Techmeme: Crypto lending and borrowing service BlockFi raises $30M Series B led by Valar Ventures, bringing its total raised to over $100M (Robert Stevens/Decrypt)

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Tom Warren / The Verge:

GSMA says it has canceled Mobile World Congress after the coronavirus made it “impossible” to hold the event — MWC 2020 is no more — The world's biggest phone show, Mobile World Congress, is no longer taking place this year. After coronavirus threatened to throw MWC into chaos …

More: GSMA Newsroom, Bloomberg, WIRED UK, The Guardian, HMD Global, Protocol, Associated Press, TechCrunch, Financial Times, CNET, VentureBeat, Skift, Nokia, Mashable, Axios, DSLreports, BGR, Music Ally, International Business Times, CNX Software, SamMobile, CNET, RCR Wireless News, NBC Bay Area, BT Group statement …, USA Today, Patently Apple, BetaNews, Channel Futures, Fortune, Android Central, SDxCentral, ExtremeTech, SiliconANGLE, Variety, Digital Trends, Washington Post, Gizchina, South China Morning Post, MacDailyNews, Wccftech, LaptopMag, Android Authority, iDownloadBlog.com, PCWorld, TechSpot, Phandroid, Tom's Guide, Droid Life, OnMSFT.com, AnandTech, ZDNet, TechRadar.com, Input, Reuters, CNBC, Thurrott, XDA Developers, Pocket-lint, The Next Web, MacRumors, Yahoo Finance, SlashGear, Android Police, GeekWire, Gizmodo, Android Police, Phone Scoop, Engadget, 9to5Google, Computer Business Review, GamesIndustry.biz, Silicon Republic, TechRepublic, New York Post, Pocketnow, Input, and MSPoweruser

Tweets: @yvonnemantv, @scobleizer, @leojtravis10, @spencerdailey, @brianhonan, @iainthomson, @markgurman, @ruskin147, @danielthomasldn, @dcseifert, @paulobrien, @urbanstrata, @panzer, and @ingridlunden

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Snapchat is testing a redesign with a navigation bar, a top news section, and a more accessible Snap Map, three years after its last, widely panned redesign — A new home for the Snap Map and its original shows — plus a new test of news briefs — Snap is working on two significant tests …

More: The Atlantic, Business Insider, Social Media Today, iPhone Hacks, and Memeburn

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

Senator Gillibrand proposes creating a government agency to protect internet privacy, similar to a bill proposed by a pair of California House Democrats — - New York Democratic Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand just became the latest lawmaker to propose digital privacy legislation.

More: Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, Protocol, TechCrunch, Yahoo Finance, The Hill, and The Verge. Tweets: @zackwhittaker

New York Times:

Andy Rubin's Essential Products, which raised $330M to build smartphones and was valued at $1B, says it is ceasing operations — The smartphone company founded by Mr. Rubin, a former Google executive, struggled to win over customers. — SAN FRANCISCO — Essential Products …

More: Essential, MacRumors, Wall Street Journal, 9to5Google, International Business Times, The Next Web, Protocol, Patently Apple, The Verge, Input, Spark Blog, Android Headlines, Tom's Guide, Pricebaba.com Daily, Pocket-lint, Engadget, TechSpot, MacDailyNews, Pocketnow, ZDNet, TechRadar.com, Ars Technica, Fortune, ExtremeTech, Digital Trends, Gizmodo, Mashable, BGR, iPhone Hacks, The Loop, Phandroid, iDownloadBlog.com, BuzzFeed News, BBC, Droid Life, Silicon Valley Business …, Neowin, AppleInsider, Business Insider, Yahoo Finance, XDA Developers, TechCrunch, SlashGear, Android Authority, CNET, Thurrott, 9to5Google, and Android Central

Tweets: @androidcentral, @cassidyjames, @carnage4life, @msurguy, @dcseifert, @tapbot_paul, @alex__rubel, @daiwaka, @rquandt, @saschasegan, @hunterwalk, @mgsiegler, @danprimack, @stevekovach, and @s_m_i

Eileen Yu / ZDNet:

Alibaba Q3: total revenue of $23.1B, up 38% YoY; net income $7.49B, up 58% YoY; cloud revenue grows 62% YoY to hit $1.53B — Alibaba's cloud revenue exceeds 10 billion yuan for the first time in a single quarter, growing 62% to hit 10.72 billion yuan for its third quarter …

More: Financial Times, South China Morning Post, Financial Times, and TheStreet

Mia Sato / Input:

How teens are using Instagram to create eBay-like thrift shops, with the Story highlight area as a FAQ page, and comments for bidding — Carly Shipman, who hails from the suburbs of Chicago, lives the typical life of a high schooler. She goes to class every day, then to track practice in the afternoon.

