US v. Google: Google paid Apple $20B in 2022 to be the default search engine in Safari; in 2020, Google's payments constituted 17.5% of Apple's operating income
The deal between the two tech giants is at the heart of the landmark case, in which antitrust enforcers allege Google …
Universal Music Group and TikTok strike a new music licensing deal to bring UMG music back to the platform, including “improved remuneration” and AI protections
The months-long standoff between Universal Music Group and TikTok over royalty payments and AI policies is finally over …
Ethan Zuckerman sues to stop Meta from blocking his planned Unfollow Everything 2.0 extension that would let Facebook users tune or even turn off their Feed
Academic Ethan Zuckerman is suing Meta to win protections for add-ons that help researchers study the platform and give users more control over their feeds.
Google says 400M+ Google Accounts have used passkeys since the rollout, logging 1B+ authentications, and expands passkeys to its Advanced Protection Program
Google is kicking off World Password Day by updating us on its efforts toward replacing the often hacked, guessed, and stolen form of authentication with passkeys.
Testimony: UnitedHealth CEO Andrew Witty says the Change Healthcare hack impacted “maybe” 30% of US citizens; UnitedHealth will notify users in “several months”
Two months after hackers broke into Change Healthcare systems stealing and then encrypting company data …
US Senate hearing: UnitedHealth's CEO says the company paid a $22M ransom to the hackers who accessed a Change Healthcare server that wasn't protected by MFA
delayed payment, staff OT to deal with claims processing - despite United's current assistance. Ed Markey / @senmarkey : As American health care prices skyrocket, UnitedHealth's CEO makes millions des...
Microsoft confirms the April 2024 Windows security update breaks VPN connections across client and server platforms on Windows 11, 10, and Server 2008 or later
Microsoft has confirmed that the April 2024 Windows security updates break VPN connections across client and server platforms.
Microsoft rolls out passkey support for all consumer accounts; Microsoft account owners can generate passkeys across Windows, Android, and iOS
Microsoft is fully rolling out passkey support for all consumer accounts today. After enabling them in Windows 11 last year …
As people yearn for the web's “good old days”, bringing those days back is possible with new tech, the possibility of new protocols, and more internet users
Many yearn for the “good old days” of the web. We could have those good old days back — or something even better …
Microsoft announces plans to invest $2.2B in cloud and AI infrastructure in Malaysia over four years and train 200,000 people with AI skills in the country
- Nadella announces plan for more AI infrastructure in Malaysia — Tech companies are targeting Southeast Asia as new growth area
The US DOJ sentences Ukrainian national Yaroslav Vasinskyi to 13+ years in prison and orders $16M in restitution for helping REvil conduct ransomware attacks
A Ukrainian national was sentenced on Wednesday to more than 13 years in prison and ordered to pay $16 million in restitution …
Sony plans to remove Horizon Zero Dawn, one of its biggest first-party games, from PlayStation Plus on May 21; the game is PS4-only, hinting at a PS5 release
Horizon Zero Dawn to leave later this month. — News by Tom Phillips Editor-in-Chief — Follow Horizon: Zero Dawn
Trend Micro: cybercriminals and nation-state spies are coexisting inside the same compromised name-brand routers, using the devices to disguise their attacks
How and why nation-state hackers and cybercriminals coexist in the same router botnet. — Cybercriminals and spies working …
Apple adds carve-outs to EU core tech fee, exempting developers of free apps and giving those with annual global revenue under €10M a three-year “free on-ramp”
Apple is tweaking how it applies a new fee that can apply to iOS developers in the European Union as it continues …
A profile of US District Court judge Amit P. Mehta, who is presiding over the US v. Google case, which could set a precedent for other US tech antitrust cases
Steve Lohr / New York Times :
Peloton CEO Barry McCarthy steps down, as the company lays off ~15% of its workforce, or ~400 people, its fifth layoffs since 2021, when it had 8,600 staffers
Peloton's CEO Barry McCarthy is stepping down after announcing yet another round of layoffs, this time affecting about 15 percent …
Snap announces Snapchat users can edit messages within five minutes of sending them, “coming soon” to Snapchat+ subscribers “first”, map reactions, and more
Snap is launching a slew of new features in Snapchat, including the ability to edit already sent messages allowing …
As social media platforms pivot away from news distribution, a look at news sites like The Verge, which feel more like social media, with aggregation and more
As social networks become less reliable distributors of the news, consumers of digital journalism are seeking out an older form of online real estate.
Tech Transparency Project: US extremist militias are quietly coordinating across ~200 Facebook groups and profiles, after lying low since the January 6 riot
After lying low for years in the aftermath of January 6, exclusive reporting shows, militia extremist groups and profiles …
Sources: Google laid off 200+ employees from its Core teams, including IT and its Python developer team, and plans to move some roles to India and Mexico
unless it's your smartphone Ann Resuma / International Business Times : Google Lays Off 200 ‘Core’ Employees; Eyes Shifting Some Roles To India, Mexico Alice Nunwick / Verdict : Google lays off 200 US...
Some developers are releasing longer context windows for Llama 3 thanks to Meta's open-source approach; Llama 3 has a short context window of 8,000+ tokens
Developers have been praising Meta Platforms' Llama 3, the latest version of its flagship large language model.
