title stringlengths 2 283 ⌀ | author stringlengths 4 41 ⌀ | year int64 2.01k 2.02k | month int64 1 12 | day int64 1 31 | content stringlengths 1 111k ⌀ |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Latch raises $70M for its apartment smart lock system | Anthony Ha | 2,018 | 8 | 22 | announced this morning that it has raised $70 million in Series B funding. The round was led by Brookfield Ventures, the investment arm of Brookfield Asset Management. As part of the deal, Brookfield Properties will also be installing Latch systems in its multi-family properties that are currently under development. “We are thrilled to support Latch, the clear market leader in a nearly $25 billion space that is expected to grow at twice the rate of traditional access over the next several years,” said Brookfield’s Josh Raffaelli in the funding announcement. Lux Capital, RRE Ventures, Primary Venture Partners, Third Prime, Camber Creek, Corigin Ventures, Tishman Speyer and Balyasny Asset Management also participated in the new funding. Latch’s smart lock system is designed for apartment buildings rather than single-family homes, allowing you to open doors with a smartphone, keycard or door code. It also allows residents to create temporary access codes for guests and service providers. Speaking of service providers, earlier this summer that will allow UPS drivers to receive unique credentials for entering buildings to make deliveries. Latch was founded five years ago, but . It . |
A new unicorn is born: Root Insurance raises $100 million for a $1 billion valuation | Kirsten Korosec | 2,018 | 8 | 22 | The , founded in 2015, plans to use the funds to expand into existing markets and make inroads into new states, as well as hire more employees such as engineers, Root provides car insurance to drivers. Not exactly a new concept. But it establishes the premium customers based on their driving along with other factors. Drivers download the app and take a test drive that typically lasts two or three weeks. Then Root provides a quote that rewards good driving behavior and allows customers to switch their insurance policy. Customers can purchase and manage their policy through the mobile phone Root app. Root says its approach allows good drivers to save more than 50 percent on their policies compared to The company uses AI algorithms to adjust risk and sometimes provide discounts. For example, a vehicle with an advanced driver assistance system that it deems improves safety might receive further discounts. The company has grown from its home market of Ohio into 20 other states in the past two years. The company plans to expand to all |
The top 10 startups from Y Combinator’s Demo Day S18 Day 2 | Anna Escher | 2,018 | 8 | 22 | , and among the highlights were a company that helps developers manage in-app subscriptions; a service that lets you create animojis from real photos; and a surplus medical equipment-reselling platform. Oh… and there was also a company that’s developed an entirely new kind of life form using e coli bacteria. So yeah, that’s happening. Based on some investor buzz and what caught TechCrunch’s eye, these are our top picks from the second day of Y Combinator’s presentations. You can find the , and our With a founding team including some of the leading luminaries in the field of biologically inspired engineering (including George Church, Pamela Silver and Jeffrey Way from Harvard’s Wyss Institute), is engineering organisms to function in otherwise inaccessible environments. Chief executive Alexis Rovner, herself a post-doctoral fellow at the Wyss Institute, and chief operating officer Ryan Gallagher, a former BCG Consultant, are looking to commercialize research from the Institute around accelerating and expanding the ability to produce functionalized proteins and sequence-defined polymers with diverse chemistries. Basically they’ve engineered a new life form that they want to use for novel kinds of bio-manufacturing. These geniuses invented a new life form. Sher Butt, a former lab directory at Steep Hill, saw that cannabinoids were as close to a miracle cure for pain, epilepsy and other chronic conditions as medicine was going to get. But plant-based cannabinoids were costly and produced inconsistent results. Alongside Jacob Vogan, Butt realized that biosynthesizing cannabinoids would reduce production costs by a factor of 10 and boost production 24 times current yields. With a deep experience commercializing drugs for Novartis and as the founder of the cannabis testing company SB Labs, Butt and his technical co-founder are uniquely positioned to bring this new therapy to market. Using manufacturing processes to make industrial quantities of what looks like nature’s best painkiller at scale is not a bad idea. helps developers manage their in-app subscriptions. It offers an API that developers can use to support in-app subscriptions on iOS and Android, which means they don’t have to worry about all the nuances, bugs and updates on each platform. The API also allows developers to bring all the data about their subscription business together in one place. It might be on to something, though it isn’t clear how big that something is quite yet. The nine-month-old company says it’s currently seeing $350,000 in transaction volume every month; it’s making some undisclosed percentage of money off that amount. . Write code. Release app. Use RevenueCat. Get paid. That sounds like a good formula for a pretty compelling business. Indonesia is a country in transition, with a growing class of individuals with assets to invest yet who, financially, don’t meet the bar set by many wealth managers. Enter Ajaib, a newly minted startup with the very bold ambition of becoming the “Ant Financial of wealth management for Indonesia.” Why the comparison? Because China was in the same boat not long ago — a country whose middle class had little access to wealth management advice. With the founding of Ant Financial nearly four years ago, that changed. In fact, Ant now boasts more than 400 million users. China is home to nearly 1.4 billion, compared with Indonesia, whose population of 261 million is tiny in comparison. Still, if its plans work out to charge 1.4 percent for every dollar managed, with an estimated $370 billion in savings in the country to chase after, it could be facing a meaningful opportunity in its backyard if it gains some momentum. If Ajaib’s wealth management plans (to charge 1.4 percent for every dollar it manages) work out — and with a total market of $370 billion in savings in Indonesia — the company could be facing a meaningful opportunity in its backyard. The scooter craze is hitting Latin America and is greasing the wheels. The Mexico City-based company was launched by co-founder Sergio Romo after he and his partner realized they weren’t going to be able to get a cut of the big “birds” on the scooter block in the U.S. ( ). Romo and his co-founder have already lined up a slew of investors for what may be the hottest new deal in Latin America. Backers include Sinai Ventures, Liquid2 Ventures, 500 Startups, Monashees and Base10 Partners. Scooters are so 2018. But there’s a lot of money to be made in mobility, and as the challenge from Bird and Lime to Uber and Lyft in hyperlocal transit has revealed, there’s no dominant player that’s taken over the market… yet. Creating animated emojis made from real photos, just might be the most fun you can have with a camera. The company’s software uses deep learning algorithms to detect body parts and guides users in creating their own avatars with just a simple photo take from a mobile phone. It’s replacing deep Photoshop expertise and animation skills with a super simple interface. The avatars look very similar to Elf Yourself, a popular site that let you paste your friends’ faces on dancing Christmas elves goes viral every year at Christmastime. Founders have PhDs in machine learning and computer vision. As the company’s chief executive said, Snap was for sexting, and Facebook was hot or not, so who says the next big consumer platform couldn’t be the Trojan horse of easily generated selfiemojis (akin to )? is a public benefit corporation connecting doctors and patients with sources of low-cost, compounded pharmaceuticals. The company is looking to decrease barriers to entry for drugs for rare diseases. Three weeks ago the company introduced a drug to treat Wilson’s Disease. There was no access to the drug that treats the disease before in Brazil, India or Canada. It slashes the cost of drugs from $30,000 a month to $120 per month. The company estimates it has a total addressable market of $17 billion. “Generic drug pricing is a crisis, people are dying because they can’t get access to the medicine they need,” says chief executive Alex Oshmyansky. Osh’s might have a solution. Selling lower-cost medications for rare diseases in countries that previously hadn’t had access to them is a good business that’s good for the world. Tackling a $75 billion problem of healthcare waste, is giving hospitals an easy way to resell their used supplies. The company has already raised $1 million for its marketplace to help healthcare organizations buy and sell equipment. With a seed round led by Ashton Kutcher and Guy Oseary’s Sound Ventures, and General Catalyst’s Rough Draft Ventures fund, the company is also working to lower costs for cash-strapped rural healthcare centers. Finding uses for hospital equipment that’s been lying fallow in corners is a big business. A $75 billion business if Medinas’ estimates are correct. Add helping cut costs for rural medical facilities and Medinas is a business we can get behind. Plus-size women have limited clothing options even at the largest retailers like Nordstrom and Macy’s. While a majority of American women fall into the plus-size clothing category, 100 million women are constrained to shopping for a very small percentage of options. wants to solve the supply problem. To do this, the founders, two former Harvard classmates, are building a direct-to-consumer fashion brand with stylish, minimalist offerings for plus-size women, including tunic shirts and an apron dress. It’s very early days for the brand, but since launching in recent weeks, they’ve seen $25,000 in sales. This direct-to-consumer fashion brand is bringing higher quality, better-designed clothing options to a market that’s underserved and growing quickly. What’s not to like? Influencers of the world are uniting on mobile app, , which allows shoppers to browse virtual storefronts and aisles alongside their favorite fashion and beauty creators and YouTubers. Users can see exactly what products those influencers have featured and can buy them without ever leaving the app. It’s a free download and hours of commercially consumptive fun. It’s like the QVC model, but for GenZ shoppers whose buying habits are influenced by social video content on YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat. The company revealed that one beauty influencer made $10,000 within five hours using the ShopWith platform. The founders are former product managers with experience building social commerce products at Facebook and Amazon. The QVC for GenZ not only has a nice ring to it, it’s a recipe for making cash registers hum. A mobile-first, influencer-based shopping company is something that we’d definitely not call an impulse purchase. |
Ubiquity6 CEO Anjney Midha is coming to Disrupt SF 2018 | Lucas Matney | 2,018 | 8 | 22 | 2018 has been the year that AR promises came face-to-face with reality. While Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore sparked a ravenous response from developers that had grown worried about VR’s near-term market and the fate of AR headsets from Microsoft and Magic Leap, little seemed to resonate deeply with consumers. That realization is part of the reason AR startups working on backend services and more base level development pipelines have seen so much success. Onstage at Disrupt SF 2018, we’ll be chatting with Anjney Midha, the CEO of an AR startup called . The startup was founded just a year ago but has already raised more than $37 million to solve some of the hardest augmented reality problems that companies like Google and Apple are working hard to solve, as well. Its backers include Google’s Gradient Ventures, First Round, Benchmark and KPCB, where Midha previously ran a small fund. The company is tackling problems like multiplayer interactions and world mapping as well as issues key to more immersive gameplay like making sure that virtual objects stay tied to physical markers in-between gaming sessions. Ultimately, the company’s work is aiming to promote the Ubiquity6 app to be a hub for AR experiences that will have a development backbone that enables much deeper AR interactions for users. Ubiquity6 is ambitious about the scale of their AR capabilities. While so many companies are focusing their efforts on how to capture AR interactions taking place in the living room, Ubiquity6 is actively working to map entire cities so it can deliver massive AR experiences that can turn heads (or at least phones). We’re looking forward to chatting with Midha and hearing about how his startup is planning to compete with some of the world’s biggest tech companies in building out a digital reality that’s projected onto our own. The full agenda is . Passes for the show are available . |
Google’s G Suite apps and Calendar are getting Gmail’s side panels | Frederic Lardinois | 2,018 | 8 | 22 | One of the best features of the new Gmail is its quick-access side panel with easy access to Google Calendar, Tasks, Keep and your Gmail extensions. Now, Google is this same functionality to Google Calendar, Docs, Sheets, Slides and Drawings, . In Google Calendar, you’ll be able to quickly access Keep and Tasks, while in the rest of the G Suite apps, you’ll get easy access to Calendar, Keep and Tasks. In Gmail, the side panel also brings up access to various G Suite extensions that you may have installed from the marketplace. It doesn’t look like that’s possible in Docs and Calendar right now, though it’s probably only a matter of time before there will be compatible extensions for those products, too. By then, we’ll likely see a “works with Google Calendar” section and support for other G Suite apps , too. I’m already seeing this in my personal Google Calendar, but not in Google Docs, so this looks to be a slow rollout. The official word is that paying G Suite subscribers on the rapid release schedule should get access now, with those on the slower release schedule getting access in two weeks. |
ESA’s Aeolus mission launches to map Earth’s winds with lasers | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 8 | 22 | : Launch successful! Aeolus is in orbit and and signal has been acquired. We’re still waiting on solar panel deployment but everything is nominal so far. FIRST DATA!! 🛰🌬 coming in loud📢 and clear at station📡 and controllers at 🕹 are seeing their first data from the satellite — ESA Operations (@esaoperations) An ESA mission 20 years in the making is set to take off today, launching the first satellite to monitor the planet’s winds directly — and using a giant laser, at that. Aeolus takes off from French Guiana at nearly midnight CEST, about 2:20 PM Pacific time, . Aeolus, named after the Greek god who was the keeper of the winds, is a satellite designed and approved way back in 1999 but only recently completed and deemed ready for launch. It’s essentially a vehicle for a single payload, the Atmospheric Laser Doppler Instrument, or “Aladin,” essentially an orbital . Once in orbit, Aladin will blast the surface with a 10-megawatt ultraviolet laser 50 times per second, tracking the minute changes evident in the reflected beam caused by air molecules and other matter in the atmosphere. Twenty separate measurements done on the laser light allow the satellite to determine the exact velocity of the wind where it’s pointing. Believe it or not, measuring the wind from space hasn’t really been done. Sure, you can observe cloud patterns and infer that air in some places is behaving in a certain way. But there has been no space-based, global-scale mission to measure the direction of the wind. This information should prove extremely valuable, as it will allow for much improved weather prediction, especially in areas like the tropics where there are fewer stations and weather balloons (yes, they use them) from which to collect data. As such, the Aeolus mission may help understand and predict the genesis and paths of tropical storms, giving people more timely and accurate warnings. Weather in areas rich in balloons should also be improved by a few percent of accuracy — which doesn’t sound like a lot, but really is, especially for aerospace businesses, farmers and others whose livelihood revolves around the weather. Ironically (though not particularly worryingly), Aeolus’s first intended launch date was . If only there were a satellite that could have helped predict that. Aeolus’s orbit is a slightly unusual one called a sun-synchronous dusk/dawn orbit. It will hover at 320 kilometers above the terminator, the line demarcating night from day, while circling around the poles every 90 minutes. So it’s zipping in the north-south axis at great speed, and takes a week to sample the whole globe. Data is fired off to a station in Svalbard, Norway once every orbit, and the plan right now is to distribute that data within three hours to the meteorological authorities who will be using it for their own purposes. The mission is only planned to last three years, since it’s more of a technology demonstration than a full-scale semi-permanent satellite. If Aeolus proves as useful as it promises to be, another satellite or perhaps several may be launched with improvements and perhaps other instruments. The satellite has been in French Guiana since July and has been loaded up atop a Vega rocket since earlier this month. at 23:00 CEST, 14:00 (2:00 PM) Pacific time, and liftoff is planned for 20 minutes after that. It should take almost an hour for the full deployment process to take place, so we’ll know shortly afterwards if all went well. |