Tweets: @abcdedgar

Kris Holt / Engadget:

Uber pilots booking rides with a phone call, not via the app, in Arizona, by dialing 1-833-USE-UBER and talking to a human operator — Uber is piloting a different way to order one of its cars beyond its apps or voice assistants, and it's one you might be familiar with if you ever had to order a cab before 2009 or so.

More: CNET, The Verge, and Mashable

Tweets: @can and @kantrowitz

Robert Stevens / Decrypt:

Crypto lending and borrowing service BlockFi raises $30M Series B led by Valar Ventures, bringing its total raised to over $100M — The latest funding round pushed BlockFi's total funding to over $100 million. — Ethereum — Crypto lending and borrowing service BlockFi today announced …

More: CoinDesk

Christina Farr / CNBC:

Sources: Google's scattered health care projects unify under Google Health, which now has over 500 employees and is led by former Geisinger CEO David Feinberg — - More than 500 people now work at Google Health, mostly out of the Palo Alto offices formerly occupied by smart home group Nest.

More: Becker's Hospital Review, Seeking Alpha, and WebProNews

Tweets: @attilacsordas, @chrissyfarr, @berci, @derrickharris, and @mattrosoff

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Intuition Robotics, which makes companion robots for elderly people, raises $36M Series B co-led by Sparx Group and OurCrowd — Israeli robotics startup Intuition Robotics has raised $36 million in a series B round of funding co-led by Sparx Group and OurCrowd, with participation from Samsung Next …

More: FinSMEs, Yahoo Finance, PR Newswire, The Times of Israel, Nasdaq, and Voicebot.ai

Kyle Wilson / VICE:

A bot called Lsjbot is responsible for 24M out of 29.5M edits and 99.2% of articles for Wikipedia Cebuano edition; all but 5 of the top 35 editors are also bots — Kyle Wilson is an administrator on the English Wikipedia and a global user renamer . He does not receive payment …

Tweets: @motherboard and @motherboard

Larry Dignan / ZDNet:

Broadcom unveils Wi-Fi 6E chip designed to deliver 2 Gbps+ speeds with better battery life, says it will also improve Bluetooth audio performance and range — With a Wi-Fi 6E processor called BCM4389, Broadcom is aiming to take advantage of new 6 GHz spectrum coming online through multiple devices.

More: VentureBeat, CNET, TheStreet, Reuters, and AnandTech

Theodore Schleifer / Vox:

Larry Ellison is hosting a fundraiser for Donald Trump next week; while Ellison has consistently backed Republicans, he wasn't a major Trump donor until now — Larry Ellison risks blowback from his employees at Oracle. Phillip Faraone/Getty Images — It's the most significant endorsement …

More: Desert Sun and Politico

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google's Area 120 launches GameSnacks, which offers casual games for low memory devices on 2G and 3G, launching initially in Indonesia on Gojek's GoGames — A new project called GameSnacks is launching today from Google's in-house incubator, Area 120, with the goal of bringing fast-loading …

Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:

Democratic senators propose the Ethical Use of Artificial Intelligence Act that would place a moratorium on facial recognition use by federal agencies, police — Two Democratic U.S. Senators today proposed legislation that requires a moratorium on facial recognition use by federal agencies …

More: Axios

Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE:

Consumer advocacy group DoNotPay launches Robo Revenge, an app that fights robocallers by giving them burner credit card info and then helping users sue them — DoNotPay, the family of consumer advocacy services meant to protect people from corporate exploitation, is launching a new app aimed …

More: The Verge, The Overspill, and iDownloadBlog.com

Tweets: @jbrowder1, @packym, @iamb, @sub8u, @tylertringas, @katies, @awilkinson, @hkanji, @billbrowder, @jbrowder1, @qdwoods, and @semil

Sarah Holder / CityLab:

Nextdoor launches new app for public agencies like police, fire departments, and city halls, allowing them to post updates and push out geotargeted alerts — The neighborhood social network's new app is aimed at public agencies, and it lets local law enforcement more easily tap into the online community.

Tweets: @sarahsholder, @nextdoor, @citylab, @sarahsholder, @citylab, @math_rachel, @rickpaulas, @derektmead, and @hypervisible

Todd Spangler / Variety:

SEC filing: Spotify bought The Ringer for ~$141M to $196M in cash, some of it deferred and subject to closing adjustments — Spotify disclosed that it will pay upwards of $196 million for The Ringer, the podcast and media company founded by Bill Simmons. — The streaming music and audio company …

More: Fortune and U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Tweets: @grage52

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