Bookmarks (7555)

Scott Stein / CNET: Hands-on with a non-functioning Surface Duo prototype, which has two 5.6-inch OLED screens forming a 8.1-inch display, bound together by a unique hinge  —  Exclusive: Microsoft's dual-screened Android phone shoots for practicality and productivity.  I didn't get to use it yet …

Becky Ferreira / New York Times: As Amazon joins SpaceX and OneWeb in launching satellite constellations, astronomers worry about the effects on astronomical observations and image quality  —  The F.C.C. approved the company's 3,236-satellite constellation, which aims to provide high-speed internet service around the world.

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: Finnish startup Varjo, which develops high resolution VR/XR headsets and VR technologies for enterprise applications, raises $54M Series C  —  Varjo, a Finnish startup developing virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (XR) technologies for the enterprise, has raised $54 million in a series C round of funding.

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: Tencent Q2 profit beat estimates, surged to $4.7B, up 37% YoY, on revenue of $16.53B, up 29%; online game revenue was $5.5B, up 40% YoY  —  - Tencent reported results for the three months to-June on Wednesday that beat analyst expectations in one of the fastest revenue-growing quarters in two years.

Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft is launching its Surface Duo dual-screen Android phone on September 10 for $1,399, with preorders starting today in the US  —  Microsoft is launching its Surface Duo dual-screen Android phone on September 10th, priced from $1,399.  After months of Microsoft executives teasing …

Debby Wu / Bloomberg: Foxconn says it plans to split its supply chain between the Chinese and US markets as trade ties fracture, declares that China's time as world's factory is over  —  - Hon Hai planning separate supply lines for the two big markets  — Company's earnings outperformed expectations but warns on Q3

Yimou Lee / Reuters: Foxconn reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit of $778.54M for Q2, up 34% YoY, on revenue of $38B, says revenue from smartphones dropped ~15% YoY  —  TAIPEI (Reuters) - Foxconn, the world's largest contract electronics manufacturer (2317.TW), reported a better-than-expected quarterly profit …

Martha Pskowski / VICE: A look at growing movements by gig economy workers in Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador, protesting the conditions at UberEats, Rappi, and iFood  —  Militant strikes and protests against dangerous working conditions and low pay have spread through Brazil, Mexico, Chile, Argentina, and Ecuador.

Taylor Soper / GeekWire: Routable, a startup focused on streamlining B2B payments, comes out of stealth with $12M Series A from Y Combinator, Founders' Co-Op, and others  —  Routable, a fintech startup with Seattle roots, came out of stealth mode this week and announced a $12 million Series A funding round.

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: Microsoft fixes 17 critical and two zero-day flaws, including an actively-exploited RCE flaw in IE that can compromise PCs when users visit malicious sites  —  Microsoft says attackers have used a Windows zero-day to spoof file signatures and another RCE in the Internet Explorer scripting engine to execute code on users' devices.

Francoise Brougher: Former Pinterest COO provides a detailed account of her claims about gender discrimination and toxic workplace culture and recommendations for the company  —  Pinterest has always been about aspiration.  It is a platform for sharing beautiful images, curating galleries of an idealized world.

Theodore Schleifer / Vox: Biden's VP pick Kamala Harris, who has close ties with tech execs and has dodged questions about breaking up Big Tech, is likely to generate excitement in SV  —  Sen. Kamala Harris has had a close relationship with Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg.  Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Simpplr, which develops AI-powered intranet software for employee directories, raised $10M Series B led by Norwest Venture Partners  —  Simpplr today raised $10 million for its AI-powered intranet platform that is designed to streamline communications.  CEO Dhiraj Sharma says the funds …

Sara Harrison / The Markup: While US adoption of the Google-Apple Exposure Notification API has been slow, 16 nations have used it in apps; Ireland's has 1.4M downloads since early July  —  Contact tracing—monitoring who's getting COVID-19 and tracking down anyone who might have been in contact with that person so they can quarantine …

Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech: Samsung Display reveals new generation of variable refresh rate mobile display panels, making its debut in the Note20 Ultra, helping lower device power usage  —  By now we've become quite familiar with high refresh-rate displays in the mobile space, as the first pioneering 90Hz devices …

Samuel Axon / Ars Technica: Parallels Desktop 16 adds support for Big Sur, 3D in Metal, and zoom and rotate gestures on multitouch trackpads, and claims 20% faster DirectX performance  —  Windows on Apple Silicon is still a question mark, though.  —  Parallels Desktop 16 launched on the Mac today.

