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April 13, 2021, 12:07 PM
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| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Microsoft unveils Surface Laptop 4 with 13.5" and 15" displays, starting at $999 for AMD model and $1,299 for Intel, shipping April 15 in US, Canada, and Japan — The AMD version starts at $300 less than Intel's equivalent — Microsoft is refreshing its Surface lineup with the Surface Laptop 4 today …
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Windows Blog, Windows Central, CNET, Tom's Hardware, GeekWire, Gizmodo, TechCrunch, PCWorld, BetaNews, The Next Web, Thurrott, Windows Central, Ars Technica, AnandTech, Engadget, Laptop Mag, Engadget, ZDNet, Wccftech, 9to5Toys, Liliputing, BGR, Tom's Guide, Petri, Pocket-lint, Digital Trends, and SlashGear
Tweets: @surface_uk, @lanceulanoff, @dcseifert, @dcseifert, @dcseifert, @surface, @zacbowden, @ow, and @ow
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Microsoft debuts a $70 webcam and $100 USB-C speaker, available in June, new USB and wireless headsets, and Surface Headphones 2 Plus — Both devices are designed to improve video and audio calls — Microsoft's long-awaited new webcam is finally here, alongside a number of accessories designed for the work from home era.
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TechCrunch, Thurrott, Windows Central, PCMag, Laptop Mag, OnMSFT.com, Tom's Guide, and Petri. Tweets: @tomwarren
| Ashley Carman / The Verge: |
Spotify announces Car Thing, a Spotify-only, voice-controlled device for the car, launching today for free for select US users — It's free, but users have to pay for shipping — Spotify's first gadget has landed. Car Thing, a Spotify-only, voice-controlled device for the car …
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Spotify, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, MacRumors, MacStories, 9to5Mac, SlashGear, CNET, Engadget, iDownloadBlog.com, Android Central, iPhone Hacks, and Fast Company
Tweets: @spotifynews, @wongmjane, @ashleyrcarman, @pkafka, and @pkafka
| Jeff Dunn / Ars Technica: |
Roku announces a trio of new devices: $40 Express 4K Plus streaming device, a $30 rechargeable Voice Remote Pro, and $180 Streambar Pro — Plus new Roku OS updates and a revised two-in-one streaming soundbar. — Roku on Tuesday announced its latest 4K media streamer, the Roku Express 4K+.
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CNET, The Verge, The Verge, AppleInsider, TechHive, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, USA Today, Gizmodo, ZDNet, iMore, Digital Trends, Mashable, TechRadar, Roku Blog, Insider, and SlashGear
Tweets: @dkatzmaier, @roku, @robpegoraro, and @chriswelch
| Todd Spangler / Variety: |
Epic Games raises $1B at a $28.7B equity valuation, including an additional $200M from Sony — Epic Games, the company behind global smash hit “Fortnite,” announced that it completed a $1 billion round of funding — giving it a whopping equity valuation of $28.7 billion.
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Epic Games, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, VentureBeat, The Verge, CNBC, GameSpot, Digital Trends, Hollywood Reporter, Twinfinite, Polygon, Gamasutra, Reuters, WRAL TechWire, and The Esports Observer. Tweets: @epicnewsroom
| Oversight Board: |
Facebook Oversight Board will now accept appeals to remove content from Facebook and Instagram; previously, users were only able to appeal to restore content — From today, users will be able to appeal content to the Oversight Board which they want removed from Facebook and Instagram.
