform that helps enterprises manage data leaks, raises $12M Series A led by Balderton Capital adarsh checking
Annie Musgrove / Tech.eu :
Mexico-based Konfio, a financial services platform which provides unsecured working capital to SMBs, raises $100M led by SoftBank
Anna Escher / TechCrunch :
Salesforce reports Q3 revenue of $4.5B, up 33% YoY and a net loss of $109M, beating analyst estimates, but issues disappointing Q4 guidance
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet :
OneConnect, a tech-as-a-service platform for financial SMBs, launches US IPO of up to $504M in a down round, after raising $650M last year from SoftBank and SBI
Julia Fioretti / Bloomberg :
Highspot, makers of an AI-powered platform to optimize sales, raises $75M Series D extension, bringing Series D total to $135M and total raised to ~$200M
Taylor Soper / GeekWire :
Bitfinex says it will support deposits and withdrawals on the Lightning Network beginning December 3, one of the first major exchanges to do so
Celia Wan / The Block :
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Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements
2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.