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Incomlend, which operates a trading platform to connect exporters and importers with investors, raises $20M Series A led by Sequoia Capital India  —  Incomlend, a Singapore-headquartered startup that operates a trading platform to connect exporters and importers with investors …

Sam Nussey / Reuters: SoftBank reports quarterly net profit of ~$12B, up 12% YoY, and a $2.8B gain in Vision Fund; by July, Vision Fund's $75.2B in investments was worth $71.5B  —  TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp broke with tradition on Tuesday and declined to disclose operating profit in its quarterly results …

Lauren Clark / Official Google India Blog: Google rolls out virtual business cards in Google Search in India with links to user's website and social media profiles and optionally, phone number and email  —  If you search for famous people on Google, it's easy to find information about well-known personalities: search their names …

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: Report: since January, a group has been hijacking Tor exit relay nodes to perform SSL stripping attacks, peaking in May when the group ran 23.95% of all nodes  —  At one point, the group ran almost a quarter of all Tor exit nodes.  Group still controls 10% of all Tor exit nodes today.

Adi Robertson / The Verge: Nreal, which fought off IP theft suit from Magic Leap, will start shipping AR glasses in S. Korea this month for ~$586 or $295 when bundled with Galaxy Note 20  —  They cost $586 alone or $295 in a Galaxy Note 20 bundle  —  The Nreal Light mixed reality glasses are shipping in Korea alongside Samsung's newly announced Galaxy Note 20.

Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch: In an all-hands meeting last week, Reddit's CEO defended allowing Trump election ads including homepage takeovers, and said Reddit won't allow auctions  —  Reddit is gearing up to run ads for President Donald Trump ahead of the 2020 presidential election despite concerns from employees, TechCrunch has learned.

Sean O'Kane / The Verge: Gogo says it's trying to sell its commercial in-flight internet business amid COVID-19, CEO says company has had “extensive discussions with multiple parties”  —  It supplies major airlines like Delta, United, and Alaska  —  In-flight internet provider Gogo is trying to sell …

Matthew Keys / The Desk: According to an email sent to podcast producers, Amazon says it will add free podcasts in Amazon Music, for both free and paid tiers, and on Audible  —  Amazon will incorporate free podcasts into its Amazon Music and Audible products, according to a confidential email distributed to podcast producers on Monday.

Bloomberg: Source: AmEx is in advanced talks to buy SoftBank-backed online lender Kabbage for as much as $850M in an all-cash deal as soon as this month  —  American Express Co. is in advanced talks to buy the online small-business lender Kabbage Inc., which is backed by investors including Japan's SoftBank Group Corp …

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Amazon says that 1M+ Prime subscribers in India shopped from SMB partners in the 14 days leading up to Prime Day  —  Amazon has amassed at least 1 million subscribers for its Prime loyalty service in India, the e-commerce giant revealed today in a long rundown of how its platform fared during …

NBC News: Sources: an internal Facebook probe into QAnon shows the size of the conspiracy theory's community: millions of members and followers across thousands of Groups  —  An internal investigation by Facebook has uncovered thousands of groups and pages, with millions of members and followers …

Bloomberg: In a lawsuit brought by CA's AG, judge issues a preliminary injunction ordering Uber, Lyft to convert their drivers to employees, paused for 10 days for appeals  —  - Ride-hailing companies ordered to comply with state law  — San Francisco judge pauses preliminary injunction for appeal

Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat: US announces it will reallocate the 3.45GHz to 3.55GHz spectrum reserved for military use for consumer 5G instead, slated to be up for auction in December 2021  —  Over the past three years, engineers and carriers across the world have largely agreed that 3.5GHz-adjacent radio spectrum …

Juli Clover / MacRumors: In iOS 14, Apple News+ publishers' web links are opened in the Apple News app by default for Apple News+ subscribers, though this feature can be turned off  —  Apple News in iOS 14 and macOS Big Sur has a toggle that's designed to open web links from ‌Apple News‌+ publishers directly …

Steve Evans / ReinsuranceNe.ws: Buckle, an insurer for ridesharing platforms with coverage in 47 US states, raises $31M Series A led by HSCM Bermuda and Eos  —  Buckle, an insurtech company for the ride-share industry, said it has raised $31 million in a Series A funding round.  —  The insurer said the funding round …

Jack Purcher / Patently Apple: Apple responds to AirPods patent infringement suit by countersuing Koss Corporation for breach of contract and breaking a confidentiality agreement  —  On July 23, Patently Apple posted a legal report titled “Koss, an American Pioneer in Headphones, has filed a Five-Count Patent Infringement Lawsuit against Apple.”

FinSMEs: Charleston, SC-based startup Palmetto, which helps consumers calculate potential energy costs and savings by using green tech like solar, raises $29M Series B  —  Palmetto, a Charleston, S.C.-based clean technology software and fulfillment platform company, completed a $29M Series B funding.

