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February 17, 2021, 8:00 PM
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| William Easton / About Facebook: |
Ahead of proposed media law, Facebook says it's banning Australians from sharing/viewing news and all users from sharing from and viewing Australian news Pages — In response to Australia's proposed new Media Bargaining law, Facebook will restrict publishers and people in Australia from sharing …
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The Verge, Wall Street Journal, Facebook, Financial Times, ABC, Ars Technica, Protocol, The Verge, ZDNet, The Guardian, The Independent, news.com.au, Herald Sun, Gizmodo, OneZero , PCMag, Japan Today, New York Times, SiliconANGLE, Sydney Morning Herald, NPR, BBC, CNBC, Forbes, The Guardian, TechCrunch, Benedict Evans, Mashable, Reuters, ABC, Jezebel, The Hill, TV Tonight, 3AW, CNET, news.com.au, Mumbrella, Neowin, VICE, Daily Mail, The Logic, 9News, Social Media Today, Bloomberg, Tech Xplore, Axios, Variety, MSPoweruser, and SlashGear
Tweets: @joshfrydenberg, @caseybriggs, @mikeisaac, @campbell_brown, @mathewi, @emilybell, @max_fisher, @maxchalm, @davidcicilline, @issielapowsky, @katecrawford, @campbell_brown, @benedictevans, @mattnavarra, @matthewstoller, @kurtwagner8, @slpng_giants, @nickbryantny, @hacks4pancakes, @damiancollins, @martynmcl, @carolecadwalla, @parismarx, @davidfarrier, @brooklynmarie, @bendreyfuss, @issielapowsky, @imusing, @paulfletchermp, @akivamcohen, @jeffreyatucker, @caseynewton, @mathewi, @benedictevans, @kantrowitz, @bdsams, @markdistef, @daveleeft, @caseynewton, @emilybell, @kurtwagner8, @gerritd, @bergmayer, @kevinroose, @bergmayer, @tonyromm, @gaberivera, @karissabe, @rmac18, @campbell_brown, @markdistef, @pkafka, @caseynewton, and @mmasnick
| News Corp: |
News Corp announces a multi-year, global partnership with Google to provide content from its news sites “in return for significant payments by Google” — Long-term Deal Involves Payment For Premium Content For Google News Showcase; — Will Yield Substantial Benefits For Journalism And Society
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New York Times, Financial Times, Reuters, CNN, Bloomberg, Engadget, New York Times, news.com.au, CNBC, Washington Post, The Guardian, Insider, The New Daily, NBC News, Deadline, WRAL TechWire, The Hill, Thurrott, The Wrap, Agence France-Presse, New York Post, Variety, and Herald Sun
Tweets: @jeffjarvis, @jeffjarvis, @b_fung, @nycsouthpaw, @senficon, @conlon_chris, @pashulman, @jeffjarvis, @mmasnick, @slpng_giants, @jilliancyork, @joshsternberg, and @jeffjarvis
| ABC: |
Australian authorities in public health, weather, and other areas say Facebook has removed posts from their feeds following Facebook's news ban — Facebook has restricted access to news in Australia, and so far the tech giant seems to have taken a pretty broad definition of news.
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news.com.au, Daily Mail, BBC, Sydney Morning Herald, Daily Mail, NDTV.com, and SBS News
| 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, us-cert.cisa.gov, Krebs on Security, BleepingComputer, CyberScoop, U.S. Department of Justice, Gizmodo, CNBC, iTnews, Dark Reading, PCMag, Reuters, Politico, Federal Computer Week, Voice of America, Decrypt, Wired, BBC, The Hill, NPR, Newser, Bloomberg, Axios, The Verge, NBC News, PYMNTS.com, CoinDesk, Wall Street Journal, Crowdfund Insider, and Finextra
Tweets: @ericgeller, @briankrebs, @isaacstonefish, @ericgeller, @jessmarindavis, @ericgeller, @ariehkovler, and @shanvav
| 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, 9to5Mac, Computerworld, Ars Technica, MacRumors, Laptop Mag, Input, Tom's Hardware, SlashGear, Forbes, MacDailyNews, iPhone in Canada Blog, Wccftech, and Tom's Guide
Tweets: @patrickwardle and @wired
| 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.| 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.| 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, The Verge, TechCrunch, HotHardware.com News, PYMNTS.com, TechRadar, Engadget, Mashable, USA Today, 9to5Toys, chainstoreage.com, and CNN
Tweets: @amazonnews and @ow
| 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 …
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Epic Games, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Insider, Loup TV, TechCrunch, CNBC, PC Gamer, FOSS Patents, Wccftech, and CNET
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Google launches over 50 new features for its education products, including Classroom, Meet, and Workspace, with a focus on meeting educators' and admins' needs — Google today introduced a suite of updates for its online education tools whose adoption and further development have been accelerated …
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The Keyword, The Keyword, The Verge, XDA Developers, SiliconANGLE, PCWorld, The Keyword, Neowin, Pocketnow, The Keyword, SiliconANGLE, Engadget, Engadget, The Verge, EdScoop, 9to5Google, 9to5Google, 9to5Google, The Keyword, and MSPoweruser
Tweets: @ampressman and @hypervisible
| 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, Telecoms.com, and CyberNews
Tweets: @adityakalra, @beastoftraal, @wadhwa, @abhymurarka, @praveendel, @anandlunia, @devjyotghoshal, @kawaljit, @reuters, @reuters, and @caitindia
| Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times: |
Profile of Corey Quinn, a “cloud economist” who consults for AWS clients like WaPo and Epic on cloud computing costs and often lampoons Amazon on Twitter — Corey Quinn has made it his business to understand Amazon's cloud-computing charges and have some fun at the company's expense.
