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April 29, 2021, 4:25 PM
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| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Microsoft says it will reduce its cut for PC games in Windows store from 30% to 12% from August 1, in a bid to compete with Steam — Microsoft puts the pressure on Valve's Steam store — Microsoft is shaking up the world of PC gaming today with a big cut to the amount of revenue it takes from games on Windows.
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Xbox Wire, LinkedIn, Game Developers Conference, New York Times, HotHardware.com News, Softpedia News, GamesIndustry.biz, Ars Technica, Engadget, Developer Tech News, CNBC, PCMag, Thurrott, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, ExtremeTech, Digital Trends, VentureBeat, GamingBolt, Forbes, PC Gamer, VG247, Dot Esports, SlashGear, CNET, thegamer.com, Pocketnow, KnowTechie, Micky, TechSpot, Polygon, MSPoweruser, IGN, and Kotaku
Tweets: @thexpaw, @sirlarr, @eposvox, @tomwarren, @zhugeex, @tomwarren, @devrelcallum, @epro, @sarafischer, @reckless, @methodicalmemes, @pat_garofalo, @futterish, @johnnycullen, @tha_rami, and @tomwarren
| Nandita Bose / Reuters: |
US Labor Secretary says most gig workers should be classified as employees deserving of related benefits; shares of Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash are down sharply — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's top labor official said most gig workers in the United States should be classified as …
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Vox, Financial Times, CNBC, Investor's Business Daily, and TechCrunch
Tweets: @rebeccaarainey, @hassankanu, and @alinaselyukh
| Tonya Riley / Washington Post: |
A task force of 60+ experts from industry, government, nonprofits, and academia calls on the US and allies to take steps to fight a surge in ransomware attacks — A task force of more than 60 experts from industry, government, nonprofits and academia is urging the U.S. government and global allies …
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RTF, Krebs on Security, CSO, Associated Press, Bloomberg, infosecurity-magazine.com, BleepingComputer, The Record, The Register, The Hill, and Wired
Tweets: @neerajka, @cristingoodwin, @likethecoins, @fireeye, @talossecurity, and @tonyajoriley
| Thomas Claburn / The Register: |
After being on the Play Store for 7+ years, Google removed an educational coding app called DroidScript without recourse, seemingly over allegations of ad fraud — Creator suspects his app's ad identifier was copied but Google keeping quiet — On the last day of March, DroidScript …
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Medium, Australian Competition …, and Android Community
| Canalys.com: |
Global smartphone shipments in Q1 reached 347M, up 27% YoY; Samsung took first place, shipping 76.5M for a 22% share, while Apple shipped 52.4M for a 15% share — Shanghai (China), Bengaluru (India), Singapore, Reading (UK) and Portland (US) - Thursday, 29 April 2021| Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica: |
OpenSignal: 5G-capable devices access mmWave 5G less than 1% of the time across all US carriers; Verizon leads with just 0.8% availability — Phones capable of using mmWave 5G access it less than 1% of the time. — US mobile customers are almost never able to connect to millimeter-wave networks …
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The Verge, Opensignal, RCR Wireless News, Tom's Guide, TmoNews, and Opensignal
Tweets: @astern, @kylesamani, @karlbode, and @markdeloura
| Reuters: |
Samsung reports Q1 net profit of $6.4B, up 46% YoY, driven by 66% profit surge in mobile business to $3.97B, and revenue of $59B, up 18% YoY — ReutersJoyce LeeHeekyong Yang — 3 minutes read| Arielle Pardes / Wired: |
Founders and VCs are flocking to Miami for “Miami Tech Week”, an impromptu event kicked off by a tweet from Delian Asparouhov, a principal at Founders Fund — Founders and funders are flocking to the beach for an impromptu event that some are calling “South by Southeast.”
More:
TechCrunch and Miami Herald
Tweets: @yoda, @mikebutcher, @sarthakgh, @zaoyang, @zebulgar, @lopiansky, @semil, @zebulgar, @zebulgar, @grahammcbain, @francissuarez, @pardesoteric, @ndahlberg, @zebulgar, @ejzim, @apompliano, and @francissuarez
| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
IBM acquires cloud app and network management company Turbonomic, reportedly for between $1.5B and $2B — IBM today made another acquisition to deepen its reach into providing enterprises with AI-based services to manage their networks and workloads. It announced that it is acquiring Turbonomic …
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SiliconANGLE, The Economic Times, CRN, ZDNet, PR Newswire, and WRAL TechWire
| Liam Tung / ZDNet: |
Facebook joins the Rust Foundation, the org driving Rust, following Amazon, Google, Huawei, Microsoft, and Mozilla, and details its use of Rust since 2016 — Facebook is also ramping up internal developer support for Rust after targeting infrastructure written in C++.
More:
Developer News and Facebook Engineering
| Igor Bonifacic / Engadget: |
Google says it's rolling out an update that lets users train Assistant to pronounce and recognize uncommon names, at first in English — handful new updates that will make Assistant better at pronouncing tricky names and understanding the context of conversations you share with it.
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The Keyword, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, USA Today, and Fortune
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Instagram adds new features to let users mute their microphones and even turn their video off while using Instagram Live, as it seeks to compete with Clubhouse — In addition to Facebook's Clubhouse competitor built within Messenger Rooms and its experiments with a Clubhouse-like Q&A platform on the web …
More:
Engadget, 9to5Mac, iPhone Hacks, iPhone in Canada Blog, and marketingdive.com. Tweets: @alexvoica
| John Egan / FinLedger: |
Rho, which offers business banking, expense management, and accounts payable services, raises $100M in debt financing, following a $15M Series A in January — Fintech startup Rho Technologies has lined up $100 million in debt financing to grow its business banking platform.