48 hours left to grab a spot in Startup Alley at Disrupt SF 2018 | Emma Comeau | 2,018 | 8 | 22 | According to Chinese numerology, 48 represents a determination to prosper — as in business. How fitting, because 48 also represents the number of hours you have left to reserve your place in Startup Alley, the huge exhibition floor at , which takes place on September 5-7. Disrupt events are all about creating prosperity, so if you want to exhibit your early-stage startup in front of more than 10,000 attendees — including influential investors, technologists, entrepreneurs and media — before August 24 at 5 p.m. PT. Startup Alley will be home to more than 1,200 early-stage startups and sponsors from just about every vertical. Secure your spot and you can join them as they showcase their latest tech products, platforms and services to potential customers, future investors and more than 400 media outlets. What do you get in your value-packed Startup Alley Exhibitor Package? We’re glad you asked. Plus, every Startup Alley exhibitor has a chance to win one of two Wild Card slots to compete in — this year’s grand prize is a whopping $100K. Not only did that happen to at Disrupt NY 2017, they went on to win the entire Battlefield! Only 48 hours left to capitalize on the prosperity potential awaiting you in Startup Alley at Disrupt SF 2018 on Sept. 5-7. Go before time — and opportunity — runs out. |
Lyft hires Google veteran to build out business platforms | Kirsten Korosec | 2,018 | 8 | 22 | Lyft has hired Google veteran Manish Gupta as vice president of engineering to build out the ride-hailing company’s business platforms, including enterprise, partnerships and healthcare. Gupta will report directly to Peter Morelli. He will work alongside Ran Makavy, who heads up Lyft’s ride-share technology team, CTO Chris Lambert and Katie Dill, the company’s vice president of design. In this newly created position, Gupta will also oversee Lyft employees working on payments, fraud prevention and privacy. Gupta’s hiring comes amid . Two years ago, Lyft’s ride-hailing app was accessible in less than 50 percent of the U.S. and had only 17 percent market share — far behind rival Uber. Today, Lyft has 96 percent coverage in the U.S. and 35 percent market share. The company’s driver network has grown from 315,000 in 2015 to 1.4 million drivers in 2017. Its employee ranks have grown more than five-fold, to 3,600 people. The ride-hailing company’s bookings run rate based on a second quarter estimate is $7.7 billion. Lyft Business, the company’s enterprise unit, also has expanded in the past two years as it partners with more organizations and companies like Starbucks, LAX, Allstate, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, JetBlue, Delta and Blue Cross Blue Shield. The company is increasingly focused on the potential of these business partnerships, and non-emergency medical transport. For example, a hospital or doctor’s office could use a desktop version of the Lyft app to order a ride for a patient. Lyft already has partnerships with some of the largest It’s here where Lyft hopes to tap into Gupta’s experience. Gupta has been at Google since 2002 in a variety of roles, most recently leading its Google Ads’ buy-side platform. During Gupta’s 16-year tenure at Google, he also built AdSense for TV, Video and Display ads, and the billing and payments system for advertisers and publishers. |
Pirated Twitch streams hijack YouTube’s pay-per-view Logan Paul/KSI boxing match | Lucas Matney | 2,018 | 8 | 25 | Today, there was a little bit of a skirmish between two professional YouTubers. Our dear old friend Logan Paul and KSI had an actual boxing match at the Manchester Arena where 15,000 tickets were sold (!!!!!!!!) for an event that ultimately ended in a draw and vows for a rematch. The action onstage wasn’t the only place where viewers could get a look into the action, there was a $10 pay-per-view stream on YouTube, but more people seemed to end up watching pirated streams on Twitch with boxing fight streams reaching over a million concurrent users at one point. Streams also popped up on Twitter-owned Periscope and there were a few unofficial streams popping up on YouTube as well. There is now over 2 million concurrent viewers for the KSI Logan Paul fight. 800,000 on the official YouTube stream that cost $10 to watch, and 1.2 million watching for free on Twitch. — Rod Breslau (@Slasher) Now, forget the parties involved and the topic and the motivations for a moment if you can. I understand if it might feel more than a little difficult to feel remorse for the parties involved, that has been a common refrain for pirated content popping up from whatever group for whatever reason though. There’s obviously a big difference between free curiosity and $10 curiosity for an event like this but it seems pretty apparent that having access to a free stream on an easily-accessible mainstream site probably dissuaded some people from paying for the event on YouTube. While people may have previously scoured the web for pop-up ridden sites to view something like this, Twitch and other services unofficially served it up on a platter. There are plenty of events similar to this one, but so often the refrain is made that people have to turn to pirated streams because the alternative is paying for cable or something that is really against the spirit of these easy-to-access platforms. Well, here’s an example of something that falls far outside that argument. It’s impossible to squash all of the pirated streams, but Amazon’s Twitch is a bit too mature to be hosting pirated streams in such rampant numbers without being a little more proactive — instead of just relying on user reports to police pirated content that was fairly hard to avoid stumbling upon on the platform. Even as tech companies continue to try and crack live content, services like Twitch that don’t proactively search out users hijacking streams of big events like this really serve to complicate and deter their own goals of eventually finding a way to monetize big events like this. |
Learn more about the future of robotics at Disrupt SF | Anthony Ha | 2,018 | 8 | 25 | What’s next for robotics? At at , we’ll be joined by four experts to discuss how new technologies are changing the field. Those experts include Peter Barrett, founder and CTO and , a venture fund and design studio focused on hardware startups. Barrett is a 30-year veteran of the tech industry, whose accomplishments include developing Cinepak (video compression software that was included as part of Apple QuickTime) and working at WebTV — which was acquired by Microsoft, where he led Internet TV efforts for more than a decade. We’ll also be joined by Helen Boniske, a partner at early stage hardware investor . Before joining Lemnos, Boniske was a front office executive for the Arizona Diamondbacks. The panel will also include Claire Delaunay, Nvidia’s vice president of engineering. Delaunay was previously robotics program lead at Google, co-founder of autonomous vehicle startup Otto and director of engineering at Uber. At Nvidia, she leads . The final panelist will be Cyril Ebersweiler. Ebersweiler is founder and managing director of , a hardware accelerator with offices in both Shenzhen and San Francisco. He’s also a general partner at global venture capital firm . And somehow, he pulls off describing himself as a “visionary punk” on . Disrupt SF will take place in San Francisco’s Moscone Center West from September 5 to 7. (The robotics panel will be at 1:15pm on the 5th.) You can still buy tickets . |
Weak passwords let a hacker access internal Sprint staff portal | Zack Whittaker | 2,018 | 8 | 25 | It’s not been a great week for cell carriers. EE was bugs and T-Mobile admitted . Now, Sprint is the latest phone giant to admit a security lapse, TechCrunch has learned. Using two sets of weak, easy-to-guess usernames and passwords, a security researcher accessed an internal Sprint staff portal. Because the portal’s log-in page didn’t use two-factor authentication, the researcher — who did not want to be named — navigated to pages that could have allowed access customer account data. Sprint is the fourth largest US cell network with 55 million customers. TechCrunch passed on details and screenshots of the issue to Sprint, which confirmed the findings in an email. “After looking into this, we do not believe customer information can be obtained without successful authentication to the site,” said a Sprint spokesperson. “Based on the information and screenshots provided, legitimate credentials were utilized to access the site. Regardless, the security of our customers is a top priority, and our team is working diligently to research this issue and immediately changed the passwords associated with these accounts,” the spokesperson said. We’re not disclosing the passwords, but suffice to say they were not difficult to guess. The first set of credentials let the researcher into a prepaid Sprint employee portal that gave staff access to Sprint customer data — as well as Boost Mobile and Virgin Mobile, which are Sprint subsidiaries. The researcher used another set of credentials to gain access to a part of the website, which he said gave him access to a portal for customer account data. A screenshot shared with TechCrunch showed that anyone with access to this portal allowed the user to conduct a device swap, change plans and add-ons, replenish a customer’s account, check activation status and view customer account information. A screenshot showing an internal customer portal. All a user would need is a customer’s mobile phone number and a four-digit PIN number, which could be bypassed by cycling through every possible combination. The researcher said there were no limits on the number of PIN attempts. Account PIN numbers are highly sensitive as they can be used to transfer ownership from one person to another. That gives hackers an easier route to carry out a “SIM swapping” attack, which target and hijack cell phone numbers. Hackers use a mix of techniques — such as calling up customer service and impersonating a customer, all the way to to hijack SIM cards from the inside. In hijacking phone numbers, hackers can break into online accounts to steal vanity Instagram usernames, and intercept codes for two-factor authentication to steal the contents of cryptocurrency wallets. SIM swapping is becoming a big, albeit illegal business. An revealed that hundreds of people across the US have had their cellphone number stolen over the past few years. TechCrunch’s John Biggs was . But the authorities are catching up to the growing threat of SIM swapping. Three SIM swappers in the past few weeks alone. |
The filmmakers behind ‘Searching’ know why you’re skeptical about computer screen movies | Anthony Ha | 2,018 | 8 | 25 | sure about watching a whole movie where your point-of-view is limited to computer and smartphone screens, you’re not alone — “Searching” filmmakers Aneesh Chaganty and Sev Ohanian told me they had very similar reservations. Chaganty said that when the pair was first approached by Timur Bekmambetov’s Bazelevs (the production company behind the “Unfriended” movies), the idea was to contribute a segment to an anthology of short films set on computer screens. That’s when they came up with the basic plot of “Searching” — after a teenaged girl goes missing, her father (played by John Cho) goes through the laptop she left behind in an effort to find her. But then the studio proposed turning the idea into a feature film, with Chaganty directing, Ohanian producing and the two of them writing the screenplay. “It was this incredible moment where no filmmaker ever gets this opportunity,” Chaganty recalled. “But in that instant, I said no.” It seemed to him that they’d come up with a way to make the format more than a gimmick —but as a short film. He worried that extending it into a feature might “stretch it right back into a 90-minute gimmick.” Chaganty and Ohanian kept talking about the idea, though, and ultimately moved forward after coming up with an opening sequence — which is indeed the opening sequence of the finished film. It’s a seven-minute montage of footage stored on a desktop computer, which doubles as a compressed (and surprisingly emotional) history of the Kim family. “In that moment, there was a click, there was a lightbulb that went off, where we realized the potential of this format with this story,” Chaganty said. “And we realized, despite the films that had existed before, there was a way to make this feel not only new … but also for once emotional, engaging, cinematic.” “Searching” is in limited release this weekend, before opening more widely on Friday, August 31. You can read more about how Chaganty and Ohanian actually made the movie in the edited transcript below. Director/writer Aneesh Chaganty and Debra Messing on the set of “Searching.” How much of this started with the format, and how much with the kidnapping plot? Honestly, it was almost neither of those things. Aneesh and I are writing partners — he directs, I produce, we met each other at USC film school. We had made a two-minute short film that takes place on the Google Glasses, if you remember those at all? It kind of blew up — — and one of the results of that was he got hired by Google to come out here and start writing commercials for one or two years. I’ve been an indie producer for a couple of years now and I had an opportunity to meet with Timur Bekmambetov’s company Bazelevs. He had just released “Unfriended,” it was super successful, and he asked me if there were any filmmakers I wanted to collaborate with. I immediately thought of Aneesh, of course. When I came in and we had the meeting together, they were like, “We want to follow-up ‘Unfriended’ but we don’t want to follow it up with a traditional feature, we want to follow it up with an anthology feature, basically comprised of a bunch of shorts, all of which take place on computer screens.” Immediately to me, that was a lot more interesting than a feature film, because we had seen all the feature films that took place on screens and none of them were proof that this was a direction we should be going in. A short film, though, I knew we could make it into not a gimmick, which I think all the other films were. [Pauses.] Sort of rude, but whatever. About a month and a half later, we ended up texting each other with the idea for “Searching” — first as a short film, that’s how it started out. Same plot. Basically, Dad breaks into his daughter’s laptop to look at clues to find her. We thought in eight minutes it could be not a gimmick and really cool and engaging and get out before anyone got bored. And we sent a few pages back to the company and I happened to be in Los Angeles a few weeks later for a Google photo shoot and they called