Saturday, September 11, 2021

Study of 61,000 Microsoft employees shows the shift to remote work has hurt communication and collaboration, threatening productivity and long-term innovation (Todd Bishop/GeekWire)

Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Study of 61,000 Microsoft employees shows the shift to remote work has hurt communication and collaboration, threatening productivity and long-term innovation  —  A new study finds that Microsoft's companywide shift to remote work has hurt communication and collaboration among different business groups inside …



Sources: US officials are considering a Financial Stability Oversight Council review into whether Tether and other stablecoins threaten financial stability (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: US officials are considering a Financial Stability Oversight Council review into whether Tether and other stablecoins threaten financial stability  —  - Treasury, other agencies consider launching FSOC examination  — Tokens' fast growth has triggered anxieties among regulators



Number of UK unicorns grew 10x in the last decade, with invested capital growing from €1B/year to €13B/year, but some worry Brexit will counteract the change (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Number of UK unicorns grew 10x in the last decade, with invested capital growing from €1B/year to €13B/year, but some worry Brexit will counteract the change  —  A decade ago, Taavet Hinrikus and Kristo Kaarmann stood before prospective investors at Seedcamp, a start-up event in London, and set fire to a £50 note.



Google Search on desktop web officially gets dark theme

Google is adding an official dark mode to search on desktops, letting those who prefer to avoid bright webpages complete their searches while bathed in inky gray. https://ift.tt/2Vxj13C

How FBI and Australian police built and marketed the An0m chat service for criminals, which cost $1,700 for a handset and $1,250 for an annual subscription (Simon Parkin/The Guardian)

Simon Parkin / The Guardian:
How FBI and Australian police built and marketed the An0m chat service for criminals, which cost $1,700 for a handset and $1,250 for an annual subscription  —  Billed as the most secure phone on the planet, An0m became a viral sensation in the underworld.  There was just one problem …



Russian space agency boss invites Elon Musk for tea & space talks

Dmitry Rogozin, head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, has invited SpaceX CEO Elon Musk to his home to discuss efforts to explore the universe and whether there's life on other planets. https://ift.tt/3A4gjlp

Small developers say the Epic ruling could lead to a windfall but some researchers say it is unclear if consumers will actually use alternative payment methods (New York Times)

New York Times:
Small developers say the Epic ruling could lead to a windfall but some researchers say it is unclear if consumers will actually use alternative payment methods  —  After a judge opened up a way to avoid Apple's commission on their sales, companies big and small are seeing dollar signs.



Apple won the Epic battle but is too arrogant to see that it still has to make some major App Store changes to both appease the courts and please developers (M.G. Siegler/500ish)

M.G. Siegler / 500ish:
Apple won the Epic battle but is too arrogant to see that it still has to make some major App Store changes to both appease the courts and please developers  —  Apple v. Epic indeed...  It depends on what your definition of a link is.  Or really, in some ways, what your definition of the internet is.



Google says it handed user data in response to three requests from Hong Kong during H2 2020, despite earlier saying that requests have to be made through US DOJ (Selina Cheng/Hong Kong Free Press)

Selina Cheng / Hong Kong Free Press:
Google says it handed user data in response to three requests from Hong Kong during H2 2020, despite earlier saying that requests have to be made through US DOJ  —  The US tech giant told HKFP it complied with a data request over a “credible threat to life” and two others involving human trafficking.



Apple warns that long-term exposure to vibrations, like those from high-power motorcycle engines, can degrade iPhone cameras by damaging their gyroscopes (Eric Slivka/MacRumors)

Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Apple warns that long-term exposure to vibrations, like those from high-power motorcycle engines, can degrade iPhone cameras by damaging their gyroscopes  —  Apple today published a new support document warning iPhone users that the cameras on their devices can be damaged by exposure …



Investigation finds ransomware hackers are publishing sensitive information of schoolchildren on the dark web; over 1,200 US K-12 schools had data leaks in 2021 (Kevin Collier/NBC News)

Kevin Collier / NBC News:
Investigation finds ransomware hackers are publishing sensitive information of schoolchildren on the dark web; over 1,200 US K-12 schools had data leaks in 2021  —  Most don't have bank passwords.  Few have credit scores yet.  And still, parts of the internet are awash in the personal information of millions of schoolchildren.



Elon Musk's companies don't care about rules, says Amazon

Tech billionaire Elon Musk's companies do not care about rules, Amazon said this week before the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the dispute over the two companies' plans to build rival satellite networks, media reports said. https://ift.tt/3z5NKCF

China tells Alibaba, Tencent to open platforms up to each other

China's internet is dominated by a handful of technology giants who have historically blocked links and services by rivals on their platforms, creating what analysts have described as "walled gardens". https://ift.tt/3l8rraw

Micromax In Note 1 Pro Tipped to Launch in India This Month

Micromax In Note 1 Pro has been tipped to launch by the end of this month. The phone has also been spotted on Geekbench with model number E7748. It is tipped to be powered by the MediaTek Helio G90... https://ift.tt/38YCbm9

Profile of Ksenia Coffman, who has made 97K edits and created 3,200 pages on Wikipedia, and her efforts to remove glorified Nazi history from the site (Noam Cohen/Wired)

Noam Cohen / Wired:
Profile of Ksenia Coffman, who has made 97K edits and created 3,200 pages on Wikipedia, and her efforts to remove glorified Nazi history from the site  —  Ksenia Coffman's fellow editors have called her a vandal and a McCarthyist.  She just wants them to stop glorifying fascists—and start citing better sources.



At least four UK teenagers have been arrested in connection with 764, a "Satanist" terror network targeting children online for sexual blackmail and violence (BBC)

BBC : At least four UK teenagers have been arrested in connection with 764, a “Satanist” terror network targeting children online for sex...