Activision Blizzard says Blizzard co-leader Jen Oneal is stepping down, leaving Mike Ybarra as sole leader; Oneal says she'll focus on diversity in the industry
Activision Blizzard announced today that Jen Oneal is stepping down from her role as Blizzard co-leader, which she started in August along with Mike Ybarra.
Meta plans to shut down Facebook's decade-old facial recognition system this month, deleting the face scan data of 1B+ users following legal and regulatory woes
Saying it wants “to find the right balance” with the technology, the social network will delete the face scan data of more than one billion users.
Zillow says it is shutting down its home buying business, laying off ~2,000 employees, and taking a write down of $500M+; stock drops 10%+
Zillow Group's ambitious tech-fueled bid to shake up how people buy and sell homes is coming to a surprising end. — The Seattle online real estate giant …
CISA creates a catalog of known exploited vulnerabilities, including from Apple and Google, and orders federal agencies to apply patches within timeframes
The US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency has established today a public catalog of vulnerabilities known to be exploited …
Microsoft will bring its mixed reality platform Mesh with 3D avatars and VR support to Teams in the first half of 2022
Microsoft and Meta are on a collision course for metaverse competition — Microsoft is entering the race to build a metaverse inside Teams, just days after Facebook rebranded …
Australia's largest bank Commonwealth Bank to become the country's first bank to offer customers crypto services, including cryptocurrency trading via its app
Commonwealth Bank of Australia will become the country's first to offer retail clients crypto services, Australia's largest bank …
US sanctions four companies, including NSO Group, that sell spyware or hacking tools, adding them to a list of entities engaging in “malicious cyber activities”
The US government has sanctioned today four companies that develop and sell spyware and other hacking tools, the US Department of Commerce announced today.
Netflix rolls out its exclusive mobile games globally to the Play Store and plans to feature them in its Android app starting this week
After early tests in select markets, Netflix announced today its debut lineup of exclusive mobile games will begin rolling out to all members globally on Android devices, starting this week.
Google News will return to Spain “early next year” following a change to Spain's copyright laws that will let Google negotiate fees with individual publishers
Spain has changed its copyright law in accordance with EU legislation — Who should get paid when big tech platforms aggregate news stories?
Activision Blizzard reports Q3 revenue of $2.07B, up 6% YoY, net bookings of $1.88B, up 6% YoY, as user growth remains flat at 390M MAUs
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat :
A joint probe by Australia and UK's Information Commissioners finds Clearview AI collected data on 3B+ people by indiscriminately scraping info from the web
Despite uncovering Clearview AI's intrusive practices, Australia's Information Commissioner conceded that the number of Australians … Source: Office of the Australian Information Commissioner .
Oculus rolls out v34, adding a Space Sense safety feature notifying users when objects, people, or animals intrude on a safe VR space, alongside other features
Version 34 is starting to roll out today — Fresh off of Meta's Connect 2021 keynote, where Grand Theft Auto …
After downplaying cryptocurrencies early on, banks are experimenting with them more and lobbying regulators for rules to deny crypto lenders “unfair” advantages
Emily Flitter / New York Times :
The criminal group behind BlackMatter ransomware announces plans to shut down the operation, citing “pressure from the authorities”
The criminal group behind the BlackMatter ransomware have announced plans today to shut down their operation, citing pressure from local authorities.
Source: ByteDance co-founder Zhang Yiming, who stepped down as CEO in May, has left the board after stepping down as chairman; CEO Liang Rubo to become chairman
- Zhang announced in May he was giving up his CEO title — Chinese tech giant this week announced a restructuring
Tencent announces a cloud operating system called Orca and three chips, one for AI, another for video processing, and a chip for high-performance networks
Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) touted progress in semiconductor chip development and investment on Wednesday …
Chinese central bank official says around 140M people opened wallets for digital yuan as of October and used it for transactions totaling around $9.7B
Some 140 million people had opened “wallets” for China's new digital yuan as of October and used it for transactions totalling around 62 billion yuan …
GitHub CEO Nat Friedman will step down on November 15; Thomas Dohmke, who recently became its chief product officer, will take over as CEO
GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is stepping down from his role on November 15 to become the Chairman Emeritus of the Microsoft-owned service.
Company salaries of data protection officers are soaring across China after laws were introduced that hold the officers personally responsible for any failures
Sweeping legislation has created huge demand but job risks have risen alongside salaries — Chinese data protection officers …
Sources: Facebook has done little to act on the Islamophobic “Love Jihad” conspiracy theory on its platform in India due to “political sensitivities”
In a video posted to Facebook in November 2020, an extremist priest called for Hindus to rise up and begin killing Muslims in India. Tweets: @jason_kint , @damomusings , @verambergen , @skjain_05 , @k...
Faze Technologies, which wants to launch a Cricket NFT marketplace and build “the metaverse for cricket”, raises a $17.4M seed led by Tiger Global
Tiger Global led a $17.4 million seed round for Faze Technologies, the company announced Wednesday.
