Techmeme: Loft, a São Paulo-based real estate marketplace for Latin America, raises $175M Series C co-led by a16z and Vulcan Capital (Anna Escher/TechCrunch)

Top News

Google says its AI has made significant improvements at reading mammograms to detect breast cancer in a research study of images from around 90K cases — Computers that are trained to recognize patterns and interpret images may outperform humans at finding cancer on X-rays.

More: The Keyword, BBC, Input, MIT Technology Review, USA Today, Towards Data Science, BGR, Tehrani.com, TechSpot, Gizmodo, Bloomberg, ComputerWeekly.com, International Business Times, Geek.com, Axios, Business Insider, Mashable, ZDNet, and Neowin

Tweets: @mona_sloane, @nytimes, @wsj, @joehas, @natashabhuyan, @uhoelzle, @pedrocanod, and @omkar_raii

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:

Samsung says it shipped 6.7M+ Galaxy 5G phones globally in 2019, accounting for 53.9% of the 5G phone market; Samsung had only sold 2M 5G devices as of Sept. — 2020 will be the real test for 5G devices, though — Samsung sold 6.7 million 5G phones in 2019 between the Galaxy S10 5G …

More: Samsung US Newsroom, Digital Trends, The Next Web, VentureBeat, XDA Developers, Thurrott, ExtremeTech, 9to5Google, Telegraph, Engadget, Android Headlines, TechCrunch, Tom's Guide, Android Central, and CNET. Tweets: @ibd_ecarson

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Apptopia: TikTok's in-app purchase revenue grew to $50M in Q4 2019, up from $20M in Q3, and was up 310% YoY — According to newly released third-party data, TikTok has reason to dance. — The famous, short-video application saw its in-app purchase revenue rise 310% on a year …

More: Threatpost and NullTX

Tweets: @lanceulanoff and @alex

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Sources: Snap has acquired Ukraine-based computer vision startup AI Factory, which helped create a Cameos feature Snapchat is currently testing, for ~$166M — After acquiring Ukraine startup Looksery in 2015 to supercharge animated selfie lenses in Snapchat — arguably changing the filters game …

More: AIN.UA, Yahoo Finance, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @edbott and @joshconstine

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

SuperData: digital games and interactive media revenue was up 4% YoY to $120.1B in 2019, with $64.4B for mobile; Fortnite topped with $1.8B, vs. $2.4B in 2018 — The combined game industry grew 3% to $120.1 billion in 2019, according to market researcher SuperData in its year-end report.

Zach Laidlaw / Android Police:

APK teardown reveals Galaxy S11 camera features like Director's View, Pro Video, and Bokeh Effects, and super fast charging for Fold 2, topping out at 45W — There's a certain thrill we feel when a photo of an unreleased device slides across our desks. It's new, mysterious, exciting …

More: XDA Developers, Android Authority, Android Authority, Neowin, Android Headlines, SamMobile, MobileSyrup, and SlashGear

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

EU Patent Office rejects two patent applications in which AI was designated as the inventor; this is the right decision that all patent offices should emulate — We've written a bunch about why AI generated artwork should not (and need not) have any copyright at all.

More: ZDNet. Tweets: @woganmay and @glynmoody

Anna Escher / TechCrunch:

Loft, a São Paulo-based real estate marketplace for Latin America, raises $175M Series C co-led by a16z and Vulcan Capital — Loft may have better product market fit in Brazil than Opendoor does in the U.S.. And now the São Paulo-based property tech company has growth funding to prove it.

More: FinSMEs, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, Crunchbase News, Contxto, and Business Wire. Tweets: @megan_hernbroth

New York Times:

A look at the optimists behind the Y2K-era Cassandra Project and how they emphasized the importance of analog community building amid technological uncertainty — For millennials, Y2K felt like an apocalypse. Twenty years later, we're still anxious.

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Google unveils the Coral Dev Board Mini, a smaller, budget alternative to the Coral Dev Board with the Edge TPU, and the Accelerator Module, available H1 2020 — Last March, Google took the wraps off of Coral, a collection of hardware kits and accessories intended to bolster AI development at the edge.

More: Tom's Hardware, Google Developers Blog, CNX Software, SiliconANGLE, and 9to5Google. Tweets: @googledevs

Steve Brooks / Enterprise Times:

Receipt Bank, a UK-based digital bookkeeping platform, raises ~$73M Series C led by Insight Partners — Receipt Bank has announced a successful $73 million Series C funding round led by Insight Partner. Receipt Bank was advised by Harris Williams. This is the second round led …

More: EU-Startups, Business Wire, Telegraph, FinSMEs, and UKTN

Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:

Dell debuts a new Latitude 9510 laptop with built-in 5G, to launch March 26, and says a spring update to its Mobile Connect software will enable iOS mirroring — Ahead of next week's CES in Las Vegas, Dell today announced two PC updates that will improve its appeal to users of mobile devices …

More: The Next Web, Bloomberg, Digital Trends, PR Newswire, O'Grady's PowerPage, Softpedia News, Mashable, LaptopMag, Windows Central, The Verge, Thurrott, The Mac Observer, TechSpot, Light Reading, BGR, SiliconANGLE, and WebProNews. Tweets: @seattletimes

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends:

Dell debuts updated XPS 13 with Intel 10th-gen processors, Intel's Iris Plus graphics, 16:10 screen, larger touchpad, available January 7 starting at $999

More: LaptopMag, Barton's Blog, Firstpost Tech, Engadget, XDA Developers, Engadget, The Verge, AnandTech, BetaNews, The Next Web, Gizmodo, SlashGear, Thurrott, CNET, Ars Technica, Windows Central, Windows Experience Blog, MSPoweruser, ZDNet, Tom's Hardware, LaptopMag, WebProNews, and Mashable

Tweets: @rjcc, @devindra, @killyourfm, @jaycuthrell, and @tomwarren. Thanks:@smashdawg

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Clearcover, which uses AI to sell affordable auto insurance, raises $50M Series C led by Omers Ventures — Millions of car owners in the U.S. have yet to secure automotive insurance of any kind, which isn't surprising considering the average policy costs a sky-high $1,099 annually.

More: TechCrunch, FinSMEs, Clearcover, and Chicago Tribune

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

Q&A with Jimmy Iovine about music industry's reconciliation with tech in the last decade, why streaming music services are like utilities with low margins, more — The record executive who made the leap to Silicon Valley looks back on the decade in the music business, and sees a major problem on the horizon.

More: Music Industry Blog, Business Insider, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, 9to5Mac, and iDownloadBlog.com

Tweets: @ballmatthew, @jeremiahlee, @nytimes, @katjetson, @jszanchi, @trengriffin, @sammyandrews, @mattrosoff, @aservais1, @punchdouble, @nytimesmusic, and @drgonzo123

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