| 11:15 PM • | Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch: London-based Habito, which offers mortgages online, raises £35M Series C led by Augmentum Fintech, SBI Group and mojo.capital |
| 10:25 PM • | CNBC: Blend, which develops a SaaS platform for lenders, raises $75M Series F led by Canapi Ventures at a valuation of ~$1.7B, up more than 70% from a year earlier |
| 10:05 PM • | Bloomberg: Sources: Palantir is planning to go public through a direct listing of its shares in late September |
| 9:30 PM • | Bloomberg: Apple's pledge to go carbon neutral by 2030 relies in large part on its Taiwanese suppliers TSMC and Foxconn, which use around 90% non-renewable sources |
| 7:45 PM • | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Sources: ByteDance has been in talks with India's Reliance for investment in TikTok's India operations since late last month, after India banned the app in June |
| 7:25 PM • | Nathan DiCamillo / CoinDesk: Coinbase says it will offer fiat loans to US retail customers, backed by as much as 30% of a customer's bitcoin holdings, in 17 states this fall |
| 7:10 PM • | Abrar Al-Heeti / CNET: Canalys: 31.9M smartphones shipped in the US in Q2, down 5% YoY; Apple shipped 15M iPhones in the US, up 10% YoY, and Samsung shipped 7.4M units, down 1% YoY |
| 6:15 PM • | Nick Statt / The Verge: Michael “Shroud” Grzesiek returned to Twitch on Wednesday, following Mixer's shutdown; his return stream attracted ~500K active viewers at its peak |
| 5:20 PM • | Alex Heath / The Information: Source: Facebook and Snap recently approached Dubsmash, a lip-syncing video app, about an acquisition, with discussions including a possible nine-figure deal |
| 5:05 PM • | Stephanie Condon / ZDNet: Cisco reports Q4 revenue of $12.2B, down 9% YoY, net income of $2.6B, up 19% YoY, says more than half its revenue is from software and services |
| 4:25 PM • | Lora Kolodny / CNBC: Lyft reports Q2 revenue of $339M, above expectations but down 61% YoY, as active riders drop 60% YoY to 8.7M; revenue per active rider was $39.06, down 2% YoY |
| 4:08 PM • | Nancy Scola / Politico: Google, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, and others partner to scenario-plan for the last three months before US Election Day, including slow election results |
| 4:05 PM • | Anthony Ha / TechCrunch: Square says it is testing a short-term loan feature, giving between $20 and $200, repayable over a month, with around 1,000 users |
| 3:20 PM • | Bloomberg: Sources: Airbnb reported Q2 revenue of $335M, down from $842M in Q1 and over $1B in Q2 2019, as its adjusted loss rose to $400M, up from $341M in Q1 |
| 2:20 PM • | Leah Nylen / Politico: Profile of Jim Hood, who tussled with Google during his 16 years as Mississippi's AG and, sources say, is now advising the AG-led multistate antitrust probe |
| 2:00 PM • | Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology: Facebook rolls out an interstitial screen that pops up when users try sharing COVID-19 content, showing the source and date created, adding much-needed friction |
| 1:45 PM • | Kevin Roose / New York Times: QAnon followers are hijacking #SaveTheChildren, an anti-human-trafficking movement, and joining parenting Facebook Groups in order to gain new followers |
| 1:25 PM • | James Vincent / The Verge: Twitter launches API v2, the first complete rebuild of its API since 2012, in a bid to improve relations with third-party developers |
| 1:05 PM • | Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asian Review: Sources: Chinese state-backed chip firms QXIC and HSMC, which are led by ex-TSMC execs, have each hired 50+ veteran engineers and managers from TSMC since 2019 |
| 1:01 PM • | Dale Beran / The Atlantic: Anonymous is having something of a resurgence, after becoming largely inactive following its 2012 peak, following the George Floyd protests and social unrest |
| 12:40 PM • | Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Google launches new tools to make developing Android apps on Chrome OS easier, including a new ChromeOS.dev resource website and a native Android Emulator |
| 12:00 PM • | Terry Nguyen / Vox: “Social justice slideshows” that use Instagram's 10-image carousel format to educate about societal issues have used popular branding techniques to go viral |
| 11:15 AM • | Joseph Cox / VICE: A look at so-called Russian, encrypted, or “white” SIMs, used by criminals to spoof phone numbers, add voice manipulation to calls in real-time, and more |
| 11:05 AM • | New York Times: Hands-on with Instagram's Reels: confusing, frustrating, impossible to navigate, and lacking TikTok's editing features |
