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February 19, 2020, 12:05 PM
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WeSmirchTop News
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Microsoft launches a unified Office app for iOS and Android, combining Word, Excel, and PowerPoint into a single app; standalone versions will remain available — Even more mobile features are on the way soon — Microsoft is releasing its new unified Office app for iOS and Android today … | Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: |
EU issues proposals to drive digitization across industries and sectors, including rules for high risk AI systems and a regulatory framework for data governance — European Union lawmakers have set out a first bundle of proposals for a new digital strategy for the bloc …
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New York Times, The Next Web, Yahoo Finance, ZDNet, European Commission, Reuters, Bloomberg, VentureBeat, Fortune, Patently Apple, DW.COM, Wall Street Journal, Wccftech, and CCIA
Tweets: @vonderleyen, @eu_commission, @eu_commission, @eu_commission, @eu_commission, and @dsmeu
| Dave Gershgorn / OneZero : |
Profile of Japan-based NEC, which has been a longtime provider of facial recognition services globally and garners less scrutiny than new entrants in the space — July 2018, the mayor of Irving, Texas, signed a contract that would dramatically expand how the city's police department could investigate crimes using facial recognition.| Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: |
Twitter acquires Chroma Labs, which makes tools for video and photo creation, will split team across product, design, and engineering, shut down Chroma Stories — - Company builds photo, video-editing features for social media — Chroma will join Twitter to work on ‘conversations’ products
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TechCrunch, Marketing Land, Engadget, Crunchbase News, Business Insider, Silicon Republic, Social Media Today, and Adweek
Tweets: @kayvz, @chroma_labs, @joshconstine, @kurtwagner8, @kurtwagner8, and @technology
| Josh Constine / TechCrunch: |
Facebook is internally testing a tabbed version of News Feed for mobile that includes the Most Relevant, Most Recent, and Already Seen feeds — Facebook may make it easier to escape its ranking algorithm and explore the News Feed in different formats. Facebook has internally prototyped …
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XDA Developers, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, Social Media Today, Input, and The Next Web
Tweets: @wongmjane, @alexvoica, @joshconstine, and @wongmjane
| Michael del Castillo / Forbes: |
Coinbase becomes a Visa Principal Member, allowing it to issue bitcoin debit cards for other crypto companies and traditional firms — Credit card giant Visa has granted its principal membership to a cryptocurrency company for the first time. Officially awarded to cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase …
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The Coinbase Blog, TechCrunch, Decrypt, BetaNews, The Block, Crowdfund Insider, BitcoinExchangeGuide, CoinDesk, and Cointelegraph
Tweets: @jesselund and @mdudas
| Richard Cooke / Wired: |
A tribute to Wikipedia, which is one of the few remaining places that retains the faintly utopian glow of the early World Wide Web — People used to think the crowdsourced encyclopedia represented all that was wrong with the web. Now it's a beacon of so much that's right.
Tweets: @alexhinojo, @wikimedia, @rgcooke, @wired, @jonnoxrevanche, @timsmithrx, @mondaystory, and @johnbirmingham
| Nick Turner / Bloomberg: |
Groupon says it will shutter Groupon Goods, its e-commerce platform for physical products, after reporting worse-than-expected results; stock drops 40%+ — - Company plans to abandon the business of selling goods — Groupon will focus on being marketplace for local experiences
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Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, The Verge, CNBC, The Business Journals, PYMNTS.com, Yahoo Finance, and Business Wire
| Billy Steele / Engadget: |
As Photoshop turns 30, Adobe begins rolling out new desktop and mobile features, including bringing the Object Selection tool to iPad — Photoshop turns 30 today, and Adobe is celebrating with some worthwhile updates to the photo-editing app on both the desktop and iPad.| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google begins rolling out two Google Docs features: autocorrect, enabled by default, and Smart Compose, for paying customers — Last November, Google Docs started testing autocorrect and Smart Compose as part of leveraging machine learning to improve user productivity.
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G Suite Updates Blog, G Suite Updates Blog, Android Police, Input, Android Headlines, and TechRadar.com. Tweets: @caseynewton
| Corbin Davenport / Android Police: |
Mozilla releases its VPN service Firefox Private Network on Android in a closed beta for $4.99/month — Mozilla, the organization behind the much-loved Firefox web browser, has experimented with creating a VPN service for some time. Unlike the VPNs packaged with browsers like Opera …
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XDA Developers, CNET, 9to5Google, Yahoo Finance, Chrome Unboxed, KnowTechie, Windows Central, The Next Web, Neowin, Technology Personalized, Pocket-lint, Softpedia News, Engadget, Input, SlashGear, Droid Life, and TechRadar.com. Tweets: @agilethumbs
| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
Online learning marketplace Udemy, which offers over 150,000 courses, raises $50M from Japanese publisher Benesse Holdings at a $2B post-money valuation — The internet has, for better or worse, become the default platform for people seeking information, and today one of the companies leveraging … | Hugh Son / CNBC: |
LendingClub is acquiring Boston-based online bank Radius Bancorp in a deal valued at $185M, making it the first US fintech company to acquire a bank — - LendingClub, a fintech company that pioneered personal loans made online, is buying a U.S. bank to give it access to a stable and cheaper source of funding, CNBC has learned.