More:
FinSMEs, Crunchbase News, and PYMNTS.com
| Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: |
Apple clarifies that the first-gen Magic Keyboard is “functionally compatible” with the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro but may not “precisely fit when closed” — In a new support document published today, Apple has clarified the situation around the Magic Keyboard's compatibility with the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro.| Mark Bergen / Bloomberg: |
Filing: during Q1, Alphabet saved $268M in expenses from company promotions, travel, and entertainment, compared to Q1 2020, “primarily as a result of COVID-19” — With Covid-19 restrictions lifting, more people are booking trips and hotels online, which is very good for Google's advertising business.| Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge: |
Google finally gives users a way to search through Stadia's 172 games, 526 days after the service's launch — If only Google knew anyone with experience building search engines — Stadia is an online game streaming service from Google, a company that is practically synonymous with search engines …
Source:
Stadia Community Blog. More:
iPhone in Canada Blog, KnowTechie, Pocket-lint, SlashGear, thegamer.com, Ubergizmo, IGN, Twinfinite, Gamereactor UK, and XDA Developers
Tweets: @googlestadia, @phonesoldier, @ztlaidlaw, @ztlaidlaw, @workthespace, @rokkshow, @briangaar, @sohrabosati, and @tomwarren
| Yuan Yang / Financial Times: |
China asks 13 companies, including Tencent, ByteDance, and the fintech affiliate of Baidu, to introduce similar changes to those imposed on Ant Group — Thirteen companies told to ‘rectify prominent problems’ on their platforms — Chinese officials have called in 13 tech companies to ask them to …
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XDA Developers, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, and PYMNTS.com
| Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post: |
During his first speech to a joint session of Congress, Biden announced that Kamala Harris will lead the administration's rural broadband initiative — Vice President Harris will lead the Biden administration's unprecedented effort to ensure every American has access to affordable, high-speed Internet.| Gilad Edelman / Wired: |
Q&A: Evelyn Douek, a lecturer and Ph.D. student at Harvard studying online speech regulation, on why a “proportional” approach to online speech is a good thing — Major platforms' policies aren't actually inspired by the First Amendment. This legal scholar says that's a good thing.
Tweets: @gadgetlab, @mantzarlis, @wired, @jilliancyork, @risj_oxford, @wexler, and @bkcharvard
| The Markup: |
Financial services use Facebook's ad targeting to block people in certain age groups from seeing their ads, violating Facebook's anti-discrimination policies — Such ads, along with other age-targeted financial product ads, may violate civil rights laws, attorneys say
Tweets: @juliaangwin, @craignewmark, @corintxt, @bostonjoan, @alfredwkng, and @jakewrightuk
| Stephanie Condon / ZDNet: |
Facebook says Q1 ad revenue was $25.4B, up 46% YoY, expects continued growth in Q2, with headwinds in H2 due to regulatory changes and Apple's iOS 14.5 update — The average price per ad in Q1 increased by 30 percent year-over-year, driving up Facebook ad revenue growth.
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Insider, ZDNet, iPhone Hacks, BGR, Insider, AdExchanger, Hollywood Reporter, The Information, AppleInsider, MacRumors, globalnews.ca, and AdNews News
Tweets: @fboversight, @ashk4n, @eric_seufert, @munster_gene, @ricswi, @slpng_giants, @swiftstories, @swodinsky, @swodinsky, @patrickcoffee, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @solarcycle_25, @richlightshed, @profcarroll, @sarthakgh, and @jason_kint
| Investor Relations: |
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Search Engine Land, 9to5Mac, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iMore, iPhone Hacks, Pixel Envy, CNBC, Engadget, CNBC, Associated Press, and CNET
| James Vincent / The Verge: |
EU adopts controversial law forcing internet companies to remove flagged terrorist content within one hour after being notified by national authorities — Critics say the legislation could hinder free speech — The European Parliament has formally adopted a law requiring internet companies to …
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European Parliament, TechCrunch, MUO, Digital & Media, Engadget, Reuters, and DW.COM
| James Vincent / The Verge: |
Researchers demonstrate how AI software based on generative adversarial networks can be used to create deepfake satellite images — Geographic deepfakes could be used for misinformation and much more — When we think of deepfakes, we tend to imagine AI-generated people.
Source:
Taylor & Francis. Tweets: @armscontrolwonk, @nickastronomer, @jambeckresearch, and @hareldan
| Matthew Leising / Bloomberg: |
Paxos Trust, which offers crypto trading settlement services, raises $300M Series D led by Oak HC/FT at a $2.4B valuation — - Startup receives $300 million from investors led by Oak HC/FT — Funds in part to be used to support firm's national trust bank| Amazon - Investor Relations: |
Amazon reports Q1 revenue of $108.5B, up 44% YoY, net income of $8.1B, up from $2.5B YoY, and says AWS has become a $54B annual sales run rate business — SEATTLE—(BUSINESS WIRE) April 29, 2021—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2021.
| Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: |
Twitter reports Q1 revenue of $1.04B, up 28% YoY, vs $1.03B est., monetizable DAUs of 199M, up 7M QoQ, vs 200M est.; stock drops ~8%+ — - The company reported revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, which was up 28% from $808 million a year prior. — Twitter guided that it is expecting … Sponsor Posts
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