Monday, July 31, 2023

Tether reports a $850M net profit in Q2, vs. $1.5B in Q1, with ~$3.3B in excess reserves, up from $2.44B in Q1, and $86.5B+ in total assets as of June 30 (Yogita Khatri/The Block)

Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Tether reports a $850M net profit in Q2, vs. $1.5B in Q1, with ~$3.3B in excess reserves, up from $2.44B in Q1, and $86.5B+ in total assets as of June 30  —  - In its latest attestation report, Tether said it had a net profit of $850 million in the second quarter.



Twitter/X threatens to sue Center for Countering Digital Hate, alleging the nonprofit made "troubling and baseless claims" to hurt Twitter and its ad business (New York Times)

New York Times:
Twitter/X threatens to sue Center for Countering Digital Hate, alleging the nonprofit made “troubling and baseless claims” to hurt Twitter and its ad business  —  The Center for Countering Digital Hate said it had received a letter from X, Twitter's parent company …



Italy's AGCM says it accepted Google's proposed commitments to end a case over the company's alleged abuse of its position in the user data portability market (Elvira Pollina/Reuters)

Elvira Pollina / Reuters:
Italy's AGCM says it accepted Google's proposed commitments to end a case over the company's alleged abuse of its position in the user data portability market  —  - Regulator probed Google over alleged abuse of its position  — Company pledged to update backup service, to launch new tool



Customs data shows China's chip imports fell 22% YoY during H1 2023 and chipmaking equipment imports fell 23% YoY, suggesting US export restrictions are working (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal:
Customs data shows China's chip imports fell 22% YoY during H1 2023 and chipmaking equipment imports fell 23% YoY, suggesting US export restrictions are working  —  Washington's restrictions on sale of advanced technology to Beijing appear to be working—for now



How to check CIBIL score in Google Pay

Google Pay, a popular Unified Payments Interface (UPI) app in India, has a feature to access credit reports or CIBIL scores. A CIBIL score is a three-digit number between 300 and 900 that determines the user's creditworthiness through their payment history and credit accounts. Google Pay helps improve the credit score by providing users with suggestions to increase it. https://ift.tt/NCFwRv4

Source: Shenzhen-based Luxshare has won favor and increased business with Apple by being prepared to test "crazy" ideas and is the sole maker of the Vision Pro (Qianer Liu/Financial Times)

Qianer Liu / Financial Times:
Source: Shenzhen-based Luxshare has won favor and increased business with Apple by being prepared to test “crazy” ideas and is the sole maker of the Vision Pro  —  Chinese contract manufacturer is sole assembler of Vision Pro mixed-reality headset



Sunday, July 30, 2023

A look at nine under-the-radar lobbying firms helping influence US crypto legislation in 2023 on behalf of Binance, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and others (Kari McMahon/The Block)

Kari McMahon / The Block:
A look at nine under-the-radar lobbying firms helping influence US crypto legislation in 2023 on behalf of Binance, Crypto.com, Coinbase, and others  —  - Crypto companies are looking for a seat at the table in Washington as scrutiny on the industry intensifies this year.



An in-depth look at a January strike at Amazon's BHX4 Coventry warehouse, a carefully planned and legal effort, the likes of which Amazon UK had never faced (Jack Shenker/The Guardian)

Jack Shenker / The Guardian:
An in-depth look at a January strike at Amazon's BHX4 Coventry warehouse, a carefully planned and legal effort, the likes of which Amazon UK had never faced  —  When staff in Coventry downed tools, they kickstarted a David v Goliath battle against one of the most powerful companies on Earth.



Study: just 2% of Spotify "super listeners" drive over 18% of monthly streams on average for an artist, with the number rising to 30% for the biggest artists (Murray Stassen/Music Business Worldwide)

Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide:
Study: just 2% of Spotify “super listeners” drive over 18% of monthly streams on average for an artist, with the number rising to 30% for the biggest artists  —  MBW's Stat Of The Week is a series in which we highlight a data point that deserves the attention of the global music industry.



A deep dive into Apple's plans for the new iPhones and Watches coming this fall, including iPhone 15 Pro with 1.5mm bezels, a step towards a borderless iPhone (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
A deep dive into Apple's plans for the new iPhones and Watches coming this fall, including iPhone 15 Pro with 1.5mm bezels, a step towards a borderless iPhone  —  Apple is just weeks away from introducing the iPhone 15 and next-generation watches.  The new lineup will mark another stepping stone toward …



A look at C2PA, a standard that relies on cryptography to encode provenance information of media content, started by Adobe, Arm, Intel, Microsoft, and Truepic (Tate Ryan-Mosley/MIT Technology Review)

Tate Ryan-Mosley / MIT Technology Review:
A look at C2PA, a standard that relies on cryptography to encode provenance information of media content, started by Adobe, Arm, Intel, Microsoft, and Truepic  —  An internet protocol called C2PA adds a “nutrition label” to images, video, and audio.  —  The White House wants big AI companies …



An interview with Yael Tauman Kalai, a Microsoft cryptographer who won the 2022 ACM Prize in Computing, on cryptography, "post-quantum" security, and more (Allison Parshall/Quanta Magazine)

Allison Parshall / Quanta Magazine:
An interview with Yael Tauman Kalai, a Microsoft cryptographer who won the 2022 ACM Prize in Computing, on cryptography, “post-quantum” security, and more  —  Yael Tauman Kalai's breakthroughs secure the digital world, from cloud computing to our quantum future.



Saturday, July 29, 2023

Sources: the Biden admin is looking for malware it believes China hid inside critical infrastructure, mainly aimed to disrupt the military if a conflict emerges (New York Times)

New York Times:
Sources: the Biden admin is looking for malware it believes China hid inside critical infrastructure, mainly aimed to disrupt the military if a conflict emerges  —  American intelligence officials believe the malware could give China the power to disrupt or slow American deployments or resupply operations …



A profile of Mike Masnick, who founded Techdirt in 1998, considered by lawmakers, CEOs, and activists as an essential guide for what's happening in tech (Kashmir Hill/New York Times)

Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
A profile of Mike Masnick, who founded Techdirt in 1998, considered by lawmakers, CEOs, and activists as an essential guide for what's happening in tech  —  Mike Masnick, who founded Techdirt in 1998, writes for an influential audience of lawmakers, C.E.O.s and activists.



Adam Mosseri and current and former employees recount how Threads came to life with a small team focused on shipping a bare-bones app on a breakneck schedule (Washington Post)

Washington Post:
Adam Mosseri and current and former employees recount how Threads came to life with a small team focused on shipping a bare-bones app on a breakneck schedule  —  A company in crisis went back to basics to deliver a viral hit.  But can Adam Mosseri's bare-bones Twitter clone reinvigorate an aging tech giant?



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...