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About Facebook, The Verge, BBC, Adweek, CNET, TechCrunch, The Hill, Forbes, Protocol, Engadget, Reuters, Neowin, Bloomberg, and LBC
Tweets: @oversightboard, @emilybell, @emilybell, @emilybell, @w7voa, @justinhendrix, @oversightboard, and @oversightboard
| Ashley Carman / The Verge: |
Facebook is testing a free video speed dating app called Sparked, which requires a Facebook profile to create an account — Users will be set up on four-minute video dates — Facebook is testing a video speed dating app called Sparked. The app, which requires a Facebook profile to create an account …
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Mashable, Insider, Engadget, and 9to5Mac
Tweets: @wongmjane, @ashleyrcarman, @ashleyrcarman, @russellbrandom, and @ashleyrcarman
| Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg: |
Grab is going public on NASDAQ via SPAC, raising $4B+ at a ~$39.6B valuation; deal would make it the first Southeast Asian tech unicorn to go public via SPAC — - SoftBank-backed Grab strikes pact with Gerstner's Altimeter — Southeast Asia ride-hailing giant set to trade on Nasdaq
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Grab SG, ZDNet, Reuters, Reuters, San Francisco Business Journal, Wall Street Journal, Crunchbase News, Agence France-Presse, Tech in Asia, CNBC, PYMNTS.com, WRAL TechWire, TechCrunch, South China Morning Post, New York Post, Fast Company, Financial Times, Nikkei Asia, and The Economic Times
Tweets: @newley and @jamesplloyd
| Ian Hamilton / UploadVR: |
Facebook to host Oculus Gaming Showcase, a virtual event focused exclusively on VR games, on April 21, with streams on Facebook, YouTube, and Twitch — Facebook will host an Oculus Gaming Showcase streaming to various sites on April 21. — The event will stream to Twitch, Facebook …
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Oculus Blog, Engadget, VentureBeat, MUO, Dot Esports, Wccftech, and VRFocus
Tweets: @nathievr, @nathievr, @cloudheadgames, @arvrgirl, @rad_studios, and @nathievr
| Ben Schoon / 9to5Google: |
Google to shut down Play Movies and TV app for Roku, Samsung, LG, and Vizio on June 15, will push users to use YouTube instead — After announcing Google TV last year, its predecessor had an unspoken expiration date. This week, Google has confirmed that it will kill off the Play Movies & TV app …
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The Verge, XDA Developers, Thurrott, Gizmodo, MUO, Android Headlines, Android Authority, Variety, TechRadar, The Next Web, Android Central, and SlashGear
Tweets: @ronamadeo, @ronamadeo, @thezedwards, @nexusben, and @ronamadeo
| Catalin Cimpanu / The Record: |
Researchers find new vulnerabilities called NAME:WRECK in the TCP/IP stack that impact hundreds of millions of servers, smart devices, and industrial equipment — Security researchers have found a new set of vulnerabilities that impact hundreds of millions of servers, smart devices, and industrial equipment.| Bloomberg: |
Bitcoin rises to an all-time high of $63,179, exceeding the previous peak in March, ahead of Coinbase listing on NASDAQ on April 14 — - Token surpasses the previous high set in March this year — Coinbase is scheduled to go public on the Nasdaq on April 14 — Follow us @crypto for our full coverage.| Dror Poleg: |
From BitClout to income share agreements at Lambda School, the future of work feels like a pyramid scheme where you can package and sell others' potential — The future of work is a pyramid scheme, where every person sells his favorite person to the next person.
Tweets: @kylehagge, @stefanisg, and @liam_gallas
| Dan Seifert / The Verge: |
OnePlus Watch review: long battery life, nice finish, and low price, but no voice assistant, no always-on display, few notification options, only one big size — The OnePlus Watch pairs with and is controlled by the OnePlus Health app for Android — there's no iPhone compatibility at all.