| 10:55 AM • | Lauren Feiner / CNBC: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi says it will likely need to shut down for several months in California if it is forced to re-classify drivers as employees |
| 10:50 AM • | Robert Burnson / Bloomberg: After a $650M settlement in a biometric data collection case last month, Facebook faces a new suit alleging Instagram collects biometric data without consent |
| 10:10 AM • | Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Gong, which uses AI to provide insights on customer behavior and improve sales, raises $200M Series D, at a $2.2B valuation, led by Coatue |
| 9:55 AM • | Leo Schwartz / Rest of World: Interview with Jorge Ríos, co-founder and CEO of Bridgefy, a popular protest app which uses mesh-networking tech for messaging without an internet access |
| 9:40 AM • | 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 |
| 9:30 AM • | 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 |
| 8:35 AM • | Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: Finnish startup Varjo, which develops high resolution VR/XR headsets and VR technologies for enterprise applications, raises $54M Series C |
| 8:10 AM • | Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: Tencent Q2 profit beat estimates, surging to $4.7B, up 37% YoY, on revenue of $16.53B, up 29% YoY; online game revenue was $5.5B, up 40% YoY |
| 7:45 AM • | 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 |
| 7:30 AM • | Debby Wu / Bloomberg: Foxconn says it plans to split supply chain between the Chinese and US markets as trade ties fracture and declares that China's time as world's factory is over |
| 7:20 AM • | Yimou Lee / Reuters: Foxconn reported a better-than-expected Q2 quarterly profit of $778.54M, up 34% YoY, on $38B revenue, and says smartphone revenue dropped ~15% YoY |
| 6:20 AM • | 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 |
| 4:30 AM • | 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 |
| 1:40 AM • | 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 |
| 1:30 AM • | Francoise Brougher: Former Pinterest COO provides a detailed account of her claims about gender discrimination and toxic workplace culture with recommendations for the company |
| 11:15 PM • | 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 |
| 10:35 PM • | Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Simpplr, which develops AI-powered intranet software for employee directories, raises $10M Series B led by Norwest Venture Partners |
| 8:55 PM • | 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 |
| 7:45 PM • | 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 |
| 7:30 PM • | Bloomberg: CuriosityStream, a streaming service for documentaries on science and history, has agreed to go public through a ~$330M merger with Software Acquisition Group |
| 7:15 PM • | Russell Brandom / The Verge: Trump's executive order to ban TikTok by Sept. 20 is a gross abuse of power and sets an alarming precedent for the executive branch's control over software |
| 6:50 PM • | Erin Griffith / New York Times: Former Pinterest COO accuses the company of gender bias in a new lawsuit, alleging she was fired in April after complaining about sexist treatment |
| 6:35 PM • | Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica: NJ Supreme Court ruled that compelling a suspect to unlock their cell phone doesn't violate Fifth Amendment, following opposite ruling by Indiana SC in June |
| 5:50 PM • | Wall Street Journal: Analysis: TikTok used an Android security hole to collect MAC addresses, possibly for ad tracking, without an ability to opt out; the practice ended in November |
| 5:15 PM • | Tom Warren / The Verge: Microsoft commits to launching the Xbox Series X in November and will delay Halo Infinite until 2021 |
| 4:40 PM • | Dani Kass / Law360: A Texas federal jury said Apple should pay PanOptis and related companies $506M+ for willfully infringing patents covering 4G LTE technology |
| 4:00 PM • | James Vincent / The Verge: Pinterest says it is expanding its skin tone search tool, which debuted in US in 2018 and uses machine vision to sort beauty-related pins, to five more markets |
| 3:30 PM • | Ari Levy / CNBC: Sources: about a month before BigCommerce's successful IPO, Intuit offered to buy the company for $1.5B |
| 3:15 PM • | Anthony Ha / TechCrunch: LinkedIn says it has sold presentation-sharing service SlideShare to Scribd, which will take over its operation on September 24 |
| 3:00 PM • | Todd Bishop / GeekWire: Filing breaks down Microsoft's revenue by product line and shows it made 15 acquisitions for a total amount of $2.4B in FY 2020, down from $9B the previous year |
