Apple says John Ternus will now lead its Hardware Engineering org as a member of the executive team; Dan Riccio to move to a role focusing on a “new project”
John Ternus will join the executive team as senior vice president of Hardware Engineering
Twitter debuts Birdwatch, in testing since last year, which lets select users flag and add notes about tweets they think are misleading or false
Twitter unveiled a feature Monday meant to bolster its efforts to combat misinformation and disinformation by tapping users in a fashion similar …
Google Threat Analysis Group details a suspected North Korean specialized campaign targeting infosec researchers with fake profiles, blogs and backdoor software
Over the past several months, the Threat Analysis Group has identified an ongoing campaign targeting security researchers working …
Twitter acquires newsletter publishing company Revue; the five-year-old Dutch company has six employees and has raised ~$318K
Twitter on Tuesday said it has acquired Revue, a newsletter platform for writers and publishers. — Why it matters: The deal marks Twitter's first step …
Sources: Signal's rapid growth following WhatsApp privacy changes has raised concerns from Signal staff who worry the service's new features will be misused
SHARE All sharing options — On January 6th, WhatsApp users around the world began seeing a pop-up message notifying …
Norwegian Data Protection Authority fines Grindr ~$11.7M for disclosing user location data to advertisers and effectively tagging users as LGBTQ without consent
The Norwegian Data Protection Authority said on Monday that it would fine Grindr, the world's most popular gay dating app …
Facebook News launches in the UK, partners with Axel Springer and Samsung-owned Upday for curation, and announces partnerships and payments for some publishers
As the United Kingdom prepares to sharpen its focus on how it regulates big tech companies, Facebook is taking a big step …
Google says it will not make any donations via its PAC this cycle to members of Congress who voted against certifying results of presidential election
Google will not make contributions from its political action committee this cycle to any member of Congress who voted against certifying …
Twitter unveils a new “standalone, flexible” open source text editor API for iOS developers, similar to what's used in tweet and Fleet composers on its iOS app
Twitter announced today a new “standalone, flexible” open source API for iOS developers that provides a text editor for apps …
Clubhouse raises Series B led by a16z, says it has 180+ investors, and will test options for paying creators and begin work on an Android app soon
Clubhouse is moving quickly today, but in some ways it feels like the journey started a long time ago. The two of us met back in 2011 through …
Amazon launches a feature for allowing Alexa to proactively complete smart home tasks, an energy dashboard, and a $4.99/month ADT-like service, Alexa Guard Plus
New updates bring proactive hunches and Guard Plus to the smart assistant — Amazon is enabling a new feature today …
W3C, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, and others launch Open Web Docs, a new project for Web API documentation that will support MDN Docs following Mozilla's layoffs
Founding members include the W3C, Google, Microsoft, Mozilla, Samsung Coil, and Igalia — A coalition of tech companies announced today …
In letter to creators, CEO Susan Wojcicki says YouTube has paid more than $30B to creators, artists, and media organizations over the last three years
The company still has work to do with creator transparency — YouTube has paid out more than $30 billion to creators, artists …
A look at r/WallStreetBets, a 2M-member subreddit that helped push GameStop's stock to record highs and is now facing allegations of harassment
Over the past several weeks, GameStop stock has traded … Philip Stafford / Financial Times : GameStop and BlackBerry shares soar on amateur traders' fervour YouTube : The Big Short SQUEEZE from $5 to ...
TikTok has fixed a vulnerability that would have allowed hackers to access users' private information, including phone numbers, avatar pictures, and user IDs
ByteDance, the tech firm behind TikTok, has fixed a security vulnerability in the video-sharing social networking service …
Clash acquires Byte, another short-form video app, and announces plans to release them together as one product with monetization tools for creators
Now they want to help users make money. — Clash, a short-form video app that became available in August, announced today that it had purchased Byte …
Source: Clubhouse raised around $100M from a16z at a $1B post-money valuation
Run:AI, which helps businesses orchestrate and optimize their AI compute infrastructure, raises $30M Series B led by Insight Partners
Run:AI, a Tel Aviv-based company that helps businesses orchestrate and optimize their AI compute infrastructure, today announced that it has raised a $30 million Series B round.
Fast, which lets logged-in users purchase items without going into a shopping cart, raises $102M Series B led by Stripe and Addition Capital
- San Francisco-based Fast announced its $102 million funding round on Tuesday, just a few months after launching its first checkout product.
Sources: ByteDance revenue more than doubled last year to $37B, of which $7B was operating profit, up from $4B in 2019, despite India's TikTok ban
You might have thought TikTok's owner ByteDance had a tough year in 2020, what with President Trump trying to ban TikTok and India actually taking that step.
