Sources: Facebook is planning to launch its first smartwatch, featuring a detachable display with two cameras and a heart rate monitor, next summer
A detachable display with cameras for capturing video without your phone — Facebook is taking a novel approach to its first smartwatch …
JBS says it paid an $11M ransom in bitcoin to resolve an attack last week; the payment was made after most plants were operational to avoid further disruption
Meat supplier's U.S. chief says firm paid cybercriminals in bitcoin to avoid more disruptions — JBS USA Holdings Inc. paid …
Microsoft says it will soon launch a dedicated device for game streaming and is working with TV manufacturers to expand Xbox Game Pass subscription to smart TVs
Microsoft on Thursday announced plans to expand its Xbox Game Pass subscription service to many more screens …
Biden signs an EO revoking the Trump-era bans on TikTok and WeChat and says his commerce secretary will investigate any risks to national security and privacy
But the apps still aren't out of hot water — President Joe Biden signed an executive order Wednesday revoking the Trump-era bans on TikTok and WeChat.
El Salvador becomes the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender after lawmakers voted by a “supermajority” in favor of its new Bitcoin Law
- El Salvador's has become the first country to adopt bitcoin as legal tender. — Lawmakers in the South American country's Congress voted …
NMPA files a $200M lawsuit against Roblox for alleged music copyright infringement, and launches a “major ramp-up” of its takedown campaign against Twitch
The National Music Publishers' Association (NMPA) has filed a $200 million lawsuit against Roblox for allowing the illegal use …
Google plans to change its search algorithm to prevent sites that extort people to remove slanderous content from appearing in search results for people's names
In response to Times articles, the search giant is changing its algorithm, part of a major shift in how Google polices harmful content.
Founders of Fanhouse, an OnlyFans-like platform, say Apple is demanding they start paying “30% of creator earnings” by August or be removed from the App Store
Fanhouse wants to keep sending 90 percent of payments to creators — Apple is clashing with the platform Fanhouse …
Samsung unveils a 50-megapixel sensor with pixels just 0.64μm in size, the smallest in the industry, that it says can be used in ultrawide or telephoto modules
The ISOCELL JN1 has 50 million 0.64μm pixels, the smallest size in the industry — Samsung has announced a new image sensor …
Sources: an EU regulator is proposing sanctioning Amazon's privacy practices with a fine of $425M+, which could yield the biggest GDPR fine yet
Case relates to alleged violations of Europe's General Data Protection Regulation — A European Union privacy regulator has proposed a fine …
Klarna raises $639M led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $45.6B post-money valuation, up 47.3% from its $31B valuation in early March when it raised $1B
Just over three months after its last funding round, European fintech giant Klarna is announcing today that it has raised another $639 million …
Stripe launches Stripe Tax, which will provide automatic, updated sales tax calculations and related accounting services to customers in US and ~30 countries
On the heels of acquiring sales tax specialist TaxJar in April, today Stripe is making another big move in the area of tax.
Sources: UK's competition watchdog is planning a formal investigation into Amazon, mirroring the EU probe, over how it uses the data it collects
Financial Times :
Homebrew's Satya Patel and Hunter Walk team up with 8 VCs to launch Screendoor, a $50M fund to back up to 15 underrepresented investors raising their first fund
Covering venture capital, software and startups — Would-be venture capitalists looking to raise a fund for the first time often face …
Google researchers detail an AI system that outperforms humans in designing floorplans for microchips, promising better and more rapidly produced chip designs
Andrew B. Kahng is in the Department of Computer Science and Engineering, and in the Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering … Source: Nature .
EA confirms that it has suffered a data breach, after hackers claim they have 780GB of data, including source code for FIFA 21 and the Frostbite engine
The data includes source code for FIFA 21 and the Frostbite engine. — Joseph Cox — Hackers have broken into gaming giant Electronic Arts …
Ledger, best known for its Nano series of cryptocurrency hardware wallets, raises $380M Series C at a valuation of $1.5B
French crypto hardware wallet manufacturer Ledger has raised $380 million in a Series C fundraising round led by Dan Tapiero's 10T Holdings.
Central banks of Switzerland and France trial Europe's first cross-border digital currency payments, focusing on the bank-to-bank wholesale lending market
ZURICH/LONDON (Reuters) - The Swiss National Bank and the Bank of France will trial Europe's first cross-border central bank digital currency payments …
Several macOS Monterey features will not come to Intel Macs, like Live Text within photos, FaceTime's Portrait mode, and unlimited, on-device keyboard dictation
Intel Macs left in dust Stephen Hackett / Six Colors : WWDC 2021: macOS Monterey further blurs lines between Mac, Catalyst, and iPad apps Chris Barylick / O'Grady's PowerPage : Some macOS Monterey fea...
Alexis Ohanian's new VC firm Seven Seven Six raises $150M for its first fund and says it targeted a base of 50% women and 15% Black or indigenous investors
Covering venture capital, software and startups — Plenty of venture capital shops have built software to support their startup investing before …
Metadata for Apple's WWDC keynote YouTube video includes terms such as “m1x” and “M1X MacBook Pro”
just not onstage Joseph Patrick / International Business Times : MacBook Pro 2021 Rumors: Apple Unveiling Redesigned MacBook Pro At WWDC, Analyst Says Richard Priday / Tom's Guide : MacBook Pro 2021 w...
