Sunday, January 30, 2022

NFT marketplace LooksRare, which launched on Jan. 10, had $9.5B+ in trading volume, $8.3B+ of which seems to be users "wash trading" between their own wallets (Andrew Hayward/Decrypt)

Andrew Hayward / Decrypt:
NFT marketplace LooksRare, which launched on Jan. 10, had $9.5B+ in trading volume, $8.3B+ of which seems to be users “wash trading” between their own wallets  —  CryptoSlam says the vast majority of the hot NFT marketplace's sales are illegitimate trades made to manipulate the token rewards model.



Shopping website Shopee's India troubles continue

https://ift.tt/7QzwuoaGK

A look at the fight between six rapid grocery delivery startups in NYC, which raised $5.5B+ since 2020; sources: some are averaging a loss of $20+ per order (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
A look at the fight between six rapid grocery delivery startups in NYC, which raised $5.5B+ since 2020; sources: some are averaging a loss of $20+ per order  —  Jokr, Getir and Buyk are piling on freebies to build up a customer base in New York City  —  Since Hayoung Park moved to Manhattan last year …



China launches a pilot in 15 cities and 164 organizations to test the use of blockchain in manufacturing, government data sharing, law enforcement, and more (Arijit Sarkar/Cointelegraph)

Arijit Sarkar / Cointelegraph:
China launches a pilot in 15 cities and 164 organizations to test the use of blockchain in manufacturing, government data sharing, law enforcement, and more  —  Some of the key areas of blockchain development include manufacturing, energy, government data sharing and services, law enforcement …



Profile of Ann Lai, who settled a harassment lawsuit against Justin Caldbeck's Binary Capital in 2020, as she talks about her ordeal publicly for the first time (Stephanie Clifford/Elle)

Stephanie Clifford / Elle:
Profile of Ann Lai, who settled a harassment lawsuit against Justin Caldbeck's Binary Capital in 2020, as she talks about her ordeal publicly for the first time  —  She quit her high-profile job and sounded an alarm about bad behavior in tech—and she was nearly forced from the industry.



Many China-based sellers who were kicked off Amazon for rule violations have turned to Walmart's online marketplace to reach US consumers (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Many China-based sellers who were kicked off Amazon for rule violations have turned to Walmart's online marketplace to reach US consumers  —  Ever since Amazon.com Inc. began kicking tens of thousands of Chinese merchants off its platform last April for faking customer reviews …



Saturday, January 29, 2022

Mars to shine very close to the moon today: Photography tips to capture celestial events

https://bit.ly/3o5Hs3q

An in-depth look at the ongoing patent battle over warehouse automation between Norwegian robotics company AutoStore and UK supermarket giant Ocado (John Gapper/Financial Times)

John Gapper / Financial Times:
An in-depth look at the ongoing patent battle over warehouse automation between Norwegian robotics company AutoStore and UK supermarket giant Ocado  —  In the village of Nedre Vats, on the edge of a 700m-deep fjord in the west of Norway, there is a white wooden house with a small red barn.



IIT Jodhpur develops technique that may help solve biggest 'Covid-19 fear'

The researchers from IIT Jodhpur have developed an automated Artificial Intelligence (AI) solution for COVID-19 prediction from chest X-rays.The experiment was performed with more than 2,500 chest X-ray images and achieved about 96.80 per cent sensitivity. https://bit.ly/3u9sfSA

Google to pay $111.46 million fine for breaches linked to cookie policy

France's Conseil d'Etat, the country's supreme administrative court, said it upheld a decision by a watchdog imposing a 100 million euro ($111.46 million) fine on the U.S. tech giant for breaches linked to its cookies policy. https://bit.ly/3u9seOw

Profile of Susan Headley, an influential hacker of the 1980s, who specialized in social engineering and now leads a quiet life in a large US Midwestern city (Claire L. Evans/The Verge)

Claire L. Evans / The Verge:
Profile of Susan Headley, an influential hacker of the 1980s, who specialized in social engineering and now leads a quiet life in a large US Midwestern city  —  She was known, back then, as Susan Thunder.  For someone in the business of deception, she stood out: she was unusually tall …



Why Facebook has stopped the users from joining this service

"We are pausing the ability for people to join CrowdTangle while we work through some staffing constraints," a Meta spokesperson said. New users can still get added to existing company accounts on the tracking tool, the spokesperson said. https://bit.ly/3o5AUBx

