Square acquires a majority stake in Jay-Z's streaming service Tidal for $297M; Jay-Z will join Square's board
What did Jay-Z and Jack Dorsey talk about when they went yachting around the Hamptons together last summer? Perhaps only Beyoncé knows. — Maybe now we do, too.
Leaked interface shows that Twitter's “undo send” feature may be a button that also doubles as a progress bar showing how much time a user has to undo
A work-in-progress interface has been unearthed — A potential animation for Twitter's long-rumored “undo send” …
Tim Wu, an outspoken critic of Big Tech, is joining the National Economic Council as a special assistant to President Biden for tech and competition policy
Tim Wu's appointment to the National Economic Council would signal a confrontational approach by the Biden administration.
Apple clarifies that users can't actually set a default music service in iOS 14.5 but has a feature that lets Siri attempt to learn preferred listening apps
Apple has clarified that the iOS 14.5 beta is not actually allowing users to select a new default music service, as has been reported.
Sources: EU is set to press antitrust charges against Apple over App Store rules for competing music streaming services, following a complaint by Spotify
Brussels set to formally press charges alleging tech company used its dominance to squeeze out App Store rivals
Leaked images show Sonos Roam, the company's smallest portable speaker, expected to ship on April 20 for $169
You're looking at the first images of the next speaker from Sonos. Set to be priced at $169, the new device — it's called the Sonos Roam — is much smaller than the Sonos Move …
Google says it is speeding up the Chrome release cycle and will ship a new milestone every four weeks instead of the current six weeks
Google today announced that its Chrome browser is moving to a faster release cycle by shipping a new milestone every four weeks instead of the current six-week cycle …
Google's FLoC, which helps advertisers perform behavioral targeting, avoids privacy risks of 3rd-party cookies, but creates new privacy issues in the process
The third-party cookie is dying, and Google is trying to create its replacement. — No one should mourn the death of the cookie as we know it.
UK antitrust authorities say they plan to investigate Apple's App Store to probe whether it is abusing its market power to restrict competition
Bloomberg :
Microsoft rolls out new features for Edge, including vertical tabs and a feature that it says can improve startup times by 29% to 41% after a device reboots
Microsoft Edge gets some new features for March — Microsoft is rolling out some new improvements to its Edge browser this month.
Qualcomm announces Snapdragon Sound, an initiative to enhance the wireless sound experience by lowering latency and improving connection issues
Just days after it unveiled its project to bring — advanced haptics to Android, Qualcomm has announced another ambitious venture aimed at bridging the gaps in device performance.
Reddit hires Drew Vollero as its first chief financial officer to prepare the company for an eventual IPO
The addition of Drew Vollero, formerly of Mattel and Snap, is a move toward developing operations more like publicly traded social networks. — SAN FRANCISCO — The world's …
Global smartwatch shipments rose 1.5% YoY in 2020, with Apple Watch shipments up 19% YoY, Huawei's up 26% YoY, and Fitbit shipments down 4% YoY
- In Q4 2020, the shipments decreased slightly YoY due to a fresh wave of COVID-19. — However, Apple managed to expand its market share and remains firmly at the forefront.
Research: low-wage workers at businesses in the areas where Amazon operates have seen significant wage growth since the company raised minimum pay to $15/hour
New research suggests that when big companies increase wages, they drive up pay in the places where they operate — without a notable loss in jobs. Tweets: @bencasselman and @pekingmike Tweets: Ben Cas...
With Tidal, Square may give artists more control over the revenue streams they create, offer advances, royalty processing, and more traditional label services
Benjamin Pimentel / Protocol :
HBC, owner of Saks Fifth Avenue, spins the department store's website into a separate business after raising $500M from Insight Partners at a valuation of $2B
- HBC, the owner of Saks Fifth Avenue, said it will split the luxury department store's website into a separate business after raising $500 million.
In a letter, a bipartisan group of senators call on FCC to change their definition of high speed broadband to above 100/100 Mbps, up from the current 25/3 Mbps
We welcome the Biden Administration's commitment to deploying affordable … Joanna Nelius / Gizmodo : Lawmakers Are Finally Asking the FCC to Redefine High-Speed Broadband Mike Peterson / AppleInsider ...
