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Apple explains why it is removing outdated apps

Tech giant Apple, which has been removing apps that no longer receive updates, has clarified that outdated apps are being removed from the App Store as nobody was downloading them.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

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 …

Apple sees bigger supply problems after strong start to year

Apple Inc on Thursday forecast bigger problems as COVID-19 lockdowns snarl production and demand in China, the war in Ukraine dents sales and growth slows in services, which the iPhone maker sees as its engine for expansion. https://ift.tt/JEkTo7n

China's lockdown outrage tests state propaganda limits in Shanghai, where internet-savvy residents overwhelmed censors' ability to keep up with critical posts (New York Times)

New York Times:
China's lockdown outrage tests state propaganda limits in Shanghai, where internet-savvy residents overwhelmed censors' ability to keep up with critical posts  —  Public anger and grief over the bungled lockdown in Shanghai is creating a credibility crisis for the country's leader, Xi Jinping, and his zero Covid policies.

Turtlemint, which helps financial advisors understand and distribute insurance to their customers, raises a $120M Series E at a $900M post-money valuation (Priyanka Iyer/Moneycontrol)

Priyanka Iyer / Moneycontrol:
Turtlemint, which helps financial advisors understand and distribute insurance to their customers, raises a $120M Series E at a $900M post-money valuation  —  The firm intends to use the fresh funds to expand in new geographies, scale leadership and strengthen product stack.

Judge rules for Elon Musk in $13 billion lawsuit over Tesla-SolarCity deal

Tesla Inc Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk did not unjustly enrich himself when he guided the electric vehicle maker in 2016 to acquire SolarCity Corp, where Musk was chairman and the largest shareholder, a Delaware judge ruled on Wednesday. https://ift.tt/IX9RVyT

Weibo says it will publish the locations of users based on IP addresses on their account pages and posts to combat "bad behaviour"; users cannot opt-out (Reuters)

Reuters:
Weibo says it will publish the locations of users based on IP addresses on their account pages and posts to combat “bad behaviour”; users cannot opt-out  —  Weibo , China's equivalent of Twitter, told users on Thursday it would start to publish their IP locations on their account pages …