Friday, January 28, 2022

Elon Musk's SpaceX is targeting 52 space missions this year

Elon Musk-owned private rocket company SpaceX plans to launch 52 missions in 2022, a NASA safety panel revealed. https://ift.tt/3u7Iob7

Second-hand smartphone market in India may generate $4.6 billion by 2025: Report

The second-hand smartphone market in India is likely to generate revenue of more than $2.3 billion, at an average of Rs 6,900 per device, with 25 million devices being traded in 2021, a new report showed on Friday. https://ift.tt/3AFi2yy

Apple rolls out 'Universal Control' feature in beta

Apple announced on Friday that the first-of-its-kind 'Universal Control' feature is now available in the developer beta releases of macOS Monterey 12.3 and iPadOS 15.4. https://ift.tt/3G7OElM

China's Weibo warns users about posting Winter Olympics content

Weibo, China's equivalent of Twitter, sent out messages to its users on Friday warning them against posting any content from the upcoming Beijing Winter Olympics that belonged to broadcast rights holders or risk being blocked. https://ift.tt/32HfKm0

SoftBank confirms COO Marcelo Claure is leaving the company after nine years and names Michel Combes as CEO of SoftBank Group International (Saheli Roy Choudhury/CNBC)

Saheli Roy Choudhury / CNBC:
SoftBank confirms COO Marcelo Claure is leaving the company after nine years and names Michel Combes as CEO of SoftBank Group International  —  - Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group confirmed Friday that its Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure is leaving the company following a nine-year tenure.



Realme 9 Pro, Realme 9 Pro+ are expected to launch next month in India

Realme is working on two new smartphones -- Realme 9 Pro and Realme 9 Pro+. Recently, the company confirmed that it will soon launch the Realme 9 Pro+ in the country. The company also revealed that the upcoming Realme smartphone will be powered by MediaTek Dimensity 920 5G processor. Now a new leak has surfaced online revealing the likely launch date of the two new Realme smartphones. https://ift.tt/3ubPuLN

Meet the Fifa 22 ultimate world football team

https://ift.tt/3IKXIyx

Thursday, January 27, 2022

Redmi Note 11, Redmi Note 11 Pro 5G smartphones with 5000 mAh battery launched

Xiaomi has expanded its smartphone lineup with the launch of Redmi Note 11 Pro and Redmi Note 11. The company has launched the smartphones in Europe. Both the smartphones are powered by a Qualcomm processor and run Android 11 operating system. https://ift.tt/3r3S0Sk

Spotify is removing Neil Young's music after he gave the company an ultimatum between his music and Joe Rogan's podcast with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation (Anne Steele/Wall Street Journal)

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify is removing Neil Young's music after he gave the company an ultimatum between his music and Joe Rogan's podcast with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation  —  Folk-rock star had over six million monthly listeners on the service, which he blames for spreading fake info about vaccines



This may be the first phone in the Series T from Vivo

Vivo is all set to launch a new mid-range smartphone series in India. Likely to be called Series T, the upcoming range may see its first smartphone, Vivo T1 5G, launch in the coming weeks. https://ift.tt/3fZplrp

Ipsos: Apple News was the most widely used UK news app in December 2021 with 13.2M users and 1.2B minutes spent; BBC News had 12.5M users and 2.2B minutes spent (Aisha Majid/Press Gazette)

Aisha Majid / Press Gazette:
Ipsos: Apple News was the most widely used UK news app in December 2021 with 13.2M users and 1.2B minutes spent; BBC News had 12.5M users and 2.2B minutes spent  —  The Apple News app narrowly beat BBC News to take the spot of most popular news app in the UK in December …



Apple may debut ‘e-SIM-only’ iPhone with iPhone 14 series, but why it may not be for everyone

https://ift.tt/3AF0Kl1

Wednesday, January 26, 2022

Klarna launches its Visa-based Klarna Card in the UK, expanding on Sweden and Germany where it has 800,000 users; the card includes Klarna's "Pay in 30" feature (Ryan Browne/CNBC)

Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Klarna launches its Visa-based Klarna Card in the UK, expanding on Sweden and Germany where it has 800,000 users; the card includes Klarna's “Pay in 30” feature  —  - Klarna is launching a physical card in the U.K. that lets users delay payments on their purchases, both in-store as well as online.