us into a board room. All of a sudden, it was Sev and myself in front of a big table of execs and financiers and all that stuff. They basically told us, “Hey, we don’t want to make the short.” We go, “Well, that’s a bummer.” And they go, “We want to turn it into a feature. Sev and Aneesh, you guys can write it, we’ll pay you guys to write it, Sev, you can produce it, Aneesh, we’ll pay you to direct your first feature, and we’ll finance the whole thing. What do you guys say?” It was this incredible moment where no filmmaker ever gets this opportunity — but in that instant, I said no. He said no! On my left side, he was like kicking me, like, “What are you doing?” and everything like that. But in the moment, it felt like what we were being asked to do was take a concept that we had found to not be a gimmick and then stretch it right back into a 90-minute gimmick. And more than that, make a film not because ours had any artistic merit, but because another film was a hit. Not that ours deserved to exist. And so for the right reasons I said no, and for the right reasons, Sev said, “We’ll be in touch.” And we left the room and we just kept talking about the enormity of the opportunity, obviously, and how that never happens, despite the parameters of what we were being asked to do. And we were like, “If we hit a wall, we hit a wall, but we should pay respect to this by talking.” So for two months we just tried to figure out a way into the story and we couldn’t. Until one day, I was living in Williamsburg at the time, and I was texting Sev, and I was like, “Hey, I have a really random idea for an opening sequence.” And Sev goes, “I have an idea for an opening sequence.” And we get on the phone and we pitch each other the exact same opening scene. And to this day, that’s the opening sequence of the film, which is a standalone, very unique seven-minute montage that takes place over 16 years of a family’s life stored on their desktop computer. In that moment, there was a click, there was a lightbulb that went off, where we realized the potential of this format with this story. And we realized, despite the films that had existed before, there was a way to make this feel not only new, but also for once emotional, engaging, cinematic. Director/writer Aneesh Chaganty and John Cho on the set of “Searching.” Our idea with the opening scene was, we wanted to create something that within five minutes, audiences would just forget that what they were watching was unfolding on screens and just get sucked into the story. Hopefully we did that. So we put together a longer pitch, because immediately [after] that idea of the opening scene, we were like, “And I guess the next scene would be this, and the next scene would be this.” And we started plotting it out immediately. We had a structure very quickly. We sent that structure back to the company, they bought in, they were like, “We’re paying you guys to do this.” I quit my job at Google, and I got on a flight, moved to L.A. and we made a movie. My understanding is that you had created a lot of what happens on the computer screen first, and then John and Debra [Messing] and the other actors were acting on webcams to a certain extent based on what you’d already created. The way that we like to describe this movie is, we sort of made an animated movie, then shot a live action film, and then put the live action film within the animated film and just kept refining it and refining it. The reason we started with an animated movie was Sev’s idea, and basically coming from a movie called “Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow.” It was made in a very similar way, in the sense that it was made before it was made. Basically, what we realized was that in our film, there are two cameras. There’s all the footage that you’re seeing on this screen, and then there’s the way that you’re framing it, because the camera in our film is always moving around. We realized those two need to play with each other and also inform one another. We need to know what the final product is going to look like, before we even went to set. So basically, seven weeks before we even hired the actors, we brought in the editors to the film and took them to a room about this big, with two iMac computers, and said, “Welcome home.” And literally just said, “Go.” They started screen capturing the Internet, like doing text messages, voicemail, whatever, every single thing, zooming in, putting together a cut. And by the end of seven weeks, we had an hour-and-40-minute cut of the entire film, starring me playing every role — dad, daughter, brother, mother, father. You know, all of the friends, talking to myself. And we would understand how the camera was moving and everything, and how to make this movie. We showed that cut to the crew the night before we started shooting and it was in that moment that they were like, “Oh, that’s the movie we’re making.” Because up until that point, this movie is impossible to talk about. Now we have a trailer, we have a poster, it’s all very easy to be like, “Oh, this is what we made.” But before that I’m saying, “We’re making a thriller, but it takes place on a computer screen, but it’s going to be really good.” And it’s really hard to sell people on that idea. So for them to finally see what we were thinking was very helpful. And then on set, John’s character, who’s literally operating the computer in the movie, his eyeline — he needs to know exactly where every button is, where every cursor moves, where everything pops, where every video message comes in, he always needs to have a perfect eyeline in the film and know what’s happening. We literally needed to show him that temp video as he’s shooting, so he understands where what he’s shooting is actually being placed in the larger film. Debra Messing and John Cho in “Searching.” And the idea with that previz version of the movie was, we wanted the final version of the film to feel polished and cinematic and grab the audience’s attention. It’s a studio movie now with worldwide distribution, but it started off as an indie film. You’ve seen the movie: There’s aerial stuff, car stuff, crowd scenes, water, ravines. We shot it in 13 days. And part of the idea of doing this version was that we wanted to spend every one of those days making them count as much as we can, and the final product would have consistency and good screen composition and mise en scene and all these amazing things. So it wouldn’t feel accidental, it would feel polished. When you were working with the actors, how much did they instinctively know what to do, and how much, given that this is not a format that exists already, did you have to train them for a different kind of acting? : I think every single person on the cast and the crew had to relearn aspects of the job to make this movie. Michelle [La, who plays the daughter Margot] actually says this, that it’s a lot easier for her to behave in front of a screen than it was for John. Maybe it’s a generational thing or whatever, but for us, all the rules visually are different. None of us have ever made another movie like this. I know for a fact, none of us are going to do this again. We’re on-set, we’re all learning together. I really equate this whole movie with cast and crew holding each other’s hands, we all walk into a dark cave, every single person thinks the person to their right knows a little more than them, but nobody does. And I’m on the far right being like, “Uh, I don’t know … ” But jumping in, and at every point of this cave, in the pure darkness, realizing that there’s one person on this crew or cast who knew how to get to this next challenge. It sounds like you guys aren’t necessarily looking to make “Searching 2,” and in fact, I know . Now that you’re at the end of the process, to what extent do you feel that okay, [computer screen movies are a genre] where other directors can come in and do interesting stuff? And to what extent to do you feel like this is probably something that you can make four or five films with, and at the end of it, the possibilities are exhausted? : At the end of the day, I keep saying this, but I think that if you asked Christopher Nolan how many more backwards films are going to happen [after “Memento”], is he starting a subgenre with backwards films? I don’t think the answer would be yes. We feel the same way about this movie. This, at the end of the day, is a gimmick. It’s a style of telling the story. We found a way, I think, to make it not that and tell the story first, but at the same time, a computer screen only has set imagery. It’s even more limiting than traditional found footage, because with traditional found footage you can set yourself in Singapore, or Hong Kong, or New York, or whatever. You’re always on a laptop screen with a computer screen film. Maybe the lesson people will learn from us is something that I’ve learned: There is a way still to show technology accurately and honestly — because I don’t think Hollywood has done that yet — using screens and using traditional cinematic language when you’re showing screens. You can still combine that with a live action film, and in a way that feels consistent with your tone and style and genre of whatever larger piece you’re making. |
The alumni of these universities raised the most VC in the past year | Joanna Glasner | 2,018 | 8 | 25 | Whatever criteria we look at, whether it’s schools with the highest number of well-capitalized founders, highest funding totals or even where startup investors , the same names top the list. The only surprise factor, it seems, is whether Harvard or Stanford will be in first place. It’s possible we’ll do a data-driven university- and startup-related ranking that doesn’t feature the same two schools in the top two positions. But that’s not happening today, as we look at universities with founder alumni who have raised the most venture funding. Luckily, there are more than two names on the list. In this survey, we looked at the top 15 schools ranked by alumni who have raised the most venture funding for their startups in roughly the past year. This is a follow-up to our , which ranked U.S. universities according to the number of funded startup founders who raised $1 million or more in the survey period. The results, however, feature most of the same names, and an only slightly altered order. Take a look for yourself below. The chart includes the name of the school, the total known venture capital funding raised by alumni founders since August 1, 2017, and the most heavily funded companies. In the survey results, we included universities and affiliated business schools together. This significantly bumped up the totals for universities with well-known business schools, like Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania (home of the Wharton School of Business). Additionally, a number of funded founders have degrees from more than one university in the ranking. These entrepreneurs are counted once for each university. |
For IGTV, Instagram needs slow to mean steady | Josh Constine | 2,018 | 8 | 25 | truly failed at anything, but judging by modest initial view counts, IGTV could get stuck with a reputation as an abandoned theater if the company isn’t careful. It’s no flop, but the long-form video hub certainly isn’t an instant hit like Instagram Stories. Two months after that launched in 2016, Instagram was happy to trumpet how its Snapchat clone had hit 100 million users. Yet two months after , the Facebook subsidiary has been silent on its traction. IGTV’s launch event featured Instagram-themed donuts and elaborate portrait backdrops. Images via Vicki’s Donuts and Mai Lanpham Instagram CEO Kevin Systrom unveils IGTV at the glitzy June 20th launch event IGTV’s Popular page features plenty of random viral pap, foreign language content, and poor cropping Why create all of this unique content if it gets lower views, it’s not monetizable, and the viewers aren’t there?” Susie Shu averages 7.8X more video views in the Instagram feed than on IGTV Fortnite champion Ninja shares a photo of IGTV launch partners gathered backstage at the press event There’s a goldmine waiting if it does. |
Amazon isn’t the only tech company getting tax breaks | Ron Miller | 2,018 | 8 | 25 | has a big target on its back these days, and because of its size, scope and impact on local business, critics are right to they receive. There is nothing wrong with digging into these breaks to see if they reach the goals governments set in terms of net new jobs. But Amazon isn’t alone here by any means. Many states have a big tech subsidy story to tell, and it isn’t always a tale that ends well for the subsidizing government. In fact, by the watchdog group, , found states are willing to throw millions at high tech companies to lure them into building in their communities. They cited three examples in the report including Tesla’s $1.25 billion 20-year deal to build in Nevada, Foxconn’s in Wisconsin and the , which resulted in a $214 million tax break. Good Jobs First executive director Greg LeRoy doesn’t think these subsidies are justifiable and they take away business development dollars from smaller businesses that tend to build more sustainable jobs in a community. “The “lots of eggs in one basket” strategy is especially ill-suited. But many public leaders haven’t switched gears yet, often putting taxpayers at great risk, especially because some tech companies have become very aggressive about demanding big tax breaks. Companies with famous names are even more irresistible to politicians who want to look active on jobs,” LeRoy and his colleague Maryann Feldman last month. While these deals are designed to attract the company to an area and generate jobs, that doesn’t always happen. The Apple-Iowa deal, for example, involved 550 construction jobs to build the $1.3 billion state-of-the-art facility, but will ultimately generate only 50 full-time jobs. It’s worth noting that in this case, Apple further sweetened the pot by contributing “up to $100 million” to a local public improvement fund, supplied by the company. One thing many lay people don’t realize, however, is that in spite of the size, cost and amount of real estate of these mega data centers, they are highly automated and don’t require a whole lot of people to run. While Apple is giving back to the community around the data center, in the end, if the goal of the subsidy is permanent high-paying jobs, there aren’t very many involved in running a data center. It’s not hard to find projects that didn’t work out. A $2 million tax subsidy deal between Massachusetts and Nortel Networks in 2008 to keep 2200 jobs in place and add 800 more failed miserably. By 2010 there and the tax incentive lasted another 4 years, according to a Boston.com report. More recent deals come at a much higher price. The $3 billion Foxconn deal in Wisconsin was expected to generate 3000 direct jobs (and another 22,000 related ones). That comes out to an estimated cost of between $15,000 and $19,000 per job annually, much higher than the typical cost of $2457 per job, . Meanwhile states are falling all over themselves with billions in subsidies to give Amazon whatever its little heart desires , which could generate up to 50,000 jobs over a decade if all goes according to plan. The question, as with the Foxconn deal, is whether the states can truly justify the cost per job and the impact on infrastructure and housing to make it worth it? What’s more, how do you ensure that you get a least a modest return on that investment? In the case of the Nortel example in Massachusetts, shouldn’t the Commonwealth have protected itself against a catastrophic failure instead of continuing to give the tax break for years after it was clear Nortel wasn’t able to live up to its side of the agreement? Not every deal needs to be a home run, but you want to at least ensure you get a decent number of net new jobs out of it, and that there is some fairness in the end, regardless of the outcome. States also need to figure out the impact of any subsidy on other economic development plans, and not simply fall for name recognition over common sense. These are questions every state needs to be considering as they pour money into these companies. It’s understandable in post-industrial America, where many factory jobs have been automated away that states want to lure high-paying high tech jobs to their communities, but it’s still incumbent upon officials to make sure they are doing due diligence on the total impact of the deal to be certain the cost is justified in the end. |
