Thursday, June 30, 2022

Section 230 is the last line of defense for online abortion speech, without which platforms could face legal liability for distributing abortion information (Wired)

Wired:
Section 230 is the last line of defense for online abortion speech, without which platforms could face legal liability for distributing abortion information  —  Dobbs should be a wake-up call for anyone seeking to undercut the immunity protections afforded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.



Oppo teases Reno 8 series arrival in India; could be launched on July 21

Oppo has confirmed the launch of the Reno 8 series in India. Back in May, Oppo announced the Reno 8 series in its home market in China including a vanilla Reno 8, Reno 8 Pro and Reno 8 Pro+. The company is expected to soon launch two Reno 8 series smartphones – the Reno 8 and Reno 8 Pro – in India. https://ift.tt/HroazC6

MarkSight: as crypto tumbles, the average price of Nvidia's GeForce 3080 on eBay dropped from $1,140 on April 30 to $710 on June 27 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
MarkSight: as crypto tumbles, the average price of Nvidia's GeForce 3080 on eBay dropped from $1,140 on April 30 to $710 on June 27  —  The turmoil in the cryptocurrency industry has ravaged portfolios and left large and small investors struggling to adapt.



Chinese AI startup SenseTime's shares dropped over 50% to HK$2.90 ($0.37), their lowest-ever level and well below IPO price, after a lock-up period expired (Cheng Leng/Financial Times)

Cheng Leng / Financial Times:
Chinese AI startup SenseTime's shares dropped over 50% to HK$2.90 ($0.37), their lowest-ever level and well below IPO price, after a lock-up period expired  —  China's most valuable AI company has been blacklisted by Washington over its facial recognition technology



Report: Iranian #MeToo activists on Instagram are being targeted by 1M+ bots in a coordinated harassment campaign using social media marketing firms in Pakistan (Andrew Deck/Rest of World)

Andrew Deck / Rest of World:
Report: Iranian #MeToo activists on Instagram are being targeted by 1M+ bots in a coordinated harassment campaign using social media marketing firms in Pakistan  —  A new report suggests the attacks are part of a coordinated campaign using Pakistani social media marketing firms.



An in-depth look at the 2016 Bitfinex hack and US government's case against Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, aka Razzlekhan, over alleged money laundering (Zeke Faux/Bloomberg)

Zeke Faux / Bloomberg:
An in-depth look at the 2016 Bitfinex hack and US government's case against Ilya Lichtenstein and Heather Morgan, aka Razzlekhan, over alleged money laundering  —  The hackers had been inside the Bitfinex servers for weeks before attempting the heist.  They'd watched users on the cryptocurrency exchange buy and sell Bitcoins.



Samsung beats TSMC, begins mass production of 3nm chips

Samsung Electronics on Thursday announced that it has started the mass production of 3nm semiconductor chips at its fabrication plant in Hwaseong, south of Seoul, becoming the first semiconductor manufacturer to make chips on the 3nm process node. And this time, the chip maker is using GAA (Gate All Around) transistor architecture instead of FinFET, which promises better power efficiency. https://ift.tt/lMOuUCs

Wednesday, June 29, 2022

After providing $750M in credit lines, Sam Bankman-Fried says some crypto companies are "too far gone" to save, "bearish views on Tether are wrong", and more (Steven Ehrlich/Forbes)

Steven Ehrlich / Forbes:
After providing $750M in credit lines, Sam Bankman-Fried says some crypto companies are “too far gone” to save, “bearish views on Tether are wrong”, and more  —  After throwing lifelines to troubled digital currency platforms BlockFi and Voyager Digital, Sam Bankman-Fried …



How to add a YouTube video to Google Slides on your smartphone and desktop

Teams can create, communicate, and work together in the Google workspace, which includes Google Slides. It allows users to embed a YouTube video in their presentations. A YouTube video can be added directly to a slide or by adding the URL of the video to the slide. https://ift.tt/XOqgB8R

Internal Celsius documents from 2021 show the crypto lender issued large loans backed by little collateral while pitching itself as less risky than banks (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Internal Celsius documents from 2021 show the crypto lender issued large loans backed by little collateral while pitching itself as less risky than banks  —  The lender had little cushion in the event of a downturn or mass withdrawals, investor documents show



Source: a British Virgin Islands court ordered the liquidation of Singapore-based Three Arrows Capital on June 27; Teneo Restructuring will handle the process (Mark Kleinman/Sky News)

Mark Kleinman / Sky News:
Source: a British Virgin Islands court ordered the liquidation of Singapore-based Three Arrows Capital on June 27; Teneo Restructuring will handle the process  —  A court in the British Virgin Islands has ordered the liquidation of Singapore-based Three Arrows Capital, underlining …



Earth’s last astronaut trying to save the world: 10 things about Deliver Us The Moon

https://ift.tt/zrEDdBp

Some VR developers express frustrations with Meta's Quest Store fees, set at 30% for purchases and 15%-30% for subscriptions, given Meta's criticism of Apple (Patrick McGee/Financial Times)

Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
Some VR developers express frustrations with Meta's Quest Store fees, set at 30% for purchases and 15%-30% for subscriptions, given Meta's criticism of Apple  —  Facebook parent faces backlash from developers and accusations of ‘hypocrisy’ over virtual reality store terms



Tuesday, June 28, 2022

After announcing plans to acquire Blinkit, Zomato's stock dropped 6.6% on Monday and 8.4% on Tuesday, cutting $1.1B from its market value (Ashutosh Joshi/Bloomberg)

Ashutosh Joshi / Bloomberg:
After announcing plans to acquire Blinkit, Zomato's stock dropped 6.6% on Monday and 8.4% on Tuesday, cutting $1.1B from its market value  —  Zomato Ltd. lost about $1.1 billion of market value in two days after the food-delivery platform announced the acquisition of loss-making quick-commerce …



Airbnb makes its ban on parties at rented properties, introduced in 2020, permanent, saying the ban "became much more than a public health measure" (James Vincent/The Verge)

James Vincent / The Verge:
Airbnb makes its ban on parties at rented properties, introduced in 2020, permanent, saying the ban “became much more than a public health measure”  —  But a 16-person cap on rentals has been removed  —  In 2020, Airbnb introduced a temporary ban on house parties and events …



Privacy advocates say the SmartLINK app, an alternative to ankle monitors, helped ICE increase the number of people it tracks from 6K to 230K within three years (Documented)

Documented:
Privacy advocates say the SmartLINK app, an alternative to ankle monitors, helped ICE increase the number of people it tracks from 6K to 230K within three years  —  ICE says the phone-based app is not meant to conduct “surveillance”—and a quick test didn't raise red flags.



How to unblock known and unknown numbers on Android

However, for instance, you may need to make or receive calls from these blocked contacts. The blocked numbers can also be unblocked if you want them to. Follow our step-by-step guide to unblock a number on Android. https://ift.tt/ET2jGUn

How to transfer your vehicle’s RC online

The RC is an important document for an owner of a vehicle in a variety of circumstances, but some of the most crucial ones are when the owner sells the vehicle and the RC should also be transferred to the purchaser. In these situations, RC transfers to the sale of a vehicle within the state, the sale of a vehicle in a different state, and to another state in the case of shifting, within a state but under a different RTO jurisdiction; and so on. https://ift.tt/5WCfqwR

After Twitter gives Elon Musk access to its firehose and historical tweet data, experts doubt the data will provide conclusive answers on spam and bots (Sarah E. Needleman/Wall Street Journal)

Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
After Twitter gives Elon Musk access to its firehose and historical tweet data, experts doubt the data will provide conclusive answers on spam and bots  —  Billionaire has access to the company's fire hose of tweets, but data specialists say analyzing it isn't easy



An interview with Arm CEO Rene Haas on the company's plans to pursue M&A deals and expand hiring following its IPO, after Arm China transitioned its leadership (Anna Gross/Financial Times)

Anna Gross / Financial Times:
An interview with Arm CEO Rene Haas on the company's plans to pursue M&A deals and expand hiring following its IPO, after Arm China transitioned its leadership  —  Chief executive Rene Haas lays out ambitious course of expansion for the UK chip designer despite tech downturn



Monday, June 27, 2022

PlayStation Plus vs Xbox Game Pass - How the two gaming subscription services compare

Now that Sony’s revamped subscription service for PlayStation has finally made it to users, it’s time to answer a few much-asked questions; It is time to answer the much-asked question; PlayStation Plus or Xbox Game Pass? Which one is better? It is not very easy for Sony as Microsoft has left no stone unturned to make Game Pass one of the best subscription services for games out there, and being one of the users, it is good, if not the best. https://ift.tt/Wxc4T9i

Indian startup Solv, a B2B marketplace for SMBs, raised a $40M Series A led by Japan-based SBI Holdings, bringing its total funding to nearly $80M (Harsh Upadhyay/Entrackr)

Harsh Upadhyay / Entrackr:
Indian startup Solv, a B2B marketplace for SMBs, raised a $40M Series A led by Japan-based SBI Holdings, bringing its total funding to nearly $80M  —  Solv, a B2B digital marketplace for Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, has raised $40 million in its Series A funding round led …



Naspers subsidiary Prosus sold 131.8M shares in JD.com, a ~4% stake worth $4B+, saying the e-commerce company "does not form part of [its] core strategic focus" (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Naspers subsidiary Prosus sold 131.8M shares in JD.com, a ~4% stake worth $4B+, saying the e-commerce company “does not form part of [its] core strategic focus”  —  An arm of South African internet giant Naspers Ltd. sold almost $4 billion worth of stock in JD.com Inc. that it got …



Data centers, typically located in suburbs and rural zones, are increasingly being built in urban areas to further reduce internet lag for locals (Michael Waters/MIT Technology Review)

Michael Waters / MIT Technology Review:
Data centers, typically located in suburbs and rural zones, are increasingly being built in urban areas to further reduce internet lag for locals  —  Companies are pushing more server farms into the hearts of population centers.  —  In 1930, the telegraph giant Western Union put …



