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January 6, 2021, 1:30 PM
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| Alexandra Alper / Reuters: |
Trump signs an executive order banning transactions with Ant Group's Alipay, Tencent's WeChat Pay and QQ, and five other Chinese payment apps — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese software applications, including Ant Group's Alipay.
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The White House, Bloomberg, Reuters, MacRumors, HotHardware.com News, The Hill, CyberScoop, Fortune, U.S. Department of Commerce, Neowin, Engadget, Fast Company, Android Central, TechRadar, AppleInsider, Tech in Asia, New York Times, SlashGear, Pocketnow, Reuters, and PYMNTS.com
Tweets: @secretaryross, @commercegov, @niubi, @chriskeall, @niubi, and @mdudas
| Jesse Pound / CNBC: |
In a reversal, NYSE says it will go ahead with its plan to delist China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, following Mnuchin criticism — The New York Stock Exchange will delist three Chinese telecommunication giants after all. — The stock exchange will remove U.S.-traded shares of China Telecom …
More:
Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Reuters, Protocol, Bloomberg, Telecoms.com, Financial Times, csrc.gov.cn, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, and CNBC
Tweets: @katie_martin_fx, @benedictevans, @markgongloff, @jchengwsj, @felixsalmon, and @business
| Queenie Wong / CNET: |
Facebook updates Pages with a cleaner design, tools for hosting text-based Q&As, a dedicated News Feed, removes the total amount of “likes”, and more — The social network will also remove the total amount of “likes” a Page receives.
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About Facebook, TechCrunch, XDA Developers, Engadget, 9to5Mac, Pocketnow, Reuters, Neowin, SlashGear, Tubefilter, iPhone in Canada Blog, and MSPoweruser
Tweets: @alexvoica, @alexvoica, @sarafischer, @stshank, @mattnavarra, @alexvoica, and @taylorlorenz
| Pranob Mehrotra / XDA Developers: |
WhatsApp updates its Terms and Privacy Policy to mandate data sharing with Facebook, including transaction data, mobile device information, IP address, and more — WhatsApp users are receiving an in-app notice today regarding the service's new terms and privacy policy.
More:
The Hacker News, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, HotHardware.com News, WhatsApp.com, The Economic Times, Input, HackRead, BleepingComputer, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com, TechRadar, and Wccftech
Tweets: @hypervisible, @ediggs, @pitermach, @psawers, @stilldelvingh, @martinsfp, and @jochendo
| Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: |
Apple says App Store users spent $1.8B on goods and services between December 24 and New Year's Eve and $540M on New Year's Day alone; Books has 90M MAUs — Apple has announced today that App Store customers spent a record amount throughout the holiday season.
More:
Apple, Thurrott, appadvice.com, Engadget, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, Bloomberg, and MacRumors
| Will Heaven / MIT Technology Review: |
OpenAI introduces two new GPT-3 models: CLIP, which classifies images into categories from arbitrary text, and DALL·E, which can generate images from text — With GPT-3, OpenAI showed that a single deep-learning model could be trained to use language in a variety of ways simply by throwing it vast amounts of text.
More:
OpenAI, Axios, BBC, New Scientist, The Next Web, FlowingData, Neowin, Towards Data Science, and Slashdot
Tweets: @calebwatney, @dillonliam, @mark_riedl, @humansofflat, @0x49fa98, @fcain, @liv_boeree, @techreview, @wongmjane, @sama, @esyudkowsky, @gdb, @ilyasut, @deljohnsonvc, @danielrakh, @neil_chilson, @adamludwin, @dflieb, @sama, @km, @viss, @jonathanberte, and @mmasnick
| Emily Birnbaum / Protocol: |
As Democrats are poised to win Georgia's Senate seats, a look at potential tech legislation under a unified government, including a federal privacy bill — As of Wednesday morning, Democrats looked poised to win both Georgia Senate seats, taking back control of the Senate after five years of Republican leadership.
