Sunday, December 8, 2019
Personal Data Protection Bill: India's digital safety kit
Companies may get up to 2 years to comply with data law
A look at Arm China, which has become a key player in China's chip industry and sources say has doubled staff since SoftBank sold control to a Chinese venture (Cheng Ting-Fang/Nikkei Asian Review)
A look at Arm China, which has become a key player in China's chip industry and sources say has doubled staff since SoftBank sold control to a Chinese venture — Since SoftBank sold control, venture doubles staff and develops cryptographic IP — TAIPEI — Arm China …
Vivo U20 to Go on Sale in India Today via Amazon, Vivo Site
India-based B2B logistics network Shadowfax raises $60M Series D from Flipkart, others, bringing its total raised to $100M, sources say at a valuation of ~$250M (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)
India-based B2B logistics network Shadowfax raises $60M Series D from Flipkart, others, bringing its total raised to $100M, sources say at a valuation of ~$250M — Walmart's Flipkart has backed Indian startup Shadowfax in a new $60 million financing round as the retail giant works to strengthen its logistics network in the nation.
Report on the hack-for-hire market: attacks that phish 2FA to access email accounts cost $100-$400; such attacks can be prevented with physical security keys (Ariana Mirian/Communications of the ACM)
Report on the hack-for-hire market: attacks that phish 2FA to access email accounts cost $100-$400; such attacks can be prevented with physical security keys — Communications of the ACM, December 2019, Vol. 62 No. 12, Pages 32-37 … A single email address often underpins one's entire online identity …
Beijing orders all government offices and public institutions to remove foreign PC equipment and software within three years, allowing only Chinese-made tech (Australian Financial Review)
Beijing orders all government offices and public institutions to remove foreign PC equipment and software within three years, allowing only Chinese-made tech — Yuan Yang and Nian Liu — Beijing has ordered all government offices and public institutions to remove foreign computer equipment …
Max Q: SpaceX and Rocket Lab launch rockets and X-Wings take flight
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This week saw a ton of activity in the space industry, with multiple launches, key preparations for commercial crew missions, robots and much more.
Besides all the real space news, there’s also some extreme fan service for Star Wars lovers, courtesy of Disney and Boeing. Now I’m one day closer to my lifelong dream of becoming a real X-Wing starfighter pilot.
Rocket Lab completes key step towards reusable rockets
Launch startup Rocket Lab has been successfully delivering payloads to orbit for a while now, but earlier this year they announced they’d be moving to a launch system in which the booster they use to propel their spacecraft to orbit is reusable.
An Electron rocket launching during a previous test.
During their 10th mission with their Electron rocket, they took a crucial first step – testing the re-entry systems to bring the booster back to Earth’s atmosphere. Rocket Lab says the test went better than expected, which bodes well from moving to an actual test of properly recovering and refurbishing the thing.
SpaceX launches 19th Space Station resupply mission
The other big launch this week was SpaceX’s CRS-19 launch, which delivered 5,200 lbs of experiments and supplies to the ISS. This launch used a brand new Falcon 9, which SpaceX recovered with a landing at sea, and it also employed a Dragon cargo capsule that the company has flown twice before. On board, there’s a load of amazing new equipment for the ISS, like a ‘robot hotel.’
Emotionally intelligent IBM-powered assistant robot is heading to space
You may not have heard, but there’s an advanced Alexa for astronauts called CIMON, and after a successful first test, it’s headed back to the ISS aboard the above SpaceX launch with improvements. One of its key improvements is a new ability to detect and respond to human emotions, which is, you know, HAL territory.
SpaceX completes 7th parachute test
SpaceX is getting closer to a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to its ability to launch astronauts on its commercial crew spacecraft. The company needs to do at least 10 parachute tests in a row to get ship-shape for its crew launch, and it’s now pretty close to getting that done before year’s end.
Boeing completes dress rehearsal of crew launch
Boeing is also getting closer to its own commercial crew launch, and in fact completed an entire rehearsal of how the mission will go on on launch day when it does its uncrewed launch. This rehearsal including fully feeling the rocket, and next time that happens, it’ll be taking off.