Coinbase teams up with 401(k) provider ForUsAll to let employees at participating companies invest up to 5% of their 401(k) contributions in cryptocurrency
Workers at participating companies could invest up to 5% of their account balances in cryptocurrency
Apple announces StoreKit 2, simplifying App Store subscriptions and refunds by making them accessible inside apps
If you've ever bought a subscription inside an iOS app and later decided you wanted to cancel, upgrade or downgrade, or ask for a refund, you may have had trouble figuring …
Fastly, which was hit by a major outage on Tuesday, says the problem was caused by a bug that was triggered by a customer configuring their service
Many young TikTok stars describe burning out as they struggle with mental health and the algorithm's volatility, years after waves of burnout on other platforms
Mark Zuckerberg says all employees can request to work remotely full-time if their job allows, office-based staff will need to be in 50%+ of the time, and more
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC :
Deliveroo is partnering with Neighbourhood Watch in the UK to offer training to its couriers to keep an eye out for crimes
Food delivery service . Tweets: @jerrycap and @iwgb_clb Tweets: @jerrycap : This industry is so dumb “Deliveroo couriers can train to become ‘snoopers’” https://www.bbc.com/... IWGB Couriers / @iwgb_c...
Facebook says global ads chief Carolyn Everson is leaving after more than a decade; Everson was a liaison to big marketers during major controversies
Megan Graham / CNBC :
In an email to podcasters, Apple says Podcasts Subscriptions will launch globally on June 15, after postponing a planned launch in May
Ashley Carman / The Verge :
EU says there were 304 malicious attacks against “critical sectors” in 2020, more then double the 146 recorded in 2019, with a 47% rise in attacks on hospitals
Study: Cyberattacks on critical sectors doubled in Europe in pandemic — (CNN)Significant cyberattacks attacks … Tweets: @kkomaitis Tweets: Dr. Konstantinos Komaitis / @kkomaitis : This is a wake-up ...
Google is building a subsea cable called Firmina, after a Brazilian abolitionist, to handle data surge between US, Brazil, and Argentina, due to launch by 2023
Tata Digital says it is acquiring a majority stake in Indian online pharmacy startup 1mg; source: Tata acquired about 55% stake at a valuation of around $450M
its second significant startup acquisition after BigBasket https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/ ...
China says its police have arrested 1,100+ people on crypto-related money laundering charges amid a nationwide crackdown on activities related to telecom fraud
David Pan / CoinDesk :
In its June batch of patches, Microsoft announced fixes for 50 flaws, including seven zero-days, six of which have been exploited in the wild
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer :
Clip, a Mexican mobile payments startup targeting SMBs, raises $250M from SoftBank's Latin American fund and Viking Global, at a valuation of $2B
- New round of investment values Mexico's Clip at $2 billion — Goal is to expand and hire 320 people in the next 18 months
French startup Yousign, a DocuSign-rival that provides an e-signature service targeting European SMBs, raises €30M Series A led by Lead Edge Capital
French startup Yousign has raised a $36.6 million Series A funding round (€30 million). Lead Edge Capital is leading the round … Tweets: @charlesfitz Tweets: Charles Fitzgerald / @charlesfitz : Endle...
Prefect, whose dataflow automation service allows companies to streamline workflows and schedule when apps run, raises $32M Series B led by Tiger Global
Washington, D.C.-based Prefect closed a $32 million Series B led by Tiger Global Management to help eliminate data flow problems for companies' data teams.
Sources: under pressure from an Amazon-led group, Senate's China-focused bill left out consumer protections to make marketplaces authenticate 3rd-party sellers
Mythical Games raises $75M Series B led by WestCap Group for developing a platform for “playable NFTs” where player-owned game avatars can be bought and sold
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat :
How modern ransomware attacks work and a breakdown of their double extortion tactics, using the Nefilim ransomware as a case study
Solana Labs, which wants to develop a blockchain that is faster and cheaper than Ethereum, raises $314.15M in a private token sale led by a16z and Polychain
Red Date Technology, the developer behind China's BSN, or Blockchain-based Service Network, raises 30M Series A led by Kenetic Capital and Prosperity7
Wolfie Zhao / The Block :
Jakarta-based BukuWarung, which offers digital payments and a Shopify-like e-commerce platform for SMBs, raises $60M Series A led by Valar and Goodwater Capital
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch :
Twitter names new board member to replace Elliott Management's Jesse Cohn, who was appointed to the board in March 2020 as part of a deal to keep Dorsey as CEO
Reuters : Tweets: @twittercomms Tweets: @twittercomms : Welcoming Mimi Alemayehou (@malemayehou) to Twitter's Board as a new independent director. https://www.prnewswire.com/...
Eightfold AI, which uses AI to help companies find, recruit, and retain workers, raises $220M Series E led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $2.1B valuation
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
A vicious cycle of surveillance and overwork is leading to extreme mental stress and fatigue, pushing China's tech workers to the limit and causing backlash
Nikki Sun / Nikkei Asia : Tweets: @nikkeiasia , @charles_clover , @jimhandc , @hk_nikkisun , @cengizyar , @grimes_ce , @peterguest , and @plevy Tweets: @nikkeiasia : RACE AGAINST THE MACHINE | THE BI...
Data analytics startup Amplitude raises $150M led by Sequoia Capital at a $4B valuation, up from $1B last year
Hawthorne Effect, which offers a cloud-based clinical trials platform, raises $20M Series A led by Northpond Ventures, bringing its total funding to $24M
Ben Adams / FierceBiotech :
Sources: Sequoia Capital is considering changing how it distributes investment returns in a bid to avoid tax increases proposed by Biden's administration
Payment processing startup Marqeta's shares closed up 13% in its NASDAQ debut Wednesday, after raising $1.2B in its IPO, valuing the company at ~$16B
Riley de León / CNBC :
MaintainX, which develops mobile tools for industrial and frontline workers, raises $50M across $11M Series A in 2019 and $39M Series B in 2021
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.