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Washington Post, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Fortune, Variety, Wall Street Journal, Politico, Politico, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, and New York Times
Tweets: @cat_zakrzewski, @eff, @freepress, @foxcahn, @issielapowsky, @jason_kint, and @reckless
| Bloomberg: |
Facebook's Andrew Bosworth says its smart glasses, built in partnership with Ray-Ban, will arrive “sooner than later” in 2021 without AR features — - Company has more than 6,000 staff on AR, VR and hardware tasks — Zuckerberg seeking the next computer platform after smartphone
More:
Facebook Technology, Axios, TechSpot, UploadVR, and VRFocus
Tweets: @kurtwagner8, @sarahfrier, @nickstatt, @nickstatt, @alexvoica, @techatfacebook, @schrep, and @mshannahmurphy
| Dina Bass / Bloomberg: |
An oral history from 24 people describing how Microsoft developed the original Xbox, initially an over-budget ungainly product, and reshaped the gaming industry — The original product was ungainly, over-budget and nearly canceled. Here's how it became a hit and reshaped an industry.
More:
Thurrott, The Verge, IGN, and GameSpot
Tweets: @dinabass, @bradstone, @jeffsand, @nickstatt, @swiftonsecurity, @jasonschreier, @tomwarren, @newsynick, @markmilian, @bdsams, @inafried, @dinabass, and @dinabass
| Nicole Friedman / Wall Street Journal: |
Amazon commits $2B+ over five years to create and preserve affordable housing in three of its employment hubs, Seattle, WA; Arlington, VA; and Nashville, TN — Tech giant to make investments over next five years in and around Seattle, Arlington, Va., and Nashville, Tenn.
More:
The Verge, Amazon.com, Inc., aboutamazon.com, Reuters, GeekWire, PCMag, Engadget, Bloomberg, and The Hill
Tweets: @kylebrussell, @amazonnews, @delrey, @davidzapolsky, and @brycecovert
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Google plans to add privacy labels across its iOS app catalog this week or next, after a report claimed none of Google's iOS apps have been updated since Dec. 7 — Contrary to reports, Google is not delaying updates to its iOS apps because it doesn't want to comply with Apple's recently announced App Store Privacy Labels policy.
More:
iMore, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Ars Technica, BGR, TechRadar, Wccftech, KnowTechie, NextPit, news.com.au, phonearena.com, MacDailyNews, SlashGear, Pocketnow, SiliconANGLE, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, and Slashdot
Tweets: @mjtsai, @davewoodx, @taupeavenger, @metacurity, @volt4ire, @mattnavarra, @jernejv, @hunterwalk, @campuscodi, @elkmovie, @hanse00, @alexeheath, and @michaelgrothaus
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Microsoft says it will shut down Minecraft Earth, which let users play Minecraft in real life through AR, on June 30, due to the pandemic — The ambitious project to cover the world in blocks is over — Microsoft is closing down its Minecraft Earth mobile game in June, due to the ongoing pandemic.
More:
Minecraft.net, SiliconANGLE, help.minecraft.net, TechRadar, iPhone in Canada Blog, Game Rant, VRFocus, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, OnMSFT.com, WinBuzzer, MacRumors, XDA Developers, TouchArcade, Digital Trends, CNET, Neowin, PCWorld, PC Gamer, GamingBolt, PCMag, Windows Central, Wccftech, Thurrott, HotHardware.com News, OnMSFT.com, 9to5Mac, GeekWire, Game Rant, Android Authority, Engadget, and Ubergizmo
Tweets: @minecraftearth, @minecraft, @alexhern, and @sithaizawa
| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
Atlanta-based SalesLoft, which provides AI-based tools to help salespeople run their sales process virtually, raises $100M at a $1.1B post-money valuation — The Covid-19 pandemic and specifically need for social distancing to slow the spread of the virus have continued to keep many of us away from the office.| Steven J. Vaughan-Nichols / ZDNet: |
Open source developer David Recordon named Biden's director of technology, returning to the White House after serving as its first director of IT under Obama — With a background in open source, open standards, and security, Recordon may be ideal for President Joe Biden's White House.| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Dremio, which offers tools for companies to help streamline and curate data, raises $135M Series D led by Sapphire Ventures at a $1B post-money valuation — Dremio, a startup offering tools to help streamline and curate data, today announced that it raised $135 million in series D funding at a post-money valuation of $1 billion.