Sources: China's state-backed chipmaking company Tsinghua Unigroup has abandoned memory projects in two cities as US sanctions limit access to vital components (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia:
Sources: China's state-backed chipmaking company Tsinghua Unigroup has abandoned memory projects in two cities as US sanctions limit access to vital components  —  TAIPEI/BEIJING — China's state-backed Tsinghua Unigroup has scrapped major memory chip projects in two cities as new investors push …



Sources: Amazon has abandoned its much-maligned campaign of paying warehouse employees to share positive messages on social media after embarrassing backfires (Dave Lee/Financial Times)

Dave Lee / Financial Times:
Sources: Amazon has abandoned its much-maligned campaign of paying warehouse employees to share positive messages on social media after embarrassing backfires  —  Paying warehouse workers to tweet positive comments is dropped after poor reach and embarrassing backfires



OnePlus Nord 2 CE launch date tipped, likely to be OnePlus’ most affordable 5G phone

https://ift.tt/3tYEhyb

Live events service Fever raises $227M led by Goldman Sachs at a $1B+ valuation as it plans an IPO (Sarah Rappaport/Bloomberg)

Sarah Rappaport / Bloomberg:
Live events service Fever raises $227M led by Goldman Sachs at a $1B+ valuation as it plans an IPO  —  Live events platform Fever raised $227 million in a funding round led by Goldman Sachs Group Inc., a sign that post-pandemic live events can attract investor interest.



Crypto exchange FTX's American affiliate, FTX.US, raises $400M at an $8B valuation from Paradigm, SoftBank, and others, its first outside funding (Frank Chaparro/The Block)

Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Crypto exchange FTX's American affiliate, FTX.US, raises $400M at an $8B valuation from Paradigm, SoftBank, and others, its first outside funding  —  FTX's American affiliate, FTX.US, has joined the crypto unicorn club after closing its first-ever fundraising round.



Tuesday, January 25, 2022

Twitter code shows it is developing Flock, which lets users create tweets for up to 150 close friends, after teasing the feature in July 2021 (Matt Wille/Input)

Matt Wille / Input:
Twitter code shows it is developing Flock, which lets users create tweets for up to 150 close friends, after teasing the feature in July 2021  —  Finally, a way to post nudes without your coworkers seeing them.  —  Twitter is developing a feature called Flock that will allow users to curate …



Sources: Nvidia is planning to abandon its Arm acquisition, as regulators scrutinize the deal; source says SoftBank is preparing an IPO for Arm (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: Nvidia is planning to abandon its Arm acquisition, as regulators scrutinize the deal; source says SoftBank is preparing an IPO for Arm  —  Nvidia Corp. is quietly preparing to abandon its purchase of Arm Ltd. from SoftBank Group Corp. after making little to no progress in winning approval …



Samsung Galaxy Unpacked 2022 Event likely to take place on February 9

Samsung has recently confirmed that it will launch its next-generation flagship smartphone series in February at the company's upcoming Galaxy Unpacked event. The smartphone has just revealed the month and there's still no word about the official launch date. However, a new leak has surfaced online revealing the expected launch date of the Galaxy S22 series. https://ift.tt/3G6bpXi

Realme X50 Pro 5G starts receiving Realme UI 3.0 beta: How to update, things to keep in mind and more

https://ift.tt/3Awo8Bh

Achilles Legends Untold: 10 things about the upcoming action RPG

https://ift.tt/3nYnYxk

Apple iPhone SE gets Rs 10,000 discount on Flipkart ahead of rumoured affordable 5G iPhone launch

https://ift.tt/3KKsXvl

Monday, January 24, 2022

Man files FIR against Chinese e-commerce platform Shopee over fraud

Chinese e-commerce company Shopee, facing a controversy over FDI violations in the country, has been hit by an FIR filed by a customer in Lucknow for allegedly defrauding him. https://ift.tt/3HcaRk1

New Google Pixel smartphone tipped to launch in May

https://ift.tt/3FUMVQG

Rainbow Six Extraction: 11 types of aliens and their special attacks

https://ift.tt/32ujYgI

Apple extends in-app purchase exemption for online group events

In 2020, Apple announced to support apps and developers that needed to adapt services from in-person to digital as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. https://ift.tt/3As8dUy