Eric Slivka / MacRumors: Kuo: iPhone shipments could decline by 25-30% if Apple is forced to remove WeChat from worldwide App Store under Trump's EO  —  In a worst-case scenario, Apple's annual global iPhone shipments could decline by 25-30% if it is forced to remove WeChat from its App Stores around the world …

Lucas Kunce / Pro Market: While Facebook claims its size helps it defend the US against Chinese companies like TikTok, history shows TikTok succeeded partly due to FB's corporate goals  —  Tech platforms like Facebook say we should protect, empower, and celebrate their concentrated power for the sake of America's national security.

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Sequoia, which first invested in ByteDance in 2014 and holds a 10%+ stake, has been pressing its White House contacts to help land a deal for TikTok  —  TikTok's parent has been looking for a way to keep the video-sharing service alive in U.S. after Trump administration declared the app a national security threat

Ben Smith / New York Times: Facebook, Google, and Twitter are making the same mistakes big news outlets made decades ago, trying to placate hyperpartisan critics who are “working the refs”  —  The new referees in American politics are Facebook, Google and Twitter, and they would be wise to pay attention to lessons the old media tried to learn.

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Expert System, an enterprise NLP vendor founded in 1989, raises $29.4M in post-IPO financing for its AI-powered text extraction and analysis tools  —  Enterprise natural language processing (NLP) technologies vendor Expert System today secured $29.4 million in funding, $20 million of which came from institutional investors.

Maria Siow / South China Morning Post: A look at China's AI telemarketing software market, which touts “voice bots” that dial ~3,000 numbers/day, even blocked ones, and flexibly respond to questions  —  They can make 3,000 calls a day without getting tired or temperamental and even blocking their number won't stop …

Meir Orbach / CTech: Israel-based Silverfort raises $30M Series B for its multi-factor authentication tech that can help enterprises secure their data on premises and in the cloud  —  “The funds that invested realized that the pandemic forced many organizations to shift to a work from home model and to do that …

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Simon Property, the biggest US mall owner, and Amazon explored turning stores formerly occupied by J.C. Penney and Sears into fulfillment centers  —  Hookup between Simon Property Group, Amazon would show how retail and logistics are converging more rapidly

Gary Ng / iPhone in Canada Blog: Apple files a notice of opposition with USPTO against a startup trying to trademark a logo which resembles a pear for its recipe search app called Prepear  —  Prepear is a meal planner and grocery list app that helps people discover recipes and more.  It's a spin off from the founders …

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Toronto-based Thriver, formerly known as Platterz, raises $33M Series B to expand beyond a B2B marketplace for corporate meal plans to virtual wellness programs  —  Thriver said it has raised $33 million in a second round of funding as it moves beyond corporate food to the business of virtual health and wellness.

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times: As Zynga buys Istanbul-based Rollic Games for $168M, a look at the rapid growth of hyper-casual mobile games, where publishers may launch a new title every week  —  Games makers are scoring hundreds of millions of downloads by churning out cheaply made titles

PYMNTS.com: iwoca, an online lending startup for SMBs, raises £100M to support SMBs looking for financing via the UK's Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme  —  U.K. FinTech iwoca has notched £100 million in funding to help coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CBILS) clients.

Ana Swanson / New York Times: The language in Trump's EOs on WeChat and TikTok may be vague deliberately, as some argue the uncertainty may dissuade more US companies from operating in China  —  The restrictions on the two Chinese-owned apps followed a familiar model for other policy announcements on China from the Trump administration.

Joe Mcdonald / Associated Press: Huawei says that production of its high-end Kirin smartphone chips will stop Sept. 15 and, more broadly, its smartphone production has “no chips and no supply”  —  BEIJING (AP) — Chinese tech giant Huawei is running out of processor chips to make smartphones due to U.S. sanctions …

Kim Lyons / The Verge: Twitter says it is testing showing quote tweet counts directly on each tweet to see whether that makes the Retweets with Comments metric “more understandable”  —  Whatever they're called, this is really going to mess with the ratio  —  In a move that may forever change what it means …

AnnaMaria Andriotis / Wall Street Journal: US bank regulator fines Capital One $80M over a 2019 hack that compromised personal info of ~106M card customers and applicants between 2005 and early 2019  —  OCC, Federal Reserve order the bank to beef up cybersecurity defenses  —  A top banking regulator has fined Capital …

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE: Linux Foundation launches Open Source Security Foundation to bring some of the world's most important OSS security initiatives under one umbrella  —  The Linux Foundation said today it's presiding over a new foundation that brings some of the world's most important open-source security initiatives under a new umbrella.