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November 2, 2021, 11:15 PM
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| New York Times: |
Meta plans to shut down Facebook's decade-old facial recognition system this month, deleting the face scan data of 1B+ users following legal and regulatory woes — Saying it wants “to find the right balance” with the technology, the social network will delete the face scan data of more than one billion users.
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Meta, Gizmodo, BBC, Wired, Reuters, Ars Technica, CNBC, PYMNTS.com, Electronic Frontier Foundation, The Verge, TechSpot, Social Media Today, Financial Times, Protocol, Android Central, WRAL TechWire, Quartz, NBC News, ZDNet, VICE, Associated Press, CyberScoop, Engadget, PCMag, Input, The Irish Times, USA Today, Fortune, Liliputing, MacRumors, BleepingComputer, TNW, Insider, CNET, Voice of America, Neowin, The Hill, AppleInsider, TechCrunch, Tom's Guide, Tech Xplore, Mashable, TechRadar, MSPoweruser, Game Developer, and NBC Bay Area
Tweets: @kashhill, @nytimes, @kevinbankston, @katecrawford, @eff, @swodinsky, @jovialjoy, @xor, @charlescearl, @samfbiddle, @petermdenton, @tomgara, @shiraovide, @rmac18, @aprilaser, @jt_teran, @broderick, @brianbrackeen, @alexhern, @evacide, @om, @stephenpunwasi, @ryan_browne_, @om, @guntruth, @rcalo, @donie, @katienotopoulos, @mattburgess1, @nickwatts1988, @slpng_giants, @edzitron, @eculliford, @jfreewright, @jonrosenberg, @marshacollier, @jason_grosse, @jason_kint, @peninsulaqatar, @akianastasiou, @caseyjohnston, @katienotopoulos, @neontaster, @jkosseff, @aprilaser, @shahidforchange, @digiphile, @om, @kashhill, @jbadomics, and @aprilaser
| Taylor Soper / GeekWire: |
Zillow says it is shutting down its home buying business, laying off ~2,000 employees, and taking a write down of $500M+; stock drops 10%+ — Zillow Group's ambitious tech-fueled bid to shake up how people buy and sell homes is coming to a surprising end. — The Seattle online real estate giant …
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Bloomberg, Zillow Group, Inc., CNBC, MarketWatch, MobileSyrup, Wall Street Journal, Gizmodo, VICE, Associated Press, ZDNet, The Seattle Times, New York Times, The Information, Silicon Valley Business …, CNN, Protocol, Insider, Fortune, Axios, CBS News, Barron's Online, Insider, The Verge, and The Real Deal New York
Tweets: @opendoor, @jowens510, @kelseyhightower, @lt3000lyall, @jowens510, @jonfortt, @xerxeswuff, @kyweise, @darrenrovell, @samro, @mikeisaac, @dangeiger79, @derektmead, @killedbygoogle, @seldo, @ajlatrace, @carnage4life, @paul_essen, and @carnage4life. Thanks:@kslosh
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Microsoft will bring its mixed reality platform Mesh with 3D avatars and VR support to Teams in the first half of 2022 — Microsoft and Meta are on a collision course for metaverse competition — Microsoft is entering the race to build a metaverse inside Teams, just days after Facebook rebranded …
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Bloomberg, The Official Microsoft Blog, Microsoft 365 Blog, Microsoft, Fast Company, Benzinga, VentureBeat, CNET, Social Media Today, PCWorld, The Week, XDA Developers, Neowin, KnowTechie, Computerworld, Gizmodo, MSPoweruser, GeekWire, Protocol, Blockworks, HotHardware.com News, cloudpro.co.uk, and SlashGear
Tweets: @avinash, @stroughtonsmith, @microsoft365, @rleshner, @jamespmcleod, @pewilliams_, @ibogost, @brianroemmele, @bennetttomlin, @arrington, @vanvidum, @jeffteper, @el33th4xor, @mcnees, @chriscapossela, @kchoudhu, @microsoft, @resnikoff, @maryjofoley, @emilychangtv, @darth, @anonopshispano, @lenkiefer, and @carnage4life
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Microsoft announces Loop, an app that combines a “flexible canvas” with collaborative components that sync across Microsoft 365 services — At its Ignite 2021 conference today, Microsoft announced Loop, a new app that combines a “flexible canvas” with components … | Mike Minotti / VentureBeat: |
Activision Blizzard says Blizzard co-leader Jen Oneal is stepping down, leaving Mike Ybarra as sole leader; Oneal says she'll focus on diversity in the industry — Activision Blizzard announced today that Jen Oneal is stepping down from her role as Blizzard co-leader, which she started in August along with Mike Ybarra.
