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February 1, 2022, 3:40 PM
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| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google begins rolling out iMessage reactions for Android's Messages app in beta, appearing next to message bubbles; some emoji reactions are not quite identical — As we spotted in November and following the latest push for RCS support on iPhone earlier this month, Google Messages is starting …
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Droid Life, The Verge, Android Police, ZDNet, iMore, AppleInsider, MobileSyrup, Tom's Guide, Phandroid, Thurrott, SlashGear, PhoneArena, iPhone Hacks, Android Central, iThinkDifferent, and Engadget. Tweets: @mkbhd
| Maximiliano Firtman / firt.dev: |
iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 beta code shows Apple is working on adding push notifications for web-based apps to Safari — iOS 15.4 beta has finally added icon support in the manifest, Web Push, AR, and VR experiments. — Twitter @firt About Newsletter — About 8 min reading time
More:
MacRumors, TechRadar, Macworld, Road to VR, XDA Developers, iThinkDifferent, iPhone in Canada Blog, Cult of Mac, iPhone Hacks, AppleInsider, The Mac Observer, iMore, The Apple Post, and iDownloadBlog.com
Tweets: @firt, @stevemoser, @_davideast, @firt, and @samifathi_
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
India proposes a 30% tax on income from the transfer of crypto, NFTs, and other digital assets and will launch a digital rupee in the next financial year — India on Tuesday proposed launching digital rupee in within a year and a 30% tax on income from transfer of virtual digital assets …
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Reuters, Bloomberg, The Economic Times, CoinDesk, Binance, Hindustan Times, pib.gov.in, CoinGape, Candid.Technology, Inc42 Media, Tech in Asia, ZyCrypto, CoinJournal, and CryptoPotato
Tweets: @cz_binance, @balajis, @nexo, @balajis, @deepakshenoy, @markets, @positivecrypto, @chandrarsrikant, and @ashwinm_
| Craig Timberg / Washington Post: |
A whistleblower working with the DOJ says NSO Group offered staffers from US mobile security firm Mobileum “bags of cash” for access to global cellular networks — Rep. Ted Lieu asks the Justice Department to investigate after hearing the account of what he called ‘fishy’ behavior.
More:
The Guardian. Tweets: @jsrailton, @iwillleavenow, @rondeibert, @lailaalarian, @skirchy, @washingtonpost, @hatr, and @drewharwell
| David McLaughlin / Bloomberg: |
Source: the FTC, not the DOJ, will oversee the US antitrust review of Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition and will focus on potential harm to rivals — The U.S. antitrust review of Microsoft Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. will be handled by the Federal Trade Commission …
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PYMNTS.com, Fortune, Video Games Chronicle, Destructoid, thegamer.com, Neowin, Digital Trends, Polygon, TechSpot, purexbox.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, GameSpot, XDA Developers, TechRadar, Reuters, Wccftech, WinBuzzer, PCMag, Pocket-lint, Windows Central, MCV/DEVELOP, ExchangeWire.com, OnMSFT.com, and IGN
Tweets: @firstadopter, @stephentotilo, @tomwarren, and @epro
| Tom Krisher / Associated Press: |
NHTSA: Tesla will issue an OTA update for 53,822 cars and SUVs to remove an FSD feature that let vehicles roll through stop signs without coming to a halt — DETROIT (AP) — Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their “Full Self-Driving” software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt.
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The Verge, Gizmodo, The Register, New York Times, Input, Protocol, RTÉ, Newser, KnowTechie, Insider, Financial Times, NHTSA, Bloomberg, and TechCrunch
Tweets: @aweiss, @oknox, @carnage4life, @tomgara, @lizadixon, @davidzipper, @errolbarnett, and @tweetermeyer
| Mitchell Clark / The Verge: |
The Google One VPN service, which has been available to Android users, comes to iOS for users paying for the 2TB $9.99/month plan — The VPN service that's included with a Google One Premium subscription is finally available on iPhones after Google's promise in October 2020 that it would come to iOS.
