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February 17, 2021, 1:30 PM
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| Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post: |
DOJ announces charges against three North Korean hackers for conspiring to steal and extort over $1.3B in cash and cryptocurrencies from banks and businesses — The Justice Department on Wednesday unsealed charges against three North Korean hacker spies accused of conspiring to steal …
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U.S. Department of Justice, CyberScoop, us-cert.cisa.gov, Engadget, BBC, CoinDesk, ZDNet, The Verge, Axios, Bloomberg, The Block, Reuters, Associated Press, NBC News, Wall Street Journal, Politico, SecurityWeek, CNBC, and BleepingComputer
Tweets: @ericgeller, @ariehkovler, @shanvav, @ericgeller, @ericgeller, @jvagle, @mikko, @ericgeller, @ericgeller, and @ericgeller
| Karen Weise / New York Times: |
NY AG sues Amazon, alleging it inadequately protected workers from COVID-19 in Staten Island and Queens, and retaliated against employees who raised concerns — The case focuses on two of the company's facilities in New York. — New York's attorney general, Letitia James …
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New York State Unified Court System, Washington Post, TechCrunch, The Verge, NY State Attorney General, Finbold, NY State Attorney General, NPR, Input, CNN, Reuters, Engadget, Mashable, CNBC, Financial Times, New York Post, GeekWire, Wall Street Journal, Insider, New York Daily News, Bloomberg, Axios, and CNET
| Aditya Kalra / Reuters: |
Internal docs: Amazon India has secretly favored big sellers, misrepresented its ties with them, and used them to circumvent tough foreign investment rules — NEW DELHI (Reuters) - It was early 2019, and senior Amazon.com Inc executive Jay Carney was preparing for an important meeting.
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TechCrunch, The Economic Times, Inc42 Media, and VCCircle
Tweets: @beastoftraal, @adityakalra, @anandlunia, @reuters, @kawaljit, @devjyotghoshal, @reuters, @caitindia, @tomescritt, and @counternotions
| Babu Mohan / Android Central: |
Twitter starts testing voice DMs, which can be up to 140 seconds long, on iOS in India, Brazil, and Japan — Twitter is giving its users “more options to express themselves” in conversations. — What you need to know — Twitter is testing a voice messaging feature for direct messages.
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The Verge, Android Police, The Economic Times, Mashable, Wccftech, Inc42 Media, XDA Developers, iPhone Hacks, The Next Web, Fossbytes, Pocketnow, BGR India, Firstpost Tech, and International Business Times
Tweets: @twitterindia, @mathewi, @chrismessina, @quinnypig, @wichsp, @aimeepearcy_, @imavip, @shobz, and @mikeelgan
| Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE: |
Researcher finds one of the first examples of malware written to run natively on Apple's M1 chips; the GoSearch22 adware installs itself as a Safari extension — A security researcher found one of the first examples of malware written to run natively on Apple's M1 processors. — Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
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Objective-See's Blog, Wired, AppleInsider, Tom's Hardware, Engadget, Gizmodo, Forbes, iPhone in Canada Blog, Tom's Guide, Wccftech, and The Mac Observer
Tweets: @wired and @lorenzofb
| Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge: |
Google Maps now lets users pay for public transportation and parking by integrating Passport and ParkMobile services into its app, available in 400+ US cities — Fill your meter or get a train ticket — Google Maps is adding a couple of new useful features: the ability to pay for parking or buy a train ticket right from the app.
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The Keyword, CNET, Gizmodo, 9to5Google, USA Today, TechCrunch, KnowTechie, SlashGear, Android Central, Pocketnow, Neowin, CNBC, MSPoweruser, and Mashable. Tweets: @epro
| Javier Espinoza / Financial Times: |
Epic Games files a formal antitrust complaint against Apple with the European Commission, claiming that Apple imposes commercially unviable burdens on rivals — Filing is latest shot in escalating feud between ‘Fortnite’ developer and Silicon Valley giant — Epic Games has filed … | Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch: |
YouTube says it will expand Shorts, its TikTok rival in beta, to the US soon, add 4K and DVR to YouTube TV, expand in-video shopping, and more in 2021 — YouTube has a host of big product updates coming this year, and it just detailed a lot of them in a blog post from Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan.
