Techmeme: In a letter, 42 Democratic lawmakers urge Google to stop collecting and keeping unnecessary user data that could be used to identify people seeking abortions (Lauren Feiner/CNBC)

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May 25, 2022, 12:35 AM

Top News

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Microsoft unveils Project Volterra, an ARM-powered developer kit to explore “AI scenarios” coming in 2022, as Windows gains support for neural processing units — Today at Build 2022, Microsoft unveiled Project Volterra, a device powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon platform that's designed …

João Carrasqueira / XDA Developers:

Microsoft debuts Power Pages, a low-code website builder, and Power Apps Express Design, which can turn images into an app with controls and data storage — It's that time of the year again when Microsoft holds its Build developer event, and with it comes a ton of news for all kinds of Microsoft products.

More: SiliconANGLE, InfoWorld, The New Stack, TechRadar, Computerworld, IT PRO, Tom's Hardware, ZDNet, Neowin, Thurrott, TechRepublic, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, OnMSFT.com, and Petri IT Knowledgebase. Tweets: @fxshaw

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft plans to support third-party Windows 11 widgets later in 2022, letting developers offer them as “companion experiences” to their Win32 or PWA apps — Widgets might appear on the Windows 11 desktop soon, too — Microsoft is planning to support third-party widgets inside Windows 11 later this year.

More: Windows Blog, 9to5Google, BleepingComputer, PCMag, MobileSyrup, Engadget, XDA Developers, WinBuzzer, BigTechWire, Thurrott, and Windows Central

Tweets: @daniel_rubino, @tomwarren, and @daniel_rubino

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft debuts Dev Box, a cloud service offering Windows 365-integrated developer workstations, in private preview; a public preview arrives in a few months

More: Visual Studio Magazine, SiliconANGLE, WinBuzzer, Petri IT Knowledgebase, InfoWorld, DEVCLASS, BigTechWire, ZDNet, Microsoft Tech Community, TechRadar, TechCrunch, Protocol, Windows Central, and Thurrott

Shawn Amick / Bitcoin Magazine:

Stripe partners with OpenNode to let businesses convert fiat payments into bitcoin via OpenNode's Stripe app; Stripe suspended bitcoin support in 2018 — Stripe, a global payment processor, is working with OpenNode to enable businesses to convert fiat payments into bitcoin.

More: CoinDesk and Bloomberg. Tweets: @opennode

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Stripe launches an apps marketplace to bring third-party tools directly into Stripe, starting with 50+ apps from companies like Dropbox, Mailchimp, and DocuSign

More: PYMNTS.com and Stripe Blog

Tweets: @stripe, @patrickc, @patio11, and @ow

Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:

Apple says that starting on June 30, 2022, all App Store apps that offer account creation must also offer an in-app option to let users delete their account — Apple last year announced a change in the App Store guidelines that would require all apps that support account creation to offer …

More: Apple Developer, The Verge, iMore, MacRumors, and iClarified

Tweets: @dimsartz_ and @dimsartz_

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

In a letter, 42 Democratic lawmakers urge Google to stop collecting and keeping unnecessary user data that could be used to identify people seeking abortions — - Democratic lawmakers urged Google CEO Sundar Pichai to stop collecting and keeping unnecessary or non-aggregated location data …

More: Ron Wyden, Engadget, Associated Press, CNET, Nextgov, BuzzFeed News, VICE, The Verge, CyberScoop, The Register, and Politico

Tweets: @evan_greer, @lauren_feiner, @asymmetricinfo, @accountabletech, @daveixd, and @tonyajoriley

Simon Jessop / Reuters:

Flowcarbon, a blockchain-based carbon credit trading service backed by WeWork's Neumann, raises $32M led by a16z and $38M from selling its Goddess Nature Token — LONDON (Reuters) - Flowcarbon, a blockchain-enabled carbon credit trading platform backed by WeWork founder Adam Neumann …

Krystal Hu / Reuters:

