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December 17, 2021, 5:55 AM
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| The Citizen Lab: |
Two Egyptians living in exile had their iPhones compromised in June 2021 using Predator spyware built by North Macedonian developer Cytrox — Key Findings — Two Egyptians—exiled politician Ayman Nour and the host of a popular news program (who wishes to remain anonymous) …
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Meta, NPR, Washington Post, The Guardian, Wired, VICE, GitHub, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Register, ZDNet, Bloomberg, Tech Xplore, CyberScoop, Reuters, and The Daily Beast
| Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: |
Meta bans seven surveillance-for-hire groups, including Cytrox, removing over 1,500 Facebook and Instagram accounts and alerting 50K users who were targeted — Cytrox is one of seven surveillance companies now banned from Meta's platforms — While NSO Group was taking flak for hacking …
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NBC News, Gizmodo, Axios, The Record, Protocol, Livemint, Forbes, Wall Street Journal, iTnews, BBC, The Verge, Engadget, BleepingComputer, MIT Technology Review, The Economic Times, CNET, Rolling Stone, and The Hill
Tweets: @ngleicher, @evacide, @marietjeschaake, @dashdecosta, @rj_gallagher, @migueldeicaza, @davidakaye, @howelloneill, @iblametom, @jckichen, @zackwhittaker, @arawnsley, @bing_chris, @evacide, @w7voa, @ngleicher, @tomgara, @iblametom, @anthony, @jsrailton, @blackamazon, @washingtonpost, @agreendcbike, @carolafrediani, @skirchy, @howelloneill, @jsrailton, @davidakaye, @jsrailton, @davidagranovich, @jsrailton, @zackwhittaker, @joyce_karam, and @anthony
| Zachary Basu / Axios: |
The US bans investing in eight Chinese companies, including DJI and Megvii, for their alleged involvement in surveilling Uyghurs and other minority groups — The Treasury Department has added eight Chinese companies — including DJI, the world's largest commercial drone manufacturer … | Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Job listings show Apple is hiring engineers for a new office in Irvine, California to develop wireless chips that could replace Broadcom and Skyworks components — - Company seeks engineers for location in Irvine, California — Apple is poised to attract employees from Broadcom, Skyworks
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iThinkDifferent, XDA Developers, 9to5Mac, The Verge, Ubergizmo, PhoneArena, Gizmodo, iMore, MacDailyNews, Macworld, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, iPhone Hacks, iClarified, iPhone in Canada Blog, AppleInsider, and MacRumors
Tweets: @markgurman, @dylan522p, @philiped, @ravi_711, @ravi_711, @dylan522p, @benbajarin, @ravi_711, and @newsynick
| Kris Holt / Engadget: |
Sidewalk Labs plans to shut down, fold its products into Google, and spin out Canopy Buildings; CEO Dan Doctoroff says he is stepping down for health reasons — Alphabet's smart city project is winding down and Google will take over its products. Sidewalk Labs CEO Dan Doctoroff announced …
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Sidewalk Talk, CNBC, The Real Deal New York, Silicon Valley Business …, New York Times, Crain's New York Business, Globe and Mail, Tech Xplore, Reuters, Bloomberg, The Verge, Wall Street Journal, and Protocol
Tweets: @jeffnolan, @andyjayhawk, @levynews, @daiwaka, @roybahat, @sidewalklabs, @arielmai, @mhbergen, @njbowden, @richard_florida, and @kantrowitz
| Kyle Orland / Ars Technica: |
Legacy, an NFT-powered game by Peter Molyneux's 22cans studio and Gala Games planned for next year, raises $54M in virtual land NFT sales in less than a week — But are these games a brave new world or a FOMO-driven gold rush bubble? — On Saturday, Peter Molyneux's 22cans studio …
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The Verge, NME, Eurogamer.net, ExtremeTech, Game Rant, HotHardware.com News, thegamer.com, and TechSpot
Tweets: @nash076 and @carnage4life
| Paul R. La Monica / CNN: |
The CFPB probes buy now, pay later practices of Affirm, Afterpay, PayPal, Klarna, and Zip, citing concerns over customers' debt accumulation and data harvesting — New York (CNN Business)Regulators in Washington may crack down on the industry behind “buy now, pay later,” … | Orla McCaffrey / Wall Street Journal: |
Tax preparation company H&R Block sues Block, formerly Square, for trademark infringement, claiming Block's name and logo are “nearly identical” to its own — Square changed name to Block earlier this month, a nod to CEO Jack Dorsey's blockchain ambitions
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TheStreet, Finextra, Blockchain News, Decrypt, Bloomberg, GlobeNewswire News Room, TechSpot, CNN, SiliconANGLE, Engadget, CNBC, Protocol, CoinDesk, and PYMNTS.com
Tweets: @theryanford, @rstephens, @chrismessina, @readdanwrite, @lanceulanoff, @ryan, @orla_mccaffrey, and @epro
| Josh Sisco / The Information: |
Sources: the FTC opened an in-depth probe into Meta's acquisition of Within, the company behind VR fitness game Supernatural — Meta Platforms' Oculus virtual reality headsets are a vital step toward creating what its CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, calls the metaverse, an immersive internet in which people can interact in digital spaces.| Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: |
France's privacy watchdog says Clearview AI breached GDPR and orders it to delete user data within two months; Clearview counters that it has no EU customers — Controversial facial recognition company, Clearview AI, which has amassed a database of some 10 billion images by scraping selfies off …
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CNIL, euronews, BuzzFeed News, The Verge, infosecurity-magazine.com, and Reuters. Tweets: @slpng_giants
| Sara Fischer / Axios: |
Spotify acquires Australian company Whooshkaa, which helps radio broadcasters turn existing content into podcasts and sell ads around them — Spotify on Thursday said it acquired Whooshkaa, a podcast technology platform that specializes in technology for radio broadcasters to turn existing content into podcasts.