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YouTube Official Blog, The Verge, The Verge, Engadget, The Economic Times, Android Police, Bloomberg, 9to5Google, CNET, Android Headlines, Insider, Pocketnow, Variety, Fortune, Deadline, and Tubefilter. Tweets: @fwiz
| Todd Haselton / CNBC: |
Amazon announces Build It, a Kickstarter-like program that lets customers vote on products and says it will build those that get enough support within 30 days — - A new program from Amazon called Build It lets customers choose to back a new product, and if it gets enough support within 30 days, Amazon will build it.
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About Amazon, TechCrunch, CNET, The Verge, TechHive, Engadget, USA Today, CNN, Input, chainstoreage.com, and SlashGear
| Emil Protalinski / GeekWire: |
IDC: Chrome OS market share passed macOS for the first time in 2020, up 4.4 points YoY to 10.8%; Windows fell 4.9 points to 80.5%, macOS rose 0.8 point to 7.5% — New numbers show 2020 was the first year that Chromebooks outsold Macs, posting impressive market share gains at the expense of Windows.
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Windows Central, 9to5Google, Gizchina, 9to5Mac, MUO, iMore, Notebookcheck.net, TechRadar, Android Central, About Chromebooks, and Phandroid. Tweets: @kevinctofel. Thanks:@toddbishop
| Jeff Kauflin / Forbes: |
Source: Stripe is valued at $115B in “secondary market” transactions, up 3x from $36B valuation in April 2020, and is planning a round at a $100B+ valuation — Investors are valuing Stripe at a $115 billion valuation in “secondary market” transactions, where shares … | Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch: |
Reddit publishes its 2020 transparency report: 233M pieces of content were removed out of 3.4B total; 82,858 subreddits were removed, up 4x from 2019 — Reddit has published its transparency report for 2020, showing various numbers relating to removed content, government requests, and other administrative actions.| Peter Smith / Blockchain.com: |
Blockchain.com raises $120M growth round from Moore Strategic Ventures, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and others and says 65M wallets have been created — Today we're excited to share that Blockchain.com has closed on a strategic financing round, securing $120M from some of the world's leading macro investors.
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TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, Reuters, Decrypt, CoinDesk, Bitcoin News, Cryptonews, The Block, Cointelegraph, and Crypto Briefing
| Phil Muncaster / Infosecurity Magazine: |
YouTube takes down nearly 3,000 channels and accounts that were part of Chinese state coordinated influence operation — UK / EMEA News Reporter , Infosecurity Magazine — YouTube has taken down almost 3000 channels and accounts deemed to part of separate Chinese and Russian state coordinated influence operations.| Alex Heath / The Information: |
Sources: Twitter has told employees that they will receive just 57% of their 2020 bonus target after the company missed internal revenue and profit goals — Twitter has told its employees that they will receive a sliver of their corporate bonus target for 2020—just 7% …
Tweets: @alexeheath and @anthony
| Danielle Bochove / Bloomberg: |
Shopify beats estimates with Q4 revenue of $977.7M, up 94% YoY, profit of $504.4M, up 91% YoY, and Gross Merchandise Volume of $41.1B, up 99% YoY — - Company says it will ‘aggressively’ reinvest in products — Gross merchandise value nearly doubles in 4Q to $41.1 billion
More:
Benedict Evans, Financial Times, Shopify, and ZDNet
Tweets: @amasad, @glenngabe, @business, @carnage4life, and @aghose
| Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch: |
Stock trading service Public.com raises $220M Series D at a $1.2B valuation from Greycroft, Accel, Tiger Global, and others — The day before Robinhood goes under the the Congressional hammer, domestic rival Public.com announced this morning that it has closed a $220 million funding round at a $1.2 billion valuation.
