Techmeme: UK-based CMR Surgical, which develops surgical robotic arms, raises $600M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a $3B valuation (Clive Cookson/Financial Times)

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June 28, 2021, 8:50 AM

Top News

Financial Times:

UK's Financial Conduct Authority orders Binance to stop all regulated activities in Britain by June 30, issues consumer alert against it — FCA also issues consumer alert against sprawling cryptocurrency group — The UK's financial watchdog has ordered Binance to stop all regulated activities …

Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer:

Microsoft admits it signed a malicious driver called “Netfilter” targeting gaming environments; the rootkit malware was observed communicating with Chinese IPs — Microsoft has now confirmed signing a malicious driver being distributed within gaming environments.

Source: Microsoft Security …. More: The Record, Engadget, gdatasoftware.com, MSPoweruser, TechRadar, The Hacker News, Ubergizmo, HackRead, Wall Street Journal, ZDNet, Beyond Search, PCMag, Slashdot, PC Gamer, and HotHardware.com News

Tweets: @struppigel, @ax_sharma, @daedalusleto, @tomlawrencetech, @dangoodin001, @ghost_motley, @profwoodward, @gossithedog, @encthenet, @j_opdenakker, and @struppigel

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sources: Apple is considering iPads with displays larger than 12.9-inch, for 2023 or later, and has promoted new execs to the leadership team of its car project — This week: Apple explores larger iPads and reshuffles its car team, Amazon eyes augmented reality, and Peloton takes on the Apple Watch.

Shara Tibken / CNET:

Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 888 Plus with 3GHz clock speed and a claimed 20% boost in AI capabilities, arriving in devices during Q3 2021 — Phones are getting a speed boost. Qualcomm on Monday unveiled its newest, highest-end smartphone processor, the Snapdragon 888 Plus.

More: 9to5Google, The Verge, Qualcomm, PCMag, VentureBeat, ZDNet, Protocol, Android Authority, AnandTech, MSPoweruser, Android Headlines, Android Central, and phonearena.com. Tweets: @supersaf

Shirin Ghaffary / Vox:

Researchers say the study of social media's large-scale societal impact should be treated as a “crisis discipline”, like climate science or conservation biology — One of the real challenges that we're facing is that we don't have a lot of information

Monica Chin / The Verge:

Lenovo unveils $679 Yoga Tab 13 Android tablet that works as a portable monitor, with a stainless steel kickstand and 1080p display — The Yoga Tab 13 doubles as a wall hanger — Lenovo has announced the new $679 Yoga Tab 13, a global version of the Yoga Pad Pro that launched in China earlier this year.

More: Lenovo StoryHub, Laptop Mag, Gizmodo, Tom's Hardware, 9to5Google, Candid.Technology, TechRadar, BGR, GSMArena.com, Mashable, XDA Developers, MSPoweruser, Engadget, Android Central, Android Authority, Gizchina, and Tom's Guide

Reuters:

YouTube took down and then restored a channel featuring testimonials from Xinjiang; the channel owner says the videos are being backed up on the LBRY blockchain — A human rights group that attracted millions of views on YouTube to testimonies from people who say their families have disappeared …

More: MIT Technology Review, ZDNet, Washington Post, The Verge, Engadget, and Insider

Tweets: @theabridgedzach, @im_pulse, @eileenguo, @ajenglish, @vaitor, @locadoes, @propublica, @tedcruz, @kenroth, @reuters, @_nickmonaco, @sfthq, @uyghurproject, and @propublica

Noah Bailey:

Windows 11 has needlessly stringent hardware requirements, especially its arbitrary list of compatible CPUs, which will render a lot of decent hardware obsolete — The latest announcements for Windows 11 have revealed that the next version of the Windows operating system will have very stringent hardware requirements.

More: PCWorld, BGR India, Petri, gHacks Technology News, BetaNews, and Pureinfotech

Bloomberg:

Chainalysis: despite regulatory uncertainty, investments by Indians in cryptocurrencies grew from ~$200M to $40B in the past year, as 15M bought and sold coins — - Daily trading values are up nearly 900% in last 12 months — Investors pile in, regulators give conflicting signs on future

More: CoinDesk, InsideBitcoins.com, and Coin Journal. Tweets: @apompliano

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Google unveils “Play Media Experience Program”, which will let certain media apps get a larger cut of Play Store sales for supporting more Android form factors — Google entices multimillion-dollar media apps with a 15 percent Play Store fee. — There are 3 billion active Android devices …

Source: Android Developers Blog. More: XDA Developers, AppleInsider, Tom's Guide, Engadget, Pocketnow, XDA Developers, Android Central, Android Authority, and Good e-Reader

Cyrus Farivar / NBC News:

As “security robots” get deployed across the US by local governments and companies, there is little to no evidence they can effectively fight crime — When the Westland Real Estate Group bought Liberty Village, a sprawling 1,000-unit apartment complex on the northeastern edge …