Real X-Wings fly for real (really)
X-Wing starfighters ascended through the night sky over Orlando, Florida this week as Disney celebrated the opening of its new ‘Rise of the Resistance’ attraction at Disney World. The X-Wings (2 of them!) were modified versions of a large cargo drone that Boeing has been developing, but both companies are keeping mum on any further details right now.
Here’s what’s up in the world of space startups and investing
What’s going on with space tech, and why is it having a moment? What’s coming next, and where is the smart money going? The answers to those questions and more lie in Starburst founder and aerospace investor François Chopard’s informative deck about space and defense, available exclusively to Extra Crunch subscribers.
Diana Prince reunites with her long-lost love in first Wonder Woman 1984 trailer
Gal Gadot reprises her role as everyone's favorite Amazonian demigod in Wonder Woman 1984.
Diana Prince faces off against two new formidable foes, and reunites with an old love, in the hotly anticipated first trailer for Wonder Woman 1984, with Gal Gadot reprising her titular role. Director Patty Jenkins unveiled the trailer today at Comic Con Experience (CCXP) in Sao Paulo, Brazil.
Inspired by the comic book heroine created by William Moulton Marston in the 1940s for DC Comics, Wonder Woman made her big screen debut in the DCEU with 2016's Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, followed by 2017's Justice League. The first fell short of box office expectations; the second bombed outright. So when Jenkins took on Wonder Woman's origin story, she deliberately departed from the grim humorlessness and dark sensibility of those earlier films, bringing a brighter energy and wit to her tale, along with the usual action. That vision paid off: Wonder Woman went on to gross $821 million worldwide, and earned critical raves, making it the most successful of the DCEU films thus far.
Jenkins first broached the possibility of a sequel shortly after the first film's release in June 2017, and principal photography began a year later. It has been described as a standalone film rather than a direct sequel, "in the same way that Indiana Jones or [James] Bond are, instead of one continuous story that requires many installments." (That standalone strategy worked well for Warner Bros' 2019 box office smash Joker, which became the first R-rated film to gross over $1 billion worldwide.)
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US charges Russians over banking fraud scheme
Dara Khosrowshahi on Uber's safety report, why two-thirds of rape cases haven't been reported to the police, and Uber's approach to driver and rider safety (Geoffrey A. Fowler/Washington Post)
Dara Khosrowshahi on Uber's safety report, why two-thirds of rape cases haven't been reported to the police, and Uber's approach to driver and rider safety — Uber is a ‘reflection of society,’ says ride-hailing chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi — Uber provided many numbers this week …
Snapchat is testing Cameos, a Bitmoji alternative that lets users replace the faces of people with selfies in Snapchat-made short looping videos (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)
Snapchat is testing Cameos, a Bitmoji alternative that lets users replace the faces of people with selfies in Snapchat-made short looping videos — Snapchat is preparing to launch a big new feature that uses your selfies to replace the faces of people in videos you can then share.
BookMyShow narrows loss in FY 2018-19, as revenue jumps by more than 50%
How predators are using multiplayer games and chat apps for sextortion of children; DOJ says sextortion is "the most significantly growing threat to children" (New York Times)
How predators are using multiplayer games and chat apps for sextortion of children; DOJ says sextortion is “the most significantly growing threat to children” — Criminals are making virtual connections with children through gaming and social media platforms.
PitchBook: US startups raised $209B in 2024, up ~33% from 2023; AI startups raised $97B, the largest portion on record; VCs raised $76.1B, the lowest since 2019 (Sarah McBride/Bloomberg)
Sarah McBride / Bloomberg : PitchBook: US startups raised $209B in 2024, up ~33% from 2023; AI startups raised $97B, the largest portion ...
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Jake Offenhartz / Gothamist : Since October, the NYPD has deployed a quadruped robot called Spot to a handful of crime scenes and hostage...
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Lorena O'Neil / Rolling Stone : A look at the years of warnings about AI from researchers, including several women of color, who say ...
