SolarWinds' top investors Silver Lake and Thoma Bravo sold a combined $286M worth of stock in the company on Dec. 7, six days before the hack was made public
The timing of the trades raises questions about whether major shareholders used inside information to avoid stark losses after the attack.
Microsoft is rolling out native M1 support for many Microsoft 365 Mac apps, iCloud account integration in Outlook, and updated collaboration tools
Microsoft's new ‘Universal’ Outlook, Word, Excel, PowerPoint and OneNote apps for Mac will work on both Apple's M1 Arm silicon and Intel processors.
Sources: Microsoft and industry partners seize key command and control domain used in SolarWinds hack
By seizing the domain, Microsoft and its partners hope to identify all victims, but are also preventing attackers from escalating intrusions in currently infected networks.
EU proposes two bills governing tech giants, focused on illegal content and anticompetitive behavior, to empower regulators to levy large fines or break them up
Proposed bills would be the bloc's most ambitious internet laws since GDPR — European officials want new powers …
Mozilla releases Firefox 84 with native support for Apple M1 Macs, saying the browser launches over 2.5 times faster and web apps are now twice as responsive
Mozilla today released Firefox version 84 with native support for Apple Silicon Macs with the M1 chip, touting …
Twitter says it will discontinue Periscope as a separate mobile app by March 2021, after bringing most of the core capabilities of Periscope into Twitter
Today, we're sharing that we have made the difficult decision to discontinue Periscope as a separate mobile app by March 2021.
At an end-of-year, company-wide meeting, Facebook said it is working on TLDR, an AI tool that would summarize longform articles in bullet points
Facebook told employees on Tuesday that it's developing a tool to summarize news articles so users won't have to read them.
Facebook attacks Apple in full-page newspaper ads, claiming upcoming iOS 14 changes that limit data gathering and targeted ads are bad for small businesses
- Ads criticize Apple's plan to restrict some data gathering — Facebook placed ads in the NYT, WSJ and Washington Post
Congress and the Biden administration should create a cybersecurity equivalent of NTSB, elevate CISA and other defensive efforts to the level of NSA, and more
Alex Stamos / Washington Post :
The ad industry is bracing for Apple's privacy-focused IDFA changes and attempting to adapt with new targeting methods
Megan Graham / CNBC :
Google says its new Chromecast with Google TV will get an Apple TV app in early 2021, giving users access to TV+ originals and iTunes purchases
Coming in early 2021 to the Chromecast with Google TV — Google's latest Chromecast with Google TV is filling in one of its biggest missing apps …
Facebook will shift its UK users into user agreements with its HQ in California, instead of its Irish unit, moving them out of reach of EU's privacy laws
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc will shift all its users in the United Kingdom into user agreements with the corporate headquarters …
Microsoft plans to forcibly block and isolate malware-infected versions of the SolarWinds Orion app via Microsoft Defender, starting on Wednesday
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet :
Bitcoin crosses $20K to reach an all-time high after doubling in the past three months
After testing investor patience for three weeks, bitcoin has finally crossed above $20,000 to reach fresh all-time highs. — The number one cryptocurrency by market value jumped …
Apple AirPods Max review: high-luxury design, terrific sound quality, and very effective noise cancellation, but they are heavy and the case is an abomination
Apple's over-ear headphones have tremendous build quality and sound, but there's no denying they're expensive
Australian regulator sues Facebook for allegedly using its Onavo VPN app to spy on users for commercial purposes in 2016 and 2017
Yet more trouble brewing for Facebook: Australia's Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC) is suing the tech giant over its use, in 2016 and 2017 …
Substack launches Substack Reader, an RSS reader for tracking newsletter subscriptions and other feeds, in beta
Substack Reader is now available in beta — If you're worried about all your newsletter subscriptions getting lost in your inbox, Substack may have a solution.
Leaked doc: Massachusetts securities regulators are expected to file a complaint against Robinhood claiming it exposed investors to “unnecessary trading risks”
The wildly popular trading platform exposed Massachusetts investors to ‘unnecessary trading risks,’ according to the complaint
Coalition for App Fairness says Digital Content Next, representing NYT, NPR, WaPo, and others, has joined; the coalition calls for the regulation of app stores
A group of major U.S. news publishers have joined the Coalition for App Fairness (CAF), the advocacy group pushing …
Facebook is building a video product called Super that will let people pay content creators or celebrities to interact with them during a live broadcast
- New product ‘Super’ is still being tested at social network — Facebook is developing more video features during the pandemic
Google's Stadia arrives on iOS and iPadOS in beta for mobile web, letting users access their game library on Apple devices
Playing Cyberpunk 2077 on an iPad is pretty great — Google Stadia has finally made its way to iOS over a year after launch. The company's mobile web beta …
macOS Big Sur 11.1 for M1 Macs enables iPhone and iPad apps with non-resizable windows, like HBO Max, to enter full-screen mode
Interview with Stanford comp lit professor Adrian Daub on the naiveté of undergrads eager to work in tech, “useless” VC Twitter, and challenges to SV narratives
In the early 2010s, professor Adrian Daub began noticing changes in some Stanford undergraduates that troubled him. Tweets: @toddwalker , @dancharvey , @issielapowsky , @protocol , and @chrmanning Twe...
