The Pentagon says Microsoft will build 120K custom HoloLens headsets for the US Army; Microsoft says the contract could be worth up to $21.88B over 10 years
- Microsoft will deliver to the U.S. Army more than 120,000 devices based on its HoloLens augmented reality headset.
Amazon says it expects some employees to start coming back to the office as early as this summer and most of its staff will be back at the office this fall
- Amazon said it expects some employees to begin transitioning away from remote work this summer, with most of its staff back at the office by the fall.
TSMC says it plans to spend $100B over the next three years to expand its chip fabrication capacity
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. plans to spend $100 billion over the next three years to expand its chip fabrication capacity, the company said Thursday.
Nick Clegg defends Facebook, saying it is not in the company's interest, financially or reputationally, to continually push users toward more extreme content
In — a recent article for The Atlantic, Adrienne LaFrance compared Facebook to a Doomsday Machine: “a device built with the sole purpose of destroying all human life.”
Apple says it is introducing two new Siri voices for English speakers and eliminating the default selection of a female voice, as part of iOS 14.5 beta 6
Apple is adding two new voices to Siri's English offerings, and eliminating the default ‘female voice’ selection in the latest beta version of iOS.
Microsoft has officially discontinued its Cortana mobile app for both iOS and Android
As expected, Microsoft today discontinued its Cortana mobile app. As a result, the company has ended all support for third-party Cortana skills and eliminated the Cortana app for iOS and Android devi...
Biden announces $2T American Jobs Plan focused on improving US infrastructure, with $100B allocated for high-speed broadband access over eight years
It sets aside $100 billion for the effort — President Biden plans to announce a sweeping infrastructure plan Wednesday that includes $100 billion …
Facebook says a now-removed interview with Trump posted by daughter-in-law Lara Trump falls under its ban as it spoke “in the voice of President Trump”
Trump's daughter-in-law Lara Trump promoted a new interview with the former president on Facebook and Instagram Tuesday …
Casio launches its first G-Shock smartwatch with Wear OS, available in May for $600
Big focus on sports tracking and 200m water resistance — Casio has launched its first G-Shock smartwatch with Wear OS - the G-Squad Pro GSW-H1000 - aimed at sports and outdoors fanatics.
Memo: Google tells employees that it expects some US-based workers to return to the office in April, but won't require employees to come in until at least Sept.
are there sneeze guards between the communal desks now? https://www.nytimes.com/...
Sources: Comcast's NBCUniversal is considering pulling its movies from HBO Max and Netflix and keeping future releases for Peacock
Media giant's NBCUniversal division wants to boost its own streaming service, Peacock — Comcast Corp.'s NBCUniversal is considering pulling its movies …
Report: Chinese hackers have stolen videos from thousands of home security cameras in the country and are selling them as “home video packages” via social media
Videos can cost as little as US$3 and the perpetrators offer ‘set meal’ packages with multiple live streams …
Spanish startup Glovo, which delivers restaurant take-out, groceries, and other items, raises €450M Series F led by Lugard Road Capital and Luxor Capital Group
On the heels of Deliveroo raising more than $2 billion ahead of its debut on the London Stock Exchange this week …
Google will limit most apps on the Play Store from seeing which apps are installed on devices running Android 11 and newer beginning May 5, 2021
Google today announced a series of policy updates for apps distributed through the Play Store. The most impactful sees Google limit most developers … Source: Play Console Help .
Enjin, a blockchain startup that created the NFT standard used by Microsoft and Nike, raises $18.9M to build a Polkadot-based blockchain network
Quick Take — Enjin has raised $18.9 million to build a Polkadot-based blockchain network, dubbed Efinity, with a focus on non-fungible tokens or NFTs.
Deliveroo closed down 26% in its LSE debut, after pricing shares at £3.90, valuing it at £5.2B
Fall comes after food delivery company priced its shares at bottom end of range — Deliveroo's shares plunged 26 per cent in the company's London debut on Wednesday …
Thrasio, which says it has acquired and consolidated around 6,000 third party sellers on Amazon to date, adds $100M extension to its $750M Series C
Thrasio, an early mover and leading player in the wave of startups emerging to consolidate and scale companies that sell …
During an address, President Biden said Amazon uses “various loopholes” to avoid paying any federal income taxes, but says he doesn't want to “punish” them
Nandita Bose / Reuters :
UK's CMA says Facebook will face an in-depth review of its $400M purchase of GIPHY after the company failed to address antitrust concerns
- CMA says second-phase investigation will run to Sept. 15 — Authority has cited concerns the deal may hurt rival platforms
Discord debuts Stage Channels, a Clubhouse-like way of broadcasting audio to a room, available on all platforms; only Community servers can make Stage Channels
Jay Peters / The Verge :
Turing Award goes to Jeffrey Ullman and Alfred Aho for their work on compilers, which underpin computer programming languages
all without making a big fuss. https://news.stanford.edu/... Guido van Rossum / @gvanrossum : This year's Turing Award goes to Aho and Ullman, the authors of the very fine Dragon Book. I have a first ...
