Saturday, November 5, 2022

OpenSecrets: the crypto industry gave $73M in the 2022 US midterms, up from $13M in 2020; FTX has become the third-largest source of 2022 campaign contributions (Paul Kiernan/Wall Street Journal)

Paul Kiernan / Wall Street Journal:
OpenSecrets: the crypto industry gave $73M in the 2022 US midterms, up from $13M in 2020; FTX has become the third-largest source of 2022 campaign contributions  —  Industry seeks to gain influence in Washington as regulators increase scrutiny of digital assets



Sources: 1,300 Starlink units in Ukraine went offline over funding issues, as SpaceX negotiates with US DoD despite Musk's claims to keep funding the units (CNN)

CNN:
Sources: 1,300 Starlink units in Ukraine went offline over funding issues, as SpaceX negotiates with US DoD despite Musk's claims to keep funding the units  —  Ukraine's fears that its troops  may lose access to Elon Musk's crucial Starlink internet service deepened in the past week …



Q&A with telecom reporter Karl Bode about Gigi Sohn's nomination to the FCC as Comcast and Fox Corp. team up to lobby swing votes in the Senate against her (Nilay Patel/The Verge)

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with telecom reporter Karl Bode about Gigi Sohn's nomination to the FCC as Comcast and Fox Corp. team up to lobby swing votes in the Senate against her  —  How often do the parent companies of Fox News and MSNBC team up? … Today, we're just talking about a problem.



A look at the Rust programming language after 12 years, evolving from side project to robust ecosystem, as developers praise its security, ease, and performance (Lily Hay Newman/Wired)

Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
A look at the Rust programming language after 12 years, evolving from side project to robust ecosystem, as developers praise its security, ease, and performance  —  Rust makes it impossible to introduce some of the most common security vulnerabilities.  And its adoption can't come soon enough.



As chess explodes on Twitch, a look at Chess.com's Global Championship, its first in-person event since 2018, and "fair play" measures amid a cheating scandal (Jordan Pearson/VICE)

Jordan Pearson / VICE:
As chess explodes on Twitch, a look at Chess.com's Global Championship, its first in-person event since 2018, and “fair play” measures amid a cheating scandal  —  Cheating allegations have changed how chess is played, just as the game is shifting into looking a lot more like esports.



Friday, November 4, 2022

Redmi K60 specifications may have leaked, tipped to feature MediaTek Dimensity 8200 chipset

Redmi is gearing up for the launch of its next K series smartphone– Redmi K60. The upcoming smartphone will expand the company's flagship K-series. Ahead of the launch, rumours about the phone claim to reveal the chipset that will power the smartphone. According to a report by Digital Chat Station, iQoo Neo 7 will be powered by MediaTek Dimensity 8200 chipset. https://ift.tt/P0xZkyC

A look at the use of biometric surveillance tech in European soccer stadiums; 15,000+ cameras will monitor fans in eight stadiums at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar (Vas Panagiotopoulos/Wired)

Vas Panagiotopoulos / Wired:
A look at the use of biometric surveillance tech in European soccer stadiums; 15,000+ cameras will monitor fans in eight stadiums at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar  —  Stadiums around the world, including at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, are subjecting spectators to invasive biometric surveillance tech.



How to create appointment schedule in Google Calendar

Google Calendar offers a useful feature which makes sure that you never miss out on your important appointment. You can set up a block of appointments on your calendar that other people can reserve. For instance, bosses can invite their team members to reserve time during office hours each week. https://ift.tt/wa37Nqb

PitchBook: VCs raised $151B across Q1, Q2, and Q3 2022, exceeding any prior full-year cycle, concentrated among large funds at Sequoia, Lightspeed, and others (Heather Somerville/Wall Street Journal)

Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal:
PitchBook: VCs raised $151B across Q1, Q2, and Q3 2022, exceeding any prior full-year cycle, concentrated among large funds at Sequoia, Lightspeed, and others  —  Limited partners who back venture funds still seek access to startups, which have outperformed other asset classes during recessions



How to translate text using iPhone camera: A quick guide

You can translate text directly from the camera or from an image. You can also translate the text in a screenshot of a website or app, as this feature works with images that are already on your phone. It is supported on all iOS devices running iOS 15 or above. Here’s how you can use the Translate app to understand texts in any language using your iPhone camera. https://ift.tt/KNzncJV

Hands-on with Netflix's Basic with Ads: while most shows have pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads are more unpredictable; many popular shows are locked to higher tiers (Jay Peters/The Verge)

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Hands-on with Netflix's Basic with Ads: while most shows have pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads are more unpredictable; many popular shows are locked to higher tiers  —  Clicking into something on Netflix's new ads tier is a roll of the dice: you never know how many ads you might have to sit through.



Thursday, November 3, 2022

Lenovo reports Q2 revenue down 4% YoY to $17.09B, above estimates, the first decline in 10 quarters as pandemic-fueled global PC demand weakens (Josh Ye/Reuters)

Josh Ye / Reuters:
Lenovo reports Q2 revenue down 4% YoY to $17.09B, above estimates, the first decline in 10 quarters as pandemic-fueled global PC demand weakens  —  China's Lenovo Group (0992.HK) reported its first revenue decline in 10 quarters as a pandemic-fuelled computer sales boom comes to an end …



Barcelona-based Lodgify, which offers SaaS tools for managing rental properties on Airbnb and other platforms, raised a $30M Series B led by Octopus Ventures (Fiona Alston/Tech.eu)

Fiona Alston / Tech.eu:
Barcelona-based Lodgify, which offers SaaS tools for managing rental properties on Airbnb and other platforms, raised a $30M Series B led by Octopus Ventures  —  The Spanish firm's one stop digital shop for hosts and property managers hopes to capture 80% of the short-term rental market by concentrating on SMEs



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

SpaceX launches Starlink in Indonesia to improve internet access in remote parts of the country, starting with three local health centers (Stefanno Sulaiman/Reuters)

Stefanno Sulaiman / Reuters : SpaceX launches Starlink in Indonesia to improve internet access in remote parts of the country, starting w...