UN special rapporteurs say they are “gravely concerned” about the alleged hacking of Jeff Bezos' phone by Saudi's MbS, calling for further investigations
‘Grave concern’ expressed at evidence of possible ‘effort to silence Washington Post’ — UN experts are demanding …
Sources: analysis shows a message from Saudi Crown Prince MbS' WhatsApp account to Jeff Bezos in 2018 included file “highly” likely to have hacked Bezos' phone
Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian :
Leaked FTI Consulting report: investigators found a suspicious encrypted file on Jeff Bezos' iPhone, causing data transfers to jump by ~29,000%, but no malware
In February of 2019, intelligence information warning … Amy Thomson / Bloomberg : Facebook Says Bezos Hack Highlights Smartphone Vulnerabilities Stephen E. Arnold / Beyond Search : Irony, Outrage, Spe...
Google's new look for desktop search results blurs the lines between ads and search results, leading many critics to identify it as a dark pattern
The latest desktop update blurs the lines — Last week, Google began rolling out a new look for its search results on desktop …
Microsoft starts rolling out developer kits and emulators for its dual-screen Surface Duo Android phone and Windows 10X-based Surface Neo
Microsoft is starting to roll out developer kits and emulators for both Android and 10X developers who want to build for coming dual-screen devices, starting with its own.
NYPD disputes facial recognition firm Clearview AI's claim that it identified a terrorism suspect; company's founders have previous connections to the far right
Clearview AI, a facial recognition company that says it's amassed a database of billions of photos, has a fantastic selling point …
Twitter is rolling out a pop-up feature that lets users add an emoji reaction to a Direct Message, similar to a feature in iMessage
Twitter is taking a page out of Apple's playbook with its latest messaging feature. The social network announced today that it is rolling out support …
Inside the IRS's 8-year audit into Microsoft after the company sold its IP to a factory it owns in Puerto Rico to reduce tax rate on US profits from ~35% to ~2%
For years, the company has moved billions in profits to Puerto Rico to avoid taxes. When the IRS pushed it to pay, Microsoft protested that the agency wasn't being nice.
Google helps publish largest high-resolution map of brain neurons of a fruit fly, using a machine learning technique called flood-filling networks
It took 12 years and at least $40 million to chart a region about 250 micrometers across—about the thickness of two strands of hair.
Match Group invests in safety app Noonlight to add features like a panic button, check-in, and photo verification to its dating apps, starting with Tinder
Match Group, the dating app giant and parent company to Match, Tinder, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish, and several other dating apps …
TikTok signs licensing deal with music rights agency Merlin for indie label music in videos and, source says, in its upcoming music streaming service, Resso
TikTok, the fast-growing user-generated video app from China's Bytedance, has been building a new music streaming service to compete …
Amazon says Amazon Music has 55M users across six different price tiers, including a free tier, “nearly all” of which are paying subscribers
Anna Nicolaou / Financial Times :
Interview with David Cicilline, the chairman of the House subcommittee on antitrust, on his approach to investigation of Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon
Practically everybody in Washington is mad at Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google. David Cicilline might actually do something about it.
Niantic says it helped drive more than $249M in tourism revenue for the cities on its events list in 2019 through its walking games like Pokémon Go and Ingress
Niantic has revealed details of its lineup of event locations for its walking games — Pokémon Go, Harry Potter: Wizards Unite and Ingress — for 2020.
Hivebrite, a community management and engagement platform, raises $20M Series A led by Insight Partners, bringing its total raised to about $23M
Engaging and managing online groups can be the stuff of nightmares, but it is generally worth it — communities on average generate a 6,469% return …
Microsoft to forcibly install the Bing extension in Chrome for Office 365 ProPlus enterprise customers from mid-February, to change the default search to Bing
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet :
Google says it found five separate flaws in Apple's Intelligent Tracking Prevention tool for Safari that lets users' browsing behavior be tracked
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times :
Game studio Playful Studios, which raised $23M from a host of individual investors in August, says it is laying off a significant portion of its full-time staff
Mike Minotti / VentureBeat :
Sources: ByteDance is seeking a US-based CEO for TikTok and has interviewed candidates; current head Alex Zhu may still manage product and engineering in China
Bloomberg :
In a first for the US, a district encompassing Greater Seattle will let ~1.2M voters cast ballots via smartphones for an upcoming board of supervisors election
but only for an election you've likely never heard of Paris Martineau / Wired : Elections Globally Are Under Threat. Here's How to Protect Them Axios : Voting by smartphone could leave polls vulnerabl...
Epic Systems, a leading provider of digital medical records, calls on large hospitals to oppose proposed US rules that would open up access to patient records
at a minimum to consumers and institutions they trust.” https://twitter.com/... Raj Ratwani, PhD / @rajratwani : Disappointing to see efforts to stop this important rule that would provide open APIs &...
GM's Cruise unveils Origin, its first driverless vehicle with no steering wheel or pedals, says it will share more info about its production plans in the future
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge :
Disney sold its FoxNext video game unit, which it acquired with 21st Century Fox's entertainment assets, to Scopely, a Culver City-based mobile game developer
Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter :
Federal filings: Google spent ~$150M on lobbying over the past decade in the US, followed by Facebook with ~$81M, and Amazon at nearly $80M
Tony Romm / Washington Post :
San Diego-based edge AI chip maker Kneron raises $40M led by Horizons Ventures, bringing the total raised in its Series A round to $73M
DealStreetAsia :
New York-based project management platform Clubhouse raises $25M Series B led by Greylock Partners, source says at a valuation of $100M
Covering venture capital, software and startups — In software development, Atlassian's Jira product suite holds rarified status as a market leader with few large-scale competitors. Thanks: @alexrkon...
Proxyclick, a Belgian provider of enterprise visitor management software, raises $15M Series B led by Five Elms Capital
Annie Musgrove / Tech.eu :
Austin-based Vapor IO, an edge computing startup, raised $90M from Berkshire Partners and wireless infrastructure giant Crown Castle, says total raise $100M+
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News :
An in-depth look at the long history of facial recognition, focusing on Woody Bledsoe, a University of Texas professor working in the 1960s backed by the CIA
Shaun Raviv / Wired : Tweets: @katecrawford and @dgolumbia Tweets: Kate Crawford / @katecrawford : Hey everyone, have a read of this excellent deep dive feature into Woody Bledsoe, a key figure in th...
Interview with Manhattan DA Cyrus Vance Jr., on his $10M smartphone forensics lab and balancing public safety while working under Apple and Google's rules
William D. Cohan / Fast Company :
India-based Zoomcar, a car rental platform which has its own fleet and also lets users rent out their own cars, raises $30M as part of an ongoing $100M Series D
Salman S.H. / Livemint :
Outlier, which uses machine learning to spot anomalies in business data, raises $22.1M Series B led by Emergence, bringing its total raised to $30M+
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
Shopify's new AI commerce stack
Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control
Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
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.