Patreon launches a native ad-free video hosting tool for creators, expanding on support for third-party players, available to a select group in beta (Mia Sato/The Verge)

Mia Sato / The Verge:
Patreon launches a native ad-free video hosting tool for creators, expanding on support for third-party players, available to a select group in beta  —  The update marks a major shift in how creators on Patreon can share video content with fans.  Previously, creators had to upload videos …

WhatsApp Communities feature is here: Steps to set up and start using it

WhatsApp keeps testing several new features on its platform in the beta version of the app. Some of those features, after a long test run, have finally started arriving in the stable build and users on Android and iOS devices can get them by updating WhatsApp to its latest version. https://ift.tt/ByXmM5J

Preqin: Chinese VC deals fell 44% YoY in October to $62.1B, of which $7.9B went to semiconductor companies, up from $6.3B in 2021 (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Preqin: Chinese VC deals fell 44% YoY in October to $62.1B, of which $7.9B went to semiconductor companies, up from $6.3B in 2021  —  Venture capital investments in China are falling sharply this year, making it one of the worst-performing countries globally after the Communist Party's crackdown …

Twitter cancels its Chirp developer conference, set for November 16, and says it is building "some things that we're excited to share with you soon" (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
Twitter cancels its Chirp developer conference, set for November 16, and says it is building “some things that we're excited to share with you soon”  —  Twitter is canceling its developer-focused Chirp conference amid management transition, the company said late Thursday.

How to convert Apple Pages to PDF, Microsoft Word file

Pages also offers the ability to convert, export and save your document as a PDF, Word file or in any other format. Here’s a step-by-step guide to help you convert an Apple Pages document to PDF or Word file on Mac, iPhone and iPad. https://ift.tt/Mre1WnX

How to enable WhatsApp security code notifications on Android, iOS and web

In an end-to-end encrypted chat, you can enable security notifications to get alerts whenever the security code for a contact's phone changes. Each device where you want to receive notifications needs to have the setting enabled. You can enable security code notifications for desktop, iOS, and Android devices. Here’s how you can do it. https://ift.tt/0DQYXzK

China's Zhengzhou industrial park, where Foxconn makes iPhones, begins a weeklong lockdown to counteract the "severe and complicated" spread of COVID-19 (Karen Hao/Wall Street Journal)

Karen Hao / Wall Street Journal:
China's Zhengzhou industrial park, where Foxconn makes iPhones, begins a weeklong lockdown to counteract the “severe and complicated” spread of COVID-19  —  HONG KONG—The industrial park where Foxconn Technology Group's iPhone assembly plant is struggling to maintain production amid …

Google plans to roll out parental controls for Assistant, including disabling features, restricting services, and setting downtimes hours, in the "coming weeks" (Jon Fingas/Engadget)

Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Google plans to roll out parental controls for Assistant, including disabling features, restricting services, and setting downtimes hours, in the “coming weeks”  —  Kids love to use smart speakers, but it's all too easy for things to go horribly wrong — including content that's decidedly not family-friendly.

Apple undecided on display technology, size of upcoming iPhone SE 4: Report

Apple unveiled iPhone 14 series earlier this year and reports suggest that the Cupertino-based technology giant is working on an affordable iPhone SE 4. The smartphone is rumoured to sport iPhone XR-like design. However, it seems Apple is yet to decide on the display technology and size of this iPhone model. https://ift.tt/7jCLmc1

Toronto-based TouchBistro, which offers payments tools for restaurants globally, raised CA$150M led by Francisco Partners, bringing its funding to ~CA$433M (Keerthi Vedantam/Crunchbase News)

Keerthi Vedantam / Crunchbase News:
Toronto-based TouchBistro, which offers payments tools for restaurants globally, raised CA$150M led by Francisco Partners, bringing its funding to ~CA$433M  —  TouchBistro, a restaurant point-of-sale system, announced on Tuesday it nabbed $110 million (CAD $150 million) …

Netflix begins rolling out its Basic with Ads tier; sources say licensing negotiations with Disney, Comcast, Sony, Warner Bros., and Lions Gate are ongoing (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Netflix begins rolling out its Basic with Ads tier; sources say licensing negotiations with Disney, Comcast, Sony, Warner Bros., and Lions Gate are ongoing  —  Disney, NBCU and Sony are among the companies still negotiating licensing with the streaming service

China releases its first VR plan, aiming for its domestic industry to ship over 25M devices by 2026; IDC says China shipped just over 500K VR devices in H1 2022 (Josh Ye/Reuters)

Josh Ye / Reuters:
China releases its first VR plan, aiming for its domestic industry to ship over 25M devices by 2026; IDC says China shipped just over 500K VR devices in H1 2022  —  China released its first action plan dedicated to virtual reality on Tuesday, with an aim its industry ship more than 25 million devices …

YouTube rolls out Primetime Channels in the US, with shows and movies from 35 partners, including Paramount+ and Epix, and plans to add NBA League Pass soon (David Pierce/The Verge)

David Pierce / The Verge:
YouTube rolls out Primetime Channels in the US, with shows and movies from 35 partners, including Paramount+ and Epix, and plans to add NBA League Pass soon  —  Streaming services are coming to YouTube.  The company is rolling out a new feature called Primetime Channels that will bring shows …

Uber reports Q3 revenue rose 72% YoY to $8.34B, beating $8.1B estimates, as gross bookings rose 26% YoY to $29.1B, including $13.7B from Uber Eats (Jackie Davalos/Bloomberg)

Jackie Davalos / Bloomberg:
Uber reports Q3 revenue rose 72% YoY to $8.34B, beating $8.1B estimates, as gross bookings rose 26% YoY to $29.1B, including $13.7B from Uber Eats  —  Uber Technologies Inc. reported revenue that beat analysts' expectations, fueled by a recovery in driver supply that supported increased ridership …

Elon Musk's plan to monetize Twitter verification would generate marginal revenue, even at $20/month, and create myriad problems, including enabling spammers (James Ball/New Statesman)

James Ball / New Statesman:
Elon Musk's plan to monetize Twitter verification would generate marginal revenue, even at $20/month, and create myriad problems, including enabling spammers  —  Elon Musk's latest brainwave risks alienating the users Twitter depends on and would expose it to lawsuits.