Techmeme: Nivaura, which aims to use blockchains to automate the lifecycle for the issuance of financial instruments, raises $20M led by the London Stock Exchange (Ian Allison/CoinDesk)

Top News

Mariella Moon / Engadget:

Samsung begins mass production of 512GB embedded Universal Flash Storage (eUFS) 3.0 chips for smartphones, with speeds of up to 2,100 MB/s — Samsung's future phones, including the Galaxy Fold, will have read and write speeds comparable with snappy ultra-fast laptops.

More: Samsung Global Newsroom, CNET, 9to5Google, Neowin, BGR, Android Authority, Gizchina, and SlashGear

Eugene Wei / Remains of the Day:

An in-depth analysis of social media platforms through the lens of social capital theory and why we should think of them as “Status as a Service” businesses — Editor's Note 1: I have no editor. — Editor's Note 2: I would like to assure new subscribers to this blog that most my posts are not as long as this one.

Tweets: @eugenewei, @sriramk, @dkthomp, @naval, @carnage4life, @asemota, @ingridlunden, @kevinakwok, @carnage4life, @carnage4life, @besvinick, and @slpng_giants

Isobel Asher Hamilton / Business Insider:

Sensor Tower: TikTok passed 1B downloads on Android and iOS, excluding Android installs in China; 663M downloads came in 2018, beating Instagram's 444M — - Chinese short-form video app TikTok has been downloaded 1 billion times across Android and iOS, according to Sensor Tower figures.

More: Sensor Tower Blog, TechCrunch, CNET, Mashable, TechNode, and Adweek

The Keyword:

Google and DeepMind are using AI to predict the power output of wind farms 36 hours ahead of actual generation, boosting economic value of wind energy by ~20% — Carbon-free technologies like renewable energy help combat climate change, but many of them have not reached their full potential.

More: The Register, SlashGear, The Verge, MIT Technology Review, Forbes, Engadget, VentureBeat, and 9to5Google

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

Russian court hands former Russian cybersecurity chief and a Kaspersky Lab executive lengthy prison sentences after being convicted on treason charges — A Russian court has handed down lengthy prison terms for two men convicted on treason charges for allegedly sharing information …

More: NBC News, WinBuzzer, The Daily Beast, New York Times, and Dark Reading

James Vincent / The Verge:

FedEx begins trialling SameDay Bot, an autonomous robot that can travel at 10 MPH, for same-day deliveries in Memphis, with plans to expand elsewhere — Trials of the robot, which has a top speed of 10 mph, will begin later this year — Startups do it. Amazon does it.

More: Engadget, Washington Post, Digital Trends, Fortune, and Reuters

Ian Allison / CoinDesk:

Nivaura, which aims to use blockchains to automate the lifecycle for the issuance of financial instruments, raises $20M led by the London Stock Exchange — Capital markets blockchain startup Nivaura has raised a total of $20 million with the closing of its second seed extension round led by the London Stock Exchange Group (LSEG).

More: Reuters, Bitcoinist.com, FinSMEs, Tech.eu, Finextra Research Headlines, and The Block

Tweets: @prestonjbyrne and @travisscher

Federal Trade Commission:

FTC settles with supplement maker in first case involving allegedly fake paid Amazon reviews to gain a five-star rating, will suspend most of $12.8M judgment — Commission also alleges weight-loss supplement claims were deceptive — The Federal Trade Commission today announced …

More: The Verge, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Vox, KnowTechie, Washington Post, Engadget, Search Engine Land, Mashable, Digital Trends, TechSpot, CNET, and SlashGear

Tweets: @mblumenthal, @itsnicolenguyen, @ftc, @pmkoom, @lindagrahovec, @ben_hebert, and @eliotwb

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

FTC settles with TikTok's Musical.ly for $5.7M over the app's violation of US child privacy laws; TikTok's app updates today with a new UX for those under 13 — A significant FTC ruling issued today will see video app TikTok fined $5.7 million for violating U.S. children's privacy laws …

More: Federal Trade Commission, Variety, and Tubefilter

Andrii Degeler / Tech.eu:

UK-based Tessian, which applies machine learning to enterprise email security to eliminate threats, raises $42M Series B led by Sequoia Capital — The US-based VC firm Sequoia Capital has led a $42 million funding round in Tessian, a cybersecurity startup headquartered in London; Latitude …

More: EU-Startups, Bloomberg, and PE Hub Blog

Katyanna Quach / The Register:

IBM apologizes after some US online job application forms asked for the ethnicity of applicants and used racial slurs, says the questions have been removed — Tech giants under fire? Hold my beer, says Big Blue as it spins up race slur recruitment websites

More: Ars Technica, Washington Post, Bloomberg, AOL, Fortune, NextShark, The Hill, WRAL TechWire, and Beyond Search

Tweets: @richparknyc and @theregister

New York Times:

How Chinese tech companies are hurriedly rolling out facial and voice recognition tech for pigs, many of which are dying from a deadly swine disease — As a devastating disease afflicts the country's swine, companies are scrambling to roll out facial and voice recognition and other unproven ways to save them.

More: TechNode. Tweets: @joshtetrick and @billschrier

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Boston-based job-seeking platform Jobcase raises $100M in growth equity funding led by Providence Strategic Growth, bringing total raised to $118.9M — Jobcase, a self-described open access platform for jobs seekers and employers, today announced that it has secured $100 million …

More: FinSMEs, GlobeNewswire News Room, and Xconomy

Manish Singh / VentureBeat:

Spotify launches in India with monthly premium tier starting at 119 rupees or ~$1.67, says free tier users in India can stream any song on demand on mobile — A year after Spotify publicly expressed its intention to launch in India, the music streaming company has finally delivered.

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Threads, which aims to create a user-friendly asynchronous chat platform for coworkers, comes out of stealth with $10.5M Series A from Sequoia — The rapid rise of Slack has ushered in a new wave of apps, all aiming to solve one challenge: creating a user-friendly platform where coworkers can have productive conversations.

More: threadsinc and VentureBeat. Tweets: @jess

Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:

Sendoso, which sends customized gifts to current and prospective clients at scale for a monthly fee, raises $10.7M Series A led by David Sack's Craft Ventures — In today's noisy, fast-paced world, finding a way to let clients and potential customers know that they are top of mind can be a major challenge for companies.

More: PE Hub Blog

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:

Fast, affordable law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

F5:

Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit — Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23. Register now to save your spot.

Zoho:

Website traffic analytics: How to read your data and take action — Traffic is up. Sessions look healthy. The dashboard is full of green arrows and yet — conversions are flat, revenue targets are slipping, and the leads coming through aren't closing.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:

Father of the iPod and iPhone on building taste, judgment, and creativity in the AI era | Tony Fadell

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Big Technology Podcast:

Will Apple (Finally) Get AI Right At WWDC?, Anthropic's Worry, Microsoft vs. OpenAI

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Hot I.P.O Summer + What Is A.I. Doing to Math? + HatGPT

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

The Upstarts Podcast:

Vanta's Christina Cacioppo: The Underdog Turning 'Nonsense' Compliance Into A $4.2B Security Standout

Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.

Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.

Great Chat:

Who are the billboards for?

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:45 PM ET, February 27, 2019.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.