More:
The Keyword, MacRumors, Engadget, XDA Developers, AppleInsider, iThinkDifferent, and iDownloadBlog.com
| John Hendel / Politico: |
Nonprofit suicide chat service Crisis Text Line ends its data sharing relationship with for-profit spinoff Loris.ai and asks the company to delete existing data — The nonprofit mental-health hotline Crisis Text Line ended its data-sharing relationship with a for-profit spinoff Monday …
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danah boyd, Crisis Text Line, Wired, Mashable, and Techdirt
| Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic: |
As Tumblr CEO Jeff D'Onofrio quietly departs and the company merges with Automattic, a look at its plans and enormous impact on the modern social web — The CEO of Tumblr—a social platform that was once worth more than $1 billion, and in its time was among the internet's most popular …
More:
Jeff's Place. Tweets: @brandonetc, @hautepop, @kait_tiffany, @kait_tiffany, @theatlantic, @sarahzhang, @seyitaylor, @luxalptraum, and @kait_tiffany
| IDC: |
Global tablet shipments grew 3.2% YoY to 168.8M in 2021; Apple had 34.2% market share, Samsung had 18.3%, Lenovo had 10.5%, Amazon had 9.5%, and Huawei had 5.7% — Worldwide tablet shipments reached 46 million units during the fourth quarter of 2021 (4Q21), posting a decline for the second time since the pandemic began in 2020.| Robert Frank / CNBC: |
Research: blockchain-based virtual real estate sales hit $501M in 2021 across Sandbox, Decentraland, Cryptovoxels, and Somnium; sales in January 2022 were $85M — - Sales of real estate in the metaverse topped $500 million last year and could double this year, according to investors and analytics firms.| Taylor Lyles / IGN: |
Discord starts letting US PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 users link their PSN accounts and display game activity; support for more countries is coming soon — Support will roll out first to US users, though. — PlayStation owners will able to connect their accounts to Discord starting today …
More:
Discord Blog, Eurogamer.net, The Verge, Tom's Guide, TechRadar, TechSpot, and t3.com
Tweets: @calbucci, @gozutrucker69, and @dimitrimonroez
| Wall Street Journal: |
Indian politician Rahul Gandhi writes to Twitter's CEO alleging the company is unwittingly complicit in a government campaign limiting followers to his account — Politician writes to Twitter CEO to complain about curbs he blames on India's government, highlighting how New Delhi polices U.S. social media companies
More:
The News International, ThePrint, Business Standard, and The Economic Times
Tweets: @evelyndouek, @steve_hanke, @pravchak, @salmansoz, @zoo_bear, @amitmalviya, @ruchirac, @bhatia_niraj23, @zoo_bear, @ethanz, @tvmohandaspai, @wsj, @rasmus_kleis, and @zoo_bear
| Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: |
Silvergate Bank acquires the Diem Association's tech and other assets by issuing $132M in stock and paying $50M in cash and aims to debut a stablecoin in 2022 — The Diem Association is shutting down. — Silvergate Bank confirmed Monday that it's purchasing the technology and other assets from Diem …
More:
Bloomberg, PR Newswire, The Verge, Gizmodo, PCMag, CryptoPotato, PYMNTS.com, Coinspeaker, and Crowdfund Insider
Tweets: @diemassociation, @davidmarcus, @davidmarcus, @ccatalini, @ccatalini, @readdanwrite, and @alexeheath
| Nivedita Balu / Reuters: |
Chargebee, which helps businesses manage billing, subscriptions, revenue, and compliance, raises $250M at a $3.5B valuation led by Tiger Global and Sequoia — Enterprise software startup Chargebee has raised $250 million at a valuation of $3.5 billion, in a funding round lead by Tiger Global …
More:
VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, Entrackr, Tech in Asia, Finextra, and Livemint
| Matt Burgess / Wired: |
Internal messages from the Trickbot ransomware gang during 2020 detail its structure, target choices, plans to open St. Petersburg offices, and more — Internal messages WIRED has viewed shed new light on the operators of one of the world's biggest botnets.
Tweets: @egeblc, @wired, @cranehassold, @nicoleperlroth, @wired, @howelloneill, @mattburgess1, and @campuscodi
| Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: |
Metronome, which offers APIs to help SaaS companies charge customers on a usage basis, raises a $30M Series A led by a16z — As more software companies shift to more flexible pricing models based on consumption, many are choosing to charge customers on a per-use, or usage, basis.
