Sundance Film Festival is going virtual in 2021, and is building an extensive VR platform for all attendees which can be accessed with or without a VR headset (Devindra Hardawar/Engadget)

Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Sundance Film Festival is going virtual in 2021, and is building an extensive VR platform for all attendees which can be accessed with or without a VR headset  —  Like most major events over the last year, the esteemed Sundance Film Festival is going virtual.  But it's going beyond just letting you watch films at home.

Qualtrics says, in an amended filing, that it plans to price its IPO at $27-$29/share, raising $1.5B and valuing the company at $14.6B at the top of the range (Crystal Tse/Bloomberg)

Crystal Tse / Bloomberg:
Qualtrics says, in an amended filing, that it plans to price its IPO at $27-$29/share, raising $1.5B and valuing the company at $14.6B at the top of the range  —  Qualtrics International Inc., the customer-survey software business being spun off by SAP SE, seeks to raise as much as $1.46 billion …

Twitter launches new website to fight ‘fake news’

Called Birdwatch, the new website will allow people to identify information in Tweets they believe is misleading and write notes that provide informative context https://ift.tt/3og3sFP

Google says it will not make any donations via its PAC this cycle to members of Congress who voted against certifying results of presidential election (Ashley Gold/Axios)

Ashley Gold / Axios:
Google says it will not make any donations via its PAC this cycle to members of Congress who voted against certifying results of presidential election  —  Google will not make contributions from its political action committee this cycle to any member of Congress who voted against certifying …

Sources: Signal's rapid growth following WhatsApp privacy changes has raised concerns from Signal staff who worry the service's new features will be misused (Casey Newton/The Verge)

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Sources: Signal's rapid growth following WhatsApp privacy changes has raised concerns from Signal staff who worry the service's new features will be misused  —  SHARE All sharing options  —  On January 6th, WhatsApp users around the world began seeing a pop-up message notifying …

Instagram adds a new "professional dashboard" for creator and business accounts, a dedicated space for analytics, business tools, monetization features, more (Karissa Bell/Engadget)

Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Instagram adds a new “professional dashboard” for creator and business accounts, a dedicated space for analytics, business tools, monetization features, more  —  Instagram is working on a new feature for business owners and influencers.  The app is adding a new “professional dashboard” …

Google Threat Analysis Group details a suspected North Korean specialized campaign targeting infosec researchers with fake profiles, blogs and backdoor software (Adam Weidemann/The Keyword)

Adam Weidemann / The Keyword:
Google Threat Analysis Group details a suspected North Korean specialized campaign targeting infosec researchers with fake profiles, blogs and backdoor software  —  Over the past several months, the Threat Analysis Group has identified an ongoing campaign targeting security researchers working …

How to Watch Republic Day Parade Live

Republic Day Parade 2021 will be livestreamed at 9.00 am on Tuesday, January 26 on the YouTube channel of the Press Information Bureau (PIB) and DD National. The Republic Day 2021 livestream can also... https://ift.tt/3sTWIB3

Facebook News launches in the UK, partners with Axel Springer and Samsung owned Upday for curation; announces new partnerships and payments for some publishers (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Facebook News launches in the UK, partners with Axel Springer and Samsung owned Upday for curation; announces new partnerships and payments for some publishers  —  As the United Kingdom prepares to sharpen its focus on how it regulates big tech companies, Facebook is taking a big step …

Amazon launches new smart home proactive control actions for Alexa, alongside an energy dashboard, and a $4.99/month security-like service, Alexa Guard Plus (Ian Carlos Campbell/The Verge)

Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge:
Amazon launches new smart home proactive control actions for Alexa, alongside an energy dashboard, and a $4.99/month security-like service, Alexa Guard Plus  —  New updates bring proactive hunches and Guard Plus to the smart assistant  —  Amazon is enabling a new feature today that allows Alexa …

Makers of Sophia the robot plan mass rollout amid pandemic

HONGKONG-Makers of Sophia the robot plan mass rollout amid pandemic https://ift.tt/3iH3Dcd

Taiwan says asking chip firms to help ease auto chip shortage

Automakers around the world are shutting assembly lines because of a global shortage of semiconductors that in some cases has been exacerbated by the former Trump administration's actions against key Chinese chip factories, according to industry officials. https://ift.tt/3oeL6Fo

Google Drive becomes a goldmine for pirated, explicit content

Cyber criminals and pirates of the Internet now have a new goldmine in Google Drive where they are freely storing and sharing illegal software licenses, movies, games and porn content -- most of which have allegedly been indexed in Google Search as some Drive users made such links public in their individual accounts. https://ift.tt/39VZSvs

8 facts why News Media Code needs to be tweaked: Google

As the News Media Bargaining Code triggers a bitter war between Google and the Australian government, the tech giant has detailed eight facts on why reaching a workable Code is important but serious concerns with the current draft remain. https://ift.tt/39e9kew

Terror groups in Pakistan switch to new messaging applications

The three new applications came to light after evidence was collected following encounters with terrorists or those who surrendered before the Army gave details about their mode of radicalisation by Pakistan-based terrorist groups, they said. The names of the messaging apps have been withheld for security reasons. https://ift.tt/3c9DC4a