New Jersey-based Semperis, a cybersecurity startup offering tools to protect enterprises using Microsoft Active Directory, raises a $200M+ Series C led by KKR — U.S. cybersecurity software firm Semperis said it has raised over $200 million in a funding round led by private equity firm KKR & Co Inc …

More: SC Media, Business Wire, govinfosecurity.com, SiliconANGLE, CRN, FinSMEs, SecurityWeek, and Tech News. Tweets: @semperistech

Alex Heath / The Verge:

Niantic debuts Visual Positioning System, a developer platform for building location-aware AR apps, and Campfire, a location-based social network for its games — The maker of Pokémon Go is releasing its AR map for other apps and a location-based social network called Campfire

More: CNET, TechCrunch, Niantic, Transistori, Platformer, Road to VR, Game Developer, SiliconANGLE, The Information, and Protocol

Tweets: @benz145, @reneritchie, and @verge

Emily Nicolle / Bloomberg:

DeFi Llama: the total value locked across DeFi protocols has dropped to ~$112B, down from ~$195B before UST and LUNA collapsed, amid a broader decline in crypto — The collapse of one of decentralized finance's most ambitious experiments has knocked more than $83 billion off the sector's total value …

Tweets: @emilyjnicolle

Wall Street Journal:

Internal memo: Lyft plans to slow US hiring, cut some department budgets, and grant new stock options to some employees to make up for its eroding share price — President John Zimmer is expected to announce the measures to staff Tuesday — Lyft Inc. LYFT -17.27%▼ will slow hiring …

More: Reuters and Bloomberg

Tweets: @carnage4life, @wallstcynic, @akikofujita, and @mrinaldesai

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

As Snap's growth warning sends its stock down 43.04%, other tech stocks drop too: Meta by 7.62%, Pinterest by 23.64%, Alphabet by 4.95%, and Twitter by 5.55% — - Snap CEO Evan Spiegel warned of slowing growth in a note to employees made public on Monday. — His message sent a chill across the digital advertising industry.

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The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Henry Blodget / Regenerator:

Bari Weiss' 60 Minutes decision may have been a way to both signal that she's serious about shifting CBS' sensibility to the right and “improve” a story

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Trump says Stephen Colbert is a “pathetic trainwreck” and “CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW”, after CBS aired a Late Show rerun in which Colbert mocked Trump

Rebecca Rubin / Variety:

Disney crosses the $6B milestone at the box office for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic; no other studio has managed to reach $6B since 2015

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More News

Moneycontrol:

Indian startups are resorting to layoffs, a hiring freeze, shutting down non-core verticals, and rationalizing ad spends as a two-year funding spree slows down

Tweets: @avlesh, @aaravmeanspeace, @chandrarsrikant, @k_p_ganesh, @binoy_prabhakar, @nimsaw, @chandrarsrikant, @rmantri, @_prashantnair, @derzuschauer7, @latha_venkatesh, @abhilivian, @adadithya, @anandlunia, and @nicks103

Tracy Qu / South China Morning Post:

Kuaishou reports Q1 revenue up 24% YoY to ~$3.2B, vs. ~$3.1B est., a ~$939M net loss, down 89% YoY from ~$8.7B, and 346M DAUs, up 17% YoY from 295M

More: Kuaishou Technology

Paresh Dave / Reuters:

Clearview AI expands sales by offering private companies and organizations a facial recognition tool allegedly using data collected with subjects' permission

More: The Register, Protocol, and ComputerWeekly.com

Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:

Microsoft says 10M+ players stream games with Xbox Cloud Gaming; in September 2021, Nvidia said GeForce Now had 12M+ users; Google has not shared Stadia numbers

More: The Official Microsoft Blog, SiliconANGLE, MobileSyrup, XDA Developers, and OnMSFT.com

Tweets: @satyanadella and @johnkoetsier

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google Chrome now lets all desktop users right-click an image and perform a Lens search to translate text, identify an object, get the original source, and more

