Microsoft says a standalone, non-subscription version of Office will be released in the second half of 2021 for both Windows and Mac
Microsoft will release a new perpetual release of Microsoft Office in the second half of 2021. The new perpetual release only appears in a single sentence …
TikTok users in the US are experiencing something long familiar to much of the world: a flourishing online social space existentially threatened by politics
Banned apps, nefarious theories, trade wars, voiceless users. The case of TikTok isn't news to most of the world.
Facebook's Oversight Board says it expects to start before the election, in mid to late October, after criticism for a perceived lack of action
- The independent Facebook OverSight Board has confirmed to CNBC that it plans to launch ahead of U.S. election in November.
Avaaz analysis: Facebook has allowed hundreds of misleading super PAC ads, primarily spreading misinformation about Biden and USPS, with 10M+ views collectively
Donald Trump is president for four more years! MAGA!’—even if mail-in ballots haven't been fully counted.” https://www.fastcompany.com/ ... Thomas Rid / @ridt : CAUTION: today's Facebook takedown does...
ByteDance asks a US court for a preliminary injunction to prevent the US government from banning TikTok from app stores, as Trump's ban looms
David Yaffe-Bellany / Bloomberg :
DOJ, in a rare legislative proposal, asks Congress to adopt a law weakening Section 230, in an effort to hold Facebook, Google, and others liable for content
The administration called on state attorneys general to open their own investigation on the same day it unveiled a legislative proposal …
Epic, Spotify, Match Group, and others form the Coalition for App Fairness to pressure Apple and other app store owners to make changes to marketplace rules
The Coalition for App Fairness is seeking legal and regulatory means to address how Apple, other app marketplace operators work with developers
Google rolls out updates to Maps with a layer showing COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people, with labels to indicate trends, coming to 220 countries and territories
Google today announced an update to Google Maps that will bring a new COVID-19 layer to the service to help you better understand the number of cases in a given area.
iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 review: a big change for iPhones, with widgets, better notifications, and useful App Library, while iPad gets a more incremental update
It's time to blow up your iPhone's home screen — Apple spells out the significance of its new iOS 14 and iPadOS 14 updates right …
Amazon launches “Climate Pledge Friendly” label in search results for more than 25K products that have one or more of 19 different sustainability certifications
The company is launching a new climate program for certified sustainable products
NHS COVID-19, a contact tracing app created by the UK government, launches in England and Wales with Exposure Notification API from Apple and Google
NHS COVID-19, a contact tracing app created by the UK government, is rolling out to residents of England and Wales as of today, with the app available from the iOS App Store.
Twitter says it will begin testing audio DMs soon, after introducing support for audio in tweets, starting in Brazil
Shout into my DMs — After rolling out audio tweets for iOS in June, Twitter is now experimenting with the idea of letting people record and send voice messages through direct messages.
Sources describe frenzied negotiations between ByteDance and CFIUS, leading to rushed and messy term sheets that failed to spell out key elements of the deal
Sundar Pichai says Google is planning “hybrid” models for future work, to allow partial work from home as 62% of employees want to have that flexibility
- Most Google employees want to return to the office at some point, but not every day, according to a recent Google survey …
The software industry makes amazing software tools for itself, while doctors, academics, and scientists are stuck using bad software
The software industry makes amazing tools for itself, while doctors and scientists are stuck with old code. Tech needs to quit hacking and start listening. Tweets: @terronk , @nxthompson , and @backc...
Todoist rolls out Kanban-style Boards as an optional view, similar to Trello
Todoist today officially introduced a feature that could significantly change how people use the popular task-management app: Boards. It basically works a lot like Trello, but built right into Todois...
NUVIA, which makes energy-efficient chips for data centers and enterprises, raises $240M Series B led by Mithril Capital
Climate change is on everyone's minds these days, what with the outer Bay Area on fire, orange skies above San Francisco, and a hurricane season that is bearing …
Apple iPad (2020) review: fast with a robust selection of apps and 128GB model is good value, but lacks multi-user support and USB-C; 32GB model is inadequate
Greenlight, which offers parent-managed, fee-free debit cards for up to five children for $5 per month, raises $215M Series C at a valuation of $1.2B
Greenlight Financial Technology helps parents teach children how to save with its app and debit card products.
Report: Facebook's CrowdTangle tool, used by US state election officials to monitor misinformation, doesn't effectively monitor most posts, like those in Groups
Sources: Deliveroo has begun preliminary talks to explore the possibility of an IPO in 2021
- Amazon-backed company eyes potential listing in 2021 — Food delivery companies have held up during virus pandemic — U.K. food-delivery startup Deliveroo has begun preliminary talks …
Spotify and Chernin Entertainment agree to a multi-year partnership for Chernin to develop movies and TV shows based on Spotify's podcasts
More Spotify podcasts could soon become TV shows or movies thanks to a new, multi-year partnership announced today between the streaming music provider …
Ripjar, which develops AI-based software to detect financial crime, raises $36.8M Series B led by Long Ridge Equity Partners
Financial crime as a wider category of cybercrime continues to be one of the most potent of online threats, covering nefarious actives as diverse as fraud, money laundering and funding terrorism.
