Saturday, December 31, 2022

Meta buys Netherlands-based Luxexcel, which uses 3D printing to make prescription lenses for smart glasses; Meta reportedly worked with Luxexcel on Project Aria (Amanda Silberling/TechCrunch)

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Meta buys Netherlands-based Luxexcel, which uses 3D printing to make prescription lenses for smart glasses; Meta reportedly worked with Luxexcel on Project Aria  —  As Meta faces antitrust scrutiny over its acquisition of VR fitness developers Within, the tech giant is making another acquisition.



Report: AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and others are slashing their orders with TSMC, with the contract manufacturer's Q1 2023 sales projected to decrease by 15% QoQ (Anton Shilov/Tom's Hardware)

Anton Shilov / Tom's Hardware:
Report: AMD, Intel, Nvidia, and others are slashing their orders with TSMC, with the contract manufacturer's Q1 2023 sales projected to decrease by 15% QoQ  —  Large customers revise orders to TSMC due to the economy slowdown.  —  Being the world's No. 1 foundry, TSMC was almost immune …



Sources: Meta is still working on a wrist wearable device, wants to move its hardware manufacturing out of China, but is struggling to find necessary suppliers (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
Sources: Meta is still working on a wrist wearable device, wants to move its hardware manufacturing out of China, but is struggling to find necessary suppliers  —  The company needs China's factories as it pushes to become a hardware producer  —  SAN FRANCISCO — For more than a year …



Friday, December 30, 2022

Accounting software maker Sage threatens to turn off UK customers' long-term licenses, citing security issues to push them to buy costly monthly subscriptions (Ian Johnston/Financial Times)

Ian Johnston / Financial Times:
Accounting software maker Sage threatens to turn off UK customers' long-term licenses, citing security issues to push them to buy costly monthly subscriptions  —  FTSE 100 group has forced small UK businesses using its accounting services to adopt costly new monthly packages



Google's Waze app adds new feature that warns about dangerous roads

The feature also only displays one pop-up notification about the dangerous roads around the driver, possibly to keep caution from growing. https://ift.tt/mMZSicX

Google Nearby Share gets Material You redesign on Android

A new wave animation runs from left to right when the app is "Looking for nearby devices", also the text now has a slightly bigger font and is centred. https://ift.tt/Xk2WVnD

Tim Wu, who helped shape Biden's antitrust agenda, will leave his role as an adviser on January 4 to return to teaching antitrust law at Columbia Law School (Emily Birnbaum/Bloomberg)

Emily Birnbaum / Bloomberg:
Tim Wu, who helped shape Biden's antitrust agenda, will leave his role as an adviser on January 4 to return to teaching antitrust law at Columbia Law School  —  Adviser Tim Wu, who helped to shape President Joe Biden's antitrust agenda, will leave his position Jan. 4, the White House said Friday.



FTX Japan says it is developing a system to resume withdrawals through the website of Liquid Japan, a crypto exchange it acquired in 2022, by mid-February (Ryan Browne/CNBC)

Ryan Browne / CNBC:
FTX Japan says it is developing a system to resume withdrawals through the website of Liquid Japan, a crypto exchange it acquired in 2022, by mid-February  —  - FTX Japan says it is developing a system to resume withdrawals through the website of Liquid Japan, a crypto exchange it acquired earlier this year.



China-based Freetech Intelligent Systems, which creates software and hardware for autonomous vehicles, raised a ~$100M Series B led by Chaos Investment (Shadine Taufik/Tech in Asia)

Shadine Taufik / Tech in Asia:
China-based Freetech Intelligent Systems, which creates software and hardware for autonomous vehicles, raised a ~$100M Series B led by Chaos Investment  —  Freetech Intelligent Systems, a China-based autonomous driving firm, has raised nearly US$100 million in its series B round, Nikkei Asia reported.



Huawei has exited "crisis mode" following US restrictions and expects ~$91.5B in 2022 revenue, unchanged from 2021, due to growing telco infrastructure sales (Dan Strumpf/Wall Street Journal)

Dan Strumpf / Wall Street Journal:
Huawei has exited “crisis mode” following US restrictions and expects ~$91.5B in 2022 revenue, unchanged from 2021, due to growing telco infrastructure sales  —  Chairman says U.S. restrictions are ‘new normal’ and company is ‘back to business as usual’ as telecom business sees growth



Bahamas' Securities Commission says it is holding FTX assets worth $3.5B on a temporary basis and plans to deliver them to customers and creditors who own them (Reuters)

Reuters:
Bahamas' Securities Commission says it is holding FTX assets worth $3.5B on a temporary basis and plans to deliver them to customers and creditors who own them  —  The Securities Commission of the Bahamas said on Thursday that it is holding FTX assets worth $3.5 billion based on market pricing …



Thursday, December 29, 2022

Apple is doubly vulnerable to Chinese escalation against Taiwan, which could impact the iPhone's complex components and assembly, driving production near zero (Chris Miller/The Atlantic)

Chris Miller / The Atlantic:
Apple is doubly vulnerable to Chinese escalation against Taiwan, which could impact the iPhone's complex components and assembly, driving production near zero  —  Long before it reached your home, even before its tiny components were pieced together in an assembly plant …



Server maker Supermicro's shares have soared 76%+ YTD, taking its market cap from $2.4B to $4.4B, outperforming all US tech companies valued at $1B or more (Kif Leswing/CNBC)

Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Server maker Supermicro's shares have soared 76%+ YTD, taking its market cap from $2.4B to $4.4B, outperforming all US tech companies valued at $1B or more  —  - Supermicro shares have gained 89% this year, outperforming all U.S. tech companies worth at least $1 billion.



CryptoSlam: NFT trading volume fell from $24M+ on December 20 to $12.9M on December 25, down for a second consecutive year; Yuga's BAYC rallied before Christmas (MK Manoylov/The Block)

MK Manoylov / The Block:
CryptoSlam: NFT trading volume fell from $24M+ on December 20 to $12.9M on December 25, down for a second consecutive year; Yuga's BAYC rallied before Christmas  —  - NFT sales volumes fell in the lead up to Christmas in both 2021 and 2022.  — However, Yuga Labs's Bored Ape Yacht Club's …



2022 saw the re-emergence of hacktivism on a large scale, with some new tactics and approaches blurring the lines between hacktivism and state-sponsored attacks (Matt Burgess/Wired)

Matt Burgess / Wired:
2022 saw the re-emergence of hacktivism on a large scale, with some new tactics and approaches blurring the lines between hacktivism and state-sponsored attacks  —  Throughout 2022, geopolitics has given rise to a new wave of politically motivated attacks with an undercurrent of state-sponsored meddling.



Russia's finance minister says Russian companies have begun using bitcoin and other digital currencies in international payments to counter Western sanctions (Gleb Bryanski/Reuters)

Gleb Bryanski / Reuters : Russia's finance minister says Russian companies have begun using bitcoin and other digital currencies in i...