The News Lens takes a big step for Asian indie media with its first acquisition | Catherine Shu | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | The News Lens’ team in Taiwan Founded four years ago to reach millennials disenchanted with Taiwan’s scandal-obsessed media, is growing up fast. The Taipei-based company announced it has agreed to buy , one of Taiwan’s best-known technology news sites. Not only is this The News Lens’ (known as TNL) first acquisition, but founder and chief executive officer Joey Chung says it also makes TNL the first digital media startup in Taiwan to buy another one. He believes it heralds a wave of consolidation among online-first publishers in Asia that will quickly give them the same reach as legacy media companies. “Digital media is starting to mature here and we are firing the first bullet. It shocks people into realizing that these young, poor, scrappy media startups are forming alliances,” says Chung. He adds that Inside, which launched in 2009, was a logical acquisition for TNL because they have the same editorial philosophy: a focus on analysis, in-depth features, no clickbait and no overt political biases. The combined company will have 8 million total monthly unique visitors. The sites will remain separate, but their business teams will be combined. TNL also announced that it has added Felix Hong, the manager of Nest’s Taiwan office, as an angel investor and advisor. TNLs’ investors already included North Base Media, which backs independent media startups around the world, WISKEY Capital, Walden International and Trinity Investment. For Inside, the acquisition is an opportunity to expand its readership outside of Taiwan. TNL has a second office in Hong Kong, and it publishes separate editions for Hong Kong, Southeast Asia and international readers. The size of the cash and equity deal was undisclosed. Chung says TNL is planning further online media acquisitions in the next few months to expand its verticals and help it attract new readers, advertisers and monetization opportunities. The deals are expected to increase TNL’s monthly unique visitors to about 10 million, bringing its readership closer to sites run by legacy media companies in Taiwan, including Apple Daily, United Daily News and SET. (Taiwan’s population is about 23.5 million, which means TNL is already one of the most widely read news publications there). TNL’s acquisition of Inside is significant because even though Taiwan’s media industry features a wide array of publications and broadcasting stations, that often fails to translate into quality news coverage. In order to stand out, many media companies rely on churning out sensationalistic stories about political and celebrity scandals. Chung describes Taiwan’s media landscape as a “microcosm” of the industry in other Asian markets. “In a market as small as Taiwan or Hong Kong, you can’t sustain an industry with 20 major players, like the cable or TV industry. Eventually you go into a merger or consolidation phase,” he says. “You can’t have so many players all going after the same audience and advertisers, when Google and Facebook are also getting more and more powerful.” With its focus on hard news, commentary and social media sharing, The News Lens was a breath of fresh air when , but its core readership were people in their twenties and thirties who were already used to consuming most of their news on Facebook. Making acquisitions will help TNL compete with legacy media companies, but Chung says it doesn’t view them as “villains” it needs to fight against. Instead, TNL’s focus is on getting on more level footing. While TNL first built its audience by targeting younger readers on social media, its business decisions—including a partnership with production studio Dawin and distribution deals that place its videos on screens inside malls, taxis and convenience stores—have been aimed at expanding its audience into groups that usually rely on big newspapers and TV channels. “For a lot of people over 45, I think they still think of young, small startups that find it difficult to survive, that are still very garage-based, when they think of independent digital media. There’s still the impression that we’re kids,” says Chung. “This is meant to be the first step that we are slowly becoming adults. With 7 million monthly unique visitors, that meant we had a huge chunk of the under-40 population already, so aside from international expansion and more verticals, going up and down in our age groups is another way to grow.” |
Crunch Report | MoneyGram’s Sale to Alibaba Blocked by U.S. Government | Khaled "Tito" Hamze | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Tito Hamze
Tito Hamze
Tito Hamze
Tito Hamze I don’t know what to wear on Crunch Report (it’s a hard decision and I suck at dressing myself). If you are a startup and want to me to wear something, mail me an T-shirt and I’ll wear it in an episode. I’m not going to mention the company on the shirt in the episode, but it will be there. No offensive stuff; it’s totally at my discretion if I wear it. Mail it to me. Thanks <3 OK, bye. TechCrunch C/O Tito Hamze
410 Townsend street
Suite 100
San Francisco, CA 94107 |
48 hours left to apply for Startup Battlefield at Disrupt Berlin 2018 | Samantha Stein | 2,018 | 8 | 25 | “Nothing is more expensive than a missed opportunity.” H. Jackson Brown, Jr. threw down a heavy dose of truth with those wise words. It’s almost like he knew the opportunity to apply to at on November 29-30 will evaporate — in just about 48 hours — on . Don’t make an expensive mistake. . What does opportunity look like as a competitor at Disrupt Berlin? Excellent question. It’s global exposure as you launch your company in front of the best and brightest investors, technologists, movers and shakers and media outlets across Europe and beyond. Investors like Sonali De Rycker of Accel and Saul Klein at LocalGlobe — and that’s just for starters. In a tough vetting process, our experienced TechCrunch editors review every application — our acceptance rate is typically 3 percent. They’ll choose up to 15 startups to participate, and the founders of each team receive free pitch coaching from our expert Startup Battlefield team. You. Will. Be. Ready. On the big day, teams get just six minutes each to present a live demo to an expert panel of investors and entrepreneurs. The judges follow each team pitch with an intense, six-minute Q& A — that pitch coaching will come in handy for sure. Judges select five teams to move on to a semi-final round of pitching and more questions with a fresh set of judges. And then only one team walks away victorious, hoists the Disrupt Cup and takes home the $50,000 USD equity-free cash prize. Even if you don’t win Startup Battlefield, you still benefit from the extensive media and investor exposure. The competition takes place in front of a live audience with thousands of people, including investors, journalists and influential technologists. Plus, we live-stream the entire Startup Battlefield competition to a global audience on TechCrunch.com, YouTube, Facebook and Twitter (and make it available later, on-demand). It’s unlike anything you’ve experienced to date, and it can be life changing. Startup Battlefield takes place at on November 29-30. The application window closes on . Take note — TechCrunch does not charge any fees or take any equity, and participating in Startup Battlefield is 100 percent free. Missing this opportunity truly would be expensive. . |
Of course China’s forgotten social network is doing an ICO | Jon Russell | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | ICOs were one of the breakthroughs in the tech industry in 2017. Initially it was just those in the blockchain space who were aware, but as the year went on a number of existing business grew attracted to the idea of raising money without the usual route of VCs and lost equity. The year ended with more than $4 billion raised via ICOs. It’s fair to say that the concept is widely-known and that has already been proven in early 2018. Witness exhibit A: , the company that was once-hailed as China’s Facebook but has reinvented itself in recent times after losing China’s social battle, is doing an ICO — also known as token sale. , but Renren can qualify as a U.S. firm since it is listed on the New York Stock Exchange. While that might circumvent the Chinese ban, it is sure to raise attention among the SEC, which has already taken action against . Renren did not reply to a request for comment and clarification. The company’s Facebook-like service ran out of steam in China as Tencent’s WeChat messaging app and Weibo’s Twitter-like service rose to dominate the country’s social media landscape. Rather than folding, Renren went after new areas including logistics, payments and even hardware via . Now it is focusing on social again with RRCoin, a token that it plans to sell via an ICO, . The plan is to develop a platform for social media that will allow other apps to connect with users ultimately rewarded with incentives for engagements, although it appears that the full whitepaper for the token sale has not been released yet. That’s not unlike the strategies behind Brave (BAT) and Kik (KIN) which aim to incentive user engagement with “attention-based” tokens, but it is hard to see how this move will revive Renren given the company’s years-long slump. WeChat and Weibo are just too far ahead at this point. For a Western perspective: Would the same approach breathe new and sustainable live in Western social has-beens Friendster or MySpace? Unlikely, and that’s the same issue here. One area where Renren may be on to a formula with a higher chance of blockchain-based success is trucking. That’s sounds odd for a company rooted in social media, but it is doubling down on the trucking space after , a social platform for the trucking industry with an apparent 600,000 users. The company also offers an app that connects transportation brokers with carriers. , but now it added a magic word to its future plans for the business: “blockchain.” That’s right. Near the end of the short announcement of Trucker Path’s acquisition is the following quote from Renren chairman and CEO Joseph Chen. “Currently, the two major emerging technology areas are artificial intelligence and blockchain. With the acquisition of the Trucker Path social platform and the Truckloads freight marketplace, the Company will be well-positioned technologically to drive innovation within this important industry.” The company plans to focus on the business side of Trucker Path and introduce the blockchain. To be fair, there are actually good uses-cases for the blockchain in the world of logistics, from tracking foods, to a global ledger for freight and general logistics, so this isn’t quite as absurd as for stock price benefits. But still the plans are vague at this point, although that isn’t deterring investors. These two announcements have sent Renren’s share price upwards, with the stock price jumping more than 75 percent since trading resumed on January 2. That’s not quite crypto-like gains — bitcoin jumped 18-fold during 2017 — but it is another sign that established businesses are looking at the blockchain. For more perspective, a five-year view of the jump: |
Cloud infrastructure vendors begin responding to chip kernel vulnerability | Ron Miller | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Several cloud vendors began responding to that has the industry reeling today. Each Infrastructure as a Service vendor clearly has a stake here because each one is selling CPU cycles on their platforms. TechCrunch sent a request for comment to six major cloud vendors, including AWS, Microsoft, Google, IBM, Rackspace and DigitalOcean. At the time of publication, we had heard directly from three of the companies: Microsoft, Rackspace and DigitalOcean. In the case of and , we learned their response indirectly through published blog posts. We have not yet heard from IBM. “This is a vulnerability that has existed for more than 20 years in modern processor architectures like Intel, AMD and ARM across servers, desktops and mobile devices. All but a small single-digit percentage of instances across the Amazon EC2 fleet are already protected. The remaining ones will be completed in the next several hours, with associated instance maintenance notifications. While the updates AWS performs protect underlying infrastructure, in order to be fully protected against these issues, customers must also patch their instance operating systems. Updates for Amazon Linux have been made available, and instructions for updating existing instances are provided further below along with any other AWS-related guidance relevant to this bulletin.” (See for additional details.) “We’re aware of this industry-wide issue and have been working closely with chip manufacturers to develop and test mitigations to protect our customers. We are in the process of deploying mitigations to cloud services and are releasing security updates today to protect Windows customers against vulnerabilities affecting supported hardware chips from AMD, ARM and Intel. We have not received any information to indicate that these vulnerabilities had been used to attack our customers.” “As soon as we learned of this new class of attack, our security and product development teams mobilized to defend Google’s systems and our users’ data. We have updated our systems and affected products to protect against this new type of attack. We also collaborated with hardware and software manufacturers across the industry to help protect their users and the broader web. These efforts have included collaborative analysis and the development of novel mitigations.” (See , , and for additional blog posts from Google outlining their responses.) “DigitalOcean has been actively investigating the Intel chip issue which was disclosed earlier today. We’ve been working to gather as much information as we can to ensure our customers remain protected. Intel unfortunately has not made it easy to get a full picture of the issue due to their information embargo. At this time we are working under the assumption that this flaw will impact all of our customers and we’re presuming that rebooting Droplets (a DigitalOcean cloud server) will be necessary. We will be providing advanced notification to any and all customers impacted as we learn more. This is a developing issue and we are unable to forecast timeframes for implementing a fix at this time.” (See t for additional details.) “On 2 January 2018, Rackspace was made aware of a suspected Intel CPU architecture vulnerability. The full extent and performance impact of this vulnerability and potential remediation are currently unknown as the vulnerability has not yet been publicly disclosed. Our engineers are engaging with the appropriate vendors and reviewing the Rackspace environment and will take appropriate action. Should actions that would impact customer environments be taken Rackspace will communicate to affected customers.” |
Wi-Fi startup Eero lays off 30 employees | Megan Rose Dickey | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Eero, the mesh Wi-Fi router startup, has laid off 20 percent of its workforce (about 30 employees), TechCrunch has learned. Eero confirmed about 30 employees were let go but declined to comment on its total workforce size. “Our goal is to provide perfect WiFi in every home,” an Eero spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch. “Over the past year we explored several related projects, and we’ve now made the tough decision to eliminate one new project in favor of greater focus on our core business. We do not take this lightly, and unfortunately this shift means about 30 colleagues will no longer be working at eero. We will continue our work to make eero the most reliable, secure, and easiest home WiFi solution.” Eero, , aims to change the way we think about wireless routers. Last year, , a next-generation Eero with triband WiFi and the Eero Beacon, which plugs directly into wall sockets in places where it’s inconvenient to have a corded product. In July, , a home management app founded by Dopplr founder Matt Biddulph and former Yahoo Brickhouse Head of Product Tom Coates. Eero has raised $90 million from First Round Capital, Menlo Ventures, AME Cloud Ventures, Initialized Capital, Homebrew Ventures and others. Its most recent round . |