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Spotify, TechCrunch, PhoneArena, Engadget, The Verge, Hollywood Reporter, Variety, RAIN News, and Whooshkaa
Tweets: @evoterra, @spotifyads, @sarthakgh, @podnews, @sarafischer, @ashleyrcarman, and @spotifynews
| Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: Oracle is in talks to acquire electronic medical records company Cerner, in a deal that could be worth ~$30B, which would make it Oracle's biggest yet — An agreement, which could potentially be worth $30 billion, would rank as biggest ever for software giant| Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch: |
TikTok launches a Discord server with five moderators, as brands use the messaging tool to forge a sense of community, including Wendy's with 60K+ Discord users — Many brands are using the messaging app Discord to forge a sense of community among their fans.| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Pakistan-based CreditBook, a bookkeeping app for small merchants, raises an $11M pre-Series A led by Tiger Global, the firm's first investment in the country — Two years ago, a group of entrepreneurs in Pakistan began surveying the market to understand why financial services weren't reaching … | Tim O'Reilly / O'Reilly Media: |
A look at the cycles of decentralization and recentralization, and why we won't understand what Web3 consists of until after the next bubble pops — There's been a lot of talk about Web3 lately, and as the person who defined “Web 2.0” 17 years ago, I'm often asked to comment.
Tweets: @oreillymedia, @johnbattelle, @amyjokim, @fredbenenson, @tgoetz, @robertdouglass, @acroll, @timoreilly, @josemurilo, @dcolthrust, @ricmac, @jherskowitz, @mmasnick, @kwerb, and @sanjiva
| Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge: |
GM's Cruise says CEO Dan Ammann is leaving the company to “pursue other opportunities”; Cruise co-founder and CTO Kyle Vogt will take over as interim CEO — He will be replaced by Cruise founder Kyle Vogt — Dan Ammann, the CEO of Cruise, the autonomous vehicle company …
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General Motors Company, Detroit News, Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Associated Press, Automotive News, New York Times, Bloomberg, TechCrunch, Engadget, Reuters, and CNBC. Tweets: @quinnypig
| Gearoid Reidy / Bloomberg: |
Research: Japanese startups raised a record $3B+ in H1 2021, up from $2.37B in H1 2020, as China's crackdown leads SoftBank and others to invest in the country — Japan's startups are attracting increasing interest from overseas investors as the country starts to shake off a reputation as a unicorn-free venture backwater.
Tweets: @gearoidreidy
| Joe Miller / Financial Times: |
A look at Germany's “Silicon Saxony”, which accounts for one in three chips made in Europe, as the EU aims to double its global chip market share to 20% by 2030 — Cluster that began in communist East Germany now seen as strategic asset amid supply chain crisis
Tweets: @chassnews, @joemillerjr, @cornelban73, @mamdorsky, and @cszabla
| Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge: |
Amazon Echo Show 15 review: a bright screen with HD streaming doesn't make up for laggy performance, inconsistent personalized content, and too few widgets — The $249.99 Echo Show 15 is billed as a shared hub for families to see things like upcoming calendar appointments, to-dos, digital sticky note reminders, and shopping lists.| Katie Jennings / Forbes: |
Cerebral, an app-based mental health service provider that raised $300M at a $4.8B valuation last week, makes some staff health insurance contingent on quotas — The company, which raised $300 million at a $4.8 billion valuation this month, changed the status of more than 200 employees …
Tweets: @katiedjennings and @toymango
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