Google partners with Acer, HP, and Intel to bring Fast Pair to select Windows PCs later in 2022 and announces improvements to Phone Hub on Chromebooks
Google wants to do for Android and Chrome users what Apple does for people in its ecosystem. It's announcing a set of news today …
Instagram tests the ability to switch between a Home feed, a Favorites feed, and a Following chronological feed, rolling out to all users in H1 2022
Head of Instagram, Adam Mosseri, announced today that the app is rolling out for some users the ability to switch between different feeds.
Research: with 4,000+ monthly active developers, Ethereum has the largest open source ecosystem in crypto, followed by Polkadot, Cosmos, Solana, and Bitcoin
Executive Summary — Web3 developers are at an all-time high and growing faster than ever. — 18,000+ monthly active …
Google unveils 13 software features to make its devices work better together, including expanded Fast Pair and unlocking an Android phone with a Wear OS 3 watch
Dieter Bohn / The Verge :
France's data regulator, the CNIL, fines Google €150M and Meta €60M for failing to let French users easily reject cookie trackers
PARIS — French data regulator the CNIL is set to fine Google €150 million and Facebook €60 million for violating EU privacy rules.
Kazakhstan faces internet disruptions and a subsequent nationwide shutdown since Tuesday evening, amid protests against energy price increases
Network data from NetBlocks confirm a significant disruption to internet service in Kazakhstan from the evening of Tuesday 4 January 2022 …
Meta says it is still working on a “highly specialized OS” for its AR/VR devices, and it is not “halting or scaling back” operations in building AR/VR software
It's still interested in a custom OS — Meta reportedly pulled the plug on a custom operating system … Source: @gabeaul .
A record $14B flowed to criminal crypto addresses in 2021, up from $7.8B in 2020, driven by DeFi scams; total transaction volume reached $15.8T, up 567% YoY
This blog is a preview of our 2022 Crypto Crime Report. Sign up here to reserve your copy and we'll email you the full report when it comes out in February!
Google announces Home integration with some Volvo cars, allowing control of car systems with Assistant commands, starting in the US and six European countries
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch :
HTC announces the Vive Wrist Tracker, a watch-like controller that tracks hand-to-elbow positions for its Vive Focus 3 VR headset, launching in Q1 2022 for $129
Set to launch later this quarter — HTC is announcing a new wrist-based controller for its Vive Focus 3 virtual reality headset.
Sources: IBM has restarted attempts to sell its unprofitable Watson Health division, potentially for over $1B; IBM has spent $4B on M&A to build Watson Health
IBM has resurrected its sale process for IBM Watson Health, with hopes of fetching more than $1 billion, people familiar with the situation tell Axios.
Tencent's WeChat will add support for China's digital yuan, e-CNY, to WeChat Pay
- Tencent-owned WeChat, China's largest messaging app and one of the country's biggest payment services, will begin supporting the digital yuan. — The People's Bank of China, which issues …
On the January 6 riot anniversary, data scientists say AI models can help forecast similar events, as some question their accuracy and potential for misuse
A year after the attack on the Capitol, data scientists say artificial intelligence can help forecast insurrection — with some caveats
Spotify introduces Call-to-Action Cards, a visual ad format for podcasts that puts clickable cards inside show and episode pages
Spotify is today introducing is introducing a new ad format aimed at podcasters which it's calling “Call-to-Action Cards” — or CTA cards, for short.
Intel claims its 12th-gen 14-core Core i9 outperforms Apple's M1 Max and is the fastest CPU ever, although the i9 uses significantly more power than the M1 Max
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors :
Brave reports 15.5M+ DAUs and 50M+ MAUs at the end of 2021, up from 24M MAUs at the end of 2020, 10M+ mobile downloads in 2021, and Brave Ads revenue up 4x YoY
Brave Search now at 2.3 billion annualized queries — Key new products from Brave this year included Brave Search …
Tencent says WeChat mini programs grew to 450M DAUs in 2021, up 12.5% on 2020, and WeChat's search feature gained 200M MAUs in 2021, despite China's crackdown
Bloomberg :
Asus unveils the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED with a 17.3" foldable screen, Intel's 12th-gen CPUs, up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, and more, coming in Q2 for a TBD price
and it's coming this year Eric Abent / SlashGear : ASUS Zenbook 17 Fold OLED redefines the phrase ‘convertible laptop’ Roland Udvarlaki / Pocketnow : From 17 to 12 inches: meet the ASUS Zenbook 17 Fol...
