Techmeme: A look at Founders Forum, the annual UK event branded as the “Davos of tech” attended by Europe's top CEOs and investors from technology and media (Sam Shead/CNBC)

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June 21, 2021, 7:30 AM

Top News

Global Times:

China's Sichuan Province closes crypto mines, following Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Yunnan; an estimated 90% of China's mining capacity has now been shut down — Many Bitcoin mines in Southwest China's Sichuan Province - one of China's largest cryptocurrency mining bases - were closed as of Sunday …

More: The Block, CoinDesk, Bloomberg, South China Morning Post, Reuters, Forbes, Finbold, Decrypt, Agence France-Presse, Reuters, blockchain.news, CNBC, Cryptonews, Blockonomi, Pandaily, and CoinDesk

Rita Liao / TechCrunch:

Amber Group, a Hong Kong-based crypto finance startup that provides trading and asset management services, raises $100M Series B at $1B pre-money valuation — More mainstream venture capital firms are jumping on the crypto bandwagon as investors increasingly consider bitcoin an investable asset …

More: CNBC, Silicon Republic, Decrypt, Bloomberg, CoinDesk, Coinspeaker, TNW, Forkast, and Cointelegraph. Tweets: @_annabellehuang

Sami Fathi / MacRumors:

Germany's Federal Cartel Office announces an antitrust investigation into Apple's App Store, pre-installed apps, and more — Germany's Federal Cartel Office, the Bundeskartellamt, today initiated proceedings against Apple on the claims of anti-competitive behavior related to the App Store …

More: Bundeskartellamt, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, and iMore

Tweets: @kartellamt, @markscott82, and @markscott82

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Facebook rolls out Live Audio Rooms, available to verified public figures and select Groups, and its podcast service, available to select partners, in the US — In April, Facebook announced a series of planned investments in new audio products, including a Clubhouse live audio competitor as well as new support for podcasts.

More: CNET, Engadget, The Verge, Variety, and About Facebook

See also Mediagazer

Sam Shead / CNBC:

A look at Founders Forum, the annual UK event branded as the “Davos of tech” attended by Europe's top CEOs and investors from technology and media — - Attendees of the annual Founders Forum event included the former U.K. Prime Minister David Cameron, ex-Finance Minister George Osborne …

More: Beyond Search. Tweets: @professorfengli and @digitaldreams08

Douglas Busvine / Reuters:

Forto, a freight forwarding service that gives customers real-time data, raises $240M led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $1.2B valuation — Forto has raised $240 million from investors led by Softbank (9984.T), the freight technology startup said on Monday, and will invest in expanding …

More: Tech.eu and PR Newswire

Matt Dougherty / KHOU-TV:

Some power companies in Texas are remotely adjusting the smart thermostats of users enrolled in their energy saving programs to reduce strain on power grids — Some said they didn't know their thermostats were being accessed from afar until it was almost 80 degrees inside their homes.

More: Android Police, The Verge, BGR, Insider, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, USA Today, and Click2Houston.com

Tweets: @dellcam, @karlbode, @arvindpawan1, @elpasotimes, @erratarob, @apoorv_bh89, @stealthygeek, @vickerysec, @film_girl, @natebeachw, @grantstern, @nuclear94, @jgamblin, @phil_lewis_, and @mollyjongfast

Ezra Fieser / Bloomberg:

A look at El Zonte, a surfing village in El Salvador dubbed Bitcoin Beach after an anonymous 2019 donation turned it into a controlled alt-currency experiment — An anonymous donor turned a tiny Pacific coast town without a bank into the world's biggest Bitcoin experiment. Up next: the entire country.

Tweets: @andrewrosati, @codinghorror, @apompliano, and @kejalvyas

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

Real estate mogul Frank McCourt says he plans to invest $100M to build a blockchain-based database of social connections, sidestepping the dominant social apps — Frank McCourt wants to build a blockchain-based alternative to Facebook — Frank McCourt, the billionaire real estate mogul …

More: Coin Journal, Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, South China Morning Post, and Slashdot

Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech:

Interview with Jim Keller, a chip expert lauded for his work at AMD and Apple, on ARM vs x86 vs RISC-V, managing 1,000 people at Intel, and plans at Tenstorrent — I've spoken about Jim Keller many times on AnandTech. In the world of semiconductor design, his name draws attention …

Tweets: @iancutress, @anandtech, @0xcats, and @hkanji. Thanks:@anandtech

Sam Shead / CNBC:

Google says it has decided not to reopen Campus, its London-based startup space, after the pandemic forced it to close — - The Silicon Valley tech giant announced on Monday that it has decided “not to reopen” Campus in East London after it was forced to close by the coronavirus pandemic.