More:
Insider, FinLedger, Reuters, Business Wire, WRAL TechWire, and PYMNTS.com
Tweets: @yoda and @briannekimmel
| Cathy Applefeld Olson / Forbes: |
20 music streaming services have paid $424M+ in historical unmatched royalties to Mechanical Licensing Collective; Apple paid $163M, Spotify $153M, Amazon $42M — The Mechanical Licensing Collective has received a total of $424.38 million in accrued historical unmatched royalties …
More:
Mechanical Licensing Collective, Variety, 9to5Mac, Apple Must, Music Ally, and iMore
Tweets: @kevinbrennanmp, @nadineshah, @dinalapolt, @legrandnetwork, @clara1cullen, and @davidclowery
| Jeremy Burge / Emojipedia: |
A look at the new 217 new emojis coming in iOS 14.5, including a syringe without blood, couples with a mix of skin tones, AirPod Max headphones, and more — New emojis have arrived on iOS as part of the latest iOS 14.5 beta. These include a heart on fire, exhaling face, and gender options for the people with beards.
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CNN, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, BBC, Engadget, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Guardian, iDownloadBlog.com, MUO, iMore, TechRadar, Insider, and iPhone Hacks
Tweets: @viticci, @stevemoser, @rcalo, @emojipedia, @ballmatthew, @cnn, @4theculture____, and @reneritchie
| Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat: |
NPD Group: PC gaming hardware and accessory sales reached $4.5B in the US in 2020, up 62% YoY, and PC gaming content sales rose 19% YoY to $7.5B — PC gaming hardware and accessories saw a huge leap in sales in 2020, according to industry-tracking firm The NPD Group.| Matt Day / Bloomberg: |
Standard Cognition, which is developing tools for cashierless stores, similar to Amazon Go, raises $150M at a $1B+ valuation — A startup selling Amazon Go-like checkout technology to retailers has raised money from investors at a $1 billion valuation, minting a new unicorn a year into a pandemic … | Brody Ford / Bloomberg: |
Uber hires author and labor researcher Alex Rosenblat, who wrote a book criticizing Uber's treatment of workers, to help improve its relations with drivers — - The “Uberland” author will advocate for drivers internally — The company has a strained relationship with academics
Tweets: @joedunman, @brodyford_, @natematias, @aaschapiro, and @parismarx
| Kotaku: |
Sources: Google's Stadia VP Phil Harrison sent an email to Stadia's game studios lauding their “great progress”, despite knowledge of its impending shutdown — Developers at Google's recently formed game studios were shocked February 1 when they were notified that the studios would be shut down …
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Insider, Dot Esports, OnMSFT.com, Game Rant, ExtremeTech, Beyond Search, PC Gamer, GamingBolt, Wccftech, IGN, PC Games Insider, GamesIndustry.biz, VG247, MSPoweruser, and Gamasutra
Tweets: @isotopp, @senninsage, @yoda, @brianfagioli, @tiedtiger, @evilprimate, @sanatanamishra, and @mm2k
| David Welch / Bloomberg: |
Lidar startup AEye says it is going public via SPAC, valuing the new company at $2B and raising $455M — - Company nets $455 million to develop self-driving technology — Its software will also be used in driver assistance systems — AEye Inc., a startup that makes lidar systems …
More:
TechCrunch, PR Newswire, and Wccftech
| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
Peak AI, which helps retailers and other companies use AI to make decisions, raises $21M Series B led by Oxx, bringing its total raised to $43M — One of the biggest challenges for organizations in modern times is deciding where, when, and how to use the advances of technology …
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FinSMEs, supplychaindive.com, Tech.eu, VentureBeat, and Silicon Canals
| Sara Fischer / Axios: |
Comscore: Google's share of the top 15 US mobile apps has increased from 33% to 46% since 2015; Facebook has retained 20% of the market from 2015 to 2021 — Google and Facebook's share of the top 15 mobile apps by reach in the U.S. has increased in the past few years, despite the fact …
Tweets: @sarafischer
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