As farmers protested reforms in India, on Twitter, supporters of Modi encouraged police brutality against them, with “Shoot” trending for hours
Thousands of tweets encouraging police brutality against farmers protesting controversial agricultural reforms in India … Thanks: @pranavdixit
Survey of 73 tech experts shows 93% approve of tech platforms' decision to suspend Trump's accounts following Capitol violence
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post : Tweets: @cat_zakrzewski , @drewharwell , @peterwsinger , @zacharygraves , @digiphile , and @digiphile Tweets: Cat Zakrzewski / @cat_zakrzewski : We asked more than ...
SoftBank-backed travel booking service Klook raises $200M led by Aspex Management, says bookings have reached near pre-COVID levels in Singapore, HK, and Taiwan
Klook, the Hong Kong-based travel activities platform backed by SoftBank Vision Fund, announced the closure of $200 million …
Instagram adds a new “professional dashboard” for creator and business accounts, a dedicated space for analytics, business tools, monetization features, more
Start getting inspired with announcements, tips, and success stories on our blog. Jay Bonggolto / Neowin : Instagram combines business tools for creators and brands in a single hub Sagar Naresh / Andr...
Google details its work on a privacy-conscious cookie substitute, called Federated Learning of Cohorts, claims ~95% effectiveness compared to cookie-based ads
Google workers across the world announce Alpha Global, an international alliance of 13 unions representing workers in 10 countries
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge :
Calendly, a popular meeting scheduling service, raises $350M from OpenView Venture Partners and Iconiq at a $3B+ valuation
We're all meeting virtually, and Calendly has raised $350M to help us plan and track it all — One big theme in tech right now is the rise of services …
a16z plans to launch a “new and separate media property” later this year focused on “the future” and names ex-CNN editor Maggie Leung executive editor
rather than traditional PR — is a huge opportunity for a huge number of companies, universities, non-profits, and political parties. Tell your own story. https://a16z.com/... @balajis : The new model:...
Facebook says it will give researchers targeting data on 1.3M social issue, electoral, and political ads from August 3 through November 3, 2020
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol :
Deutsche Telekom, Telefónica, Vodafone, and Orange pledge to prioritize the development of Open RAN tech to help smaller equipment makers enter the 5G market
Laurens Cerulus / Politico : Tweets: @laurenscerulus , @ialbrycht , and @politicoeurope Tweets: Laurens Cerulus / @laurenscerulus : You're going to hear a lot about Open RAN in the coming year. The c...
Twitter and Facebook have done little to stop the spread of anti-Muslim messages from Indian politicians, amplifying incendiary voices in pursuit of profit
Alaphia Zoyab / Rest of World : Tweets: @anjali28 , @nicdawes , @restofworld , @frankpasquale , @akhildeo94 , @anupkaphle , and @rasmus_kleis Tweets: Anjali Ramachandran / @anjali28 : FB/TW won't do ...
Tealbook, a supplier intelligence startup that crawls and aggregates procurement data from across the web, raises $14.4M Series A led by RTP Global
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
Survey: the average American household spent $47 a month on streaming in 2020, up from $34 a month in 2019; 81% of US households used Netflix at the end of 2020
Matthew Keys / The Desk : Tweets: @appleinsider Tweets: @appleinsider : The majority of streaming service customers subscribe to Netflix but only 14% can say the same for #AppleTV+, according to a ne...
Ringover, a SaaS-based cloud service for voice, video, messaging, and SMS customer communication, raises €10M Series A led by Expedition Growth Capital
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat :
Sundance Film Festival is going virtual in 2021, and is building an extensive VR platform for all attendees which can be accessed with or without a VR headset
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget : Tweets: @danawollman and @devindra Tweets: Dana Wollman / @danawollman : This is wild and weird: https://www.engadget.com/... Devindra Hardawar / @devindra : The Sundan...
Bloomreach, which helps e-commerce customers with search and website creation, raises $150M led by Sixth Street Growth at a $900M valuation
Ron Miller / TechCrunch :
Sources: Didi Chuxing's on-demand trucking unit Didi Freight is close to raising $1.5B from Temasek, Jack Ma's Yunfeng Capital, IDG Capital, and others
Coco Liu / Bloomberg :
Investment firm Carlyle Group confirmed it acquired UK-based game publisher Jagex, which develops RuneScape, reportedly for at least $530M
Qualtrics says, in an amended filing, that it plans to price its IPO at $27-$29/share, raising $1.5B and valuing the company at $14.6B at the top of the range
Crystal Tse / Bloomberg :
Vimeo raises $300M at a valuation of $6B, nearly doubling in value in less than three months, ahead of the unit's scheduled spinoff from IAC in Q2
Brody Ford / Bloomberg :
French startup Alma, which offers Klarna-like payment installment tools for retailers, raises €49M Series B
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.