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January 20, 2019, 1:25 PM
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| Wall Street Journal: |
A Japanese hotel, aiming to replace all staff with robots, ended up creating more work for its 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
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The Verge, The Register, Digital Trends, Geek.com, Gizmodo, Inquirer, Forbes, Engadget, and SlashGear
Tweets: @edbott, @katebevan, @mark_riedl, @annafifield, @merbroussard, and @fahrenthold
| 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 … | 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 … | 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.| 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: @aimeevanrobot and @wired
| 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 …
More:
Crowdfund Insider, BitcoinExchangeGuide, BlockTribune, and Ethereum World News. Tweets: @nathanielpopper
| Jon Russell / TechCrunch: |
Indonesian ride-hailing company Go-Jek acquires Philippines-based fintech startup Coins.ph, sources say for $72M, ahead of a planned expansion into the country — Ride-hailing startup Go-Jek's expansion into the Philippines ran into problems earlier this month over its ownership structure … | James Ball / Columbia Journalism Review: |
Tech companies funding journalism projects deepens their codependence and implies the media is the exception that should be protected from tech's disruption — Yesterday, Facebook announced it would spend $300 million over three years on journalistic content, partnerships, and programs.
More:
Columbia Journalism Review. Tweets: @cjr, @jamesrbuk, @peejaygeorge, @newsbyschmidt, @mollymckew, @risj_oxford, @niemanlab, and @jamesrbuk
| 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, and Tech in Asia
| Alex Sherman / CNBC: |
SEC filing: Disney lost $1B+ from streaming in its 2018 fiscal year, with a $580M loss attributed to its stake in Hulu and $469M to ownership of BAMtech — - Disney's stake in Hulu and its ownership of BAMtech led to a loss of more than $1 billion in the latest fiscal year.| 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, @robot_md, @apartovi, @apartovi, @hadip, @hkanji, @forbes, @forbes, and @alexrkonrad. Thanks:@alexrkonrad
| 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
| 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:
Techdirt, The Verge, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Boing Boing, Engadget, Boing Boing, Search Engine Journal, and TechSpot
Tweets: @masakox, @eff, @jimmy_wales, and @ambermac
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