Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo announces it will use Apple Maps to power map and address-related searches, using Apple's MapKit JS framework  —  Apple's MapKit JS has a big, new user  —  DuckDuckGo has spent the last few years making the case that it's the search engine …

Ethereum's long-anticipated Constantinople fork has been delayed after an audit firm discovered a critical flaw in one of the planned changes  —  Ethereum's long-anticipated Constantinople upgrade has just been delayed after a critical vulnerability was discovered in one of the planned changes.

Microsoft partners with Walgreens, which will migrate infrastructure to Azure and roll out Office 365 to staff while jointly developing new health care tech  —  A week after unveiling a plan to reinvent grocery shopping with Kroger, Microsoft announced another major retail partnership …

Netflix raises prices for US subscribers by 13%-18%, its biggest hike ever, immediately affecting new subscribers, over next three months for existing customers  —  SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix is raising its U.S. prices by 13 percent to 18 percent, its biggest increase since the company launched its streaming service 12 years ago.

SEC filing: Snap CFO Tim Stone, who joined from Amazon in May 2018, will resign, but his last day has not been determined; Snap's stock down 6%+ after hours  —  nap chief financial officer Tim Stone is resigning, the company said in a new filing.  The stock dropped more than 5 percent after hours on the news.

A simple picture of an egg, posted by an anonymous Instagram user, has set the record for most likes, with over 40M, surpassing Kylie Jenner's 18M record  —  There's nothing special about the egg.  Seems like a fine enough egg.  But more than 22 million people have liked it, dethroning Kylie Jenner's birth-announcement post.

Twitter launches the reverse-chronological feed as an option on Android  —  Twitter brought its traditional reverse-chronological timeline back to iOS last month, and now the optional feature is available to Android users in a new update.  It's a welcome choice that brings back some stability to the Twitter feed.

Source: Tim Cook told employees at an all-hands that Apple replaced 11M iPhone batteries under the $29 replacement program in 2018, up from an average of 1-2M  —  Jean-Louis Gassée, on Apple's earnings warning: … I'm pretty sure Gassée's back-of-the-envelope estimate …

Apple launches $129 battery cases with Qi charging support for iPhone XR, XS, and XS Max  —  Apple today released new Smart Battery Cases designed for its 2018 iPhone lineup, including the iPhone XS, XS Max, and XR.  —  Available in black or white, each Smart Battery Case is priced at $129 …

Facebook says it will invest $300M over the next three years to support local news in the US, and expand the Local News Subscriptions Accelerator globally  —  Last year, we worked to better understand what kind of news people want to see on Facebook.  We've also asked our partners …

Google says it has started rolling out Material Design to Google Docs, Sheets, Slides, and Sites on the web  —  Google today announced that it has started the long-expected rollout of its Material Design update for Google Docs, Sheets, Slides and Sites, after first testing this update …

US appeals court upholds judgment worth $440M that was won by intellectual property licensing firm VirnetX against Apple in patent infringement case  —  (Reuters) - A U.S. appeals court on Tuesday upheld a judgment worth $440 million that was won by intellectual property licensing firm VirnetX Inc …

Investigation finds ads on Instagram for several services selling fake followers or automated notification spam for luring in followers  —  Instagram has been earning money from businesses flooding its social network with spam notifications.  Instagram hypocritically continues to sell ad space …

AWS acquired TSO Logic, a Vancouver startup that helps customers determine how much it would cost to run their workloads in the cloud, on Dec. 22, 2018  —  It has been an acquisitive start to the year for Amazon Web Services, which has reached an agreement to purchase Vancouver's TSO Logic …

Pandora launches a personalized voice assistant on iOS and Android that will deliver personalized search results and allow users to control music playback  —  Pandora today announced the launch of its own, in-app voice assistant which you can call up at any time by saying “Hey Pandora,” …

German court dismisses Qualcomm's latest patent lawsuit against Apple, says the patent in question was not violated by the installation of its chips in iPhones  —  FRANKFURT (Reuters) - A patent lawsuit filed by Qualcomm Inc against Apple Inc was thrown out by a German court on Tuesday …

US authorities charge Ukrainian hacker and several others for alleged roles in trading on nonpublic corporate earnings news obtained by hacking an SEC database  —  (Reuters) - U.S. authorities on Tuesday charged several individuals and companies in a scheme to trade on information …

Sources: Microsoft has begun work on adapting Windows for devices with dual screens and foldable displays, updating the OS itself and built-in apps  —  New devices from both Microsoft and PC makers  —  Microsoft is working on adapting Windows to work on foldable devices.

Researcher finds that Voipo, a communications provider based in Lake Forest, CA, left a server with millions of call logs, texts, and more exposed for months  —  An unprotected server storing millions of call logs and text messages was left open for months before they were found by a security researcher.

Workforce management software provider Quinyx, whose customers include McDonalds, London City Airport, and Burger King, raises $25M and says it has ~500K users  —  Quinyx, a London/Stockholm-based provider of workforce management solutions, has raised a $25 million funding round …

Rubrik, which provides enterprise data management and backup services, raises $261M at a $3.3B valuation from Bain Capital Ventures and others  —  There is a growing demand for stronger security at every point in the IT ecosystem, and today, one of the the more successful enterprise startups …

Smartsheet acquires Seattle-based Slope, which helps companies manage the creative project production process, for an undisclosed sum  —  Smartsheet didn't have to go far to make its second acquisition.  —  The Bellevue, Wash.-based publicly-traded work collaboration software company has swooped up Slope …