A look at the booming market for bots that steal 2FA codes, often using SMS services like Twilio, to break into Coinbase, Amazon, PayPal, and bank accounts
The bots convincingly and effortlessly help hackers break into Coinbase, Amazon, PayPal, and bank accounts. — Joseph Cox Tweets: @josephfcox , @motherboard , @rzol , @josephfcox , @josephfcox , @jos...
Coinbase confirms it is testing Coinbase One, a subscription service that internal docs show could feature zero trading fees and prioritized phone support
Quick Take — Coinbase is testing out a new subscription service, dubbed Coinbase One — The service would give users access to more features such as zero-fee trading Tweets: @caseynewton Tweets: Case...
Microsoft announces Loop, an app that combines a “flexible canvas” with collaborative components that sync across Microsoft 365 services
How we're empowering everyone for a new world of hybrid work Tom Warren / The Verge : Microsoft Loop is a new Office app for the hybrid work era Liam Tung / ZDNet : This new PowerPoint feature could m...
HoneyBook, which offers business management tools to SMBs and freelancers, raises a $250M Series E led by Tiger Global at a $2.4B valuation, up from $1B+ in May
HoneyBook, a client management and financial platform for independent contractors, today announced that it raised $250 million …
Notable, which makes RPA-based tools to speed up healthcare administrative tasks, raises a $100M Series B led by Iconiq Growth at a $600M valuation
Timing is everything in healthcare — yet too often diagnoses, treatments and procedures are held up by paperwork, administrative red tape between patients …
Zoom says it is testing ads on its free Basic tier; the ads appear on the browser page shown to users at the end of a call
Microsoft Edge for Linux is now available for all users, supporting multiple distributions including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet :
Siam Commercial, Thailand's largest bank in which its king is the largest shareholder, acquires 51% of crypto exchange Bitkub for $535M, at a $1B+ valuation
- Siam Commercial Bank buys majority stake in Bitkub Online — Bitkub coin surges 200% to record $2.85 following Siam deal
Sources: Myanmar's junta has tasked thousands of soldiers to create fake accounts to allege election fraud and denounce anti-coup protestors on social media
Reuters : Tweets: @cvdom2021 , @andreasharsono , and @campuscodi Tweets: Civil Disobedience Movement / @cvdom2021 : “Soldiers are asked to create several fake accounts and are given content segments ...
Lyft reports Q3 revenue of $864.4M, up 73% YoY and up 13% QoQ, but misses with 18.9M active riders vs 19.7M estimated; stock up 12%+ after hours
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC :
Coinbase is acquiring Agara, which operates an AI-powered customer support platform in India and the US; sources say the price is between $40M and $50M
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Chilean fintech startup Fintual raises a $39M Series B led by Sequoia, says it manages $665M in assets for 70,000+ clients through passive investments like ETFs
Eduardo Thomson / Bloomberg :
Indian ride-hailing company Ola reports its first operating profit since beginning operations a decade ago, with $12M for FY ending March 2021
Aditi Shah / Reuters :
Shares of Kakao Pay, South Korea's largest mobile payments app, surged 150%+ in early trading after it raised $1.3B in its Seoul IPO at a ~$9.94B valuation
Bloomberg :
Match Group reports Q3 revenue of $802M, up 25% YoY, with 16.3M paying users, up 16% YoY, but forecasts weaker Q4 growth, citing lingering COVID effects in Asia
Clara Molot / Bloomberg :
Deep dive on Pixel 6's Tensor SoC, its architecture, and how it compares to rival chips like Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 in performance and efficiency tests
DoorDash rolls out SafeDash, an in-app security toolkit for its delivery drivers, in NYC, Chicago, Philadelphia, Detroit, San Francisco, and Los Angeles
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch :
A look at the hurdles the FTC faces in strengthening online privacy, including budgetary constraints, personnel changes, and potential legal pushback
David Uberti / Wall Street Journal :
Chicago-based FingerprintJS, which is developing a “fingerprinting” service for web browsers to prevent fraud, raises a $32M series B led by Craft Ventures
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
Splash, whose AI tools facilitate music creation and integration in games, including in Roblox, raises a $20M Series A led by Alexa Fund and Bitkraft Ventures
Marie Dealessandri / GamesIndustry.biz :
Laika, which helps companies implement compliance guidelines by automating infosec workflows, raises a $35M Series B led by JP Morgan Growth Equity Partners
PYMNTS.com :
Everlaw, which offers ML-powered ediscovery tools for legal teams, raises a $202M Series D led by TPG Growth at a $2B+ valuation
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat :
As Microsoft shuts down LinkedIn in China, developers worry GitHub could be next, even though nearly 10% of GitHub's contributors in 2020 were from China
Meaghan Tobin / Rest of World : Tweets: @anupkaphle Tweets: Anup Kaphle / @anupkaphle : Microsoft's @github is one of the last foreign-owned platforms for user-generated content left on the Chinese i...
Microsoft will invite select businesses to use GPT-3 as an Azure tool; Open AI will continue selling its own GPT-3 API with the latest upgrades
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.