More:
GlobeNewswire News Room
| The New York Times Company: |
The New York Times acquires Wordle, the simple word game that has amassed “millions of daily players”, for “an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures” — Wordle, Josh Wardle's stimulating and wildly popular daily word game, is joining The New York Times's portfolio of original …
More:
New York Times, The Verge, Financial Times, CNET, Android Authority, VICE, ZDNet, Thurrott, Nieman Lab, Christopher Six's Pick Six, Livemint, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, GameRevolution, WRAL TechWire, iPhone Hacks, Tom's Guide, Coinspeaker, Neowin, PCMag, TechSpot, and MacRumors
Tweets: @powerlanguish, @nytimes, @marcatracy, @daveyalba, @levie, @lpolgreen, @karaswisher, @paultassi, @mat__savage, @anildash, @ellievhall, @rajasen, @neilanalien, @__apf__, @mcmansionhell, @raynefq, @rapplerdotcom, @silvermanjacob, @caissie, @mattsheffield, @silvermanjacob, @mohanadelshieky, @vogon, @asteadwesley, @roywoodjr, and @dongwon
| Dan Taylor / Tech.eu: |
Finnish open-source database startup MariaDB raises a $104M Series D and plans for an IPO on the NYSE via a SPAC merger seeking a valuation of ~$672M — Finland's MariaDB has closed a $104 million Series D private placement round and announced its intention to become a publicly-traded entity … | Reuters: |
Taiwan-based GlobalWafers' proposed €4.35B takeover of German chip supplier Siltronic falls apart as Germany's government misses the approval deadline — Germany's economy ministry said it could not complete its review of a planned sale of chip supplier Siltronic to Taiwanese rival GlobalWafers …
More:
Financial Times, Financial Times, Agence France-Presse, CNBC, and WRAL TechWire
Tweets: @sub8u and @theresaafallon
| Yogita Khatri / The Block: |
Solana Labs launches Solana Pay, a payments protocol that lets merchants accept payments directly from customers in USDC, SOL, or other Solana-based tokens — Quick Take — Solana Labs has released a payments protocol for digital commerce. — The protocol, called Solana Pay …
More:
PYMNTS.com, GitHub, Protocol, Circle Blog, Blockworks, Protocol, CoinDesk, Crypto Briefing, and Cointelegraph
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
SiriusXM rolls out AudioID to track its audience across its apps Pandora and Stitcher and its satellite radio service, offering first-party ad targeting — The use of tracking cookies is winding down, and Apple's anti-tracking privacy update has impacted mobile apps' advertising revenues.
More:
Gizmodo
| Financial Times: |
Analysis: Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple donated $1.2M+ to the four biggest US foreign policy think tanks in 2019-2020, up from $625K+ in 2017-2018 — Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple battle Washington's move towards stricter regulation using anti-China lobbying| Ivan Levingston / Bloomberg: |
Island, a secure web browser for businesses, emerges from stealth with ~$100M from Sequoia, Insight, and others; sources say it was recently valued at ~$500M — A startup building a secure web browser for businesses is coming out of stealth mode after raising about $100 million across … | Brendan Sinclair / GamesIndustry.biz: |
Sony Interactive Entertainment announces it is buying Bungie, which makes Destiny and other games, for $3.6B; Bungie will become an independent subsidiary — Destiny studio will remain multiplatform, able “to self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play”
More:
Bungie.net, Bungie.net, GamesIndustry.biz, Washington Post, Stratechery, VentureBeat, HotHardware.com News, Protocol, VICE, Game Rant, Loot Pursuit, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, IGN, Android Headlines, TechRadar, The Mac Observer, The Verge, Fast Company, Thurrott, Kotaku, Video Games Chronicle, GamingBolt, Dexerto, Business Wire, Gizchina, Livemint, Silicon Republic, International Business Times, Forbes, Gameranx, Mashable, COMICON, MUO, Pocketnow, thegamer.com, PYMNTS.com, Gizmodo, Laptop Mag, Destructoid, Telecoms.com, and Wccftech
Tweets: @bungie, @jasonschreier, @boogie2988, @loudmouthjulia, @brkeogh, @snazzyq, and @kifleswing
| Christine Hall / TechCrunch: |
Lunchbox, which offers restaurants tools for ordering, managing apps, and other tech, raises a $50M Series B led by Coatue after a $20M Series A in October 2020 — It's not a secret that the restaurant industry was a late adopter of technology, a move that unfortunately left many restaurants unprepared …
More:
FinSMEs
| Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch: |
Metafy, a marketplace for video game coaching, raises a $25M Series A led by Tiger Global and Seven Seven Six, following an $8.65M seed in 2021 — Metafy, a startup that operates a marketplace for video game coaching, announced this morning that it has closed a $25 million Series A. Tiger Global … | Eleanor Olcott / Financial Times: |
A look at China's rapid adoption of AI in health care, driven in part by the availability of high-quality data, as concerns remain over privacy and security — Concerns remain over privacy and security of mountain of healthcare data — A live-stream video of a 76-year-old woman pottering about her kitchen plays on Li Hong's phone.
Tweets: @pstasiatech
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