Friday, May 12, 2023

Toyota says the vehicle data of 2.15M users in Japan, or almost all of its cloud service customers, has been public since November 2013 due to a human error (Reuters)

Reuters:
Toyota says the vehicle data of 2.15M users in Japan, or almost all of its cloud service customers, has been public since November 2013 due to a human error  —  Toyota Motor Corp (7203.T) said on Friday the vehicle data of 2.15 million users in Japan, or almost the entire customer base …



Asus launches its first handheld gaming PC, ROG Ally

After teasing it for weeks now, Asus has launched its first-ever handheld gaming PC, the ROG Ally. The handheld gaming PC comes with AMD’s new Ryzen Z1 series processors, featuring a 120Hz 7-inch 1080P display, and Windows 11. Here’s everything you need to know about the Asus ROG Ally. https://ift.tt/RUkPywZ

The UK extradites Autonomy co-founder Mike Lynch to the US to face fraud charges over HP's $11B acquisition of the software company in 2011 (Reuters)

Reuters:
The UK extradites Autonomy co-founder Mike Lynch to the US to face fraud charges over HP's $11B acquisition of the software company in 2011  —  Mike Lynch, co-founder of UK software firm Autonomy, has been extradited to the United States to face criminal charges in a near decade-long legal battle …



Oppo closes its chip design unit Zeku due to global economic uncertainty; Zeku developed the MariSilicon X image-processing chip used in Oppo's flagship devices (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Oppo closes its chip design unit Zeku due to global economic uncertainty; Zeku developed the MariSilicon X image-processing chip used in Oppo's flagship devices  —  Oppo, China's biggest domestic smartphone maker, is closing its chip design business as the global smartphone market extends a prolonged decline.



Thursday, May 11, 2023

Disney+ lost four million subscribers ahead of third round of layoffs

Earlier this year, in February, Disney made an announcement that it would lay off 7,000 employees as part of a larger reorganization and cost-saving effort. The entertainment conglomerate recently initiated its second round of layoffs, which will reportedly result in a total reduction of 4,000 jobs. Now the company is gearing up for the third round of layoffs. However, ahead of the job cuts the online streaming service Disney+ lost about four million subscribers in the second quarter which ended on April 1. https://ift.tt/eOykc1j

Australian edtech startup Go1 acquires Berlin-based Blinkist, which offers 15-minute non-fiction book summaries, and raised $30M from Insight Partners (Ingrid Lunden/TechCrunch)

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Australian edtech startup Go1 acquires Berlin-based Blinkist, which offers 15-minute non-fiction book summaries, and raised $30M from Insight Partners  —  After raising $100 million at a valuation of over $2 billion last year, the Australian ed-tech startup Go1 is making an acquisition …



Tech firms are increasingly hiring in South and Central America because remote hires there often accept lower pay than in the US but have similar time zones (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Tech firms are increasingly hiring in South and Central America because remote hires there often accept lower pay than in the US but have similar time zones  —  Pandemic-era labor shortages made it hard for Austin-based Fetch Package Inc. to fill positions in the US.



Android 14 features Google showcased at I/O 2023

Google started its in-person annual developer conference Google I/O 2023 yesterday (May 10). At the event, the company elaborated about the inclusion of Artificial Intelligence in various Google products. Along with this, the tech giant also unveiled its first foldable Android smartphone, Pixel Fold and its latest mid-range handset Pixel 7a at the event. Apart from the hardware announcements Google also revealed some of the features coming to its Android 14, the upcoming version of Android operating system. https://ift.tt/ed76fAE

A look at Microsoft's Trust Code training video series, heading into its seventh season, which has hooked employees with popular characters and cliffhangers (Dylan Tokar/Wall Street Journal)

Dylan Tokar / Wall Street Journal:
A look at Microsoft's Trust Code training video series, heading into its seventh season, which has hooked employees with popular characters and cliffhangers  —  Instead of a finger-wagging snoozer about corporate misbehavior, ‘Trust Code’ has flawed characters, dramatic cliffhangers and fans worldwide



Wednesday, May 10, 2023

Sources: ByteDance postpones opening TikTok Shop to US sellers, planned for spring, to June at the earliest after the service struggled to attract merchants (Raffaele Huang/Wall Street Journal)

Raffaele Huang / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: ByteDance postpones opening TikTok Shop to US sellers, planned for spring, to June at the earliest after the service struggled to attract merchants  —  Doubts over app's future and tepid adoption of live-streaming e-commerce in the U.S. slow plans for full launch



Microsoft invests in Gurgaon-based software company, Builder.ai

Microsoft has made an equity investment in Builder.ai, a software development platform based in Gurgaon, India. Builder.ai lets users build software using an artificial intelligence-powered platform in a more efficient and affordable manner, without technical skills, and will now become part of Microsoft's ISV programme, with the companies working together to make software development more accessible for non-tech users. "We are ecstatic that the world's largest software company chose Builder.ai...to help the next 100m businesses and beyond become digitally native," said Sachin Dev Duggal, the builder's founder. https://ift.tt/8hykivO

Binance launches Capital Connect to connect VIP clients and investment fund managers; the exchange has 128M users, of which VIPs are a "very small percentage" (Yogita Khatri/The Block)

Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Binance launches Capital Connect to connect VIP clients and investment fund managers; the exchange has 128M users, of which VIPs are a “very small percentage”  —  - Binance has launched a new platform called Capital Connect to facilitate connections between its VIP clients and investment fund managers.



How Japan-based Rapidus is trying to become a globally competitive chipmaker by 2027, aiming to mass produce 2nm chips just two years after TSMC and Samsung (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
How Japan-based Rapidus is trying to become a globally competitive chipmaker by 2027, aiming to mass produce 2nm chips just two years after TSMC and Samsung  —  Tetsuro Higashi is taking on what seems like an impossible task: Create a globally competitive semiconductor manufacturer in Japan from scratch - and do it in four years.



iPhone users confirmed to get these new features next week

Apple today (May 10) launched a new Pride Edition band for the Apple Watch. Along with this, the company has also announced that it will release iOS 16.5 and watchOS 9.5 next week. https://ift.tt/E2SGoQe

Chinese DRAM chipmaker ChangXin plans a Shanghai IPO, sources say after receiving assurances over exemptions from US export controls for its equipment (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Chinese DRAM chipmaker ChangXin plans a Shanghai IPO, sources say after receiving assurances over exemptions from US export controls for its equipment  —  ChangXin Memory Technologies to raise funds for production expansion following assurance on American equipment supplies



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...