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January 20, 2019, 12:05 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
| 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.| 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 … | 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
| 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
| 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 … | 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
| 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 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.| 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 …
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Techdirt, The Verge, Electronic Frontier Foundation, Boing Boing, Engadget, Boing Boing, Search Engine Journal, and TechSpot
Tweets: @masakox, @eff, @jimmy_wales, and @ambermac
| Washington Post: |
Sources: FTC commissioners have met to consider a record fine against Facebook for potentially violating a 2011 consent decree about user privacy — U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for violating a legally binding agreement with the government …
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9to5Mac, New York Times, Gizmodo, Mashable, Business Insider, CNBC, Associated Press, Firstpost, Bloomberg, Neowin, PYMNTS.com, TechCrunch, Silicon Valley Business …, The Hill, The Verge, Engadget, CNET, Axios, Notes from Silicon Valley, and Ars Technica
Tweets: @tonyromm, @cnbcnow, @b52malmet, @amyklobuchar, @ariezrawaldman, @tonyromm, @lam_barrett, @caseynewton, @kurtwagner8, and @tonyromm
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