Microsoft backtracks on price hike for Xbox Live Gold subscriptions announced Friday and says free-to-play games will also no longer require a Gold subscription
Free-to-play games will also no longer require a Gold subscription — Microsoft has reversed its controversial Xbox Live price increase. Source: Xbox Wire .
Ex-ADT technician pled guilty to computer fraud and invasive visual recording for viewing home security camera feeds he installed in ~200 homes over 9,000 times
Employee for ADT accessed ~200 customer cams on more than 9,600 occasions. — A home security technician has admitted …
Alphabet says that it is shutting down Loon, its internet balloon project, calling it “a successful experiment” but not a viable one
Plus: The moonshot's launch, health care for the mask-less, and a new era's inaugural meme. — DO you detect something missing?
Facebook said a “configuration change” caused some users to be logged out of their apps in Saturday morning; issue is now fixed
“Why am I logged out of Facebook?” The question ricocheted around the internet as an untold number of people across the nation found themselves logged out of their apps Friday night.
Unclassified memo: Defense Intelligence Agency analysts have used commercial databases of location data from smartphone apps to track Americans without warrants
The disclosure comes amid growing legislative scrutiny of how the government uses commercially available location records.
Microsoft president Brad Smith defended the company's political contributions in a meeting with employees after some questioned donations from its PAC
- Brad Smith, Microsoft's president, said the company needs the Microsoft Political Action Committee. — The company is looking … Source: Microsoft On the Issues .
Sources: thinner and lighter, higher-end 13" MacBook Air with MagSafe charging to launch as soon as this year; redesigned MacBook Pros to get SD card slot back
and kill this feature Samuel Martinez / Pocketnow : Pocketnow Daily: M1X MacBook Leaks: EVERYTHING We Wanted? (video) Julio Cachila / International Business Times : MacBook Pros May See Return Of SD C...
MoffettNathanson survey: 62% of Apple TV+ subscribers were on free offers in Q4 2020, only 30% said they plan to renew at the regular $4.99/month price
Apple has said it wants to bulk up revenue from services — including Apple TV Plus, which is just over one year old.
FTC fines three bot-powered ticket scalping operations a total of $3.7M, the first time the agency applied a 2016 anti-bot law called the BOTS Act
The three will pay a total of $3.7 million — The Federal Trade Commission issued multimillion-dollar fines against three bot-powered ticket scalping operations.
Activision Blizzard says that it is merging its Vicarious Visions studio, which Activision acquired in 2005, and its ~200 staff into Blizzard Entertainment
Brendan Sinclair / GamesIndustry.biz :
In an Australian Senate hearing, a Google executive said that a law forcing Google to pay news outlets for links could prompt it to stop offering Search
which one senator called blackmail — revealed apparent willingness of Facebook and Google to hide or erase reliable sources of info for millions at a time when social media platforms are under 🔥 for h...
Profile of Jessica Rosenworcel, the second woman to lead the FCC as acting chair and a big proponent of net neutrality and expanding broadband access
a role that has had an impact on her policy priorities. Here's my profile of her: https://www.nbcnews.com/... Tony Romm / @tonyromm : NEW: Biden appoints Rebecca Kelly Slaughter as acting chairwoman o...
How Volkswagen's ID.3, the automaker's long-awaited answer to Tesla, was beset by faulty in-car software, prompting a reboot of the company's software business
Faulty software set back a bid by the world's largest car maker for electric-vehicle dominance Tweets: @kushalbhagia , @doubleeph , @wsj , @nicolasmagand , @hardmaru , @wsj , @davidmwessel , @tomgara ...
Interview with Chase CIO Rohan Amin on managing Chase's $4B tech budget, API integrations, and this year's rise in digital mortgage applications and banking
When the coronavirus pandemic hit in 2020, banks were among the many institutions moving quickly to adapt to all the changes that came with it.
Sources: Biden is looking to hire cybersecurity veterans for top roles, but some observers worry too much value is being placed on public sector experience
WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - President Joe Biden is hiring a group of national security veterans with deep cyber expertise …
Lyft is testing a “priority mode” offering drivers more rides in exchange for a 10% pay cut; some drivers call it “poverty mode”, saying their earnings dropped
and agree to a 10% pay cut — they don't get rides. https://www.cnet.com/... via @CNET O...K / @kateconger : this is so messed up https://twitter.com/...
Despite the pandemic, Amazon wants Alabama warehouse workers to vote in person on a proposal to form a union, objecting to NLRB's decision to allow vote by mail
Sources: VCs have approached Clubhouse about investing in its next round at ~$1B valuation, a 10X increase from the previous round; a16z is expected to lead
The race to invest in social audio app Clubhouse is on again. Venture capital firms have approached the startup's founders … Tweets: @alexeheath , @jenniferm_q , @rainygay1 , @kantrowitz , @dolarvalu...
A look at the Beijing Academy of Artificial Intelligence, a government-sponsored research lab, and its work on a new language model similar to GPT-3
China produces as many artificial intelligence researchers as the US, but it lags in key fields like machine learning. The government hopes to make up ground. Tweets: @lsenews , @willknight , and @wi...
4Paradigm, a Beijing-based AI software startup focused on enterprise clients, raises $700M Series D led by Boyu Capital, Primavera Capital, and Hopu Fund
Song Jingli / KrASIA :
Analysis of US-based venture-backed companies that went public in roughly the past two years shows that top 40 companies are now valued at around $1.1T
Joanna Glasner / Crunchbase News : Tweets: @hunterwalk , @crunchbasenews , @jrichlive , and @mmasnick Tweets: @hunterwalk : Three amazing things abt this chart 1) scale of valuations & growth post-IP...
Intel says an internal error caused a leak of an infographic related to its Q4 earnings report, which prompted its release ahead of stock market close on Thurs.
Biden ordering stopgap help as talks start on big aid plan
Huawei hires former Brazilian president Michel Temer as its legal adviser for the impending 5G auction bid in the country
Angelica Mari / ZDNet : Tweets: @brazilbrian and @zdnet Tweets: Brian Winter / @brazilbrian : Unconfirmed report that Huawei has contracted former president Michel Temer as its new lobbyist in Brasil...
Facebook spent $19.7M on federal lobbying in 2020, up 17.8% YoY, Google spent $7.5M, down 36.2%; Big Five tech companies together spent $61.1M, down 1.8%
Lauren Feiner / CNBC :
FOSS Patents' Florian Mueller files a complaint with US and EU antitrust authorities after Google and Apple reject his COVID-19-related game
European Parliament invites CEOs of Amazon, Apple, Facebook, and Alphabet to a Feb. 1 hearing in Brussels on EU Commission's tech regulation proposals
Sources: data analytics service Databricks is in talks to raise a private funding round, potentially valuing it at ~$27B; Databricks was valued at $6.2B in 2019
Eric Newcomer / Newcomer :
Marques Brownlee, aka MKBHD, on starting and scaling one of the biggest YouTube tech channels to 13.5M subscribers, day-to-day work, and future of his business
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.