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Blizzard News, Game Developer, Kotaku, Washington Post, GamesIndustry.biz, gamerant.com, NME, PC Gamer, Engadget, IGN, Windows Central, Kotaku, Destructoid, gamerant.com, and Polygon
Tweets: @velocciraptor, @pezradar, @jasonschreier, @lepidopterrors, and @blizzard_ent
| Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: |
Activision Blizzard reports Q3 revenue of $2.07B, up 6% YoY, net bookings of $1.88B, up 6% YoY, as user growth remains flat at 390M MAUs — Join gaming leaders online at GamesBeat Summit Next this upcoming November 9-10. Learn more about what comes next.| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Netflix rolls out its exclusive mobile games globally to the Play Store and plans to feature them in its Android app starting this week — After early tests in select markets, Netflix announced today its debut lineup of exclusive mobile games will begin rolling out to all members globally on Android devices, starting this week.
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About Netflix. More:
Comic Book, Android Police, The Verge, iThinkDifferent, Polygon, Moneycontrol, Wall Street Journal, 9to5Google, Reuters, Gizmodo, 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, CNET, Variety, Android Headlines, Engadget, CNBC, AppleInsider, SlashGear, and MacRumors
Tweets: @gartenberg, @stroughtonsmith, @alexisohanian, and @markgurman
| Jon Porter / The Verge: |
Zoom says it is testing ads on its free Basic tier; the ads appear on the browser page shown to users at the end of a call — They'll appear in a browser page at the end of meetings — Zoom is piloting showing ads to users on its free “Basic” tier, the company has announced in a blog post.
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Zoom Blog, TechCrunch, ZDNet, The Hill, Protocol, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, and 9to5Mac
Tweets: @hhariri, @saralivingston, @pierrefar, @ndiakopoulos, @jaycuthrell, and @s_m_i
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Coinbase is acquiring Agara, which operates an AI-powered customer support platform in India and the US; sources say the price is between $40M and $50M — Coinbase is acquiring the startup Agara, which operates an AI-powered customer support platform, the two said Tuesday …
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The Coinbase Blog, Moneycontrol, Cointelegraph, CoinDesk, Entrackr, Coinspeaker, and YourStory.com
Tweets: @pankaj, @thinkspection, @refsrc, @sanjaynath, @shanaggarwal, and @coinbase
| Cameron Faulkner / The Verge: |
Oculus rolls out v34, adding a Space Sense safety feature notifying users when objects, people, or animals intrude on a safe VR space, alongside other features — Version 34 is starting to roll out today — Fresh off of Meta's Connect 2021 keynote, where Grand Theft Auto …
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Oculus Blog, Road to VR, Android Central, Kotaku, SlashGear, and VRScout
Tweets: @j_shepz, @rufftalkvr, @schrep, @matinassi, and @thekenyeung
| Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet: |
Microsoft Edge for Linux is now available for all users, supporting multiple distributions including Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, and openSUSE — It's ‘Chredge’ time for Linux: Microsoft's Edge browser is now generally available for a number of Linux distributions.
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Windows Blog, MSPoweruser, Ars Technica, PCWorld, About Chromebooks, and XDA Developers
Tweets: @kylealden, @liliputingnews, and @maryjofoley
| Nikkei Asia: |
Sources: Nintendo will only be able to produce ~24M units of its Switch game console in FY 2021 due to chip shortages, 20% below its original plan of 30M — Production revised down to 24 million units for fiscal 2021 despite high demand — OSAKA — Nintendo will only be able to produce …
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Ubergizmo, GamingBolt, Kotaku, Benzinga, Reuters, iMore, GameSpot, Gameranx, MobileSyrup, Tom's Guide, gamerant.com, TechSpot, thegamer.com, The Verge, Insider, and Wccftech. Tweets: @stealth40k
| Emily Flitter / New York Times: |
After downplaying cryptocurrencies early on, banks are experimenting with them more and lobbying regulators for rules to deny crypto lenders “unfair” advantages — Digital payments technology is forcing the financial system to evolve. Banks feel their power waning and want to regain control.| Meaghan Tobin / Rest of World: |
As Microsoft shuts down LinkedIn in China, developers worry GitHub could be next, even though nearly 10% of GitHub's contributors in 2020 were from China — As Microsoft scales back the Chinese version of LinkedIn, developers worry the code repository could be next.