How to sign up for Digisevak: Eligibility and other details

The platform is eager to provide a thorough execution of any volunteer tasks that would advance the Digital India program. This covers everything from the registration of volunteers, the development of roles, the assessment of tasks, and even rewards and recognition for the contribution made by the willing volunteers. https://ift.tt/t6BwzpH

Art and murder: 10 things you need to know about ‘Pentiment’

https://ift.tt/uUXVj5w

Sunday, June 26, 2022

SSD benchmarks show the 256GB 13" MacBook Pro with M2 has ~50% slower read and ~30% slower write speeds than the previous gen 256GB MacBook Pro with M1 (Joe Rossignol/MacRumors)

Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
SSD benchmarks show the 256GB 13" MacBook Pro with M2 has ~50% slower read and ~30% slower write speeds than the previous gen 256GB MacBook Pro with M1  —  Following the launch of Apple's new 13-inch MacBook Pro with the M2 chip, it has been discovered that the $1,299 base model with 256GB …



Hundreds of documents detail the software bought by China to sift through its vast troves of surveillance data to "predict" who will become troublemakers (New York Times)

New York Times:
Hundreds of documents detail the software bought by China to sift through its vast troves of surveillance data to “predict” who will become troublemakers  —  The more than 1.4 billion people living in China are constantly watched.  They are recorded by police cameras that are everywhere …



In the wake of SCOTUS overturning Roe v. Wade, tech companies give "no comment" in response to questions about users' data that can be used in prosecutions (Brian Kahn/Protocol)

Brian Kahn / Protocol:
In the wake of SCOTUS overturning Roe v. Wade, tech companies give “no comment” in response to questions about users' data that can be used in prosecutions  —  Tech companies have created employee reimbursement programs, but they have been silent on whether they'll protect users' data …



A deep dive: how Apple uses iOS WebKit monopoly to strip-mine and sabotage the web, hurting all browser engine projects and draining the web of future potential (Alex Russell/Infrequently Noted)

Alex Russell / Infrequently Noted:
A deep dive: how Apple uses iOS WebKit monopoly to strip-mine and sabotage the web, hurting all browser engine projects and draining the web of future potential  —  Gentle reader, I made a terrible mistake.  Yes, that's right: I read the comments on a MacRumors article.  At my age, one knows better.



Sources: Apple about to embark on one of the most ambitious periods of new products in its history, with the deluge coming between the fall of 2022 and H1 2023 (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple about to embark on one of the most ambitious periods of new products in its history, with the deluge coming between the fall of 2022 and H1 2023  —  Apple's latest software from WWDC sets the stage for a busy fall 2022 and first half of 2023.



How Bungie identified a mass sender of fake DMCA notices to YouTube targeting Destiny content creators and Bungie's own channels, leading to its $7.65M lawsuit (Andy Maxwell/TorrentFreak)

Andy Maxwell / TorrentFreak:
How Bungie identified a mass sender of fake DMCA notices to YouTube targeting Destiny content creators and Bungie's own channels, leading to its $7.65M lawsuit  —  In response to persons unknown sending large numbers of fake DMCA notices to YouTube while impersonating its anti-piracy partner …



Saturday, June 25, 2022

An interview with AMD's SVP Sam Naffziger on challenges facing the company, its coming RDNA 3 chiplet design, GPU performance and power efficiency, and more (Tom's Hardware)

Tom's Hardware:
An interview with AMD's SVP Sam Naffziger on challenges facing the company, its coming RDNA 3 chiplet design, GPU performance and power efficiency, and more  —  A look into the future RDNA 3 architecture  —  We recently had a chance to speak with Sam Naffziger, AMD's Senior Vice President …



How to apply for Airtel broadband (fibernet) connection online

According to Airtel, with the help of FTTH (Fiber to Home) technology, you can connect up to 60 devices using a Wi-Fi router modem and a fully dedicated fiber optic cable internet package. https://ift.tt/19xtKan

How to send WhatsApp messages without typing on Android

Yes, it is possible to do so, all thanks to the voice recognition support of your Android smartphone. Your go-to partner in this is going to be the Google Assistant. It enables you to use your smartphone with voice command. Smartphones with Google Assistant enable users to send WhatsApp messages without typing a single word. https://ift.tt/75FVmwx

Apple ready to bargain with its first US store to unionise: Source

Apple Inc accepts the outcome of a vote by Maryland store workers to become its first U.S. employees to join a union and is ready to bargain with them, a person familiar with the matter told Reuters on Friday. https://ift.tt/3tYnm4V

India to introduce safety rating system for passenger cars

India will introduce a safety rating system for passenger cars - a measure it hopes will encourage manufacturers to provide advanced safety features and will boost the "export worthiness" of vehicles produced in the country. https://ift.tt/gecTir2

A look at the rise of Nigeria's BNPL services as some doubt the success of local startups amid weak ID verification systems and scant consumer credit records (Abubakar Idris/Rest of World)

Abubakar Idris / Rest of World:
A look at the rise of Nigeria's BNPL services as some doubt the success of local startups amid weak ID verification systems and scant consumer credit records  —  BNPL startups in Nigeria are gambling millions of venture dollars on solving a problem of weak ID verification and scant consumer credit records.



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...