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January 19, 2019, 11:45 PM
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| Wall Street Journal: |
Japanese hotel, trying to replace all of its staff with robots, ended up creating more work for staff and frustrated guests as robots didn't perform as expected — The robot revolution will have to wait at the Henn na Hotel in Japan, which is laying off low-performing droids
More:
The Verge, The Register, Digital Trends, Inquirer, Forbes, Engadget, SlashGear, Geek.com, and Gizmodo
Tweets: @annafifield, @fahrenthold, and @mark_riedl
| Matt Binder / Mashable: |
Google Maps rolls out ability to see user-reported speed traps via small camera icons, in North America, UK, Australia, Russia, Brazil, India, and Indonesia — Drivers will soon have an extra set of eyes on the road, courtesy of Google. — Google's navigation app, Google Maps …
More:
Android Police, 9to5Google, The Verge, Phandroid, XDA Developers, Android Authority, and Geek.com
| Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: |
Report: $5.3B was invested in cybersecurity companies in 2018, up 81% from 2016, with California alone accounting for 46% of VC investments worldwide — 2018 wasn't all bad. It turned out to be a record year for venture capital firms investing in cybersecurity companies.
More:
Strategic Cyber Ventures, Dark Reading, CircleID, SecurityWeek, Security Boulevard, and Forbes
| Tom Simonite / Wired: |
Strategy Robot, founded by the creators of an AI bot that beat four top professional Texas Hold 'Em players, signs a $10M two-year contract with the US Army — IN 2017, A poker bot called Libratus made headlines when it roundly defeated four top human players at no-limit Texas Hold 'Em.
Tweets: @wired and @aimeevanrobot
| Anna Irrera / Reuters: |
Chainalysis: Bitcoin transactions on darknet markets rose throughout 2018 to an average of $2M/day, nearly double the activity measured at the start of the year — NEW YORK (Reuters) - Use of bitcoin as a form of payment doubled in 2018 on darknet market sites, where users can buy anything … | Rani Molla / Recode: |
Voicebot survey estimates that about 77M US adults use voice assistants in their cars at least monthly, compared with 45.7M using them on smart speakers — Voice assistants are more habit-forming in cars than on smartphones. — As smart speakers take off in the home … | Quynh Nguyen / DealStreetAsia: |
DaDa, a Chinese online tutoring service that helps children aged 4 to 16 learn English from native speakers, raises $255M Series D led by Warburg Pincus — Global private equity firm Warburg Pincus has led a $255-million Series D round in China's online English tutoring platform DaDa …
More:
ChinaKnowledge, EdSurge, China Money Network, Bloomberg, and Tech in Asia
| Alex Heath / Cheddar: |
Sources: Snap fires security chief over secret relationship with a consultant and pushes out his boss, the head of HR, amid multiple departures in recent months — Snap's global security chief has been fired after an internal investigation found that he had an undisclosed relationship …
More:
Wall Street Journal, Mashable, TechCrunch, The Hill, and Gizmodo
Tweets: @alexeheath, @alexeheath, @alexeheath, @nycjim, and @alexeheath
| Nicole Perlroth / New York Times: |
DNC says in court filing that it was a target of a failed spearphishing campaign after the midterms; researchers: the campaign resembled Russia-linked attacks — SAN FRANCISCO — The Democratic National Committee believes it was targeted in a hacking attempt by a Russian group in the weeks …
More:
CNET, BleepingComputer, Axios, Engadget, Fortune, ZDNet, BuzzFeed News, ABC News, The Register, and Mashable. Tweets: @nicoleperlroth
| Biz Carson / Forbes: |
Profile of angel investor and Code.org co-founder Ali Partovi, who now manages Neo, a fund that matches talented young engineers with tech industry veterans — s venture capitalists mingled with members of the Golden State Warriors at a fall 2016 cocktail party, tech investor Ali Partovi scrambled to find something to talk about.
Tweets: @apartovi, @apartovi, @hadip, @forbes, @robot_md, @apartovi, @hkanji, @forbes, and @alexrkonrad. Thanks:@alexrkonrad
| David Gelles / New York Times: |
Q&A with Hadi Partovi on starting Code.org, working on IE at Microsoft, what he is looking for in startup founders, and teaching computer science in schools — The founder and chief executive of Code.org, who was born in Iran, says computer science is a “foundational skill,” …
Tweets: @dkhos, @hadip, and @levesquepat
| Julia Reda: |
EU's copyright reform with “link tax” and “upload filters” suffers a setback as 11 member states vote against the proposal, making adoption in May less likely — Today, Council firmly rejected the negotiating mandate that was supposed to set out Member States' position ahead …
More:
The Verge, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Boing Boing, Techdirt, Boing Boing, Engadget, Search Engine Journal, and TechSpot
Tweets: @eff, @jimmy_wales, and @ambermac
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