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PR Newswire, Bloomberg, American Banker, LendingClub, PYMNTS.com, and PYMNTS.com
Tweets: @mengxilu, @howardlindzon, @jesselund, @shamir_k, @iankar_, @stephmacc, @cryptohodler16, @sarthakgh, and @iankar_
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Colorado-based Outrider, which operates a SaaS platform for fully- and semi-autonomous truck fleets, emerges from stealth with $53M in seed and Series A — Driverless vehicle technology has the potential to transform industries — and indeed, it already has.
More:
TechCrunch and Crunchbase News
| Nicholas Quah / Hot Pod News: |
Patreon has launched Patreon Capital, which provides creators with cash advances they pay back with slight interest using income earned on the platform — I was tempted to kick this story off with a platitude along the lines of: “Starting something is the hardest part.”
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The Verge, Gizmodo, Nieman Lab, PYMNTS.com, Input, Yahoo Finance, and TechSpot
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Indian education platform Unacademy raises $110M Series E from General Atlantic, Sequoia Capital India, Facebook, and others — Unacademy, one of India's fastest growing education startups, has just received the backing of a major technology giant: Facebook.
Tweets: @gauravmunjal, @refsrc, and @aparanjape
| Steven Overly / Politico: |
Judge rules that Huawei does not have grounds to sue the US government over a law banning federal agencies and their contractors from buying Huawei products — A federal judge ruled today that Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei does not have grounds to sue the U.S. government …
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Reuters, Tom's Hardware, Axios, Input, Telecoms.com, SiliconANGLE, and The Hill
Tweets: @frankpallone, @jodixu, @mattdrange, @lisahopeking, and @ericgeller
| George P. Slefo / Ad Age: |
Consumer insights provider Hitwise is shutting down after 24 years, following allegations that it purchased sensitive user data from Avast's Jumpshot — The move underscores the growing impact consumer privacy is having in areas such as ad tech — Consumer insights company Hitwise … | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Swiggy, India's largest food delivery startup, raises $113M Series I led by Prosus Ventures, source says at a $3.6B valuation; Swiggy has raised ~$1.57B to date — Weeks after Zomato acquired Uber's Eats business in India, its chief local rival is bulking up some ammunition of its own.
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Entrackr
| Chris O'Brien / VentureBeat: |
SentinelOne, which provides autonomous, real-time, AI-based endpoint security protection, raises $200M Series E led by Insight Partners at a $1B+ valuation — SentinelOne has raised $200 million in a venture capital round that pushes its valuation past $1 billion as investors continue …
More:
SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, and Silicon Valley Business …
| Dan Primack / Axios: |
Inside Founders Fund's deal process, where smaller investments only need limited partner approval, as it has raised its seventh fund and a $1.5B growth fund — Founders Fund has raised $3 billion for a pair of new funds, so expect a slew of headlines about how “Peter Thiel's venture capital firm” is now flush with cash.| Taiga Uranaka / Bloomberg: |
Sources: Japan's Mitsubishi UFJ Financial Group is investing $700M in ride hailing giant Grab, intends to market its financial services to Grab's users — - MUFG gains access to millions of users in Southeast Asia — Grab is trying to build a regional super-app like WeChat
More:
Crowdfund Insider and Crunchbase News
| Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica: |
ISPs seek an injunction against a Maine law requiring opt-in consent before sharing customer info like browsing histories, saying it violates free-speech rights — Law says ISPs need opt-in consent before using or sharing Web-browsing history. — The broadband industry is suing Maine …
More:
Techdirt, The Daily Dot, IT Management, and The Mac Observer
Tweets: @justinbrookman and @lam_barrett
| Johana Bhuiyan / Los Angeles Times: |
Sources: Uber shuts down its customer support office in LA, laying off ~80 employees and outsourcing their jobs to a support office in Manila — Uber has closed a customer support office in downtown Los Angeles, laying off about 80 employees, The Times has learned.
More:
Quartz, Business Insider, Seeking Alpha, and socalTECH.com
Tweets: @jmbooyah and @margotroosevelt
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