More: Pocket-lint, BGR, Search Engine Land, Android Police, iPhone in Canada Blog, Tom's Guide, Android Headlines, 9to5Google, Android Central, and The Verge

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:

Mexico-based Nowports, an automated digital freight forwarder in Latin America, raises a $150M Series C at a $1.1B valuation led by SoftBank Latin America Fund

More: Crunchbase News. Tweets: @ycombinator, @maxcasal13, @ponchodelosrios, and @bayareawriter

Ann-Marie Alcántara / Wall Street Journal:

San Mateo-based Firework, whose tools help companies livestream shopping events, raises a $150M Series B led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $750M valuation

More: PR Newswire, Firework, Moneycontrol, TechCrunch, FinSMEs, PYMNTS.com, and The Economic Times

Earlier Picks

Gené Teare / Crunchbase News:

Monte Carlo, which uses AI to monitor data reliability, raises a $135M Series D led by IVP at a $1.6B valuation, bringing its total funding to $236M

More: SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, Monte Carlo Data, nocamels.com, Globes Online, FinSMEs, and Forbes

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:

Cribl, which helps companies monitor and analyze data created by their infrastructure, raises a $150M Series D led by Tiger, a source says at a $2.5B valuation

More: SiliconANGLE, CRN, FinSMEs, Cribl, VentureBeat, and PR Newswire. Tweets: @stepstonevc. Thanks:@kellyengemoen

Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:

How Mark Zuckerberg and Priscilla Chan's $419M donation to US local and state election officials in 2020 has become a target of right-wing conspiracies

More: Crypto Briefing and Cointelegraph

Tweets: @issielapowsky, @teddyschleifer, @ianclucas, @justinhendrix, @radicalalarmist, @issielapowsky, @protocol, @protocol, @protocol, @tianaej, @issielapowsky, and @issielapowsky

Financial Times:

Filings: at Amazon's first annual shareholder meeting helmed by Andy Jassy on May 25, the company will oppose all 15 proposals, the most it has faced since 2010

More: New York Post and Protocol

Tweets: @uniglobalunion, @quinnypig, @muradahmed, and @jasonwardcictar

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

Google Research announces Imagen, an AI text-to-image generator rivaling OpenAI's DALL-E 2, but decides “not to release code or a public demo” at this time

Source: Google Research. More: Engadget, MSPoweruser, The Register, PetaPixel, Android Headlines, Analytics, Silicon Republic, The Verge, Slashdot, and 9to5Google

Tweets: @jeffdean, @multimodalart, @ak92501, @jjvincent, @jjvincent, @gonzauri, @jasonbaldridge, @joshelman, @billyperrigo, @jjvincent, @jelleprins, @yoavgo, @kevin2kelly, @cgarciae88, @michael_nielsen, @iscienceluvr, @parmy, @nabeel, and @daveleeft

Nathan Ingraham / Engadget:

As Street View for Google Maps turns 15, Google announces updates such as historical imagery on Android and iOS, a smaller camera system for its cars, and more

More: The Keyword, MacRumors, The Keyword, The Verge, Fortune, SlashGear, TechSpot, MobileSyrup, Android Central, 9to5Google, CNN, Fossbytes, GSMArena.com, and Mashable

Tweets: @wittednote, @google, and @jinkiesjerrica

James Vincent / The Verge:

Delivery startup Gorillas lays off half of its “global office workforce”, ~300 staff, and plans to reassess its operations in Italy, Spain, Denmark, and Belgium

More: TechCrunch, Sifted, gorillas.io, Insider, PYMNTS.com, Protocol, Silicon Canals, and Silicon Republic

Tweets: @parismartineau, @slingshotcap, @carnage4life, @carnage4life, @sarthakgh, @sameer_singh17, @yattisoni, and @mparts_

Adam Beam / Associated Press:

California's State Assembly passes a bill to let parents sue social media companies if children become “addicted” to their products; the bill needs a final vote