Kernel panic! What are Meltdown and Spectre, the bugs affecting nearly every computer and device? | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | by the avalanche of early reports, denials, and conflicting statements about the massive security issues announced today, don’t worry — you’re far from the only one. Here’s what you need to know about Meltdown and Spectre, the two huge bugs that affect practically every computer and device out there. : Bugs at a fundamental level that allow critical information stored deep inside computer systems to be exposed. — complete with nicknames and logos — of two major flaws found in nearly all modern central processing units, or CPUs. It’s not a physical problem with the CPUs themselves, or a plain software bug you might find in an application like Word or Chrome. It’s in between, at the level of the processors’ “architectures,” the way all the millions of transistors and logic units work together to carry out instructions. In modern architectures, there are inviolable spaces where data passes through in raw, unencrypted form, such as inside the kernel, the most central software unit in the architecture, or in system memory carefully set aside from other applications. This data has powerful protections to prevent it from being interfered with or even observed by other processes and applications. Meltdown and Spectre are two techniques researchers have discovered that circumvent those protections, exposing nearly any data the computer processes, such as passwords, proprietary information, or encrypted communications. Meltdown primarily affects Intel processors, and works by breaking through the barrier that prevents applications from accessing arbitrary locations in kernel memory. Segregating and protecting memory spaces prevents applications from accidentally interfering with one another’s data, or malicious software from being able to see and modify it at will. Meltdown makes this fundamental process fundamentally unreliable. Spectre affects Intel, AMD, and ARM processors, broadening its reach to include mobile phones, embedded devices, and pretty much anything with a chip in it. Which, of course, is everything from thermostats to baby monitors now. It works differently from Meltdown; Spectre essentially tricks applications into accidentally disclosing information that would normally be inaccessible, safe inside their protected memory area. This is a trickier one to pull off, but because it’s based on an established practice in multiple chip architectures, it’s going to be even trickier to fix. : Pretty much everybody. Chips going back to 2011 were tested and found vulnerable, and theoretically it could affect processors as far back as those released in 1995. One would hope there aren’t too many of those in use, but we may be unpleasantly surprised on that count. Because Meltdown and Spectre are flaws at the architecture level, it doesn’t matter whether a computer or device is running Windows, OS X, Android, or something else — all software platforms are equally vulnerable. A huge variety of devices, from laptops to smartphones to servers, are therefore theoretically affected. The assumption going forward should be that . Not only that, but Meltdown in particular could conceivably be applied to and across cloud platforms, where huge numbers of networked computers routinely share and transfer data among thousands or millions of users and instances. The good news is that the attack is easiest to perform by code being run by the machine itself — it’s not easy to pull this off remotely. So there’s that, at least. : Only partially, and it’s going to take a while. Many, many devices are “affected” or “vulnerable” to these flaws, but that’s not the same thing as saying they’re totally open to attack. Intel, AMD, ARM and others have had months to create workarounds and “mitigations,” which is a polite way of saying “band-aids.” Meltdown can be fixed essentially by building a stronger wall around the kernel; the technical term is “kernel page table isolation.” This solves the issue, but there’s a cost. Modern CPU architectures assume certain things about the way the kernel works and is accessed, and changing those things means that they won’t be able to operate at full capacity. The Meltdown fix may reduce the performance of Intel chips by as little as 5 percent or as much as 30 — but there will be hit. Whatever it is, it’s better than the alternative. Spectre, on the other hand, is not likely to be fully fixed any time soon. The fact is that the practice that leads to this attack being possible is so hard-wired into processors that the researchers couldn’t find any way to totally avoid it. They list a few suggestions, but conclude: While the stop-gap countermeasures described in the previous section may help limit practical exploits in the short term, there is currently no way to know whether a particular code construction is, or is not, safe across today’s processors – much less future designs. What will actually happen is hard to say, but there will likely be a flurry of updates that carry out various software hacks to protect against the most obvious and damaging attacks. Microsoft has already issued one for Windows; ARM has a set of mitigations for its affected chips; Amazon is updating its many servers. How broadly and quickly will these mitigation patches be applied, though? How many devices are out there, vulnerable, right now? These updates may not be pretty, perhaps requiring changes that will break other software, drivers, and components. And all will likely involve degrading performance. A more permanent fix will require significant changes across the board — the circuit board, that is. Basic architecture choices that have been baked into our devices for years, even decades, will have to be rethought. It won’t be easy, and it won’t be fun. In the meantime companies are working at full capacity to minimize the apparent threat: “mitigations” that may or may not prevent some or all of the variant attacks. As usual, these patches will likely reach only a small subset of new, fast-updating users and devices, or those the company can update directly on its own. We will only know the efficacy of these measures by their performance in the real world. It’s worth noting that there won’t be a “recall.” If this flaw affected a single device, like the battery problems in Samsung’s phones a while back, a recall would make sense. But this is an issue that affects millions, perhaps billions of devices. A recall isn’t an option. : A planned joint disclosure was preempted by reporters. It’s always a bit odd to hear that companies were informed of a major security flaw like this one months ago, as was the case with Meltdown and Spectre. This particular exploit has been under investigation for some time by researchers, and word of it trickled out in the form of small updates to various operating systems addressing a hitherto-undocumented security flaw. If the researchers just tweeted out the details when they discovered them, it would essentially be giving attackers access to that information at the same time as the companies that can fix the problem. Generally security investigators do what’s called responsible disclosure, contacting affected companies secretly, either as a simple courtesy or in order to collaborate on a solution. In this case Google contacted Intel several months ago, and no doubt others knew to some degree as well, since Microsoft issued patches to insiders well ahead of the public announcement, and Linux distributions were likewise addressing the issue even though the papers describing the flaw were not out yet. The plan would normally be that the affected company or companies would come up with a solution, quietly apply it, then announce both the flaw and the solution at the same time. And in fact that seems to be what was planned in this case. , which among others put together the disparate pieces, seems to have forced the hands of several billion-dollar companies. The companies scrambled to finalize their statements, addressing “inaccurate” media reports and hastily issuing patches and explanations that likely weren’t due until next week. While some may suggest that El Reg should have let things take their course, there’s a great deal to be said for not allowing the billion-dollar companies in question to completely control the narrative around a major issue like this. If the only version of the story we ever heard was one approved by their joint committee, things would likely have been painted in a different light. As the researchers put it at the end of the the Spectre paper: The vulnerabilities in this paper, as well as many others, arise from a longstanding focus in the technology industry on maximizing performance. As a result, processors, compilers, device drivers, operating systems, and numerous other critical components have evolved compounding layers of complex optimizations that introduce security risks. As the costs of insecurity rise, these design choices need to be revisited, and in many cases alternate implementations optimized for security will be required. |
Apple readies Siri for the HomePod by adding a podcast-powered news brief | Brian Heater | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | null |
null | Sarah Perez | 2,018 | 8 | 22 | null |
Instagram tests letting users post Stories directly to WhatsApp | Ingrid Lunden | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Last October, Facebook extended the usage (and flexibility) of Instagram Stories — the Snapchat-like feature that lets you patch together photos and videos into a slide show — by making it easy to . Now Facebook is looking at how to bring WhatsApp into the fold. TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that the company is now running a test to let users post their Instagram Stories directly to WhatsApp, as a WhatsApp Status, a corresponding Snapchat-like feature in the latter messaging app where decorated photos, videos and GIFs can be posted with encryption, disappearing after 24 hours. An Instagram Story posted as a WhatsApp Status also becomes encrypted like the rest of WhatsApp. “We are always testing ways to improve the experience on Instagram and make it easier to share any moment with the people who matter to you,” a spokesperson said. From what we understand, the feature is currently being tested with a small number of users. It’s based on that WhatsApp makes available to integrate WhatsApp messaging with third-party apps on the web or on Android. Users get an option to tap to share to WhatsApp from the Instagram sharing screen, but they still have to press “send” in WhatsApp to post the story. The reader who tipped us off on it is based in Brazil, where a has also been reporting several sightings in the wild, one of which (on Android) is pictured here, with the Instagram Story on the left, and the WhatsApp Status cross-posted on the right (note the Instagram icon in the corner). (Coincidentally, the Instagram-Stories-posted-to-Facebook feature was originally , another Portuguese-speaking country.) There are a few reasons why Facebook may be interested in making Instagram Stories more shareable, and specifically on WhatsApp. The first of these seems simple enough: it’s to give one more bit of functionality and therefore usage to Instagram Stories, which are already very popular and as of last June were of the Snapchat product they were designed to clone. Facebook tells me that as of last November there were more than 300 million daily active users of Instagram Stories. Adding the ability to share to WhatsApp will give those Stories even more ways of generating traffic, especially in countries where WhatsApp is already hugely popular and outstripping usage of Facebook or its Messenger app. The second reason could be to help spur more usage of WhatsApp Status. This was ostensibly the reason for why Facebook enabled Instagram Story sharing to Facebook, whose own Stories feature I personally never see get used that much and has been described by my colleague Josh as a . The same isn’t the case for Status, though, which Facebook tells me is seeing similar levels of usage to Instagram Stories, also with more than 300 million DAUs as of November. (The relative popularity of all these apps and features is also one drawback to the cross-posting feature: inevitably, there will be people who use them all, which might lead to people getting bored and annoyed at seeing the same content everywhere they look. Ideally Facebook is also working on a way of calibrating Stories, so that if you’ve already seen one in one app, like Instagram, the same exact thing won’t be popping up for you again in a Facebook Story and then a WhatsApp Status.) The third (and maybe most interesting) reason for testing this feature is that Facebook has been steadily working on ways of not only extending the time spent in specific apps, but also how to better usher people from one Facebook-owned app to another, encouraging usage even when the apps are not open. This has taken some different forms so far. Last May, the company started testing between Facebook, Messenger and Instagram to alert people to when they had mentions or messages in any of them. Then last month, Facebook launched a in Facebook ads, monetizing WhatsApp but not on WhatsApp itself. And there have also on iOS. Encouraging Story posting between Instagram and WhatsApp Status is notable because it gives a little more social media spin to WhatsApp, which Facebook acquired in 2014 for $19 billion with the explicit of Facebook. As it happens, the new feature that’s being tested bypass Facebook’s flagship apps completely. Together, this could all help Facebook grow its overall engagement and traffic footprint. Conversely, it also could spell one more way to destabilize Snapchat and potentially any other app that has any lesser infrastructure to keep your content getting seen by the people you know, whatever app they happen to be using. We’ll update this post as we learn more. |
Apple picks up Reese Witherspoon thriller starring Octavia Spencer | Darrell Etherington | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Apple is adding another TV project to its upcoming slate: , a crime show based on America’s love affair with true crime podcasts (which are, ultimately, all Apple’s fault). The show has a lot of star power attached, as it’s executive produced by Reese Witherspoon and will star Oscar-winning actress Octavia Spencer (via ). The series is also created by Nichelle Tramble Spellman, a writer and producer for , and one half of the creative team behind HBO’s controversial series. Spellman will also write the series, and producer Sarah Koenig will consult to make sure the true crime podcast elements have that real, true crime feel. This marks the fourth series Apple is reportedly working on, including the anthology series revival, the as-yet unnamed morning news TV show drama starring Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston and the Ronald D. Moore-created space drama, all of which were picked up directly to series. is based on a novel written by Kathleen Barber, which was published last summer and focuses on what happens to a murder victim’s daughter when a hit podcast sheds new light on her father’s murder. |
Google’s Project Zero team discovered critical CPU flaw last year | Ron Miller | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | In Google’s Security team announced what they have done to protect Google Cloud customers against . They also indicated their Project Zero team discovered this vulnerability last year (although they weren’t specific with the timing). The company stated that it informed the chip makers of the issue, which is caused by a process known as “speculative execution.” This is an advanced technique that enables the chip to essentially guess what instructions might logically be coming next to speed up execution. Unfortunately, that capability is vulnerable to malicious actors who could access critical information stored in memory, including encryption keys and passwords. According to Google, this affects all chip makers, including those from AMD, ARM and Intel (although ). In a blog post, was confined to their chips, as had been reported by some outlets. The Google Security team wrote that they began taking steps to protect Google services from the flaw as soon as they learned about it. If you’re wondering why they didn’t tell the public about it as soon as they learned about it, it’s because there was supposed to be a coordinated release coming up next week (on January 9th). When the news leaked, Google, Intel and other interested parties decided to release the information to end speculation. The good news is that if you are using Google Apps/G Suite, you don’t need to take any action. Other Google Cloud users will have to take some steps to mitigate their risk. You should on which products and services require user action. |
