Techmeme
October 5, 2021, 10:45 AM

Top News

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Facebook's services and work tools return online after suffering a global outage for over six hours  —  Update: 5:55 p.m. ET: Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp, and Messenger are slowly but surely coming back up after more than 6 hours of being down.  Your mileage may vary for now …
Santosh Janardhan / Facebook Engineering:
Facebook says configuration changes on its backbone routers disrupted network traffic between its data centers, causing an outage across its platforms  —  To all the people and businesses around the world who depend on us, we are sorry for the inconvenience caused by today's outage across our platforms.
Celso Martinho / The Cloudflare Blog:
Cloudflare says prior to Facebook's outage, Facebook issued several BGP updates, causing DNS resolution errors that knocked Facebook off the web  —  “Facebook can't be down, can it?”, we thought, for a second.  —  Today at 15:51 UTC, we opened an internal incident entitled …
New York Times:
Facebook employees and an internal memo say that, several hours into the incident, Facebook's security experts were still trying to identify the root issue  —  When apps used by billions of people worldwide blinked out, lives were disrupted, businesses were cut off from customers …
Amy Cheng / Washington Post:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Review of the now-released Windows 11: improved modern UI and sounds, but many promised features like Android apps are missing and new taskbar is a step back  —  Microsoft's new OS is a work in progress  —  Microsoft wants Windows 11 to feel familiar.  While the company has attempted drastic changes …
Monica Chin / The Verge:
Microsoft Surface Pro 8 review: new modern look, 120Hz display, and improved stylus, but it is expensive, accessories aren't included, and ports are limited  —  This is the best Surface Pro we've seen in years  —  I've been waiting for the Surface Pro 8.  —  Microsoft has been selling …
Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo:
Microsoft Surface Laptop Studio review: gorgeous, unique design, 120Hz display, good battery life, and Thunderbolt 4, but heavy and pricey with few ports  —  It's not cheap, but this convertible laptop is an artist's dream.  —  Alerts  —  Even among 2-in-1s, Microsoft's Surface Book was kind of a unicorn.
YouTube:
Livestream of Facebook whistleblower Frances Haugen testifying before the Senate Commerce Committee  —  Facebook Whistleblower Frances Haugen testifies before Senate Commerce Committee https://www.c-span.org/video/?  515042-...
Keith Zubrow / CBS News:
60 Minutes publishes the eight SEC complaints filed by Frances Haugen against Facebook, covering 2020 election, Jan. 6 riots, teen mental health, and more  —  For the first time, read the whistleblower's complaints to the SEC that led to 60 Minutes' report on Facebook.
Reuters:
Scott Pelley / CBS News:
Scott Carpenter / Bloomberg:
Mark Zuckerberg's personal wealth fell ~$7B amid whistleblower exposé and Facebook outages; Facebook stock dropped ~5% Monday and is down ~15% since mid-Sept.  —  - CEO drops to No. 5 on list of world's richest, below Gates  — Stock slide knocks his net worth down to $120.9 billion
Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:
Review of Apple's A15 shows big efficiency gains and adequate speed improvements, which range from 2.5% to 37% over A14 depending on the type of workload  —  A few weeks ago, we've seen Apple announce their newest iPhone 13 series devices, a set of phones being powered by the newest Apple A15 SoC.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Europol announces the arrest of two alleged ransomware gang members in Ukraine, with help from US and French authorities, as some think they may belong to REvil  —  Two members of a ransomware gang were arrested in Ukraine following a joint international law enforcement operation.
The Information:
Sky Mavis, developer of NFT game Axie Infinity, raises ~$150M Series B led by Andreessen Horowitz, sources say at a nearly $3B valuation  —  Sky Mavis, the developer of the popular crypto-based online game Axie Infinity, is raising approximately $150 million in Series B funding …
Matt Marshall / VentureBeat:
Neural Magic, which aims to boost AI inferencing speeds on off-the-shelf processors, raises $30M Series A led by NEA  —  The Transform Technology Summits start October 13th with Low-Code/No Code: Enabling Enterprise Agility.  Register now!  —  Neural Magic, a company that offers software …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Chile-based Buk, which offers HR management tools for Latin American companies, raises $50M Series A at a $417M valuation, its first outside funding  —  Chile's Buk, which has developed a human resources management platform for Latin American companies, announced today that it has raised $50 million …
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
Tel Aviv-based Adaptive Shield, which helps secure SaaS apps to avoid data breaches, raises $30M Series A led by Insight Partners  —  Adaptive Shield, a Tel Aviv-based startup that automates the security of software-as-a-service (SaaS) applications, has secured $30 million in Series A funding led by Insight Partners.
Ryan Weeks / The Block:
Sources: Warsaw-based Ramp, which offers services used by crypto exchanges, marketplaces, and wallets, raises $30M Series A at a $300M valuation  —  Quick Take  — The crypto on-ramp firm has secured $30 million several months after closing its $9 million seed raise.

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Earlier Picks

Harrison Weber / dot.LA:
Chris Welch / The Verge: