| 10:10 PM • | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: India-based BharatPe, which helps offline merchants accept digital payments, raises $370M Series E led by Tiger Global at a $2.85B post-money valuation |
| 8:50 PM • | Bloomberg: Facebook says it has disabled the accounts, apps, Pages, and access to its APIs for researchers running NYU's Ad Observatory Project, citing TOS violations |
| 8:40 PM • | Mike Dano / Light Reading: T-Mobile confirms that it will shut down Sprint's LTE network by June 30, 2022, following its decision to shut down Sprint's 3G CDMA network on January 1, 2022 |
| 8:10 PM • | Catalin Cimpanu / The Record: Report finds attacks on 5 Southeast Asian telcos since 2017 are linked to 3 Chinese cyber-espionage groups, but found no signs of collaboration among the groups |
| 6:55 PM • | Mitchell Clark / The Verge: WhatsApp is rolling out a View Once feature for photos and videos that disappear from the chat after the recipient opens it |
| 6:10 PM • | Abner Li / 9to5Google: Google consolidates its sign-in offerings with a new family of Identity APIs called Google Identity Services, including a new “One Tap” sign in prompt |
| 5:20 PM • | Sean Hollister / The Verge: Activision Blizzard says that Blizzard's head of global human resources, Jesse Meschuk, has also left the company |
| 5:15 PM • | Emily Bary / MarketWatch: Match Group reports Q2 revenue of $708M, up from $555M YoY, vs $694M estimated, and Tinder direct revenue of $399M, up 26% YoY, with 9.6M payers, up 17% |
| 4:55 PM • | Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Apple and Affirm's PayBright will launch a “buy now, pay later” program for iPhone, Mac, and iPad purchases in Canada on Aug. 11, according to a staff message |
| 4:32 PM • | Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Activision beats expectations in Q2 with revenue of $2.29B, up 19% YoY, and net bookings of $1.92B, down only 7% YoY, notes risks of the sexual harassment suit |
| 4:17 PM • | Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC: Robinhood's stock closes at $46.80, up 24.2% on the day's trading, blowing past its IPO price of $38 and becoming the day's “top traded stock” on Fidelity |
| 4:17 PM • | Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC: Lyft reports Q2 revenue of $765M, up 125% YoY and 26% QoQ, vs $696.9M est., active riders of 17.14M, vs 15.45M est., and a net loss of $251.9M vs $437M in Q2'20 |
| 3:30 PM • | Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE: Sources: NLRB probe found Amazon illegally interfered with workers organizing in Staten Island, NY; NLRB officer recommends election rerun for Alabama warehouse |
| 2:30 PM • | Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Apptopia: anonymous messaging app Sendit, which uses Snap Kit to work with Snapchat features, surges with 3.5M installs, two months after Snap banned Yolo, LMK |
| 1:45 PM • | Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: Apple rolls out three new AMD Radeon Pro graphic card modules for Intel-based Mac Pros; the options range from $2,400 to $5,600 in build-to-order configurations |
| 1:10 PM • | Laurel Deppen / GeekWire: Hootsuite says it has acquired Montreal-based conversational AI startup Heyday, which offers a unified messaging platform for retailers, for ~$48M |
| 12:45 PM • | Nilay Patel / The Verge: Q&A with YouTube chief product officer Neal Mohan on monetizing Shorts, content moderation with Content ID, YouTube TV, competing with TikTok, and more |
| 12:40 PM • | Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: YouTube will pay creators up to $10K/month for making original videos on YouTube Shorts, starting in 10 regions this month and paid out of its $100M Shorts Fund |
| 12:05 PM • | Jay Peters / The Verge: Microsoft tells employees it will require proof of vaccination to enter a Microsoft building in the US starting September, with medical and religious exceptions |
| 11:50 AM • | Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: Researchers were able to quickly circumvent security protections of a laptop that followed virtually all NIST recommendations, including TPM and UEFI SecureBoot |
| 11:00 AM • | Antoine Gara / Forbes: How Michael Dell oversaw Dell's expansion after taking it private, growing the company to $75B, by focusing on providing infrastructure to businesses and others |
| 9:40 AM • | Sami Fathi / MacRumors: Apple makes Magic Keyboard with Touch ID available as a standalone product for $149; the keyboard is only compatible with Apple silicon Macs |
| 9:35 AM • | Yael Eisenstat / Washington Post: A former Facebook elections integrity head criticizes it for using preemptive non-disparagement clauses to silence employees, shutting avenues for transparency |
| 9:25 AM • | Brian Heater / TechCrunch: Citizen launches Protect, a $20/month service that offers access to a Citizen operator and other features, after a 100,000-user beta test |
| 9:18 AM • | The Information: Facebook confirms it is building a team of AI researchers to study ways of analyzing encrypted data without decrypting it, potentially helping better target ads |
| 9:00 AM • | Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Ahana, a cloud data lake services provider built around open-source Presto, raises $20M Series A led by Third Point Ventures |
| 8:55 AM • | Stephen Nellis / Reuters: Marvell Technology says it will acquire network chip startup Innovium for $1.1B in an all-stock deal |
| 8:43 AM • | Richard Lawler / The Verge: Activision Blizzard says President J. Allen Brack is leaving the company, replaced by Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra, as the fallout from CA lawsuit continues |
| 8:35 AM • | Martin Matishak / The Record: A bipartisan Senate investigation finds that, despite years of warnings, many US government agencies have not established effective cybersecurity programs |
| 8:25 AM • | Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Rapyd, which offers APIs to add financial services like payments, raises $300M Series E led by Target Global, sources say at a $8.75B valuation |
| 8:05 AM • | Stephanie Yang / Wall Street Journal: Without naming any companies, China's market watchdog says it is investigating auto chip dealers suspected of driving up prices during the global shortage |
| 8:01 AM • | Saritha Rai / Bloomberg: Titan, which offers email tools for SMBs, raises $30M Series A from Automattic at a $300M valuation |
| 7:55 AM • | Tracy Qu / South China Morning Post: China's top state propaganda outlets jointly call for limits on the role of algorithms in content distribution to help improve “culture and art reviews” |
| 7:50 AM • | Lulu Yilun Chen / Bloomberg: After Chinese regulators halted its IPO, Alibaba's Ant Group reported its Q3 profit fell to $2.1B, down 37% from the previous quarter |
| 7:40 AM • | Dave Lee / Financial Times: Amazon is growing its shipping service for companies like Etsy and Walmart using its efficient logistics network, gaining a slice of its competitors' businesses |
| 7:30 AM • | Zheping Huang / Bloomberg: Alibaba misses in Q1, reporting revenue of $31.8B, below estimates of ~$32.4B, as net income rebounds to $7B from a loss in Q4 2020 due to an antitrust fine |
| 7:20 AM • | Rob Price / Insider: UK-based Emojipedia, an encyclopedia for emoji founded in 2013, says it has been acquired by smartphone software company Zedge |
| 6:45 AM • | Boris Metodiev / Strategy Analytics: Xiaomi became Europe's top smartphone vendor in Q2 with 12.7M units shipped, up 67.1% YoY, followed by Samsung with 12M, down 7% YoY, and Apple with 9.6M |
| 6:10 AM • | Andrew Kersley / Wired UK: Sources: well over 100 UK-based employees at Amazon's Prime Air drone delivery unit have lost their jobs since 2019, as the company scales back its ambitions |
| 6:00 AM • | Dmitry Smilyanets / The Record: Interview with BlackMatter, a new ransomware group that only targets companies with $100M+ revenue and says it will avoid certain industries like healthcare |
| 5:40 AM • | Bloomberg: Q&A with SEC chair Gary Gensler on protecting cryptocurrency investors from fraud, regulating the industry, Bitcoin ETFs, and other SEC priorities like GameStop |
| 5:30 AM • | Jon Porter / The Verge: Spotify is testing Spotify Plus, a low-cost tier that includes ads but doesn't impose limits on track skipping and lets users pick specific songs to play |
| 5:15 AM • | Chong Koh Ping / Wall Street Journal: After Chinese state media criticized online gaming as “opium for the mind” in a now-deleted article, Tencent announces stricter rules for young users |
| 4:35 AM • | Russell Brandom / The Verge: A look at a community of libertarian-leaning Bitcoin enthusiasts in New Hampshire raided in March by the feds, who allege an unlicensed money transmittal scheme |
| 2:50 AM • | Saritha Rai / Bloomberg: Nykaa, an Indian e-commerce startup for beauty products, files for an IPO, seeking to raise as much as $70.6M at a valuation of $4B |
| 2:05 AM • | Mike Butcher / TechCrunch: London-based Palta, which develops health and wellness apps, raises $100M Series B led by Per Brillioth at VNV Global |
| 1:55 AM • | Rainey Reitman / Electronic Frontier Foundation: The confusing language in the infrastructure bill's crypto provision suggests that nearly any entity in crypto is a broker and must collect their users' data |
| 12:30 AM • | Joanna Glasner / Crunchbase News: Latin America now has at least 23 unicorns, which collectively have raised $15B+, with 15 raising VC this year; 40% of all VC funding in 2020 went into fintech |
| 11:20 PM • | Simon Sharwood / The Register: Australian court rules AI can be considered an inventor on patent filings, days after South Africa granted a patent in which AI was designated as the inventor |
| 10:45 PM • | Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch: Novakid, an app that offers online English language classes to kids aged 4-12, raises $35M Series B led by Owl Ventures and Goodwater Capital |
| 7:30 PM • | Joyce Lee / Reuters: South Korean game developer Netmarble says it will acquire Hong Kong-based SpinX Games, which develops social casino games, for $2.19B |
| 6:15 PM • | Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Twitter partners with Reuters and the AP, who will provide context and highlight links from trusted sources for Trends, Moments, Search, and more |
| 5:30 PM • | Kim Willsher / The Guardian: The French government found proof of Pegasus malware on three French journalists' phones and has referred its findings to the Paris public prosecutor's office |
| 5:10 PM • | Taylor Lorenz / New York Times: A look at Fuck You Pay Me, a Glassdoor-like service where creators can review brands they have worked with and share ad rates |
| 4:10 PM • | Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet: Microsoft's desktop-as-a-service Windows 365 Cloud PC is generally available and costs between $20 to $162 per user per month, based on cores, RAM, and storage |
| 4:10 PM • | Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: Facebook to require all US on-campus staff to wear masks starting on Aug. 4, regardless of vaccination status, citing rising COVID cases and local regulations |
| 3:05 PM • | Carly Page / TechCrunch: Finite State, a supply chain security startup that helps uncover security flaws in device firmware, lands $30M Series B led by Energize Ventures |
| 2:00 PM • | Bloomberg: An in-depth look at the political motivations behind China's tech crackdown, as Xi pursues progressive authoritarianism at the expense of international capital |
| 12:38 PM • | Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo: Google's Rick Osterloh demos Pixel 6's Tensor SoC, which enables real-time object detection and HDR in videos as well as real-time translation and live captions |
| 12:22 PM • | Dieter Bohn / The Verge: Google unveils Pixel 6, with 6.4" 90Hz display, and Pixel 6 Pro, with 6.7" 120Hz display and 4x optical zoom, with a Google-designed Tensor SoC, coming in fall |
| 12:01 PM • | Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: Tire maker Bridgestone acquires Azuga, a San Jose-based company that offers vehicle fleet tracking, including GPS and dual-facing dashcam setups, for $391M |
| 11:30 AM • | Sifted: Current and former employees at German grocery delivery startup Gorillas describe arbitrary firings and exploitation of riders and warehouse workers |
| 11:00 AM • | New Statesman: Investigation: in the last five years, six EU academic institutes received tens of millions of pounds in funding from Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft |
| 10:47 AM • | Aoife White / Bloomberg: Following the UK's CMA, European Commission is launching an investigation into Facebook's acquisition of Kustomer with a deadline of December 22 for a ruling |
| 10:25 AM • | Leah Nylen / Politico: Sources: FTC's lead economics expert in its antitrust case against Facebook, Carl Shapiro, has parted ways with the agency as it prepares to refile its case |
| 10:10 AM • | Laura Forman / Wall Street Journal: New York City Council passes five bills aimed at reducing the power of food delivery platforms, including extending a cap on restaurant commissions to Feb. 2022 |
| 9:50 AM • | Stephen Jewkes / Reuters: Italy's Lazio region, which surrounds Rome, says hackers have shut down its IT systems used to manage COVID-19 vaccinations |
| 9:25 AM • | Marie Beaudette / Wall Street Journal: Robinhood says 301,573 users participated in its IPO, representing about 1.3% of its 22.5M funded accounts as of June 30 |
| 9:05 AM • | Politico: Pro-Trump social network GETTR is awash with Islamic State propaganda, including graphic videos of beheadings and memes of a militant executing Trump |
| 9:00 AM • | Catalin Cimpanu / The Record: Researchers say a collection of nine vulnerabilities impact pneumatic tube systems installed in ~80% of all major US hospitals |
| 8:50 AM • | Financial Times: SPACs are being forced to fund deals with more expensive financing, like issuing convertible bonds, due to cash from institutional investors drying up |
| 8:40 AM • | Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech: A now-deleted tweet by an Intel executive suggests Thunderbolt 5 could double the bandwidth of existing Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 connections to 80 Gbps |
| 8:30 AM • | The Economic Times: Fashinza, a B2B marketplace for apparel manufacturing, raises $20M Series A from Accel, Elevation Capital, and others |
| 8:20 AM • | Jennifer Elias / CNBC: Filings: Larry Page and Sergey Brin have sold a combined $1B+ in Google stock since May 2021, the most since 2017; Google's share price has tripled since 2017 |
| 8:10 AM • | Christine Hall / TechCrunch: Mixlab, which helps veterinarians prescribe and deliver medications to pet owners, raises $20M Series A led by Sonoma Brands |
| 7:50 AM • | Olivia Solon / NBC News: Female journalists and activists share how they were targeted and harassed by authoritarian regimes through hack-and-leak attacks using Pegasus spyware |
| 7:35 AM • | Dan Taylor / Tech.eu: Snoop, which uses open banking and analytics to help customers manage their money, raises £15M Series A at a post-money valuation of £47M |
| 7:20 AM • | Jon Porter / The Verge: YouTube trials a Premium Lite tier for €6.99/month in Europe, giving viewers ad-free viewing on the web, iOS, Android, smart TVs, and game consoles |
| 7:05 AM • | Carly Page / TechCrunch: Nozomi Networks, which aims to shield critical infrastructure from cyberattacks, raises $100M Series D led by Triangle Peak Partners as it prepares for an IPO |
| 6:35 AM • | Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal: Non-VC funds invested in a record 42% of tech startup funding deals in Q2 2021; H1 '21 US startup funding was $150B, with FY 2021 on pace to double 2020's total |
| 5:45 AM • | Ryan Browne / CNBC: Estonian ride hailing startup Bolt, formerly known as Taxify, raises $713M at a ~$4.75B valuation, led by Sequoia, Tekne, and Ghisallo |
| 5:25 AM • | Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: London-based Kuda, which offers mobile-first banking services in Nigeria, raises $55M Series B at a $500M valuation co-led by Valar Ventures and Target Global |
| 4:40 AM • | Emmanuel Akinwotu / The Guardian: Analysis: Nigeria is second only to the US in bitcoin trading volume, hitting $2.4B in May from $684M in Dec. 2020, as the government tries to curb its use |
| 3:00 AM • | Daniela Hernandez / Wall Street Journal: A look at technology's role in professional surfing, as ML-based wave forecasting and biomechanics data help improve riders' performance and prevent injuries |
| 1:55 AM • | Zheping Huang / Bloomberg: Matrixport, led by Bitmain founder Wu Jihan, which offers crypto financial services, raises $100M+ Series C, and says a second tranche is to come |
| 1:35 AM • | Greg Ahlstrand / CoinDesk: Square reports Q2 revenue of $4.68B, up 143% YoY; Cash App's bitcoin yearly revenue was $2.72B, up 200%, as Square's bitcoin holdings had a $45M impairment loss |
| 1:20 AM • | Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Indian online insurance aggregator Policybazaar files for IPO, seeks to raise $809M and says it may raise about $100M in a pre-IPO round |
| 12:55 AM • | Brent Lang / Variety: Profile of Netflix's head of movies Scott Stuber, who has grown original film output from 21 in 2016 to 70+ in 2021, as it makes deals with Spielberg and others |
| 11:40 PM • | Financial Times: Educational publisher Pearson says it is switching to a subscription model for all of its 1,500 titles, available for $14.99/month through its new Pearson+ app |
| 11:20 PM • | Associated Press: DOJ: 27 US Attorney offices had at least one staffer's Microsoft email account breached from May to Dec. 2020 by Russian hackers as part of the SolarWinds hack |
| 9:05 PM • | Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire: Wyze Labs, which makes devices like smart security cameras, robot vacuums, and smartwatches, raises $110M Series B led by Marcy Venture Partners |
| 8:40 PM • | Brian Heater / TechCrunch: Google contract workers in Pittsburgh have ratified a three-year deal with their employer HCL, for higher wages and more, nearly two years after unionizing |
| 7:30 PM • | Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge: A look at Intel's dismal 2020, which saw the delay of its 7nm architecture, Apple's switch to Arm-based chips, and the departure of Jim Keller and other execs |
| 7:05 PM • | Telegram: Telegram's latest update adds group video calls of up to 1,000 users with 30 simultaneous broadcasts, video messages, screen sharing during video calls, more |
| 7:00 PM • | Igor Bosilkovski / Forbes: Modern Animal, a pet care service offering 24/7 telemedicine and a more “intelligent” labor model for veterinarians, raises $40M Series B led by Founders Fund |
| 5:50 PM • | Dan Wang / Foreign Affairs: How US sanctions forced Chinese companies to develop key tech themselves, aligning the companies' incentives with China's goal of economic self-sufficiency |
| 5:40 PM • | Peter Guest / Rest of World: As Southeast Asian governments introduce “fake news” laws to fight COVID-19 misinformation, conspiracists thrive on Telegram and other non-public platforms |
| 5:10 PM • | Jasper Jolly / The Guardian: Deliveroo says it plans to pull out of Spain, citing limited market share; Spain unveiled a “rider law” in March to reclassify couriers as employees |
| 4:40 PM • | Eric Seufert / @eric_seufert: [Thread] Facebook's future prospects remain strong as the secular rise of digital advertising blunts any headwinds from regulators, Apple, critics, and others |
| 3:50 PM • | Eva Dou / Washington Post: China's top court issues new guidelines that hotels, airports, and other commercial venues must get consent from customers to use facial recognition from Aug. 1 |
| 3:00 PM • | Tim Perry / HTTP Toolkit: Safari's extremely slow pace in adopting popular features and fixing showstopping bugs, and refusal to engage with contentious API proposals, is harming the web |
| 1:55 PM • | Stephan Kahl / Bloomberg: Germany to allow institutional funds, which currently manage a total of ~$2.1T, to hold up to 20% of their holdings in Bitcoin and other crypto assets |
| 1:15 PM • | Stephen Shankland / CNET: Twitter offers bug bounty of up to $3,500 to spot bias in its photo cropping algorithm, which was shown to favor white people over Black people |
| 12:40 PM • | Russ Mitchell / Los Angeles Times: New book claims Elon Musk demanded to be made Apple CEO during Tesla buyout talks in 2016, before Tim Cook cursed and hung up; Musk says he never spoke to Cook |
| 12:05 PM • | Natalie Wolchover / Quanta Magazine: Physicists say they used Google's quantum computer to demo a time crystal, which forever cycles between states without consuming energy, for the first time |
| 11:15 AM • | Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: MoEngage, a customer engagement service that enables personalization across email, SMS, and more, raises $32.5M, bringing its total raised to $72M+ |
| 10:40 AM • | Greg Ip / Wall Street Journal: How the US and allies, which long pressed China to stop subsidies for favored industries, are now embracing subsidies of their own to fund chip manufacturers |
| 9:50 AM • | Ashley Carman / The Verge: In an email to creators, Mark Cuban-funded Fireside, which hosts live audio chats, says it is accepting investments through August from anyone interested |
| 8:55 AM • | Nathaniel Taplin / Wall Street Journal: China's crackdown on its tech giants could backfire, leaving Beijing with a seriously damaged consumer sector and slow-growing chip and robotics companies |
| 8:40 AM • | Davey Alba / New York Times: A look at the development of an Amazon warehouse in Windsor, CT, where the discovery of multiple nooses on site raises questions about Amazon's responsibilities |
| 8:15 AM • | Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch: Airtel Mobile Commerce, which offers mobile money services in 14 African countries, raises $200M from the Qatar Investment Authority |
| 7:50 AM • | Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg: In a filing, Amazon disclosed EU privacy regulators fined the company a record $888M for violating GDPR data storage rules in a July 16 decision |
| 7:35 AM • | Bloomberg: China orders 25 tech companies, including Alibaba and Tencent, to do internal inspections to rectify issues from data security to consumer rights protections |
| 7:30 AM • | Reuters: SEC has stopped processing IPO and other registrations by Chinese companies as it crafts guidance for companies about the risks they face in China |
| 7:00 AM • | Tom Wilson / Reuters: Amid regulatory pressure, Binance says it will wind down its futures and derivatives products in Germany, Italy, and the Netherlands |
| 6:25 AM • | Catherine Stupp / Wall Street Journal: Faced with rising ransomware risks, companies seeking cybersecurity professionals are paying higher salaries and offering more autonomy |
| 1:40 AM • | Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE: 48 civil rights and advocacy groups ask the FTC to ban corporate facial surveillance technology and continuous corporate surveillance of public space |
| 12:15 AM • | Jay Peters / The Verge: Snap says it resolved an issue that prevented some Snapchat users from logging in and advises users to manually update the app if the issue persists |
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