EU releases a proposal for regulating crypto assets and stablecoins as part of its new Digital Finance Package
Valentus Capital, a private equity investment firm based in the U.S., is planning to raise $50 million for its first fund via a token sale. — The token offering is expected …
Samsung unveils its Galaxy S20 FE, with a 6.5-inch display, Snapdragon 865, 120Hz refresh rate, starting at $699 for sub-6GHz model or $749 for mmWave 5G model
Dieter Bohn / The Verge :
Zoom canceled a talk by a Palestinian hijacker at SFSU after threats of criminal liability for “material support”; YouTube, Facebook also stopped the talk
Facebook and YouTube also apparently intervened — Zoom has canceled a webinar due to be held at San Francisco State University …
Messy launches of PS5 and the new Xbox showed Sony and Microsoft once again failing at pre-orders, partly driven by the need to create a narrative of scarcity
Microsoft's Xbox Series X and Series S preorders went live on Tuesday, capping a rough week of product rollouts … Tweets: @tugboatbread and @gartenberg Tweets: Tugboat Brine / @tugboatbread : Like wit...
Spotify CEO Daniel Ek says he will invest €1B in European tech startups over the next decade, focused on “moonshots” in ML, biotech, and other sectors
Streaming company's chief to channel funding into early-stage start-ups over next decade
Petal, which offers credit cards by analyzing the cash flow of potential borrowers rather than credit scores, raises $55M Series C led by Thiel's Valar Ventures
Sometimes raising venture capital can be as simple as talking to your existing investor and having them wire over another check.
GOAT Group, operator of online sneaker marketplace GOAT, has raised $100M Series E from D1 Capital Partners, source says at a $1.75B valuation
up from $550 million prior to its new $100 million raise. The company plans to continue expanding into new product categories beyond sneakers. https://www.wsj.com/... via @WSJ Branch / @branchmetrics ...
Shopify says two “rogue members” of its support teams stole customer data from over 100 merchants; the company is working with the FBI to investigate
Recently, Shopify became aware of an incident involving the data of less than 200 merchants. Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer : Shopify data breach illustrates the danger of insider threats Zack Whittaker...
Apple says it rejected 150,000+ apps last year for violating its privacy guidelines and has removed 60M+ user reviews that it believes to be spam so far in 2020
William Gallagher / AppleInsider :
How Arkady Bukh, a New York-based immigrant from the former Soviet bloc, emerged as the go-to defense lawyer for the cybercrime underworld
Jeff Stone / CyberScoop : Tweets: @jeffstone500 , @snlyngaas , @iblametom , @jgamblin , @jscros , @underworld_pod , and @shanvav . Thanks: @jwarminsky Tweets: Jeff Stone / @jeffstone500 : I've spent ...
Next Insurance, which offers digital insurance products to small businesses, raises $250M Series D at $2B+ valuation led by CapitalG and Munich Re
Sophia Kunthara / Crunchbase News :
Leaked audio recordings and internal posts show Mark Zuckerberg's balancing act, as employees demand a harder line against Trump but users want the opposite
Sources detail what went wrong at Magic Leap, which raised $3.5B and failed to build its much-hyped AR headset, with most blame placed on founder Rony Abovitz
Bloomberg :
CrowdStrike has agreed to acquire Preempt Security, a provider of zero trust and conditional access tech for enterprise threat management, for about $96M
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet :
Adobe debuts Liquid Mode, an update for Acrobat Reader that uses AI to reformat PDFs for easier reading on smaller screens, coming first to mobile and Chrome OS
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
Tesla sues the Trump administration to end tariffs on imports of Chinese parts that are used in Tesla's Autopilot 3.0 hardware, enabling “Full Self-Driving”
Whitebox, which manages e-commerce logistics and fulfillment across marketplaces, raises $18M Series B led by Noro-Moseley Partners, after $5M Series A in 2019
Whitebox, a startup that manages e-commerce logistics and fulfillment for a variety for brands, has raised $18 million in Series B funding.
Google says developers can now use its open source UI framework Flutter to develop Windows apps, currently in alpha, with support for Windows 7 and newer
Instagram updates Reels with longer videos, an extended timer, and better editing tools, after reports the TikTok competitor is failing to gain traction
Sling TV launches Sling Watch Party, the first co-watching feature from a pay-TV provider, in beta on Chrome for laptops and desktops only
Nick Statt / The Verge :
GoodRx, a price comparison service for prescription drugs at pharmacies, closes up 50%+ after its IPO, raising $1.14B and valuing the company at $19.4B
Crystal Tse / Bloomberg :
SEC filing: Peter Thiel and Richard Li have created a SPAC called Bridgetown Holdings Ltd., targeting SE Asia investment, and are seeking to raise $575M via IPO
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg :
Reddit, one of QAnon's original hubs, has no meaningful QAnon presence now, although Reddit says it hasn't made a concerted effort to remove the conspiracy
and least replicable—factor in Reddit's success is its timing.” https://www.theatlantic.com/ ...
Spotify introduces Polls, an interactive tool for podcast hosts that lets listeners answer questions
YouTube expands a fact-checking feature on issues related to elections and COVID-19 to Germany and UK, after initially launching it in the US, Brazil, and India
Ryan Browne / CNBC : Tweets: @ryan_browne_ See also Mediagazer Tweets: Ryan Browne / @ryan_browne_ : YouTube's bringing its fact-checking feature for video searches to Europe. In the coming days, YT ...
Google expands Google Cloud's Chronicle cybersecurity analysis tools with threat detection and alerts
Spectrum Labs, which helps online services identify toxic content and respond, raises $10M Series A led by Greycroft, bringing its total raised to $14M
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch :
Online fitness coaching app Freeletics raises $25M Series B led by JAZZ Venture Partners and Causeway Media Partners, following a $45M Series A in 2018
Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch :
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.