FCC Chairman Ajit Pai’s CES appearance has been canceled | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | If you hoped to attend with FCC Chairman Ajit Pai at CES, I have bad news: he won’t be there. In a tersely worded statement, Consumer Technology Association head Gary Shapiro announced: Unfortunately, Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai is unable to attend CES 2018. We look forward to our next opportunity to host a technology policy discussion with him before a public audience. The CTA and FCC both declined to offer any further comment. Reasons for cancellation with such late notice could be almost anything (and on either side), but one would expect in the case of a sudden scheduling conflict (not uncommon with government officials) or personal leave, the CTA’s statement would have reflected that. Certainly the CTA has no reason to cancel; despite the unpopularity of Pai’s policies, the talk would certainly have been well attended and perhaps even productive. The session would have been moderated by Shapiro and Pai would have been joined by the Chairman of the FTC, Maureen Ohlhausen. The CTA has not replied to my question as to whether it will be cancelled or if it will go on regardless of Pai’s absence. : Recode that the cancellation was due to death threats. When reached for comment, the FCC told me that “We do not comment on security measures or concerns.” |
Spider silk startup Bolt Threads closes on $123 million in Series D funding | Sarah Buhr | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Bolt Threads, the startup making spider silk from microbugs, has raised a giant $123 million Series D round of funding. As we in November, an showed the company had raised $106 million from Formation 8. Bolt now tells TechCrunch it has added to that amount for this round, bringing up its total to $213 million raised so far. The funding was led by Baillie Gifford, with additional participation from the aforementioned Formation 8, as well as Founders Fund, Fidelity Management, Research Company and Temasek. Allen & Company LLC advised on the transaction and participated in the round. Bolt Threads has made great strides since it launched in 2009 with an ambitious endeavor to make spider silk, a material stronger than Teflon but softer than a cloud — and more abundant. have tried to do something similar in the past without success — but Bolt Threads has spun the impossible into gold with the debut of its first item of clothing, a , in early 2017. The company has since partnered with the likes of Patagonia and Stella McCartney and acquired the , an online site providing makers with craftsman tools and products. Bolt will use the Series D funding to continue the development and commercialization of its
materials made from microorganisms. “The past year has been a major step forward for us at Bolt Threads,” co-founder and CEO Dan Widmaier said. “After years of research and development, we’re proud to be the first to bring man-made spider silk to market, but we know this just scratches the surface of what’s possible in materials innovation. With this capital, we will continue to refine our processes, and we look forward to a number of exciting brand partnerships and products slated for 2018.” However, the company did not elaborate on what those “exciting” partnerships and products would be. |
Google faces revised gender-pay lawsuit | Megan Rose Dickey | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Google is facing a revised gender-pay class-action lawsuit that alleges Google underpaid women in comparison with their male counterparts and asked new hires about their prior salaries, . The revised lawsuit also adds a fourth complainant, Heidi Lamar, who was a teacher at Google’s Children Center in Palo Alto for four years. The original suit was dismissed last month due to the fact the plaintiffs defined the class of affected workers too broadly. Now, the revised lawsuit focuses on those who hold engineer, manager, sales or early childhood education positions. “We disagree with the central allegations of this amended lawsuit,” Google spokesperson Gina Scigliano said in a statement to TechCrunch. “We work really hard to create a great workplace for everyone, and to give everyone the chance to thrive here. Job levels and promotions are determined through rigorous hiring and promotion committees, and must pass multiple levels of review, including checks to make sure there is no bias in these decisions.” The revised lawsuit comes a couple of days after a new California law went into effect that prohibits employers from asking applicants about their prior salaries. If someone voluntarily discloses their prior pay, the law requires employers not to use the information to set current salaries. California Governor Jerry Brown banning salary history inquires last October. For those keeping track of Google’s gender-pay discrimination woes, this lawsuit is separate from the Department of Labor’s probe into Google’s pay practices. Last January, the DoL in an attempt to obtain compensation data from the tech giant as part of a routine compliance evaluation. Because Google is a federal contractor, it is required to let the government review documents and other information that is relevant to the company’s compliance with equal employment laws. In April, that pay inequities at Google are “systemic.” “We found systemic compensation disparities against women pretty much across the entire workforce,” Department of Labor Regional Director Janette Wipper said in court in April. Google, however, denied the DoL’s claims that the pay inequities at the company were systemic. In June, an administrative law judge sided with Google, . Google its own analysis that suggests there is no gender pay gap at the company. |
Tesla made 2,425 Model 3s in Q4 2017, aims to make 2,500 weekly by end of Q1 2018 | Darrell Etherington | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Tesla produced a lot more Model 3 cars during the last quarter of 2017 than it did during Q3: it produced 2,425 cars during the quarter, adding to its production total of 23,565 vehicles overall, including Model S and Model X vehicles. That’s a significant increase from the 260 it made in Q3 last year, but still off its expected pace (even after revising its targets downward). The production total for Q4 comes via Tesla’s , which precedes its earnings release. The company also revealed that it delivered a total of 29,870 cars during the most recent quarter, including 15,200 Model S, 13,120 Model X and 1,550 Model 3. It’s Tesla’s new best-ever all-time quarter for Model S and Model X deliveries, boosting the total deliveries 9 percent over its previous record (Q3 of last year). Tesla says that it made progress addressing the bottlenecks that have been inhibiting the pace of production thus far, with production ramping so much during the end of the quarter that puts them on pace to be able to manage 1,000 vehicles per week in terms of output. By the end of Q1 2018, Tesla says it should be able to hit a rate of around 2,500 cars per week being produced, which will help it reach its 5,000 per week target hopefully by the end of Q2. Initially, Tesla thought it would be able to meet a target production rate of around 1,500 vehicles for its first quarter in production, so it’s at least exceeded that during Q4. Tesla CEO Elon Musk has described the process of getting the Model 3 production queue online as “production hell” in prior statements. |
Responding to ‘incorrect’ reports, Intel says major flaw affects ‘many different vendors’ | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Reports this morning that Intel processors are that may reduce performance significantly hit the company’s credibility and stock hard. Intel has now officially responded to these reports, calling them “incorrect” and “inaccurate,” and saying it had planned to discuss this very issue next week. The flaw makes it possible for ordinary users and processes to access data deep in the inner mechanisms of the processor and architecture — specifically, kernel memory. The possibilities for bad actors taking advantage of such a gaping hole are numerous, and unfortunately there is no easy solution that does not also slow the processor’s operations considerably. , issued “because of the current inaccurate media reports,” Intel writes: Recent reports that these exploits are caused by a “bug” or a “flaw” and are unique to Intel products are incorrect. Based on the analysis to date, many types of computing devices — with many different vendors’ processors and operating systems — are susceptible to these exploits. In other words, it’s not just them. This may seem like deflection, but it’s also possible that the issue more widespread than just Intel hardware — and Intel isn’t likely to blow smoke with a claim that can’t be verified. Other major chip and OS companies are almost certainly all already aware of the problem; indeed, Intel says some were about to make a joint announcement: Intel is committed to product and customer security and is working closely with many other technology companies, including AMD, ARM Holdings and several operating system vendors, to develop an industry-wide approach to resolve this issue promptly and constructively. Intel and other vendors had planned to disclose this issue next week when more software and firmware updates will be available. You can expect most official details then; joint disclosures of major security issues by billion-dollar companies tend to come out on their own time. ( : However, some companies are issuing emergency fixes and press releases today. This story is developing.) Intel downplayed the performance hit: “Contrary to some reports, any performance impacts are workload-dependent, and, for the average computer user, should not be significant and will be mitigated over time,” the statement read. That’s good, but no doubt the impact will be measured carefully by benchmarks and explained in detail — some setups and applications will surely be affected more than others. |
Designing blockchains for a frictionless world | Faisal Khan | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | |
Apple Developer Program fee waivers are now available for nonprofits, schools and government | Sarah Perez | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Apple today it will begin allowing select publishers to associated with its App Developer Program. Specifically, the new fee waivers will be offered to “nonprofit organizations, accredited educational institutions, and government entities,” says Apple. For starters, the waivers will be available in the U.S., but the company had said in December it plans to make them available to more markets over time. This change originally came about due to , which banned templated-based apps from the store. The move has drastically impacted small businesses, schools, nonprofits and other organizations from being able to effectively and affordably conduct business on the App Store. In its revised App Store developer guidelines, it would reject any apps created from “a commercialized template or app generation service.” Unfortunately for the small players in this space, templates and third-party services are often how they enter the App Store. They generally don’t have the resources or in-house developer talent to create a custom app from scratch, as Apple would prefer. After developer outcry, media coverage ( ), and , Apple made a revision to the guidelines to lessen the blow. To be clear, the company still wants nothing to do with templated apps. Instead, it thinks apps should offer something more than what you could access on the mobile web – they should be a different, unique experience. This position makes sense in terms of removing the “clutter” from the App Store and sets a quality bar for developers to meet, which in turn ensures a quality experience for consumers. But it also ignores the fact that apps are the primary way mobile users access the internet. For example, from Flurry showed that mobile browser usage dropped from 20 percent in 2013 to just 8 percent in 2016, with the rest of mobile users’ time spent in apps. To help make its demands for “un-templated” apps more palatable, It said that apps with a “picker” model (like a restaurant finder) were still acceptable. And it said that app template providers were no longer allowed to submit apps on behalf of their small business clients or other organizations – like nonprofits, schools, and government entities. To make sure Apple wasn’t unduly impacting this non-business customer base, Apple said it would begin waiving the $99 Apple Developer Program membership fee in “early 2018.” That day has now arrived. To have the fee waived, qualifying organizations and institutions can , after they’ve (if they hadn’t already). The fee waiver will request information that includes the EIN/tax ID issued by the IRS, the Apple ID, and the organization’s D‑U‑N‑S Number (to verify its identity and legal status). Apple says the organization must also be a legal entity – it will not accept DBAs, fictitious businesses, trade names, or branches. This is, in part, because Apple was concerned about how the app templating providers were submitting apps on behalf of clients. That meant the businesses whose apps were in the App Store weren’t actually reading through Apple’s terms or binding themselves in legal agreements. In addition, Apple says the person enrolling the app into the developer program must also have the legal authority to do so. That is, they need to be the organization’s owner/founder, executive team member, senior project lead, or have legal authority granted to you by a senior employee, says Apple. Again, this is because Apple wants to establish a direct relationship with all its app publishers. The fee waiver is available to existing organizations whose apps are already live, too. This will allow them to waive the fee when it comes up for annual renewal going forward. However, no refunds – full or partial – will be offered, says Apple. |
Didi confirms it has acquired 99 in Brazil to expand in Latin America | Ingrid Lunden | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Earlier today, we that Didi was in the process of acquiring 99, a ridesharing company in Brazil, and now the two companies have confirmed the deal as part of Didi’s plans to expand its service into Latin America. Terms of the deal were not disclosed — we are asking — but earlier today we noted that Didi was effectively putting in $900 million — $600 million to buy out investors, plus an additional $300 million of further investment into the business and its expansion plans — effectively giving the company a valuation of $1 billion (after you add in Didi’s original $100 million investment in 99 in January of last year). The deal gives Didi — through its partnerships with other companies like Grab and Lyft, franchises such as in Taiwan, and through its direct ownership of services in China — coverage in 1,000 cities, touching more than 60 percent of the world’s population. It says it currently has 450 million users of the Didi app. “The success that founders and team of 99 have achieved in Brazil embody the very spirit of entrepreneurship and innovation in the LatAm region,” said Chen Wei, Founder and CEO of DiDi, in a statement. “Building on the deep trust between our two teams, this new level of integration will bring to the region more convenient, value-added mobility services. “Globalization is a top strategic priority for DiDi. With enhanced investments in AI capabilities and smart transportation solutions, we will continue to advance the transformation of global transportation and automotive industries through diversified international operations and partnerships,” he added. “We feel privileged to be now a single organization with an even stronger purpose: improve the transportation industry and massively impact the lives of billions of people worldwide,” said Peter Fernandez, CEO of 99, in a statement. “We are confident that being part of Didi Chuxing will vastly enhance our capability to expand our services throughout Brazil to bring critical value to users, drivers and cities.” This is a significant move also because up to now, Didi has primarily been focused on taking investments in like-minded regional leaders rather than acquiring them outright. Its last major acquisition was buying out Uber in China in 2016, to help consolidate its leadership in that market and wipe out some of the huge (and costly) effort of competing with Uber. The company is reportedly also now looking to move deeper into bike sharing, reportedly also just today , Bluegogo. It also . We’ll update this story as we learn more. |