| 2:05 PM • | Christine Hall / Crunchbase News: RevenueCat, a startup offering in-app subscription tools, raises $15M Series A led by Index Ventures, says over 3,000 apps are using its services |
| 2:00 PM • | Jonathan Roeder / Bloomberg: Kroger says it is working with Mirakl to develop an e-commerce marketplace for third-party vendors, in a bid to compete with Amazon and Walmart |
| 1:45 PM • | Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Twitter says it is now letting anyone limit who can reply to their tweets to just those that follow the author or just the accounts that are tagged in the tweet |
| 1:42 PM • | Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter: US judge sides with Google in a lawsuit brought by Genius, which alleged that Google scraped lyrics in violation of copyright law |
| 1:30 PM • | Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch: Pattern, a Utah-based reseller that offers brands a way to optimize their sales on marketplaces like Amazon, has raised $52M from Ainge Advisory and KSV Global |
| 1:20 PM • | Bloomberg Law: US appeals court throws out a 2019 antitrust ruling against Qualcomm and its licensing practices in a case brought by the FTC |
| 1:10 PM • | Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch: Arevo, a 3D printing tech startup led by Sonny Vu, founder of wearable startup Misfit, raises $25M Series B co-led by Defy Partners and GGV Capital |
| 1:04 PM • | Wall Street Journal: Sources: Airbnb plans to confidentially file for IPO this month, a step toward a potential listing before the end of the year |
| 12:40 PM • | Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: Facebook says it removed 22.5M posts for violating hate speech policies in Q2, up 2x from Q1, and that 95% of the violations were caught using automated systems |
| 12:33 PM • | Amy Feldman / Forbes: Parsable, whose digital interface helps increase safety and efficiency for industrial workers, raises $60M Series D, bringing its total raised to $133M |
| 12:15 PM • | Bloomberg: France's privacy watchdog CNIL says it has opened a probe into TikTok, as part of an investigation into ByteDance's plans to open an EU HQ for data purposes |
| 12:00 PM • | Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo: Google announces new features in its computer vision Lookout app, like document scanning, an Android Auto refresh, and Bedtime mode is no longer Pixel-exclusive |
| 11:50 AM • | Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC: Walmart partners with Instacart to test offering same-day delivery, starting in four markets across California and Oklahoma |
| 11:15 AM • | David Jeans / Forbes: Collaborative document editor Coda raises $80M led by Kleiner Perkins, valuing the company at $636M |
| 10:40 AM • | Joseph Cox / VICE: Mozilla says it plans to lay off around 250 employees and is closing the company's current operations in Taipei, Taiwan |
| 9:55 AM • | Yogita Khatri / The Block: MicroStrategy buys ~$250M in bitcoin, becoming the first publicly traded company to buy the currency as part of its capital allocation strategy |
| 9:45 AM • | Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: HMD Global, maker of Nokia-branded phones, raises $230M Series A2 from strategic investors including Google, Nokia, and Qualcomm |
| 9:35 AM • | Dieter Bohn / The Verge: Google is partnering with USGS and creating a worldwide, Android phone-powered opt-in earthquake alert system using phone accelerometers |
| 9:25 AM • | Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch: Atomwise, which develops a machine learning-based drug discovery service, raises $123M Series B led by B Capital and Sanabil Investments |
| 9:15 AM • | Kashmir Hill / New York Times: Clearview AI has hired pre-eminent First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, who plans to assert a free-speech right to disseminate publicly available photos |
| 8:50 AM • | Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: K2View, whose “micro-database” tech helps automate enterprise data unification, raises $28M led by Forestay Capital |
| 8:30 AM • | 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 |
| 8:05 AM • | 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 |
| 7:50 AM • | 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 |
| 7:10 AM • | Lauren Clark / Official Google India Blog: Google rolls out virtual business cards for Google Search in India with links to user's website, social media profiles and, optionally, phone number and email |
| 4:35 AM • | 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 |
| 1:20 AM • | 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 |
| 9:25 PM • | 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 |
| 8:30 PM • | 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” |
