Swiss Federal Court rules that Facebook likes and shares can in some cases be considered as illegal defamation (The Local)

The Local:
Swiss Federal Court rules that Facebook likes and shares can in some cases be considered as illegal defamation  —  The Swiss Federal Court has ruled that Facebook likes and shares can be considered as illegal defamation.  The case was hearing a matter from the canton of Zurich says people …

Google India to try its framework in US polls, after India’s 2019 general elections

Saikat Mitra, Director, Trust and Safety, Google India told ET that the framework involved setting up a war room which tracked the movement of political information across Google products https://ift.tt/2HIR2DG https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

These startups will now let you connect with your favourite star

Teenagers, college-goers, housewives from small towns and cities are driving the bulk of demand for such services, companies say. https://ift.tt/2SLAUaU https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

Gaming-focused investment firm Bitkraft closes in on at least $140 million for its second fund

Esports, video games and the innovations that enable them now occupy a central space in the cultural and commercial fabric of the tech world.

For the investment firm Bitkraft Esports Ventures, the surge in interest means a vast opportunity to invest in the businesses that continue to reshape entertainment and develop technologies which have implications far beyond consoles and controllers.

Increasingly, investors are willing to come along for the ride. The firm, which launched its first fund in 2017 with a $40 million target, is close to wrapping up fundraising on a roughly $140 million new investment vehicle, according to a person with knowledge of the firm’s plans.

Through a spokesperson, Bitkraft confirmed that over the course of 2019 it had invested $50 million into 25 investments across esports and digital entertainment, 21 of which were led by the firm.

The new, much larger, fund for Bitkraft is coming as the firm’s thesis begins to encompass technologies and services that extend far beyond gaming and esports — although they’re coming from a similar place.

Along with its new pool of capital, the firm has also picked up a new partner in Moritz Baier-Lentz, a former Vice President in the investment banking division of Goldman Sachs and the number one ranked esports player of Blizzard’s Diablo II PC game in 2003.

While at Goldman, Baier-Lentz worked on the $67 billion Dell acquisition of EMC and the $34 billion acquisition of RedHat by IBM.

The numbers in venture capital — and especially in gaming — aren’t quite at that scale, but there are increasingly big bets being made in and around the games industry as investors recognize its potential. There were roughly $2 billion worth of investments made into the esports industry in 2019, less than half of the whopping $4.5 billion which was invested the prior year, according to the Esports Observer.

As Ethan Kurzweil of Bessemer Venture Partners told TechCrunch last year:

“Gaming is now one of the largest forms of entertainment in the United States, with more than $100B+ spent yearly, surpassing other major mediums like television. Gaming is a new form of social network where you can spend time just hanging with friends/family even outside of the constructs of ‘winning the game.’”

Over $100 billion is nothing to sneer at in a growing category — especially as the definition of what qualifies as an esports investment expands to include ancillary industries and a broader thesis.

For Bitkraft, that means investments which are “born in Internet and gaming, but they have applications beyond that,” says Baier-Lentz. “What we really see on the broader level and what we think bout as a team is this emergence of synthetic reality. [That’s] where we see the future and the growth and the return for our investors.”

Bitkraft’s newest partner, Moritz Baier-Lentz

Baier-Lentz calls this synthetic reality an almost seamless merger of the physical and digital world. It encompasses technologies enabling virtual reality and augmented reality and the games and immersive or interactive stories that will be built around them. 

“Moritz shares our culture, our passion, and our ambition—and comes with massive investment experience from one of the world’s finest investment firms,” said Jens Hilgers, the founding general partner of BITKRAFT Esports Ventures, in a statement. “Furthermore, he is a true core gamer with a strong competitive nature, making him the perfect fit in our diverse global BITKRAFT team. With his presence in New York, we also expand our geographical coverage in one of today’s most exciting and upcoming cities for gaming and esports.”

It helps that, while at Goldman, Baier-Lentz helped develop the firm’s global esports and gaming practice. Every other day he was fielding calls around how to invest in the esports phenomenon from private clients and big corporations, he said.

Interestingly for an esports-focused investment firm, the one area where Bitkraft won’t invest is in Esports teams. instead the focus is on everything that can enable gaming. “We take a broader approach and we make investments in things that thrive on the backbone of a healthy esports industry,” said Baier-Lentz.

In addition to a slew of investments made into various game development studios, the company has also backed Spatial, which creates interactive audio environments; Network Next, a developer of private optimized high speed networks for gaming; and Lofelt, a haptic technology developers.

“Games are the driver of technological innovation and games have prepared us for human machine interaction,” says Baier-Lentz. “We see games and gaming content as the driver of a broader wave of synthetic reality. That would span gaming, sports, and interactive media. [But] we don’t only see it as entertainment… There are economic and social benefits here that are opened up once we transcend between the physical and the digital. I almost see it as the evolution of the internet.”

How much should a startup spend on security?

One of the questions I frequently ask startup founders is how much they’re spending on security. Unsurprisingly, everyone has a different answer.

Startups and small companies are invariably faced with the prospect that they’re either not spending enough or are spending too much on something that’s hard to quantify in terms of value. It’s a tough sell to sink money into an effort to stop something that might one day happen, particularly for bootstrapped startups that must make every cent count — yet we’re told security is a crucial investment for a company’s future.

Sorry to break it to you, but there is no easy answer.

The reality is that each company is different and there is no single recommended dollar amount to spend. But it’s absolutely certain that some investment is required. We know because we see a lot of security incidents here at TechCrunch — hacks, breaches and especially data exposures, often a result of human error.