Tweets: @anupkaphle
| Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC: |
Lyft reports Q3 revenue of $864.4M, up 73% YoY and up 13% QoQ, but misses with 18.9M active riders vs 19.7M estimated; stock up 12%+ after hours — - Lyft reported third-quarter earnings on Tuesday after the bell, sending shares surging in extended trading.
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PYMNTS.com, Lyft, FreightWaves, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, and Reuters
| Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech: |
Deep dive on Pixel 6's Tensor SoC, its architecture, and how it compares to rival chips like Snapdragon 888 and Exynos 2100 in performance and efficiency tests — It's been about two weeks since Google officially announced their newest flagship devices in the form of the Pixel 6, and Pixel 6 Pro.| Nikkei Asia: |
Sources: Apple has cut iPad production by 50% from its original plans for the past two months, to allocate more chips to the iPhone 13 — U.S. tech giant produces 50% fewer tablets than planned in September-October — TAIPEI — Apple has cut back sharply on iPad production to allocate … | Campbell Kwan / ZDNet: |
A joint probe by Australia and UK's Information Commissioners finds Clearview AI collected data on 3B+ people by indiscriminately scrapping info from the web — Despite uncovering Clearview AI's intrusive practices, Australia's Information Commissioner conceded that the number of Australians … | Marie Dealessandri / GamesIndustry.biz: |
Splash, whose AI tools facilitate music creation and integration in games, including in Roblox, raises a $20M Series A led by Alexa Fund and Bitkraft Ventures — The funding round was co-led by Amazon's Alexa Fund and Bitkraft Ventures — Roblox music game developer Splash raised $20 million …
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VentureBeat and Music Business Worldwide
| Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: |
Everlaw, which offers ML-powered ediscovery tools for legal teams, raises a $202M Series D led by TPG Growth at a $2B+ valuation — Everlaw, a cloud-native legal technology platform specializing in electronic discovery (ediscovery), has raised $202 million in a series D round of funding …
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Everlaw
| Eduardo Thomson / Bloomberg: |
Chilean fintech startup Fintual raises a $39M Series B led by Sequoia, says it manages $665M in assets for 70,000+ clients through passive investments like ETFs — - Chilean startup Fintual will use the funds to expand in Mexico — Fintual CEO Pedro Pineda speaks in exclusive interview| Bloomberg: |
Shares of Kakao Pay, South Korea's largest mobile payments app, surged 150%+ in early trading after it raised $1.3B in its Seoul IPO at a ~$9.94B valuation — - Fintech firm had to delay its IPO by more than two months — Regulatory crackdown has hurt sentiment for tech shares
More:
Reuters, Nikkei Asia, and The Korea Times
| Clara Molot / Bloomberg: |
Match Group reports Q3 revenue of $802M, up 25% YoY, with 16.3M paying users, up 16% YoY, but forecasts weaker Q4 growth, citing lingering COVID effects in Asia — - Fourth-quarter revenue comes in short; Ebitda is in line — Third-quarter revenue up 25%, meeting analysts' estimates
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Match Group, Dallas Business Journal, MarketWatch, and Reuters
| Liza Lin / Wall Street Journal: |
Yahoo pulls its services out of China in a largely symbolic gesture following LinkedIn, citing an “increasingly challenging business and legal environment” — Yahoo Inc. said it was pulling out of China, citing an increasingly challenging business and legal environment …
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Bloomberg, ZDNet, Variety, Japan Today, Barron's Online, Protocol, The Guardian, SlashGear, PCMag, iTnews, and Quartz
Tweets: @lizalinwsj, @jojjeols, @dalperovitch, @jilliancyork, @jacobhelberg, @bigblackjacobin, @keithjkrach, and @isaacstonefish
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