More: campus.co, Medium, and TechRadar

Tweets: @googlestartupuk, @googlestartupuk, @jamesliamcook, @sarahdrinkwater, @googlestartupuk, @googlestartupuk, and @sarahdrinkwater

Richard Pallot / ITV:

Investigation finds Amazon has been destroying thousands of unsold goods at its UK-based Dunfermline warehouse; source says 130K items are destroyed per week — Exclusive: Watch footage showing the ‘destruction zone’ in Amazon's Dunfermline warehouse where millions of unsold items are destroyed every year

More: ITV. Tweets: @itvnews, @misszing, @alexhern, @itvnews, @sam_l_shead, @itvnews, and @itvnews

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The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Deadline:

A US district court judge says she'll issue a ruling by July 22 on state AGs' request for a temporary stay that would pause the Paramount-WBD merger

Patrick Hipes / Deadline:

Sinclair-owned TV stations affiliated with ABC and NBC aired Trump's speech about elections, using Sinclair's feed; Sinclair owns or operates 177 stations

Nick Robins-Early / The Guardian:

Spanish-language Telemundo captured 49% of the World Cup audience in the US through the first 48 matches, including viewers whose primary language is English

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More News

Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer:

Researcher finds iPhone bug that disables wireless functionality after joining a WiFi network called “%p%s%s%s%s%n”; resetting network settings fixes the issue

More: CodeColorist, androidauthority.com, 9to5Mac, Gizchina, Gizmodo, Ubergizmo, BGR India, Pocketnow, The Hacker News, SlashGear, iThinkDifferent, phonearena.com, HotHardware.com News, MacRumors, PCMag, BetaNews, ZDNet, Forbes, Wccftech, and Livemint

Tweets: @vm_call, @kennwhite, @insane_irish, @vm_call, @gossithedog, @securestep9, and @gossithedog

Alan Suderman / Associated Press:

Tax experts say that ransomware victims' ransom payments are probably tax deductible in the US, unless they were paid by an insurance company

Tweets: @thegrugq, @mikko, @gossithedog, @sosowski, @xamat, and @thegrugq

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

Wristcam, which makes a $299 Apple Watch band with a camera capable of taking 4K images and recording 1080p video, raises $25M led by Marker LLC

Tweets: @brianfagioli and @daniel_duan. Thanks:@vscpr

Wall Street Journal:

Analysts say the dominance of TSMC, which makes ~92% of the world's most sophisticated chips and 60% of chips used in cars, poses risks to the global economy

More: phonearena.com. Tweets: @jasonmillerindc, @zackkanter, @djtgallagher, @jchengwsj, @scottlincicome, and @chinarealtime

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:

Pandemic boosted the “phone-ization” of PCs, which are adopting power efficient CPUs and thin designs, a trend which will accelerate with broader adoption of 5G

More: The Overspill. Tweets: @gregorymbryant, @parthodasgupta, @psb_dc, @onelinders, @dsilverman, @stevesi, @mims, and @mims

Kristen Sinclair / The Verge:

A look at some Twitch streamers using the service to showcase minority languages like Galician, Welsh, Basque, and te reo Māori

More: Rock, Paper, Shotgun. Tweets: @biliteracyseal, @unaminhkavanagh, @3000twitz, @zacharydiaz, and @xipiryon

Betsy Ladyzhets / MIT Technology Review:

An analysis of the usage of COVID-19 contact tracing apps in 25 US states and DC finds that only 13 have enough usage to benefit from exposure notification

More: 9to5Google, PCMag, and Android Police

Tweets: @matthew_d_green, @malwarejake, @techreview, @pathcheck_fnd, @charlesmok, @techreview, @jennydove, @fabiochiusi, @techreview, and @techreview

Earlier Picks

Nicole Kobie / Wired UK:

A look at the evolution of AI chips and where they are headed, as companies like Google, Amazon, Graphcore, and Cerebras look to challenge Nvidia's dominance

Tweets: @jbonne5, @cerebrassystems, @wireduk, @vickiturk, and @sub8u

Forbes:

Leonid Radvinsky, billionaire owner of OnlyFans, ran sites in the '90s promoting “hacked” porn site passwords, including links promising access to child porn

Tweets: @rizzn, @blacklodgewhore, @iblametom, @iblametom, @iwantjules, @iblametom, and @alanaevansxxx

Emma Folts / Los Angeles Business Journal stories:

Eltropy, whose suite allows financial institutions to communicate with customers via text messages, announces $21M investment from K1 as part of its Series A

Source: Eltropy and PR Newswire. More: FinSMEs

Heather Landi / FierceHealthcare:

Brightline, which provides virtual behavioral health therapy for children and teenagers, raises $72M Series B led by GV, bringing its total raised to ~$100M

Source: PR Newswire. More: FinSMEs and hitconsultant.net. Tweets: @gvteam

Omar Faridi / Crowdfund Insider:

Shopping and pay later app nate, which allows users to buy products from any e-commerce store and centralize their purchases, raises $38M Series A

Source: Business Wire. More: Finextra, AlleyWatch, and FinSMEs

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Lingokids, which offers educational games through its “playlearning” app for kids aged 2-8, raises $40M Series C and claims to reach 30M+ families worldwide

Source: Lingokids. More: Kidscreen, Angel News, Pocket Gamer.biz, Tech.eu, and FinSMEs

Tweets: @lingokids, @googlestartupes, @deantak, and @reachfund

Juliet Chung / Wall Street Journal:

Addepar, a provider of wealth management software, raises $150M from D1 Capital Partners at a $2.17B valuation; source: Addepar was valued at ~$1B in November

Source: PR Newswire. More: IBS Intelligence Market News, InvestmentNews, FinSMEs, and Silicon Valley Business …

Tweets: @davidsacks and @addepar