Instagram announces Remix, a way to record Reels alongside other users, similar to TikTok's Duets
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch :
App Annie: users spent $32B on apps across iOS and Play Store globally in Q1 2021, up 40% YoY and the largest quarter on record; iOS beat Android $21B to $11B
the Biggest Quarter Since Records Began Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac : Record spend on apps during pandemic continues into this year Liam Tung / ZDNet : We are spending more on smartphone apps than ever befo...
Squarespace says it is acquiring online restaurant services provider Tock for over $400M in cash and stock
Katie Roof / Bloomberg :
Google promises not to silence workers discussing pay, as part of a settlement with a new union that represents hundreds of employees and contract workers
SECTION 7 OF THE NATIONAL LABOR RELATIONS ACT GIVES YOU THE RIGHT TO … Zoe Schiffer / The Verge : Google union wins dispute over discussing pay BeauHD / Slashdot : Google Promises Not to Muzzle Staff ...
Coursera closes at $45 per share, up 36% from its IPO price of $33 per share, giving Coursera a market cap of ~$5.9B
Riley de León / CNBC :
Sources: before the pandemic, Amazon explored opening discount stores selling home goods and electronics to clear unsold inventory sitting in its warehouses
Amazon.com Inc. has explored opening discount retail stores selling a mix of home goods and electronics, a potentially significant expansion … Tweets: @mattmday and @bradstone Tweets: Matt Day / @matt...
Sources: draft Biden executive order would require companies doing business with the federal government to report hacks of their networks within a few days
Bloomberg :
Tonal, which makes a smart home strength training workout system, raises $250M Series E at a $1.6B valuation; Tonal's sales rose 800% from Dec. 2019-Dec. 2020
JP Mangalindan / TechCrunch :
Bilibili invests HK$960M in X.D. Network, which runs Chinese game distribution platform TapTap; mobile games accounted for 40% of Bilibili's 2020 revenues
Rita Liao / TechCrunch :
Plus, which develops self-driving trucks, raises $220M Series B extension, after raising $200M in Feb.; source: Plus is in advanced talks to merge with a SPAC
Sponsor of Arizona's HB2005 bill, which allows alternative payment systems in app stores, says it won't get a hearing this year after being pulled last week
Source: Apple is planning to announce a mixed reality headset “sometime” in the next several months, possibly at an in-person event
Common Room, a service to track online interactions with products, used by Figma and others, raises $32.3M Series B led by Greylock
Our Investment in Common Room … Reconnecting with Linda Lian … Tweets: @forbes : This startup is betting that software companies will find their customers through the community, and they have $52 mill...
For the foreseeable future, technological innovation will be driven by humans, not self-improving AI systems, so there won't be a “singularity”
A reflection on Facebook's VR efforts as the Oculus Rift turns five: an astonishing number of problems have been solved but many big challenges remain
and expansive oral history from some of the talented folks who lived it. // https://tech.fb.com/... Jon Ostrower / @jonostrower : Facebook is spending far more on R&D than Boeing and Airbus — combined...
The rise of Clubhouse and other audio-only social networks marginalizes people with speech impediments like stuttering
How Wuhan's HSMC created an unusable chip factory, becoming one of six multibillion-dollar Chinese chip project failures in the last two years
Chinese cryptocurrency wallet imToken raises $30M Series B led by Qiming and says it has 12M users with over $50B in crypto assets
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg :
Gupta Media: Facebook ad prices, measured in cost per thousand impressions, rebounded from a $1 monthly average last spring to almost $5 in November
Sylvia Varnham O'Regan / The Information : Tweets: @joshua_sisco , @randfish , and @lauramandaro See also Mediagazer Tweets: Josh Sisco / @joshua_sisco : Great story from @SylviaVarnham about increas...
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.