Sunday, January 23, 2022

There will be no bursting bubble, just a deflating balloon of high growth tech stock valuations returning to normal as factors that inflated them go away (M.G. Siegler/500ish)

M.G. Siegler / 500ish:
There will be no bursting bubble, just a deflating balloon of high growth tech stock valuations returning to normal as factors that inflated them go away  —  Spoiler: the “Bubble” was a Balloon.  And it's deflating.  —  Note: The below all seems fairly obvious, but given the amount …



Sources: Apple is readying the widest array of new hardware products in its history this fall; Joe Bass, head of software engineering for Apple's car team left (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is readying the widest array of new hardware products in its history this fall; Joe Bass, head of software engineering for Apple's car team left  —  Apple Inc. is nearing its first launch event of the year, with a new iPhone SE and iPad on tap.



Dealogic: Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet announced more acquisitions in 2021 than in any other year in the past decade (CNBC)

CNBC:
Dealogic: Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet announced more acquisitions in 2021 than in any other year in the past decade  —  - Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon all announced more acquisitions in 2021 than any other year in the past decade, according to Dealogic.



Brazilian fintech Dock will use crypto for international remittances

Brazilian financial services provider Dock said on Friday it will start using cryptocurrencies to process international remittances as it expands to Latin America and Europe. https://ift.tt/3fQLDLR

Analysis: AR and VR startups raised ~$1.9B in Q4 2021, more than any quarter ever, making 2021 the second-best year for AR/VR investments with ~$3.9B raised (Chris Metinko/Crunchbase News)

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News:
Analysis: AR and VR startups raised ~$1.9B in Q4 2021, more than any quarter ever, making 2021 the second-best year for AR/VR investments with ~$3.9B raised  —  Although the term metaverse has been around for nearly 30 years—coined in the novel “Snow Crash”—Facebook's name change to Meta …



Berlin-based Lendis, which helps companies set up and manage employees' equipment and software for hybrid work, raises an €80M Series A in equity and debt (Patricia Allen/EU-Startups)

Patricia Allen / EU-Startups:
Berlin-based Lendis, which helps companies set up and manage employees' equipment and software for hybrid work, raises an €80M Series A in equity and debt  —  Today, Lendis has just announced an €80 million Series A funding round for its SaaS solution that helps companies to set …



Saturday, January 22, 2022

Santamonica group enters tech research in education sector

The company said the last two years saw 5.5 lakh schools shutting down in India without prior intimation due to the pandemic which in turn has affected more than 248 million students in the country. https://ift.tt/3nNb6di

Mobile towers torched in Jharakhand

​​​​​The incidents marked the first day of the "resistance week" being observed by the Maoists to protest the arrest of their top leader Prashant Bose, a police officer said. https://ift.tt/3fO2mPU

Bengaluru-based StockGro, a social investment startup with a gamified app for learning about and participating in stock markets, raises a $32M Series A (Sneha Shah/The Economic Times)

Sneha Shah / The Economic Times:
Bengaluru-based StockGro, a social investment startup with a gamified app for learning about and participating in stock markets, raises a $32M Series A  —  Mumbai: Social investment startup StockGro has raised $32 million led by marquee global investors such as Bitkraft Ventures, General Catalyst …



Jio completes 5G coverage plans for top 1,000 cities in country

The company has created teams to focus on dedicated solutions for 5G deployment in India, Reliance Jio Infocomm president Kiran Thomas said on Friday evening. https://ift.tt/3qQwj8b

Global crypto market suffers $1 trillion loss as Bitcoin crashes

Bitcoin, along with other digital cryptocurrencies, crashed to its lowest level on Saturday and the continuing meltdown has wiped out over $1 trillion from the global crypto market value. https://ift.tt/3GZDMaU

Nowsta, which runs an on-demand labor marketplace and develops tools to help companies manage their hourly, gig, and flex workers, raises a $41M Series B (Christine Hall/TechCrunch)

Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Nowsta, which runs an on-demand labor marketplace and develops tools to help companies manage their hourly, gig, and flex workers, raises a $41M Series B  —  Nowsta attracted venture capital for its approach to help employers better engage with their hourly workforces in this increasingly hybrid work environment.



Google says it plans to counter Japan's FTC over claims that it hobbles rivals in search; a source says Japan's FTC sent a cease-and-desist order to Google (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg : Google says it plans to counter Japan's FTC over claims that it hobbles rivals in search; a source says Japan's FTC s...