Nigeria's telecoms regulator orders mobile phone users to link devices to national IDs by Dec. 31 or be cut off; Nigeria had ~196M active phones as of June 2020
- Order could result in four out of five lines being blocked — Subscribers given until Dec. 31 to comply with regulation
Vercel, which provides a platform to build front-end applications using open source Next.js, raises $40M Series B led by GV, bringing its total raised to $61M
Vercel, which provides a platform for building front-end applications, today announced an additional $40 million in series B funding …
Google has restored service after a significant number of Gmail users saw “error messages, high latency, and/or other unexpected behavior” for a few hours
and has downranked the deliverability of my email address. There are cascading failures resulting from this interruption. https://twitter.com/... Eze Vidra / @ediggs : Another Google down time, organi...
Facebook says people linked to France's military used fake accounts to meddle in African politics, tangling with similar efforts by Russia's IRA in some nations
and Africa in the middle of it. https://about.fb.com/... https://twitter.com/... Donie O'Sullivan / @donie : These tactics are most commonly associated with the Russian government — and, indeed, Faceb...
UK publishes its online safety legislation plans: tech companies will face fines of up to £18M or 10% of annual revenue if they fail to moderate illegal content
Zoomin, which unifies the manuals and other technical documentation of companies to make them more accessible to their employees and customers, raises $21M
Zoomin, a so-called “knowledge orchestration” platform that helps users extract answers from enterprise documentation …
Germany says it will permit the use of Huawei's 5G tech after receiving assurances from the company about its safety, pending parliamentary approval
New network-security legislation is latest rebuke to U.S. effort to rein in Chinese tech giant — BERLIN—The German government …
Facebook will allow ads targeting Georgia voters about the Jan. 5 runoffs, starting at 9am PT on Dec. 16, even as its broader political ad ban remains
Bolt, the Estonia-based on-demand transport network covering 200 cities in 40 countries, raises €150M led by D1 Capital Partners
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch :
Facebook says it is testing a revamped Instagram Lite app for Android in India, months after it shut down the less data intensive version worldwide
Facebook is working to bring back the Instagram Lite app, months after it shut down the light version offering worldwide.
Neverware, which helps schools and enterprises resurrect old PCs with its Chromium-based CloudReady OS, gets acquired by Google, which invested in its Series B
Abner Li / 9to5Google :
Google Photos expands Memories, adding new collage designs and 3D Cinematic photos that simulate depth in a scene by adding a smooth panning effect
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch :
Dallas-based Bestow, which offers life insurance policies through a mobile app without a doctor's visit, raises $70M Series C, following $50M Series B in April
Christine Hall / Crunchbase News :
AWS launches CloudShell, a fully featured web-based shell, based on Amazon Linux 2, for command-line access to AWS
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch :
Sources: e-commerce site Wish priced its IPO at $24 a share, at the top of its range, raising $1.1B to give the company an implied market cap of $14B
Amazon's cloud gaming service Luna is now available on Android for US users, with initial support on some Pixel, Samsung, and OnePlus devices running Chrome 86+
Jay Peters / The Verge :
Twitter says it has signed a multiyear deal to use AWS to power Twitter timelines, shifting away from its own infrastructure
UT Austin has stopped using a ML-based system called GRADE to evaluate applicants for its Ph.D. in CS following backlash, seven years after first introducing it
Lilah Burke / Inside Higher Ed : Tweets: @susanschorn , @microbiomdigest , and @hypervisible Tweets: @susanschorn : Holy fucking shit, this was in use for SEVEN YEARS???? U of Texas will stop using c...
GoDaddy buys payments processor Poynt for $320M to expand its commerce and payments services offerings; Poynt's chief executive will join GoDaddy
Behind the rise of Japan's “poikatsu” influencers, who share tips on maximizing loyalty points, driven by generous rewards programs by apps like Line Pay
and it's working. Great piece by @decka227 and @KantaroKomiya on the rise of Japan's point influencers https://restofworld.org/... Louise Matsakis / @lmatsakis : Japan is stubbornly addicted to using ...
Many students say they found virtual campus career fairs this year technically challenging, but less intimidating and more efficient than those held in-person
but they're still yielding job offers. Many students have struggled with the format, but some say the virtual version is an upgrade. @WSJ https://www.wsj.com/...
Celebrity blogger Perez Hilton says TikTok banned him without warning, thinks it was after pressure from TikTok stars, with whom he's feuded; TikTok denies this
A look at Walmart's Spotlight program which recruits employees to showcase the positive sides of Walmart on the individuals' social media accounts
Facebook and Twitter represent v1 of social networking, a bad copy of the analog world, whereas v2 is something unique to digital and a lot more promising
Ben Thompson / Stratechery : Tweets: @blaine , @rossgarber , @damanr , @blaine , @modestproposal1 , and @stratechery Tweets: Blaine Cook / @blaine : The way we and our communities relate is a very hu...
Sources: a coalition of US states are expected to file antitrust lawsuit against Google as soon as Thursday, alleging it altered design of search to hurt rivals
Leah Nylen / Politico :
TikTok expands Community Guidelines to strengthen its existing policies in areas like harassment, self-harm, and violence, and unveils new well-being features
Sources: Facebook is building a tool within Marketplace that lets users find and book services like home repairs, competing with Fiverr, TaskRabbit, and others
Alex Heath / The Information :
nference, whose search tool makes it easy for researchers and doctors to find biomedical information in the public domain, raises $60M Series C
Laura Lovett / MobiHealthNews :
StockX, an online marketplace for sneakers, raises $257M Series E led by Tiger Global at a $2.8B post-money valuation
Matt Burns / TechCrunch : Tweets: @mi_investments Tweets: @mi_investments : Only $2.8 bil for a sneaker trading marketplace...sounds about right for 2020🤦♂️ https://twitter.com/...
Modern Health, whose app helps employers provide digital mental health care to their employees, raises $51M Series C, bringing its total raised to over $95M
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.