Google is about to force you to use its new Calendar design | Frederic Lardinois | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Last October, Google a redesigned look and feel for Google Calendar on the desktop. Not everybody loves the design (including me, though have told me I’m wrong), but soon your opinion won’t matter because Google is about to upgrade your Calendar to the new design anyway. As the company today, G Suite users whose admins to be on the Rapid Release schedule will be auto-upgraded starting January 8th, and those on the Scheduled Release plan will be upgraded starting January 15th. You’ll still be able to opt out of the new UI until February 28th, but after that, “all users will be fully upgraded.” It’s worth noting that the new design is only one aspect of the refreshed Calendar. It also includes new features for making conference room bookings easier and allows you to apply rich formatting to Calendar invites. Personally, I still went back to the old design because I prefer the more compact view, but as I said above, there’s a good chance I’m wrong. Feel free to tell me I’m right in the comments. |
FanDuel is giving away bitcoin to winners of a fantasy football tournament | Fitz Tepper | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | Daily fantasy sports platform FanDuel just announced , a promotion that will last the length of the NFL playoffs and give winners a chance to win some bitcoin. They’ll be – one is a single-entry free contest where the winner wins 1 bitcoin, and one is a multi-entry $3 contest that has a tiered payout – 1st place will get 2 bitcoin, 2nd place will get .5 bitcoin, and 3rd and 4th place will get .25 bitcoin. What’s interesting is that the value isn’t pegged to USD, meaning the winner will get the specified amount of bitcoin regardless of what happens to the cryptocurrency’s price in the next few weeks. “ has always sought to deliver the most unique and rewarding experiences or prizes to our users,” said CFO Andy Giancamilli in a statement. “In awarding Bitcoin, we’re recognizing that most of our users are early adopters of technology and have a significant interest in cryptocurrency.” To be clear FanDuel isn’t accepting entry fees in Bitcoin and for right now this is a one-time promotion – but it’s yet another sign that people outside of the tech world are starting to notice the cryptocurrency and are being drawn to anything that will give them a chance to get some of their own. Oh, in case you were wondering – yes the Bitcoin Bowl should sound familiar. In 2014 , which is the NCAA football college bowl game at Tropicana Field in St. Petersburg Florida – and totally unrelated to FanDuel’s new promotion. |
After Meltdown and Spectre revelation, questions arise about timing of Intel CEO’s stock sales | Catherine Shu | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | The timing of Intel CEO Brian Krzanich’s is raising questions because a Securities and Exchange Commission filing appeared to show that the transactions were planned after the company was informed about , but before they were made public. The shares were sold in accordance with a SEC Rule 10b5-1 plan, which is intended to prevent illegal insider trading by allowing company executives to create predetermined, automatic selling plans. The Form 4 filed by Krzanich, however, state that the plan was adopted on October 30, 2017—months after about the bugs in June, which in turn were only made public this week in reports by and other media. An Intel spokesperson told TechCrunch that “Brian’s sale is unrelated. It was made pursuant to a pre-arranged stock sale plan (10b5-1) with an automated sale schedule. He continues to hold shares in-line with corporate guidelines,” the same statement sent to other media outlets. After the transactions disclosed in the SEC filing, however, Krzanich owns 250,000 shares—or the minimum that he is required to hold as Intel’s CEO, as . According to the Form 4, Krzanich held 495,743 shares before making the transactions listed in the filing. Krzanich first exercised stock options by acquiring and then immediately selling about 644,000 shares on November 29, which left his original position unchanged. Then on the same day, Krzanich made two additional transactions in which he sold a total of 245,743 shares—and this brought his total remaining shares down to exactly 250,000. It’s important to note that executives often sell their shares and that’s not necessarily an indicator of the company’s performance. But even without the fallout from Meltdown and Spectre (which included after they were made public), Krzanich’s sale is noteworthy because executives usually hold onto more shares than they are required to own to signal confidence to investors, so this will very likely cast a cloud over Krzanich’s CES keynote address next week. |
Chinese game streaming platform Chushou raises Series D, adds Google as investor | Catherine Shu | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | Google has added Chinese mobile game live streaming platform Chushou to its list of investments in Asia. The Beijing-based startup announced today that it has closed a Series D round, which Google joined as a new investor, that brings its total funding so far to over $120 million. Chushou’s previous investors Qiming Venture, Shunwei Capital and Alpha X Capital, also returned for this round. Chushou did not disclose the size of the Series D, but its last round of funding, , was $58 million and prior to that it had raised about $20 million. TechCrunch has learned that last week, which put Chushou’s new round at 500 million RMB (about $77 million), weren’t accurate. Google’s investments in Asia now span game live streaming (Chushou), artificial intelligence (Mobvoi, also in China), task outsourcing (India’s Dunzo) and hardware (HTC in Taiwan), while CapitalG (formerly Google Capital), the late-stage growth fund owned by Google parent company Alphabet, has backed high-speed optical transceiver manufacturer Innolight in China and several Indian startups, including Practo, Commonfloor and Cuemath. In a press statement, Frank Lin, Google’s principal of corporate development in north Asia, said “Chushou has built an impressive platform, with a dedicated and quickly growing base of content creators and consumers, and smart expansion plans. We’re excited to be supporting Chushou through this investment to help them execute those plans, bringing great mobile gaming content to more people around the world.” Launched in August 2015, Chushou says it now has more than eight million unique streamers, with on average 250,000 streamers live streaming each day. About 90 million gamers have registered to watch streams of more than 1,000 games, which Chushou says means it runs the most active mobile gaming online community in China. |
India’s national ID database is reportedly accessible for less than $10 | Jon Russell | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | The nightmare is a reality in India. Reports from the country suggest that the government’s national ID system — Aadhaar, which holds personal data belonging to more than one billion people — was compromised. On the slight positive side, the breach wasn’t down to hackers — at least on this occasion. The access hole was publicized after a man less than $10 in exchange for administration access to the database. Reporters from the paper were then given a username and password that allowed them to access information on any citizen by entering their 12-digit number. It gets worse. down — a man going by the pseudonym Anil Kumar — and he told the publication that The Tribune deal was just one of eight transactions that he made that week. Each time he sold access to the database for 500 INR, around $8, using a contact he had on WhatsApp to get the requirement admin name and password. “I paid Rs. 6,000 (approximately $95) to an anonymous person in a WhatsApp group I was a part of to create a username and password to the Aadhaar database for myself. I was told that I could then create as many usernames and passwords to access the database as I wanted. I sold each of them to make my Rs. 6,000 back,” Kumar told BuzzFeed. In response to the situation, India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party took a line right out of President Trump playbook, calling reports of a breach “fake news.” Tribune's report suggesting the data breach at is fake news! — BJP (@BJP4India) Notably, the term ‘breach’ doesn’t exactly fit the story here. Gaining access by paying a third-party isn’t really a breach, that’s just a hell of a messed up situation that can happen when a government uses a string of contractors to manage a highly-sensitive project. Aadhaar isn’t mandatory in India, but a massive campaign to sign citizens up made it almost feel like it was last year. The ID system has crept into a range of services, such as school enrollment, ration disbursements and other national/government projects. Facebook even embraced it via a pilot that . Facebook tested linking new accounts with Aadhaar ID details in December Aside from the privacy issue of a government sucking up personal details — and this obvious security risk — there have been reports of tragedies at the hands of the program. In October, had died from starvation because her family was refused rations for failing to sign up to Aadhaar. In the same state, in the same circumstances on Christmas Day. , which linked IDs to citizen’s mobile phone numbers, . There have also been many warnings over lax security, including unearthed in July. Even given that backdrop, this week’s revelations have shocked the nation by showing just how easy (and cheap) it can be to gain access. There’s lots of uncertainty in the confusion following these reports, but one thing is clear. India’s citizens deserve a better response from their government than an accusation of fake news. |
Crunch Report | Ethereum Hits $1,000 a Coin | Khaled "Tito" Hamze | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | Tito Hamze
Tito Hamze
Tito Hamze
Joe Zolnoski TechCrunch C/O Tito Hamze
410 Townsend street
Suite 100
San Francisco Ca. 94107 |
Travis Kalanick reportedly plans to sell about 29% of his Uber shares | Catherine Shu | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | Uber founder and former CEO Travis Kalanick plans to sell nearly a third of his shares in the company, . The transaction would be part of the tender offer in which valuing it at $48 billion, a . According to Bloomberg’s sources, Kalanick wants to sell 29% of his stake and would make about $1.4 billion. Kalanick, who but remains on Uber’s board of directors, currently owns about 10 percent of the ride-sharing company. Bloomberg’s sources say he originally wanted to offer up to half of his Uber stake, but couldn’t because of limits in the tender offer agreement. Kalanick stands to become a billionaire if the sale goes through, but the deal is also notable because he claimed during the Vanity Fair New Establishment Summit in October 2016 that , even though he was still paying the mortgage on his home. Of course, a lot has changed in the past 15 months, including accusations of a toxic workplace culture that led to a internal investigation over sexual harassment at the company, Kalanick’s resignation and, most recently, SoftBank’s investment in Uber, which is expected to close later this month. SoftBank agreed to buy at least a 14% stake after years of backing ride-sharing rivals around the world, including Didi Chuxing. SoftBank’s deal with Uber will , including blocking him from being appointed chairman of its board in the future. Benchmark Capital, which sued Kalanick over his power to appoint board seats, will also drop the lawsuit once SoftBank’s investment is completed. TechCrunch has contacted Uber for comment. |
Facebook Watch is adding clips from the CBS late-night lineup | Jonathan Shieber | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | Short-form content from CBS’ late-night shows “ and “ ” will now appear on , . It’s the latest effort by Facebook to . Clips of the Late Show with Stephen Colbert, , will begin this evening. Fans of the late-night “Carpool Karaoke”-driven antics of James Corden will have to wait til Monday January 8th, when the show returns from hiatus, according to a Variety report. While Facebook’s numbers aren’t lights-out compared with the YouTube juggernaut, most of its shows are pulling in viewers in the millions (respectable for late-night shows that look at an audience of 3 million as a win). Terms of the deal between CBS and Facebook weren’t disclosed, but Facebook is clearly hoping that Watch can be a tool to unseat the dominant streaming video player in the market — YouTube. By June of last year, YouTube Red (Alphabet’s subscription service) had racked . Colbert also posts basically the entirety of its show to YouTube, and CBS has its own premium service in . So Watch isn’t the only place that viewers can see Colbert’s full-throated criticism of the current administration — it’s just the latest. |
GoPro cuts 200-300 jobs, largely impacting its drone division | Matt Burns | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | In a letter to impacted employees GoPro explained t TechCrunch has been informed by sources that the company relieved impacted employees of duties today but will keep them on the payroll until February 16, likely planning to hold this news for after CES and perhaps tie it to an upcoming earnings report as in past instances. But it’s been precisely those attempts to diversify that have been on the chopping block for the company. GoPro’s entertainment division was a key target . It seems, however, that the rebound wasn’t enough to right the ship completely. We’ve reached out to GoPro for comment and will update as soon as we hear back. |
Spotify hits 70 million subscribers | Megan Rose Dickey | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | , Spotify just announced it’s killing it on the subscriber front. As of today, Spotify has 70 million subscribers compared to Apple Music’s 30 million. Last July, Spotify had more than 60 million paid listeners and over 140 million active users. Hello 70 million subscribers 👏 — Spotify (@Spotify) There’s essentially no better time than one day after news leaks about Spotify’s confidential filing to go public to announce a new milestone. Just yesterday, that Spotify filed with the SEC at the end of December. However, TechCrunch’s Katie Roof has heard differently, . As Roof notes, there also is talk that it might not be an IPO, but rather a that does not require a fundraising event. Spotify’s milestone also comes shortly after . The suit, filed December 29, alleges copyright infringement, specifically alleging Spotify is using thousands of its songs without a proper license. The lawsuit seeks at least $1.6 billion in damages and injunctive relief. |