China's copyright authority bans digital music platforms from signing exclusive copyright agreements except in special circumstances
China's copyright authority said on Thursday digital music platforms are not allowed to sign exclusive copyright agreements except in special circumstances …
Sony details PlayStation VR2 for PS5: a 4K HDR OLED display, 2000×2040 pixels per eye, 110° FoV, eye tracking, haptic feedback, inside-out cameras, and more
Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica :
Kosovo bans crypto mining in an attempt to curb energy consumption as the country faces its worst power crisis in a decade
Fatos Bytyci / Reuters :
London-based iProov, which offers face authentication tools to governments and other organizations, raises $70M from Sumeru Equity
Biometrics, and specifically facial recognition, have seen a surge of usage in the last several years, first as a tool to help organizations verify identities digitally …
A visit to CES 2022, where only 50,000 to 75,000 attendees are expected, less than half the number of CES 2020 attendees
Chris Velazco / Washington Post :
Property management software company Entrata cuts ties with its co-founder and former CEO after he sent an anti-Semitic email to Utah tech and political leaders
crazy:” https://www.fox13now.com/... @fox13 #utpol #Utah https://twitter.com/... @rpsagainsttrump : It's 2022 America and antisemitism is still with us. Disgusting. The founder and chair of Entrata, a...
Bengaluru-based Dunzo, which operates a hyperlocal delivery service in seven Indian cities, raises $240M led by Reliance Retail at a $775M valuation
Manish Singh / TechCrunch :
Bitcoin falls to ~$43.7K, down from an all-time high of ~$68K in November 2021, after the Fed confirmed plans to increase interest rates in March 2022
Jordan Finneseth / Cointelegraph :
PitchBook: US startups raised a record $329.8B in 2021, up from a record $166.6B in 2020; over half, or $190.8B, came from $100M+ rounds
Sum nearly doubles from 2020 in a financing rush one fund manager deems ‘not rational’ — Investors poured a record $330bn into private start-ups …
Walmart says it plans to expand InHome, its grocery service that delivers directly to customer's refrigerators, from 6M US households to 30M by the end of 2022
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch :
Vietnam-based Timo Bank raises $20M led by Square Peg, its first outside funding since its 2015 founding, as it aims to acquire a digital banking license
Deepti Sri / Tech in Asia :
France-based PayFit, which offers a payroll and HR SaaS service for SMBs, raises $289M Series E led by General Atlantic at a post money valuation of $2.1B
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch :
Rupifi, which works with Flipkart and other e-commerce companies in India to offer a buy now, pay later service for mom and pop shops, raises $25M
Rupifi has raised $25 million in a new financing round as the Indian startup, which currently provides buy now, pay later service …
Petal, which offers credit cards based on a potential borrower's cash flow rather than credit score, raises a $140M Series D, source says at an $800M valuation
I am incredibly proud to share that Petal has raised $140 million … Finextra : Credit card for the underbanked Petal raises $140 million Series D PYMNTS.com : Petal Raises $140M Series D Toward Credit...
If the metaverse takes off, it could take cues from today's privatized, centralized, financialized tech ecosystem and echo the development of play-to-earn games
it was a game, a farming simulator, played by tens of millions of people on Facebook—before asking if we might be interested in some eggs. @NewYorker https://www.newyorker.com/... Matthew Ball / @ball...
Sygnum, a Switzerland and Singapore-based digital asset bank and crypto trading platform, raises $90M led by Sun Hung Kai & Co. at an $800M valuation
Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg :
The number of unemployed Chinese tech workers is growing amid fears that China's tech crackdown could kill the entrepreneurial drive that made it a tech power
Li Yuan / New York Times : Tweets: @nytimesbusiness , @ajitpai , @kennedycsis , @jorge_guajardo , @david_mulroney , @charlesmok , @liyuan6 , and @paratus2014 Tweets: @nytimesbusiness : In place of th...
Alto, which offers a self-directed IRA service, raises a $40M Series B to help people make tax-savvy alternative investments in assets like crypto and artwork
Anita Ramaswamy / TechCrunch :
Online whiteboard tool Miro raises a $400M Series C at a $17.5B post-money valuation, up from $725M in April 2020, and says it has 30M users
Profile of LumaFusion, a $30 video editing app for iOS and iPadOS that claims 930,000 users, amid speculation that Apple could bring Final Cut Pro to iPad
Global VC funding reached $643B in 2021, up from $335B in 2020 and ~$300B in 2019, with $29.4B in seed funding, $201B in early stage, and $413B in late stage
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.
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.