More:
FinSMEs, ZDNet, and SiliconANGLE
| Hunter Walk / Medium: |
To help creators avoid burnout, platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok need to explore new ideas like rate limiting of posts and paid time-offs — Creator Wellness Will Be A Key Goal of New Products — Being a modern creator is, for many, exhausting.
Tweets: @medium, @cnyari, @sarthakgh, @hunterwalk, and @scottbelsky
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Intel launches RealSense ID, an on-device facial authentication tool, launching in Q1 2021 for $99 and aimed at smart locks, ATMs, and kiosks — Intel today launched the newest addition to RealSense, its product range of depth and tracking technologies designed to give machines depth perception capabilities.
More:
Gizmodo
| Matt Grossman / Wall Street Journal: |
IBM names Gary Cohn, former Goldman Sachs executive and economic adviser to Trump, as its vice chairman and member of its executive leadership team — Past Goldman Sachs president named vice chairman as tech icon develops stronger growth strategy — International Business Machines Corp …
More:
IBM. Tweets: @gary_d_cohn, @gary_d_cohn, @danielnewmanuv, @jstrauss, @eisingerj, @mattegancnn, @davidenrich, and @edleafe
| Reuters: |
Sources: Alibaba is planning to raise $5B to $8B in a USD-denominated bond sale this month, as China increases scrutiny of Jack Ma's empire — HONG KONG (Reuters) - China's Alibaba Group Holding Ltd plans to raise at least $5 billion through the sale of a U.S. dollar-denominated bond this month …
More:
Nikkei Asia, Tech in Asia, and DealStreetAsia
| Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: |
FBI, CISA, and ODNI, with support from NSA, say an APT “likely Russian in origin” is responsible for all or most of the recently discovered hacks of US agencies — Joint statement from the FBI, CISA, ODNI, and NSA says SolarWinds hack was “likely Russian in origin.”
More:
Ars Technica, ODNI Newsroom, Washington Post, The Hacker News, Enterprise Times, cyberscoop.com, Politico, TechRepublic, Input, Associated Press, The Independent, Wall Street Journal, CSO, Threatpost, Engadget, CNBC, Gizmodo, and New York Times
Tweets: @froomkin, @file411, @file411, @georgecroner, @miekeeoyang, @campuscodi, and @campuscodi
| Eugene Kim / Business Insider: |
Sources: Amazon is working on a contactless Alexa-enabled device that can track and monitor sleep apnea, primarily using millimeter-wave radar — - Amazon is working on a new Alexa-enabled device that can track and monitor sleep apnea, Business Insider has learned.
More:
Gizmodo, KnowTechie, and The Verge
| Andrew Brust / ZDNet: |
Starburst, a startup based around an open-source data analytics project from Facebook called Presto, raises $100M Series C led by a16z, valuing it at $1.2B — The second data lake funding announcement of the day brings Starburst's valuation to $1.2B — Data virtualization …
More:
FinSMEs, Bloomberg, Starburst Data, Morningstar, Starburst Data, and Andreessen Horowitz
| Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: |
UK's competition authority launches an investigation into Nvidia's $40B acquisition of Arm, after rivals raised concerns — CMA probe comes after rivals raised concerns over acquisition — The UK's competition regulator is preparing to launch a probe of Nvidia's $40bn acquisition of UK chip designer Arm …
More:
Bloomberg, BBC, Associated Press, GOV.UK, TechCrunch, Reuters, The Guardian, CNBC, MarketWatch, and Telegraph
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