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Gizmodo, techadvisor.co.uk, HotHardware.com News, XDA Developers, 9to5Google, CNET, Engadget, Wired, Android Central, Input, Mashable, t3.com, and GSMArena.com
Tweets: @somospostpc, @ohmdee, @dcseifert, @parkyprakhar, @ow, and @matthewkeyslive
| JP Mangalindan / TechCrunch: |
Tempo, which sells smart fitness workout devices starting at $2,495, raises $220M Series C led by SoftBank, says users have worked out 5M times on Tempo devices — When the pandemic forced everyone to stay at home last year, many gym-goers looked to at-home fitness makers to fill the void … | Zak Doffman / Forbes: |
Researchers have discovered a flaw where any user can deactivate another user's WhatsApp via multiple 2FA requests and emailing support to deactivate account — A nasty new surprise for WhatsApp's 2 billion users today, with the discovery of an alarming security risk.| Brave Browser: |
Brave is disabling Google's FLoC tracking method from all of its releases, saying it materially harms user privacy under the guise of being privacy-friendly — Peter Snyder, Senior Privacy Researcher at Brave — FLoC is a recent Google proposal that would have your browser share … | Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
Apple announces an online event on April 20 at 10am PT, entitled “Spring Loaded”, where new iPads Pros and more are expected — Following an overnight leak by Siri, Apple today officially announced that it will be holding a special event on Tuesday, April 20 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific …
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MacRumors, The Verge, Mashable, 9to5Mac, CNN, Insider, Engadget, Forbes, 9to5Mac, Macworld, ZDNet, Gizmodo, SlashGear, TechRadar, Appleosophy, Laptop Mag, CNET, Livemint, CNBC, New York Post, AppleInsider, Tom's Guide, Input, XDA Developers, KnowTechie, PCMag, IGN, iMore, Wccftech, iPhone in Canada Blog, iPhone Hacks, Neowin, Pocket-lint, BGR, The Next Web, MSPoweruser, and The 8-Bit
Tweets: @jon_prosser, @mkbhd, @mkbhd, @rsgnl, @rsgnl, @martinsfp, @tomwarren, and @dcseifert
| Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal: |
Contextual adtech company GumGum raises $75M, sources say at a ~$700M valuation, almost tripling from last funding round, as Google and Apple limit targeted ads — The adtech company focuses on contextual advertising, as opposed to ads that target people based on identifiable information| Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: |
HomeX, which pairs service workers with homeowners and uses AI to diagnose home-related issues, raises $90M, says number of contractors on HomeX rose 5x in 2020 — HomeX, a home services platform for homeowners and service providers, has raised $90 million in a funding round led by New Mountain Capital.| Reuters: |
Clearcover, which uses AI to find affordable auto insurance, raises $200M Series D, source says at a $1B+ valuation, aims to expand to ~25 states by end of year — (Reuters) - Clearcover has raised $200 million in fresh capital as part of a late-stage financing round led by Eldridge … | Mike Butcher / TechCrunch: |
ConsenSys raises $65M from JP Morgan, Mastercard, UBS AG, and others to build the infrastructure for DeFi apps — ConsenSys, a key player in crypto and a major proponent of the Ethereum blockchain, has raised a $65 million funding round from J.P. Morgan, Mastercard, and UBS AG …
More:
Bloomberg, CoinDesk, The Block, Reuters, Decrypt, Cointelegraph, Insider, and Finextra. Thanks:@mikebutcher
| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
Berlin-based Grover, which runs a subscription business where people rent out consumer electronics, raises €45M Series B in equity and €15M debt — A startup tapping into the concept of the circular economy, where people don't buy items outright but pay an incremental amount to use … | Ben Thompson / Stratechery: |
Through her version of Fearless, Taylor Swift is showing artists how to use the power of the internet to ascribe value to work they own and devalue the rest — In July 2014 Taylor Swift wrote an editorial in the Wall Street Journal entitled, For Taylor Swift, the Future of Music Is a Love Story:| Axios: |
Senator Josh Hawley unveils a proposal aimed at Big Tech that would bolster antitrust laws and ban acquisitions by companies with a market cap of over $100B — Corporate giants would be barred from acquisitions and century-old antitrust laws would get sharper teeth under a new proposal by Sen. Josh Hawley … | Zheping Huang / Bloomberg: |
China orders 34 internet companies to rectify their anti-competitive practices in the next month, signaling that its internet crackdown didn't end with Alibaba — - Companies summoned to meeting after record fine on Alibaba — Statement underscores Beijing's internet crackdown persists
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Reuters, Financial Times, caixinglobal.com, Reuters, South China Morning Post, and Tech Xplore. Tweets: @ryan_chua
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
SambaNova Systems, which is developing chips for AI training and inference workloads, raises $676M Series D led by SoftBank, at a $5B+ post-money valuation — Join GamesBeat Summit 2021 this April 28-29. Register for a free or VIP pass today. — SambaNova Systems, a startup developing chips …
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ZDNet, SambaNova Systems, SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, Reuters, and Silicon Valley Business …
| Tyler Wilde / PC Gamer: |
Court filings show that Epic committed $444M to “minimum guarantees” for game developers that release on Epic Games Store but stay off of Steam for a year — Here's how much money Epic is burning to make the Epic Games Store a Steam competitor.
More:
GamesIndustry.biz. Tweets: @timsweeneyepic, @dhh, @folletto, @rereztv, @sircrackerbulb, @surny_, @sircrackerbulb, @liasae, @techlinkedyt, @pcgamer, and @ceejaeytf2
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