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December 17, 2021, 2:55 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, Washington Post, NPR, The Guardian, Wired, VICE, GitHub, Bloomberg, iPhone in Canada Blog, The Register, Associated Press, ZDNet, 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, Protocol, The Economic Times, Forbes, Gizmodo, Wall Street Journal, BBC, MIT Technology Review, iTnews, The Verge, Engadget, BleepingComputer, CNET, Rolling Stone, and The Hill
Tweets: @blackamazon, @ngleicher, @evacide, @marietjeschaake, @dashdecosta, @rj_gallagher, @migueldeicaza, @davidakaye, @howelloneill, @iblametom, @jckichen, @zackwhittaker, @arawnsley, @bing_chris, @evacide, @w7voa, @ngleicher, @tomgara, @iblametom, @anthony, @jsrailton, @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 … | 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, Tech Xplore, Reuters, The Real Deal New York, Bloomberg, Silicon Valley Business …, New York Times, Crain's New York Business, Globe and Mail, 9to5Google, The Verge, Wall Street Journal, and Protocol
Tweets: @jeffnolan, @andyjayhawk, @levynews, @kantrowitz, @daiwaka, @roybahat, @sidewalklabs, @arielmai, @mhbergen, @njbowden, and @richard_florida
| 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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9to5Mac, MacDailyNews, iMore, Macworld, Ubergizmo, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Gizmodo, PhoneArena, iPhone Hacks, iPhone in Canada Blog, AppleInsider, MacRumors, The Verge, and iClarified
Tweets: @markgurman, @dylan522p, @philiped, @ravi_711, @ravi_711, @dylan522p, @benbajarin, @ravi_711, and @newsynick
| 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, Game Rant, ExtremeTech, Eurogamer.net, HotHardware.com News, thegamer.com, and TechSpot
Tweets: @nash076 and @carnage4life
| 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, Decrypt, Bloomberg, GlobeNewswire News Room, TechSpot, CNN, Engadget, CNBC, SiliconANGLE, Protocol, and CoinDesk
Tweets: @theryanford, @rstephens, @chrismessina, @readdanwrite, @lanceulanoff, @ryan, @orla_mccaffrey, and @epro
| 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,” … | 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, and infosecurity-magazine.com. Tweets: @slpng_giants
| 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.| 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
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Financial Times, SiliconANGLE, Reuters, Bloomberg, and Dow Jones Newswires
| 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, @fredbenenson, @johnbattelle, @amyjokim, @tgoetz, @robertdouglass, @acroll, @timoreilly, @josemurilo, @dcolthrust, @ricmac, @jherskowitz, @mmasnick, @kwerb, and @sanjiva
| 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, Engadget, The Verge, TechCrunch, Variety, and Hollywood Reporter
Tweets: @evoterra, @spotifyads, @sarthakgh, @podnews, @sarafischer, @ashleyrcarman, and @spotifynews
| 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
| 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, Reuters, Wall Street Journal, MarketWatch, Associated Press, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Automotive News, New York Times, CNBC, and Engadget. Tweets: @quinnypig
| 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.| Liza Lin / Wall Street Journal: |
TikTok says it will adjust its recommendation algorithm to avoid negative reinforcement and let users pick words and hashtags to remove videos from their feed — The app says it is working to diversify the content it pushes to individual users in order to protect their mental well-being
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TikTok, TechCrunch, Social Media Today, Digital Trends, Tubefilter, Protocol, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Engadget, The Verge, and Axios. Tweets: @tiktokcomms
| 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
| 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.| Todd Spangler / Variety: |
Spotify rolls out a podcast ratings system that will let users rate a show from one to five stars only after listening to it — Spotify is borrowing a page from rival Apple with the addition of a five-star user ratings system for podcasts — a new tool for sorting through …
More:
Spotify, Word of Mouth, The Verge, Gizmodo, Hollywood Reporter, TechCrunch, hotpodnews.com, and Engadget
Tweets: @spotifynews, @variety, and @evoterra
| Chainalysis: |
Analysis: cryptocurrency scams cost victims $7.7B in 2021, up 81% from 2020, driven by DeFi-based “rug pulls” wherein developers unexpectedly abandon projects — Scams were once again the largest form of cryptocurrency-based crime by transaction volume, with over $7.7 billion worth …
More:
Insider, CryptoSlate, Decrypt, and Protocol
Tweets: @chainalysis, @arvidkahl, @ryan, @ann_arcana, and @mdudas
| Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: |
Apple releases Swift Playgrounds 4, which lets users develop iPhone and iPad apps on their iPads, preview apps in real time, and upload them to the App Store — Apple announced that it has officially released Swift Playgrounds 4. The tech giant first announced the upcoming launch of the new software at WWDC earlier this year.
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MacStories, Six Colors, SiliconANGLE, Thurrott, Pocketnow, Wccftech, PhoneArena, Redmond Pie, and Cult of Mac
Tweets: @twostraws, @zollotech, @chris_lawley, @tommyprezioso, @frankefoster, and @timroesner
| Dan Primack / Axios: |
Source: delivery startup Gopuff, which recently launched in London and NYC, raised $1.5B in convertible notes at a valuation of up to $40B — Gopuff, an instant delivery platform for everyday items, has raised $1.5 billion in new funding at around a $40 billion valuation, Axios has learned.Sponsor Posts
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