LA-based wealth management startup Altruist, whose software and app help with trading and more, raised a $169M Series E led by Iconiq at a $1.5B valuation
- Iconiq Growth led investment in competitor to Schwab, Fidelity — Altruist provides software for registered investment advisers
A look at Ukraine's combat drone startup industry; Kyiv estimates ~200 local startups produce drones based on commercial first-person-view or photography drones
Ukraine needs small drones to combat Russian forces—and is bootstrapping its own industry at home. Mastodon: @justinling@mastodon.online Mastodon: Justin Ling / @justinling@mastodon.online : I got the...
Airbnb launches Icons, a new category of experiences that lets users meet celebrities and stay in outlandish venues, like a replica of the house from Pixar's Up
extraordinary experiences from the world's greatest icons Associated Press : Airbnb offering exotic experiences from a Paris museum to the house in ‘Up’ — some for free Natalie Lung / Bloomberg : Airb...
Chennai-based CRM software maker Freshworks redesignates CEO Girish Mathrubootham as the executive chairman and names Dennis Woodside as his replacement
as a toddler trying to walk, a child growing really fast, and a teenager growing stronger. The emotions running through my mind are similar to a father experiencing his beloved daughter's marriage, ha...
Nvidia updates its experimental ChatRTX chatbot, formerly “Chat with RTX”, to support voice queries and AI models Google's Gemma, ChatGLM3, and OpenAI's CLIP
better photo search, AI speech recognition, and more LLM options Daniel Sims / TechSpot : Nvidia thinks its GPUs are better for onboard AI than NPUs Allisa James / TechRadar : Could generative AI work...
Anthropic launches a free iOS app and Team, its first enterprise plan, which offers access to its Claude 3 Opus, Sonnet, and Haiku models for $30/user/month
SK Hynix says its capacity to make HBM chips is almost fully booked through 2025, and now aims to begin mass production of its next-generation HBM chip in Q3
Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg :
New Jersey-based CoreWeave, which offers GPUs in the cloud, raised $1.1B led by Coatue at a $19B valuation, up from $7B after raising $642M in December 2023
Anonymous social media app Sidechat has become both a place for dialog and a breeding ground for hate speech amid US college protests over the Israel-Hamas war
“How Sidechat Fanned the Flames of University Campus Protests” — https://www.wired.com/... “Amid tensions about free speech on university campuses and the ongoing Israel-Hamas war, anonymous social...
Sources and documents: Huawei is secretly funding cutting-edge research at US universities including Harvard via an independent Washington-based foundation
- Chinese telecom maker is sole funder of optics competition — Blacklisted company's role kept private by DC-based group Bluesky: @marypcbuk.bsky.social . X: @retogregori Bluesky: Mary Branscombe / @...
A look at Intel's efforts to build Ohio One, a “mega fab” that could become the world's largest chip factory and to which the company has committed $28B
Bloomberg :
An NLRB judge finds Amazon CEO Andy Jassy violated US labor law with his comments in 2022 suggesting workers would be “less empowered” if they voted in a union
and tells the online giant to remind employees of their rights Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg : Amazon CEO's Comments Violated Labor Law, NLRB Judge Rules Forums: r/antiwork : Amazon CEO Andy Jassy broke f...
The US CFTC appoints Ted Kaouk as its first chief AI officer; Kaouk currently serves as the regulator's chief data officer and director of its data division
Mengqi Sun / Wall Street Journal :
Qualcomm reports Q2 revenue up 1% YoY to $9.39B, vs. $9.34B est., handset sales up 1% YoY to $6.18B, and forecasts Q3 revenue above estimates
Kif Leswing / CNBC :
LayerX, which makes a browser extension to let companies secure their devices and SaaS apps, raised a $26M Series A, bringing its total funding to $34M
The Israeli startup's Enterprise Browser Extension integrates with any browser, helping enterprises to secure their devices, identities …
Unity names ex-Zynga COO Matthew Bromberg as its new CEO, president, and board member; ex-CEO John Riccitiello resigned in October 2023 after a pricing fiasco
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat :
Atlassian debuts Rovo, an AI product giving businesses contextual search, insights, and the ability to add custom agents to handle tasks and “complete projects”
Starlink users in some unauthorized regions can seemingly still use the internet, despite SpaceX telling users the service would be unavailable to them by May 1
Bloomberg :
TMTG co-founder Andy Litinsky, testifying as a witness in an insider trading case, says Trump nearly derailed the DWAC deal in October 2021, before signing on
Matthew Goldstein / New York Times :
DoorDash reports Q1 revenue up 23% YoY to $2.51B, vs. $2.45B est., total orders up 21% YoY, and forecasts Q2 core profit below est.; DASH drops 9%+
Karius, which uses AI to help analyze blood tests in 400 hospitals, raised $100M led by Khosla, after raising $165M in early 2020 led by Vision Fund II
Sarah McBride / Bloomberg :
eBay reports Q1 revenue up 2% YoY to $2.56B, vs. $2.53B est., GMV up 1% to $18.6B, net income down 23% to $439M, and forecasts Q2 revenue below estimates
AI has the potential to ease the US meat industry's labor vulnerability by letting robots perform some of the high precision tasks required to butcher meat
Bloomberg :
Cybersecurity experts say responses to the new US data breach disclosure rules, which have raised legal risks for public companies and their CISOs, have varied
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times : X: @leocremonezi X: Leo Cremonezi / @leocremonezi : New US rules around the disclosure of data breaches are heaping more pressure on information security chiefs #cyb...
Substack now lets writers paywall their Chat discussion spaces and says active Chat participants are 12% more likely to retain their subscriptions
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26
Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
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.