More: Slashdot and NBC Bay Area

Tweets: @redlianak, @hypervisible, and @yoda

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:

A look at tools being developed and used by activists to counter surveillance tech, such as steganography, mesh networks, stealthwear, and “anti-face” make-up — They're fighting back against the growing use of high-tech monitoring by taking increasingly fringe counter-measures

Tweets: @straycarnivore and @hypervisible

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:50 AM ET, June 28, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Washington Post:

More than 500 Voice of America contractors are expected to lose their jobs by June 30; Kari Lake says 584 total employees were terminated across USAGM

David Folkenflik / NPR:

Public broadcasting officials plan to go to DC today to convince lawmakers to keep their funding; Indiana cut all taxpayer funding for its 17 public stations

Mark Stenberg / Adweek:

The WSJ has launched two new paid executive membership programs, which cater to highly senior executives and include access to summits, roundtables, and more

More News

Clive Cookson / Financial Times:

UK-based CMR Surgical, which develops surgical robotic arms, raises $600M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a $3B valuation

More: GlobeNewswire News Room, FierceBiotech, and Med-Tech Innovation

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Voyager Innovations, which develops popular Filipino payment and financial app PayMaya, raises $121M in new funding and $46M in previously committed funds

More: The Economic Times, DealStreetAsia, Reuters, and Tech in Asia

Charity L. Scott / Wall Street Journal:

Venmo will let users sell products and services on their personal accounts for the same 1.9% plus 10-cent fee applied to business profiles, starting July 20

More: TechRadar, Gizmodo, Engadget, MarketWatch, and Fast Company. Tweets: @jaycuthrell

Matt Stoller / BIG:

Antitrust bills have issues, but Judiciary Committee passing them is nothing short of a revolution in American thinking on political economy and monopoly power

More: FOSS Patents and Philip Elmer‑DeWitt

Tweets: @halsinger, @reichenstein, @benedictevans, @jeremys, @reichenstein, and @matthewstoller

Andrew Deck / Rest of World:

A look at Chinese content farms behind “Factory TikTok”, a subgenre where workers making products like aloe jelly and gloves also are influencers selling them

More: The Overspill. Tweets: @sam_azl, @bnox, @richggall, @gquaggiotto, @sub8u, @restofworld, @restofworld, @linzhang9, @parismarx, @dlberes, and @lmatsakis

Tom Simonite / Wired:

Study: an algorithm developed by EHR provider Epic to predict sepsis infections in patients missed two-thirds of sepsis cases and frequently issued false alarms

Earlier Picks

AlleyWatch:

Rasgo, a GitHub-like repository which helps data scientists explore, clean, join, and transform data sets for machine learning models, raises $20M Series A

More: ReadWrite, Triangle Business Journal, AiThority, Insider, and VentureBeat

Bloomberg:

Tesla to issue a software fix to 285K+ cars in China, after regulator finds its autopilot can get activated automatically, which may lead to sudden acceleration

More: Engadget, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, Reuters, Associated Press, Gizmodo, Mashable, PCMag, France 24, and Insider

Tweets: @jaycuthrell, @wpipperger, @jchengwsj, @wpipperger, @kelvinyang7, @wholemarsblog, @rschmied, @kimpaquette, @wr4nygov, @wolfejosh, and @wholemarsblog

New York Times:

Katie Haun, a co-chair of a16z's crypto fund, talks about the geopolitics of blockchain, risk, regulation, outlook for the crypto industry, and the fund's focus

Tweets: @positivegamma, @tomicahtd, @unhedgedchatter, @jess, @rachaelrad, and @laurashin

José Adorno / 9to5Mac:

Telegram adds group video calls, screen sharing, noise suppression, animated backgrounds, tablet and desktop support with side panel and split-screen view, more

More: Telegram, MacRumors, iMore, Android Headlines, Android Central, iThinkDifferent, Android Authority, Mashable, Livemint, The Verge, Gizchina, Android Police, Engadget, and Droid Life

Tweets: @pajoysrsly_, @amasna, and @telegrambeta

Joseph Menn / Reuters:

Microsoft, following a probe of SolarWinds hack, says an attacker compromised one of the company's support agents to launch attacks against customers

More: SecurityWeek, The Hacker News, Ars Technica, Microsoft Security …, AppleInsider, PCMag, BleepingComputer, and Security Affairs

Tweets: @mhmck, @josephmenn, @thegrugq, @adam_k_levin, @hackingdave, @hatr, @malwarejake, @josephmenn, @jfslowik, and @josephmenn

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:

Microsoft engineer says users will be able to sideload Android Apps on Windows 11

More: ZDNet, Tom's Hardware, Softpedia News, Android Headlines, SlashGear, Livemint, Android Police, OSnews, Android Authority, and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @migueldeicaza, @grynn, @epro, @yabhishekhd, @nilsahrde, and @windowscentral