Techmeme
June 21, 2021, 5:55 AM

Top News

Matt Dougherty / KHOU-TV:
Some power companies in Texas are remotely adjusting the smart thermostats of users enrolled in their energy saving programs to reduce strain on power grids  —  Some said they didn't know their thermostats were being accessed from afar until it was almost 80 degrees inside their homes.
Douglas Busvine / Reuters:
Forto, a freight forwarding service that gives customers real-time data, raises $240M led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $1.2B valuation  —  Forto has raised $240 million from investors led by Softbank (9984.T), the freight technology startup said on Monday, and will invest in expanding …
More: Tech.eu and PR Newswire
Wall Street Journal:
Analysts say the dominance of TSMC, which makes ~92% of the world's most sophisticated chips and 60% of chips used in cars, poses risks to the global economy  —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co.'s dominance poses risks to the global economy, amid geopolitical tensions and a major chip shortage
Betsy Ladyzhets / MIT Technology Review:
An analysis of the usage of COVID-19 contact tracing apps in 25 US states and DC finds that only 13 have enough usage to benefit from exposure notification  —  A year ago, engineers built apps to track potential virus exposure.  Our research shows the impact has been mixed—but there's still potential.
Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Wristcam, which makes a $299 Apple Watch band with a camera capable of taking 4K images and recording 1080p video, raises $25M led by Marker LLC  —  Last week word got out that Facebook was taking another big step into first-party hardware with the planned launch of its own smartwatch.
Tweets: @brianfagioli and @daniel_duan.  Thanks:@vscpr

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