We spoke to three security experts — a head of security, a security entrepreneur and a cybersecurity fellow — to understand the questions facing startups.

Know and understand your threat model

Every company has a different threat model — by that, we mean identifying risks and possible ways of attack before they happen. Companies that store tons of user data may be a greater target than companies that don’t. Each firm needs to evaluate which kind of risks they face and identify weaknesses.

Researcher says Cameo exposed user data including email addresses, hashed and salted passwords, phone numbers, and messages via a misconfiguration in its app (Joseph Cox/VICE)

Joseph Cox / VICE:
Researcher says Cameo exposed user data including email addresses, hashed and salted passwords, phone numbers, and messages via a misconfiguration in its app  —  Cameo, the increasingly popular app for paying celebrities to record short personal videos, exposed a wealth of user data including …

Walmart-owned Flipkart to launch wholesale business next quarter

Flipkart has over the last few months ramped up its supply chain capabilities and engagements with manufacturers in the runup to the launch. https://ift.tt/2vNx48a https://ift.tt/eA8V8J

The debut of electric pickups signals a new EV era

Several companies rolled out electric pickups in 2019. Tesla’s Cybertruck got most of the attention, but don’t sleep on General Motors and Ford — bringing electric pickups to market is critical for the viability of electric vehicles.

Automakers build vehicles around shared components. These platforms, the underpinnings of the vehicles, often live for 10 or more years, and are critical to each automaker’s economic stability. The exterior sheet metal might change, but dozens of models often share the frame, powertrain and electrical components.

Electric pickup platforms offer vehicle makers a new revenue source. Instead of building electric vehicles designed to move people, these platforms can move goods. That’s key to building a long-term strategy around electric vehicles.

Look at Ford, whose best-selling F-150 is just a portion of its success. From the F-150, the automaker has dozens of commercial vehicles built off platforms that share components. If Ford can produce an electric pickup — which it says it’s doing alongside startup Rivian — Ford will be able to electrify its commercial offering more quickly.

Specific vehicle platforms are perfect for electrification. Vehicles with a predictable driving route like municipal vehicles, delivery vans and even hearses could benefit from electric powertrains.

Electric powertrains have long offered advantages over internal combustion; electric counterparts feature fewer moving parts and are now often smaller, allowing for more interior space. And then there’s the torque that gives electric vehicles near-superhero strength.

Apple is considering letting users change default email, browser, music apps in iOS

Enlarge / The iPhone 11. (credit: Samuel Axon)

Apple is seriously considering the possibility of allowing users to change the default apps for Web browsing, mail, or music on their iPhones. The company might also allow users to listen to Spotify or other music streaming services besides Apple Music via Siri on the iPhone or on the HomePod smart speaker.

These revelations were outlined in a report by Bloomberg's Mark Gurman this morning, who cited multiple people familiar with Apple's internal plans.

While Apple's plans are not final, the changes could go into effect as soon as Apple's iOS 14 release later this year, which means they would likely be introduced during Apple's developer conference this June.

Read 8 remaining paragraphs | Comments

https://arstechnica.com

Sources: around 300 workers at Oracle offices around the world walked out on Thursday to protest Larry Ellison's fundraiser for Trump on Wednesday (Nico Grant/Bloomberg)

Nico Grant / Bloomberg:
Sources: around 300 workers at Oracle offices around the world walked out on Thursday to protest Larry Ellison's fundraiser for Trump on Wednesday  —  - Chairman's fundraiser for Trump re-election sparked anger  — Activism more muted than at tech companies like Google

Microsoft announces Defender ATP for Linux, will offer the antivirus software for Android and iOS later this year as part of its enterprise security platform (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft announces Defender ATP for Linux, will offer the antivirus software for Android and iOS later this year as part of its enterprise security platform  —  New Defender mobile apps will be available later this year  —  Microsoft is planning to bring its Defender antivirus software to Android and iOS later this year.

LG W10 Alpha Debuts With Waterdrop-Style Notch, 19:9 Display

LG W10 Alpha has debuted in India as the company's latest budget smartphone -- after the LG W10 that was launched in June last year. https://ift.tt/37K76zz

How to register cybercrime complaints online

To cater to such complaints, the Government of India has launched an online cybercrime complaint portal that allows citizens to register the complaint online and follow up the progress as well. https://ift.tt/37IvykE

18 'rules' Tesla employees have to follow

https://ift.tt/2V6fUgl

Flywheel to stop online classes and offer trade-in for Peloton bikes after settling lawsuit

After settling a patent infringement lawsuit filed against it by Peloton, fitness startup Flywheel will stop offering its At Home online classes on March 27. Current Flywheel At Home customers were emailed a trade-in offer for Peloton bikes.

Peloton said the replacement bikes are refurbished, but will function like new ones. The trade-in form needs to be completed by March 27.

In an email to customers, Flywheel said its brick-and-mortar fitness centers will continue to operate. Flywheel At Home subscribers will stop being billed immediately (though subscriptions through Apple need to be turned off separately) and prepaid subscriptions will be refunded to customers for dates after March 27 or when they activate their Peloton replacement bikes. Flywheel’s live classes will continue through February 29 and on-demand classes will be available until March 27.

After filing lawsuits against Flywheel for patent infringement in 2018 and 2019, Peloton announced earlier this month it had reached a settlement in which Flywheel admitted that its Fly Anywhere bike and services infringed on Peloton patents.