Wednesday, November 3, 2021

The criminal group behind BlackMatter ransomware announces plans to shut down the operation, citing "pressure from the authorities" (Catalin Cimpanu/The Record)

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
The criminal group behind BlackMatter ransomware announces plans to shut down the operation, citing “pressure from the authorities”  —  The criminal group behind the BlackMatter ransomware have announced plans today to shut down their operation, citing pressure from local authorities.



Chinese central bank official says around 140M people opened wallets for digital yuan as of October and used it for transactions totaling around $9.7B (Reuters)

Reuters:
Chinese central bank official says around 140M people opened wallets for digital yuan as of October and used it for transactions totaling around $9.7B  —  Some 140 million people had opened “wallets” for China's new digital yuan as of October and used it for transactions totalling around 62 billion yuan …



Tencent announces a cloud operating system called Orca and three chips, one for AI, another for video processing, and a chip for high-performance networks (Reuters)

Reuters:
Tencent announces a cloud operating system called Orca and three chips, one for AI, another for video processing, and a chip for high-performance networks  —  Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) touted progress in semiconductor chip development and investment on Wednesday …



Xiaomi, Redmi Smartphones With Snapdragon 870 in the Works

Xiaomi is reportedly developing two smartphones powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 870 SoC. As per the report, one will be branded as a Xiaomi smartphone while the other will get Redmi branding. Both... https://ift.tt/3nSa7b1

JioPhone Next Has Preloaded Device Lock Feature to Address EMI Defaults

JioPhone Next is preloaded with a device lock feature that will restrict your access in case you are not able to pay its EMIs. https://ift.tt/3CLUQik

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite Is Shutting Down on January 31

Harry Potter: Wizards Unite will shut down at the beginning of next year, said Niantic. Effective December 6, 2021, the game will no longer be available on App Store, Google Play, and Samsung Galaxy... https://ift.tt/3nVRjaP

Amazon to launch its first internet satellites in late 2022

E-commerce giant Amazon aims to launch its first Project Kuiper internet satellites in the fourth quarter of 2022, the company has announced. https://ift.tt/3qaAL1w

Moto G51 With Triple Rear Cameras, 5,000mAh Battery Launched: Reports

Moto G51 has been unveiled in China. The phone packs a 5,000mAh battery and is powered by the Qualcomm Snapdragon 480+ SoC. It features a 6.8-inch IPS LCD display and there is a triple rear camera... https://ift.tt/3GOzxyS

Singapore Aims to Establish Itself as Global Crypto Hub, Regulator Says

MAS finance chief Ravi Menon has advised other nations also to not clamp down and ban cryptocurrencies while revealing that Singapore is working on crypto-regulation. https://ift.tt/3bBkwlJ

Lenovo Expands Yoga Laptop Series With 4 New Models, Brings New Tablets

Lenovo has launched the Yoga Pro 14c, Yoga Pro 14s Carbon, Yoga 16s, and the Yoga Pro 14s as its four new laptops under the Yoga series. The Chinese company has also brought the Xiaoxin Pad Pro 12.6... https://ift.tt/3CGEc3H

Tuesday, November 2, 2021

Yahoo pulls its services in China in a largely symbolic gesture, citing an "increasingly challenging business and legal environment", following LinkedIn (Liza Lin/Wall Street Journal)

Liza Lin / Wall Street Journal:
Yahoo pulls its services in China in a largely symbolic gesture, citing an “increasingly challenging business and legal environment”, following LinkedIn  —  Yahoo Inc. said it pulled its services in China, citing an increasingly challenging business and legal environment.



With Spotify on pace to cross $1B in ad sales this year, a look at its growing ambitions in advertising and its plans to become the YouTube of podcasting (Lucas Shaw/Bloomberg)

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
With Spotify on pace to cross $1B in ad sales this year, a look at its growing ambitions in advertising and its plans to become the YouTube of podcasting  —  Millions of people watch videos of Joe Rogan's podcast.  They used to do that on YouTube, where Rogan posted full episodes.



AI-Based Solutions Promise to Mitigate the Climate Change Crisis

The latest edition of the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, which began in Glasgow on October 31, has put the conversation around the global climate change crisis back in the spotlight. We took a... https://ift.tt/3bwh9g7

Grammys to Honour Music Biggies with Yearly NFT Series

The Grammys will be releasing NFTs to commemorate winners in a new deal that has just been announced. The NFTs will mark the 64th, 65th, and 66th editions of prestigious awards that are hosted... https://ift.tt/3CypdbX

Sources: Huawei is in advanced talks to sell its x86 server business, amid US blacklisting, to a consortium that includes a Zhengzhou-based state-owned firm (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Sources: Huawei is in advanced talks to sell its x86 server business, amid US blacklisting, to a consortium that includes a Zhengzhou-based state-owned firm  —  - Firm backed by government will likely participate in takeover  — Chinese tech giant couldn't buy x86 chips because of sanctions



Anthropic updates Claude to add custom writing styles tailored to users, aiming to personalize its replies, following similar ChatGPT and Gemini features (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge)

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge : Anthropic updates Claude to add custom writing styles tailored to users, aiming to personalize its replies,...