Tweets: @daiwaka, @quinnypig, @jaycuthrell, @mattdrange, @petecheslock, and @sbisson
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Waymo says it has begun testing its autonomous robotaxi service with employee volunteers in San Francisco, its first expansion beyond the Phoenix metro area — Waymo today announced that it has begun limited rider testing with employee volunteers in San Francisco to gather feedback and improve its robo-taxi technology.
More:
Waymo, 9to5Google, and Engadget
| 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 Hindu, MacRumors, Social Media Today, iPhone Hacks, MUO, Inc42 Media, and Wccftech
| Bloomberg: |
Biden admin says SolarWinds attack was executed from within the US, though Russia was responsible, and nine federal agencies and ~100 companies were compromised — A sprawling cyber-attack that compromised popular software created by Texas-based SolarWinds Corp. was executed from within the U.S. …
More:
CyberScoop, Dark Reading, The Hill, and MSNBC
Tweets: @whitehouse, @kylieatwood, @elistokols, and @natashabertrand
| 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 points 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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Ars Technica, PCWorld, MacRumors, iMore, 9to5Google, Android Central, Windows Central, and Gizchina. Tweets: @kevinctofel. Thanks:@toddbishop
| Peter Smith / Blockchain.com: |
Cryptocurrency exchange Blockchain.com raises $120M growth round from 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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Finextra, Bitcoin News, and Cryptonews
| The Block: |
Sources: Coinbase facilitated Tesla's $1.5B bitcoin purchase during the first week of Feb.; source says Coinbase has over five Fortune 500 companies as clients — Coinbase, the U.S.-based crypto exchange, has been helping large companies invest in bitcoin.| Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg: |
How the success of California's Prop 22, driven by gig economy companies, is affecting negotiations between unions and businesses across the US — The tower of aging Manila envelopes, stacked in a corner of Rome Aloise's cluttered Bay Area home office, is a monument to five years of failure.
Tweets: @josheidelson, @josheidelson, @alexnpress, and @jrivanob
| 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.
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Insider, Business Wire, PYMNTS.com, and FinLedger
| 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 … | 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: @anthony and @alexeheath
| 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_, and @natematias
| 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| 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 …
More:
New York State Unified Court System, Washington Post, NY State Attorney General, NPR, and Input
Tweets: @newyorkstateag and @newyorkstateag
| Asa Fitch / Wall Street Journal: |
Winter storms in Texas have caused Samsung, NXP, and other chipmakers based there to shut down some factories, potentially worsening ongoing chip shortages — Samsung, NXP and others are asked to power down factories in state to help conserve energy — Severe weather conditions hitting …
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Financial Times and Bloomberg
| Phil Muncaster / Infosecurity Magazine: |
YouTube has taken down nearly 3,000 channels and accounts in Q1 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.
More:
The Keyword
| 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 … Sponsor Posts
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Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Enhancements to Zoho Writer's automation flow designer: New PDF operations, password protection, and more — Once we rolled out the automation flow designer in Zoho Writer's merge templates …
Enhancements to Zoho Writer's automation flow designer: New PDF operations, password protection, and more — Once we rolled out the automation flow designer in Zoho Writer's merge templates …
IDrive:
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