Techmeme
January 27, 2021, 12:45 PM

Top News

Ryan Browne / CNBC:
As r/WallStreetBets causes GameStop, BlackBerry, and others to surge, online trading platforms like Robinhood and WeBull have rapidly climbed US app store ranks  —  - The flurry of Redditors taking on Wall Street appears to have resulted in a usage boom for share trading apps.
Bloomberg:
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Google details the impact of Apple's upcoming IDFA ad privacy changes, including reducing visibility into app install metrics and affecting bidding on some ads  —  Apple has prioritized user privacy over targeted advertising, and Google is spelling out today what that means for itself as well as game and app developers.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Counterpoint and CyberMedia say that Apple has shipped 1.5M iPhone units in India last quarter, doubling its market share in the country to 4%  —  When Apple reports its earnings on Wednesday, you can expect mentions of India on the call.  —  Apple shipped more than 1.5 million iPhone units …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
In today's iOS 14.4 update, Apple fixes three 0-days, tipped by an anonymous researcher, and acknowledges a report that they may have been exploited in the wild  —  Fixes come after Apple patched another set of three zero-days last November.  —  Apple has released today security updates …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
New docs from Epic vs. Apple lawsuit reveal internal Apple discussions on fees to charge paid TV and streaming channels and how that may affect the App Store  —  In Apple and Epic's ongoing court battle over App Store fees, one of the key sticking points has been Apple's insistence on maintaining …
Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
Profile of PE firm Francisco Partners, whose portfolio includes companies like Sandvine and NSO Group, which have both pursued deals with authoritarian regimes  —  Don Bowman, co-founder of Sandvine Inc., was always aware of the risks his company's products posed.
Jai Vardhan / Entrackr:
Sources: ByteDance has decided to wrap up its India operations and is laying off 90%, or over 1,800 employees, following India's permanent ban on TikTok  —  Bytedance has decided to wrap up its India operations and is cutting a large chunk of its employee base citing an absence of a clear direction …
Jay Bonggolto / Neowin:
Sony announces Xperia Pro 5G, which has an HDMI input that lets content creators turn the smartphone into an external monitor, shipping now for $2,500  —  Sony announced today its newest 5G smartphone with an HDMI input, the first of its kind to include that feature.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Twitter announces it is opening up its full tweet archive to academic researchers for free and ups the monthly tweet volume cap for approved applicants to 10M  —  To help researchers better study online discourse and platform trends  —  Twitter on Tuesday announced a significant shift …
Anna Kramer / Protocol:
Profile of Tracy Chou, diversity activist and founder of Block Party, which lets users filter out trolling and harassing Tweets so they can be reviewed later  —  When Tracy Chou decided to host a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” about online harassment over the summer, she knew it probably …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Pinecone, which is developing a vector database to help build machine learning apps faster, raises $10M seed led by Wing Venture Capital  —  Pinecone, a new startup from the folks who helped launch Amazon SageMaker, has built a vector database that generates data in a specialized format …
More: ZDNet and SiliconANGLE
Swetha Gopinath / Bloomberg:
Polish postal locker service InPost raised €2.8B in its IPO, Europe's biggest since 2018, selling shares at €16 and valuing the company at over €8B  —  - IPO prices at 16 euros a share, top end of the initial range  — Sale of 35% stake values Polish company at 8 billion euros
More: Reuters
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Google announces it is shutting down internal development of Tilt Brush VR and is open sourcing it, a month after shutting down Poly, a 3D object library  —  As Facebook and Apple begin to fire up more projects in the AR/VR world, Google has spent the last year shutting down most of their existing projects in that space.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Tel Aviv-based Classiq, which is building tools to develop quantum algorithms and apps, raises $10.5M Series A led by Team8 Capital and Wing Capital  —  Classiq, a Tel Aviv-based startup that aims to make it easier for computer scientists and developers to create quantum algorithms and applications …
More: CTech
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Splashtop, a remote access and support service for businesses, raises $50M led by Sapphire Ventures at a $1B valuation  —  Splashtop, a remote access and support platform for businesses, has raised $50 million in a round of funding led by Sapphire Ventures, valuing the company at $1 billion.
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Maryland-based SparkPost, an email delivery, optimization, and analytics service, raises $180M from LLR Partners and others  —  SparkPost, an email delivery, optimization, and analytics platform, has raised $180 million from LLR Partners, NewSpring Capital, and PNC Bank.

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More News

Alex C. Engler / Fast Company:

Earlier Picks

Michael Schwirtz / New York Times:
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Tiernan Ray / ZDNet:
Microsoft:
Ellen Huet / Bloomberg:
Julia Alexander / The Verge: