Friday, January 24, 2025

The CMA says Google has agreed to curb UK businesses using fake reviews to boost ratings and must report to the CMA on its efforts for the next three years (Jess Weatherbed/The Verge)

Jess Weatherbed / The Verge:
The CMA says Google has agreed to curb UK businesses using fake reviews to boost ratings and must report to the CMA on its efforts for the next three years  —  Google will take firmer action against British businesses that use fake reviews to boost their star ratings on the search giant's reviews platform.



Instagram and Facebook removed posts from two abortion pill providers; Instagram also suspended accounts; Meta confirmed and restored some of the accounts (New York Times)

New York Times:
Instagram and Facebook removed posts from two abortion pill providers; Instagram also suspended accounts; Meta confirmed and restored some of the accounts  —  Some posts related to obtaining abortion pills were recently hidden on Instagram and Facebook and some accounts were suspended, before being later restored.



Tesla plans a software update for ~1.2M cars in China, around half its fleet in the country, to address power steering and rear-view camera issues (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg:
Tesla plans a software update for ~1.2M cars in China, around half its fleet in the country, to address power steering and rear-view camera issues  —  A potential malfunction of the cars' rear-view cameras could meanwhile impair drivers' fields of vision when reversing, increasing the risk of collisions.



Sunday, January 19, 2025

In a rare move, Apple publishes a statement and a document listing all ByteDance apps inaccessible in the US alongside TikTok, including Lemon8 and Lark (Ivan Mehta/TechCrunch)

Ivan Mehta / TechCrunch:
In a rare move, Apple publishes a statement and a document listing all ByteDance apps inaccessible in the US alongside TikTok, including Lemon8 and Lark  —  Amid the TikTok shutdown, in a rare move, Apple published a statement and a support document listing all affected apps that are inaccessible …



Apple CFO Kevan Parekh tells a London court it is impossible to accurately determine the App Store's standalone profitability and disputes claims of 75% margins (Financial Times)

Financial Times:
Apple CFO Kevan Parekh tells a London court it is impossible to accurately determine the App Store's standalone profitability and disputes claims of 75% margins  —  Kevan Parekh disputed claims the iPhone maker enjoys profit margins of about 75% on its App Store



Collate, which is developing tech to automate paperwork for life science companies, emerges from stealth with a $30M seed led by Redpoint at a $100M+ valuation (Forbes)

Forbes:
Collate, which is developing tech to automate paperwork for life science companies, emerges from stealth with a $30M seed led by Redpoint at a $100M+ valuation  —  Surbhi Sarna sold her last startup, nVision Medical, for $275 million.  Now she's leaving a partner role at Y Combinator to launch Collate …



US officials have struck binding deals for 85% of the CHIPS Act funding; sources: Gina Raimondo said her successor, Howard Lutnick, is committed to the program (Mackenzie Hawkins/Bloomberg)

Mackenzie Hawkins / Bloomberg:
US officials have struck binding deals for 85% of the CHIPS Act funding; sources: Gina Raimondo said her successor, Howard Lutnick, is committed to the program  —  - Officials have struck binding contracts for 85% of grant money  — Trump Commerce pick told Raimondo he's committed to program



Docs: Israeli AI chip startup Hailo is pursuing an urgent IPO via a SPAC merger at a valuation of less than $500M; it was last valued at $1.2B in 2024 (Meir Orbach/CTech)

Meir Orbach / CTech : Docs: Israeli AI chip startup Hailo is pursuing an urgent IPO via a SPAC merger at a valuation of less than $500M; ...