Sunday, May 1, 2022

Cogni, a digital bank aimed at users aged 18-to-35 with plans to launch crypto and Web3-focused banking services, raises a $23M Series A (Anita Ramaswamy/TechCrunch)

Anita Ramaswamy / TechCrunch:
Cogni, a digital bank aimed at users aged 18-to-35 with plans to launch crypto and Web3-focused banking services, raises a $23M Series A  —  Digital banking startup Cogni is joining the ranks of companies hopping on the crypto bandwagon.  The mobile-based platform, founded in 2016 …



A look at Jony Ive's evolving responsibilities and his frustrations at Apple, which eventually led to his departure, adapted from the book "After Steve" (Tripp Mickle/New York Times)

Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
A look at Jony Ive's evolving responsibilities and his frustrations at Apple, which eventually led to his departure, adapted from the book “After Steve”  —  The man who helped give the world candy-colored computers walked out the door as Tim Cook took charge.



CommandBar, an in-app search and navigation tool that lets web apps personalize user onboarding and offer shortcuts for common actions, raises a $19M Series A (Kyle Wiggers/TechCrunch)

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
CommandBar, an in-app search and navigation tool that lets web apps personalize user onboarding and offer shortcuts for common actions, raises a $19M Series A  —  Thanks to the explosion of low- and no-code development tools, building web apps from scratch has become easier — and cheaper — than it once was.



Government data: China's internet companies raised $3.51B in Q1 2022, down 76.7% YoY from $15B+, while the number of fundraising deals declined 38.3% YoY (Xinmei Shen/South China Morning Post)

Xinmei Shen / South China Morning Post:
Government data: China's internet companies raised $3.51B in Q1 2022, down 76.7% YoY from $15B+, while the number of fundraising deals declined 38.3% YoY  —  Plunge in funding follows an intense period of regulatory action that has targeted some of China's biggest internet companies.



Saturday, April 30, 2022

A look at the challenges Apple is facing as it develops its own wireless modem, expected to replace Qualcomm chips in 2023 iPhones (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
A look at the challenges Apple is facing as it develops its own wireless modem, expected to replace Qualcomm chips in 2023 iPhones  —  A series of moves by the tech giant, as well as signals from its suppliers, make clear that it aims to start designing the modems of the iPhone, iPad and Apple Watch.



India's Enforcement Directorate says it has seized $725M from Xiaomi's bank accounts over allegedly illegal royalty payments to its foreign subsidiaries (Aditya Kalra/Reuters)

Aditya Kalra / Reuters:
India's Enforcement Directorate says it has seized $725M from Xiaomi's bank accounts over allegedly illegal royalty payments to its foreign subsidiaries  —  India said on Saturday it had seized $725 million from the local bank accounts of China's Xiaomi Corp (1810.HK) after a probe found …



New crypto mortgages in the US real estate market let property buyers pledge their digital holdings as collateral for a loan, with no down payments necessary (Heather Perlberg/Bloomberg)

Heather Perlberg / Bloomberg:
New crypto mortgages in the US real estate market let property buyers pledge their digital holdings as collateral for a loan, with no down payments necessary  —  It took Vincent Burniske months to get a seven-figure loan to buy two small apartment buildings in a coveted Miami neighborhood.



Smartphone app that could help screen neurological disease at home

A team of researchers has developed a smartphone app that could allow people to screen for Alzheimer's disease, attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) and other neurological diseases and disorders, by recording closeups of their eyes. https://ift.tt/AWZzqyR

Apple explains why it is removing outdated apps

Tech giant Apple, which has been removing apps that no longer receive updates, has clarified that outdated apps are being removed from the App Store as nobody was downloading them. https://ift.tt/JEDnZ0v

Ex-Apple employee files labour complaint against Epic

Accusing Epic Games of refusing to hire her because of her labour advocacy and support of unions, a former Activision Blizzard and Apple employee has reportedly filed a labour complaint with the National Labour Relations Board (NLBR) against the game developer. https://ift.tt/rk0bwsv

Apple faces up to $8 billion revenue hit due to China lockdowns

The ongoing Covid-19 lockdowns in China are set to make a huge dent in Apple revenue for the April-June quarter as the company has indicated up to $8 billion loss in sales especially owing to the Shanghai lockdown. https://ift.tt/SP8ti74

Samsung 'Fab Grab Fest offers mega deals and cashbacks on smartphones, tablets, laptops, TVs and appliances; starts May 1

Samsung has announced its biggest summer fest of the year – Fab Grab Fest. The Fab Grab Fest sale has mega offers and cashbacks on a wide range of Samsung Digital Appliances as well as Galaxy smartphones, tablets, laptops, accessories and wearables. https://ift.tt/0BRIpGD

Friday, April 29, 2022

Report finds Amazon and third parties collect data from interactions with Alexa through Echo speakers and share it with as many as 41 advertising partners (Jennifer Pattison Tuohy/The Verge)

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Report finds Amazon and third parties collect data from interactions with Alexa through Echo speakers and share it with as many as 41 advertising partners  —  Amazon and third parties use data from smart speakers to sell you stuff, says report  —  A report released last week contends …



Twitter cancels earnings conference call

Though months away from Elon Musk's $44 billion buyout deal, Twitter on Thursday cancelled its customary earnings conference call. https://ift.tt/gNZstaV

Sources: China is preparing to end the regulatory crackdown over big tech and give the sector a bigger role to help boost the ailing economy (Tracy Qu/South China Morning Post)

Tracy Qu / South China Morning Post:
Sources: China is preparing to end the regulatory crackdown over big tech and give the sector a bigger role to help boost the ailing economy  —  A symposium involving Chinese Big Tech has been scheduled after the Labour Day holiday to assure business leaders on the new direction …



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 ...