Tuesday, August 27, 2019
Google Job Search Tool Faces EU Investigation
Qualcomm Targets Wi-Fi Market in Push to Expand Beyond Phones
Facebook Rolls Out Local Emergency Alerts Feature in the US
ETtech Top 5: VCs chase seed-stage deals, Swiggy's potential cloud kitchen trouble & more
TikTok claims ‘intermediary’ status
Amazon moves top court against direct-selling companies
Sources: when Telegram raised $1.7B in 2018, it told investors it will deliver Gram by Oct. 31, 2019, or give back the money, and now says it is still on track (Nathaniel Popper/New York Times)
Sources: when Telegram raised $1.7B in 2018, it told investors it will deliver Gram by Oct. 31, 2019, or give back the money, and now says it is still on track — While Facebook's big cryptocurrency plans have hit a wall with regulators, another big social network, Telegram, is charging ahead with its own digital currency.
Starhopper aces test, sets up full-scale prototype flights this year
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On Tuesday evening, Starhopper launched from South Texas. [credit: Trevor Mahlmann for Ars ]
On Tuesday evening, in South Texas, SpaceX launched its Starhopper test vehicle for the second time. During this test, it flew much higher than last month, nearly straight up to 150 meters. Then, under the power of a single Raptor engine, the vehicle smoothly moved laterally for about 100 meters before a controlled descent and touchdown in the center of a landing pad.
From a technical standpoint, the test was impressive, demonstrating the thrust and vector control of the new Raptor engine. This was the first time a large rocket engine burning liquid-methane propellant made a significant flight, and it appeared to be mostly, if not entirely, successful. SpaceX engineers can take confidence from this test as they move into finishing their builds of Starship orbital prototypes in Texas and Florida later this year.
The test may have had more political significance, however. SpaceX seeks to demonstrate that Starship is a viable vehicle for NASA to consider flying astronauts to and from the Moon and other destinations. Visually, the flight of the stubby Starhopper was arresting: it took off in a cloud of smoke and landed in the reddish—almost Mars-red—dust it kicked up at the landing site.
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Lenovo’s new, Comet Lake-equipped ThinkPad X1 Carbon hits this September
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The 2019, 7th generation Lenovo ThinkPad X1 Carbon 1. [credit: Lenovo ]
Today, Lenovo announced launch plans for the seventh generation of its critically acclaimed ThinkPad X1 Carbon laptop. A number of modest changes improve on an already strong business laptop line, with the most notable being 10th-generation Intel Carbon Lake CPUs.
We've previously reviewed the ThinkPad X1 Carbon and found it to be one of the strongest business laptops on the market thanks to good performance, strong battery life, and an outstanding keyboard. One of our chief complaints with last year's model—the lack of a 4K option—has been addressed this year. So you can now get the laptop in both FullHD or 4K variants, as well as WQHD. The 4K variant offers a carbon-weave-material option for the lid, giving it a more "premium" look. Or so Lenovo suggests.
As noted, we already liked the performance and battery life in this line, but those are really the two main areas of improvement with this release. The 10th-gen Intel Core i5 or Core i7 CPUs (there's a six-core configuration at the high end) bring with them greater power efficiency and a promise of up to 18.5 hours of battery life in the FHD configuration. The 14-inch display peaks at 400 nits of brightness (for the FHD version) or 500 nits with HDR support (for the 4K version).
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Google to shut down Google Hire, a job application tracking system for small to medium sized businesses it launched two years ago, in September 2020 (Greg Kumparak/TechCrunch)
Google to shut down Google Hire, a job application tracking system for small to medium sized businesses it launched two years ago, in September 2020 — Add another one to the Google Cemetery. — Google has disclosed that it will shut down Google Hire, the job application tracking system it launched just two years ago.
Oppo Reno 2 to Launch in India Today: How to Watch Live Stream
Cisco to buy customer analytics startup CloudCherry, which has raised $16M in venture funding from Cisco, Microsoft, and others (Maria Deutscher/SiliconANGLE)
Cisco to buy customer analytics startup CloudCherry, which has raised $16M in venture funding from Cisco, Microsoft, and others — Though best known for its networking and data center gear, Cisco Systems Inc. is also a major player in the contact center technology business.
Dutch data protection agency says it found that Windows 10 may still be unlawfully collecting user data, refers Microsoft to its EU privacy regulator in Ireland (Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch)
Dutch data protection agency says it found that Windows 10 may still be unlawfully collecting user data, refers Microsoft to its EU privacy regulator in Ireland — The Dutch data protection agency has asked Microsoft's lead privacy regulator in Europe to investigate ongoing concerns it has attached to how Windows 10 gathers user data.
Sources: US Commerce Department has received 130+ applications from companies for licenses to sell US goods to Huawei; none of the licenses have been granted (Reuters)
Sources: US Commerce Department has received 130+ applications from companies for licenses to sell US goods to Huawei; none of the licenses have been granted — WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. Commerce Department has received more than 130 applications from companies for licenses …
Google will kill off Google Hire in 2020
Add another one to the Google Cemetery.
Google has disclosed that it will shut down Google Hire, the job application tracking system it launched just two years ago.
Google built Hire in an effort to simplify the hiring process, with a workflow that integrated things like searching for applicants, scheduling interviews, and providing feedback about potential hires into Google’s G Suite (Search/Gmail/Calendar/Docs etc.)
It was built mostly for small to medium sized businesses, with a price that ranged from $200 to $400 a month depending on how many G Suite licenses you needed.
Hire came into existence after Google acquired Bebop — a company started by VMWare founder Diane Greene — for a reported $380 million in 2015. Greene went on to act as the CEO of Google’s Cloud division, but left the role in early 2019.
In an email to customers, Google says:
While Hire has been successful, we’re focusing our resources on other products in the Google Cloud portfolio. We are deeply grateful to our customers, as well as the champions and advocates who have joined and supported us along the way.
On the upside: it’s not getting the axe immediately. In fact, you can keep using it for over a full year; Google says it won’t actually be shutdown until September 1st of 2020. Just don’t expect any new features to be added.
Google also notes that it intends to stop taking payment for the product in the meantime, saying that customers will see no additional charges for Google Hire after their next billing cycle.
Russian cryptocurrency payment network A7 expands to Africa, as Moscow builds an alternative payments system amid western sanctions after its Ukraine invasion (Financial Times)
Financial Times : Russian cryptocurrency payment network A7 expands to Africa, as Moscow builds an alternative payments system amid weste...
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The first project we remember working on together was drawing scenes from the picture books that our mom brought with her when she immigrate...
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Sohee Kim / Bloomberg : South Korean authorities are investigating a data leak at e-commerce giant Coupang that exposed ~33.7M accounts; ...