Turntable.fm has relaunched with involvement from its founder and a separate site, Turntable.org, is expected to launch in beta in April with a subscription fee
A tale of two turntables — It's rare that apps come back from the dead, but it seems like that may be what's happening with Turntable.fm …
Sources: Instacart is considering going public through a direct listing, concerned that it could leave money on the table through a traditional IPO
(Reuters) - U.S. grocery delivery app Instacart is considering going public through a direct listing, concerned that it could leave money …
In the past month, three of the longest-running Russian cybercrime forums have been hacked, leaking their users' email addresses, login metadata, and more
Elite Hacking and Cybercrime Forum — Got Hacked! Nick Hayes / Flashpoint : Breaking: Elite Cybercrime Forum “Maza” Breached by Unknown Attacker Lucas Ropek / Gizmodo : Someone Is Hacking the Hackers C...
Zimperium analysis: 14% of Android and iOS apps connecting to cloud services like AWS or Azure, totaling ~19K apps, have misconfigurations that expose user data
and in some cases, leaving them open all the time. https://www.wired.com/...
Wipro reaches an agreement to buy Capco, a 22 year old tech consultancy firm based in London, for $1.45B; Wipro expects the deal to close by the end of June
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Oppo becomes the top smartphone brand in China, reaching a market share of 21% in January, followed by Vivo at 20% and Huawei, Apple, and Xiaomi at 16% each
Varun Mishra / Counterpoint Research :
Report finds 29 countries intentionally shut down or slowed internet traffic in 2020, with India most frequent at 109 times, primarily in the Kashmir region
Hanna Duggal / Al Jazeera : Tweets: @hrdefsen and @ajenglish Tweets: Human Rights Defenders / @hrdefsen : In 2020, 29 countries intentionally shut down or slowed their #internet communications. Autho...
Virtual events startup Hopin raises $400M at a $5.65B valuation, more than double its valuation in its November round
The last 12 months have fundamentally changed how we work together. Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch : Hopin confirms $400M raise at $5.65B valuation Johnny Boufarhat / Hopin : Announcing Our Series C: What'...
Facebook adds one-to-one voice and video calling to the WhatsApp desktop app, but the browser version, WhatsApp Web, is not getting this feature at the moment
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Whatnot, a livestreaming service for buying and selling Pokémon cards and other collectibles, raises $20M Series A led by a16z
For many years now, we've seen ecommerce grow, sparking an entire industry … Whatnot / PR Newswire : Live Stream Shopping Platform and Marketplace Whatnot Raises $20M Series A to Become the Premier Pl...
Susan Wojcicki says YouTube will lift the suspension on Trump's account when it determines “that the risk of violence has decreased”
Lauren Feiner / CNBC :
As Clubhouse grows in popularity, companies like the just-launched Audio Collective seek to cater to creators, offering event planning and brand consulting
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times :
AdGuard publishes a list of 6K+ trackers abusing the CNAME cloaking technique, which lets trackers bypass many ad-blocking and anti-tracking protections
A CNAME (Canonical Name) … Mayank Sharma / TechRadar : Thousands more secret trackers could be following you online
Deliveroo chooses London as the venue for its planned $7B stock market listing after the government made rule changes allowing founders to keep more control
Jasper Jolly / The Guardian :
China's upcoming 5-year economic plan is expected to outline a strategy on making do with aging chips while focusing on fields like “3rd-generation” chipmaking
Bloomberg : Tweets: @nerysinchina Tweets: Nerys Avery / @nerysinchina : Interesting read, but describing SMIC as an “up-and-comer”??? It's been around 20 yrs with mediocre results. China wants to bui...
Amazon has significantly expanded its footprint in NYC, where ~2.4M packages are delivered daily, adding at least nine delivery stations in the past year
After two Black Salesforce staff pointed to workplace issues in resignation letters, Salesforce's LinkedIn account posted a now-deleted message supporting BLM
Jordan Novet / CNBC : Tweets: @jordannovet and @caseynewton Tweets: Jordan Novet / @jordannovet : little update to our post on the hijacking of Salesforce's LinkedIn account last Friday. in addition ...
Stream, which lets developers build chat and activity streams into apps and other services with a few lines of code, raises $38M Series B
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch :
Hippo, which uses satellite imagery and smart home sensors to offer better home insurance policies, to go public via SPAC, raising $550M at a valuation of $5B
Sources: Microsoft president Brad Smith will testify before a House antitrust subcommittee hearing next Friday about tech antitrust and the news media
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.