| 7:45 PM • | 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 |
| 7:00 PM • | 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 |
| 6:35 PM • | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Amazon says that 1M+ Prime subscribers in India shopped from SMB partners in the 14 days leading up to Prime Day |
| 4:40 PM • | 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 |
| 4:23 PM • | Bloomberg: In a lawsuit by CA's AG, judge issues a preliminary injunction ordering Uber and Lyft to classify their drivers as employees, paused for 10 days for appeals |
| 4:00 PM • | 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 |
| 3:20 PM • | 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 |
| 2:55 PM • | Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE: In the wake of a widely protested presidential election in Belarus, nonprofits and companies including Twitter are reporting parts of the internet being blocked |
| 2:30 PM • | Sonali Basak / Bloomberg: Robinhood says its daily average revenue trades were 4.31M in June, about 4x E*Trade's fee-generating trades and higher than other publicly traded rivals |
| 2:05 PM • | Reuters: Russian competition watchdog FAS says Apple abused its dominance of the mobile apps market and must resolve issues with iOS App Store; Apple says it will appeal |
| 1:50 PM • | Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch: Mux, an API-based video streaming and analytics service, raises $37M Series C led by a16z, following its $20M Series B in 2019 |
| 12:50 PM • | Jay Peters / The Verge: Amazon rebrands Twitch Prime as Prime Gaming; the service will still give Prime subscribers perks, including free games, on the live streaming platform |
| 12:42 PM • | Abner Li / 9to5Google: Google announces that Google Maps now has CarPlay Dashboard support and a simple version of the app will be rolling out to Apple Watch in the coming weeks |
| 12:25 PM • | Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg: Facebook says it has created a new group to run all of its payments projects with David Marcus at the helm; hires former Upwork CEO as VP of Facebook Payments |
| 11:25 AM • | Anthony Ha / TechCrunch: Skillshare, a subscription marketplace for online courses, raises $66M led by OMERS Growth Equity and says it has 12M registered members |
| 10:35 AM • | Reuters: Sources: TikTok's separation from ByteDance could take over a year, well beyond Trump and Microsoft's Sept. 15 timeline, as Microsoft negotiates the transition |
| 10:25 AM • | John Koetsier / Forbes: Apple Advertising seems to be on by default in iOS 14, while other advertisers and ad networks will have to ask for permission to track users |
| 10:05 AM • | Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat: Google expands developer tools for Android TV, including instant apps and speech-to-text support, and says monthly active devices have grown more than 80% YoY |
| 9:45 AM • | New York Times: A look at the tight links between employees at big tech companies and Joe Biden's campaign, despite his criticism of the Silicon Valley giants |
| 9:35 AM • | Alex Barker / Financial Times: With 2,500 claims of improper use of unlicensed music on Twitch in June, the Artists Rights Alliance, a trade body, criticizes Jeff Bezos' “wilful blindness” |
| 9:25 AM • | Cade Metz / New York Times: Frances Allen, who conducted groundbreaking work on software compilers in the 1960s and won the Turing Award in 2006, has died at 88 |
| 9:20 AM • | Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: McAfee report: NetWalker ransomware operators have made ~$25M from ransom payments since March, putting them in the same league as Ryuk, Dharma, REvil groups |
| 9:07 AM • | Dara Khosrowshahi / New York Times: Uber CEO defends treating gig workers as contractors, suggesting gig economy companies should be required to establish funds that give workers cash for benefits |
| 8:50 AM • | Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: Amid an explosion in demand for home-delivered goods, shippers like FedEx are increasingly adopting industrial robot arms equipped with computer vision and AI |
| 7:05 AM • | 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 |
| 6:10 AM • | Jack Purcher / Patently Apple: Apple responds to AirPods patent infringement suit by countersuing Koss Corporation for breach of contract and breaking a confidentiality agreement |
| 3:00 AM • | 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 |
| 1:35 AM • | Eric Slivka / MacRumors: Kuo: iPhone shipments could decline by 25-30% if Apple is forced to remove WeChat from its App Stores around the world under Trump's EO |
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