Apple says Meltdown and Spectre flaws affect ‘all Mac systems and iOS devices,’ but not for long | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | Apple isn’t immune to , the major bugs in basic computing architecture that were announced yesterday to widespread amazement and horror. , the company said that “all Mac systems and iOS devices are affected,” which sounds right, but that mitigations are either already in place or on the way. If you’re still not clear on the whole debacle, I on it yesterday. Basically, a couple of tricks processors have been using for decades turn out to have a couple extremely serious vulnerabilities and could be used to reveal all kinds of protected data to malicious actors. Fortunately, as Apple puts it, “there are no known exploits impacting customers at this time.” But you better believe it won’t stay that way for long. To prevent being the lucky first victim (that we know of) of one of the most serious security issues of the decade, please do check if your devices are up to date. For some devices, it was handled a while ago: “Apple released mitigations for Meltdown in iOS 11.2, macOS 10.13.2, and tvOS 11.2.” Apple Watch is safe, since Meltdown is a problem with Intel processors and it doesn’t have any. Although reports have warned of performance hits, Apple says it has observed “no measurable reduction” in benchmark scores. For Spectre, which is a trickier beast both to take advantage of and to fix, patches are forthcoming. “Apple will release an update for Safari on macOS and iOS in the coming days to mitigate these exploit techniques.” If you’re wondering why people keep saying “mitigate” instead of “fix” or “counteract” or something, it’s because Meltdown and Spectre take advantage of computing practices so basic that avoiding them is extremely difficult and complex. And new variants of attacks may very well circumvent the protections companies have put together during the last few months during which the exploits were kept secret. The mitigations and patches will probably multiply. In the meantime, since the exploits seem to only apply to code running natively on your machine, Apple’s advice is “downloading software only from trusted sources such as the App Store.” Nice try, Apple! I’d rather face an existential threat to computing than use the Mac App Store. |
Game of Thrones isn’t coming back until 2019 | Taylor Hatmaker | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | Winter isn’t coming any time soon. Today HBO broke it to dedicated fans the world over that won’t be returning until 2019. Game of Thrones star actress Sophie Turner gave as much away in an interview with last month, though many fans were still awaiting an official confirmation of their darkest fears. HBO’s choice to announce the eighth season date in the new year probably dampened the psychological impact for fans, who will wait more than a year for the wildly suspenseful show to return after the season seven finale, “The Dragon and the Wolf,” aired on August 27, 2017. HBO confirmed that the final season will be a six-episode run, though we’re hoping that plenty of those clock in over 60 minutes, given how many loose ends there are and the show’s propensity to run long. Along with the news, HBO indicated that it will switch things up a little with David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, David Nutter and Miguel Sapochnik directing the season. The writing team will consist of David Benioff, D.B. Weiss, Bryan Cogman and Dave Hill. Yep, that means no women on the directorial or writing teams — a thing we’ll keep complaining about until the industry moves toward anything resembling gender parity. Considering that it’s the fourth day of the new year, 2019 is a long way off for many fans, who have taken to Twitter to express their grief in meme form. Will I (or any of us) be alive? Dunno! — Kate Aurthur (@KateAurthur) JUST IN: HBO says Game of Thrones won't be back until 2019 Our thoughts: — WUSA9 (@wusa9) If there’s a hole in your heart where the intricate, cutthroat political drama goes, might we suggest paying close attention to the U.S. 2018 midterm elections? There are no dragons or extended action sequences (hopefully?), but the political intrigue, unrelenting drama and ever present world-rending danger definitely give Westeros a run for its money. |
Jimmy Iovine is reportedly leaving Apple this year | Megan Rose Dickey | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | Jimmy Iovine, the music mogul who sold Beats to Apple in 2014, is reportedly leaving Apple later this year (in August), . Word on the street is that Iovine’s departure is timed with his Apple shares fully vesting, according to Billboard. , Apple paid $3 billion for the headphone maker and streaming music service. As part of the deal, Iovine and Beats co-founder Dr. Dre joined Apple as employees. Iovine previously co-founded Interscope Records and has been involved in the production of more than 250 albums. While at Apple, Iovine has helped develop and grow Apple Music since its launch in 2015. Under Iovine’s leadership, Apple Music moved into video and original programming. Apple Music currently , while Spotify has 70 million subscribers. Just last month, , the popular app that lets people identify songs, TV shows, films and advertising in a matter of seconds. I’ve reached out to Apple and will update this story if I hear back. |
This bot unrolls Twitter threads and turns them into readable blog posts | Taylor Hatmaker | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | For as much as its users love to hate on their platform of choice, Twitter occasionally really comes through with a deep dive on a hot topic that provides actual, meaningful insight. Such an event is almost enough to remind us why we all fritter our lives away on there to begin with. Remember when we used to ? Like, we issued thoughts in sentences and paragraphs instead of a series of social media convulsions? It used to happen! This is kind of like that. A Twitter bot called (@threadreaderapp) can take your barely readable Twitter rant of choice and transform it into normal text served up on a sparse, normal looking page. You might have noticed these “unrolled” threads — they’re popping up all over. I'm a Twitter bot here to help you read threads more easily. To trigger me, you just have to reply to (or quote) any tweet of the thread you want to unroll and mention me with the "unroll" keyword and I'll send you a link back on Twitter 😀 — Thread Reader Bot (@threadreaderapp) To get your tweetstorm of choice hand-delivered in blog form, you just need to reply to a thread with @threadreaderapp and the keyword “unroll.” While Twitter threads that do the whole 1/347 numbering thing read kind of weirdly, normal chunks of text get sewn together into something very legible indeed. The creator also offers a Chrome extension that turns this process into a simple series of clicks. (We haven’t tested it so, as with all things, download at your own risk.) Really feeling it? You can . https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Na3o6TPc1vY&feature=youtu.be Of course, for every good Twitter thread there are 100 of threads of boring dudes mansplaining. Or 200 of barely sentient conspiracy theorists regurgitating the delusion du jour. If the Thread Reader App’s is any indication, the Pizzagate crowd is loving the option to put tweetstorms into a readable, blog-like format too. While we may not all believe in a clandestine globalist takeover at the hands of the illuminati, I think we can all agree that it’s nice to have more readable Twitter threads! |
FCC issues final version of order eliminating net neutrality rules | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | The FCC has of the order it voted on last month that is . This is the text that will enter the federal register and the official final wording of the new rules and justification thereof. The version you might have read through ahead of the vote was a near-final draft, released as part of Chairman Ajit Pai’s decision to expose a bit more of the inner workings of the Commission; changes will likely have been made, but without close scrutiny it may not be clear what those changes are just yet. In addition to the full, final text of the rule, also released today is Commissioner Mignon Clyburn’s full dissenting statement, which lays out in greater detail her reasons for opposing “Restoring Internet Freedom.” Other Commissioners may add their own more detailed support documents as well. I (and many others) will be poring over these documents for the next hours and days; check back for any updates on this story. In the meantime, be sure to brush up on our recent coverage: |
Apple in good cheer over a billion-dollar Christmas and New Year on the App Store | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | The week after Christmas is a lazy one, but the App Store was working overtime. Apple that the late holiday season brought in more than a billion dollars in purchases on its mobile marketplace. Indeed, $300 million came in on New Year’s Day alone, presumably as everyone made unwise in-app purchases to get through their hangovers. And $890 million was spent in the week starting Christmas Eve, though, unfortunately, Apple doesn’t break it down further than that. More granular numbers would have been handy, as it would have allowed us to compare them to that Christmas Day had a total of $196 million in mobile spending, excluding China — up about 12 percent from last year. Just as a thought exercise: If we were to divide that amount equally throughout the week, that puts Apple at around $126 million on the 25th, leaving $70 million for Google. That’s just spitballing, of course, as Google hasn’t released any data like this, and excluding China tilts the numbers in Apple’s favor. Both companies’ app stores, however, pointed at the holidays’ true winner: Amazon. The Alexa app topped the free charts on both platforms, and Amazon proudly crowed that it had . “Millions” of devices costing anywhere from $25 to $250 add up to quite a sum, and, of course, the gadgets are little more than perennial reminders to sign up for Prime and buy even more things you don’t need. |
null | Frederic Lardinois | 2,018 | 1 | 3 | null |
White House bans personal cellphone use in the West Wing | Taylor Hatmaker | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | In a statement on Thursday, White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders announced that personal cellphones will no longer be allowed in the West Wing. “The security and integrity of the technology systems at the White House is a top priority for the Trump administration and therefore the use of all personal devices for both guests and staff will no longer be allowed in the West Wing. Staff will be able to conduct business on their government-issued devices and continue working hard on behalf of the American people,” Sanders said in a statement on the new policy. Rumors of a potential ban have . “One official said that there are too many devices connected to the campus wireless network and that personal phones aren’t as secure as those issued by the federal government,” sources told in November. White House Chief of Staff John Kelly is widely viewed as a proponent of the move. In February, that then Press Secretary Sean Spicer forced his own staff to undergo surprise “checks” on their personal devices to check for secret communications with the press or other potential leaks. “Upon entering Spicer’s office for what one person briefed on the gathering described as ‘an emergency meeting,’ staffers were told to dump their phones on a table for a ‘phone check,’ to prove they had nothing to hide,” at the time. While the Trump administration is trying to spin the new “no personal device” policy as a security issue, the fact of reporter release this week certainly calls that into doubt. The administration has railed against leaks and leakers since its earliest days and the personal device ban appears to a belated, and likely doomed, effort to control the messaging that spills out of a deeply chaotic presidency. |
Can municipal broadband save the open internet? | Danny Crichton | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | No challenge around the future of the internet looms larger in the coming year than what to do in the aftermath of the repeal of net neutrality. Open internet proponents were stunned at , which struck at the heart of the belief that the internet should be free, fair and open for all users. No such luck, unfortunately. , there are very few options for reversing the decision at the federal level anytime soon. With Republican majorities in Congress and on the Supreme Court, there are no avenues to begin a “repeal of the repeal.” The FCC has voted, and the rule is going to become the rule. That means the battle for an open internet is increasingly being waged at the Internet Service Provider (ISP) level. , few activists believe that commercial ISPs aren’t going to take advantage of the new revenue streams that paid prioritization will provide. Unfortunately for millions of Americans, they have almost no choice in the matter either way. (ILSR), roughly 129 million Americans have options for internet access only from previous net neutrality violators. And for tens of millions of Americans who still only have one ISP to “choose,” there is little hope of avoiding the effects of net neutrality. For activists staring at the map, the only alternative to all of this is to just roll their own solution, and they are increasingly looking at municipal-owned broadband as a viable path for guaranteeing net neutrality. The idea is simple. , and a sort of local utility similar to electricity. It doesn’t make sense for multiple internet providers to lay fiber in the ground, any more than multiple power utilities should construct their own grid. Cities can construct the core infrastructure, and , ISPs can lease bandwidth for their own customers. The idea is hardly novel. Currently, for its citizens according to ILSR, which comprehensively tracks municipal network data. Hundreds more communities have at least some publicly owned broadband infrastructure. Even more exciting, municipal broadband proponents were given a major victory this week in Fort Collins, . That was following a closely watched proposition in the city last November in which to 43 percent. Several other cities, including startup leader , are considering moving in this direction, as well. Municipal broadband seems like the savior of the open internet. Except the challenges its rollout face are so legion that I am deeply unconvinced muni broadband is the solution to the repeal of net neutrality. First, and most obviously, is the level of political spending against these initiatives. Fort Collins, which has a population of 161,000 according to the census, was inundated with political spending from Comcast in the run-up to the vote. According to official disclosure forms, , compared to $15,000 spent by a local citizens group in favor of the measure. Yes, the measure was a success, but why was a measure needed in the first place? Well, because the telecom lobby in Colorado pushed for and got enacted . Since then, dozens of Colorado cities and towns have voted to pursue municipal broadband, so it is possible to get public support for these initiatives. The problem is that the roadblocks will continue at every stage of the buildout process. Even if cities can muster the energy to start building out their networks, actually laying the fiber becomes its own challenge. So far, most of the cities that have built out municipal broadband have been less dense suburban towns, where infrastructure construction is significantly cheaper and faster than in dense urban environments. Fort Collins is an obvious example. With a density of about 3,000 people per square mile, the city is a medium-density city (San Francisco, for comparison, is six times the population density). Even so, the rollout for its municipal broadband is . And that will take even longer if legal challenges from the telecom industry impedes that progress. Perhaps more gravely, the city expects to spend roughly $130-150 million on the rollout and initial launch of municipal broadband, . That comes out to about $1,000 per person, even before any cost overruns or delays are taken into account. That rollout becomes exponentially more complicated and expensive in cities like New York. The closest comp in this area is probably Verizon’s rollout of its Fios service in the region, which, according to some reports, has cost billions of dollars and . Add in the in such cities, and municipal broadband will launch about the time we rocket over to Mars on a Muskmobile. Even if a city can build the network, there are significant operating issues. First is the rapid technology evolution in the internet space. Dialup begot cable which begot fiber, and now . That’s in just two decades. Unlike traditional utilities like water, sewage or even electricity, internet access is evolving at an astonishing rate, and requires continued active investment to maintain cutting edge capability. The second challenge is around content filtering and privacy. While municipal broadband may be free and open, what content will a publicly owned ISP allow through? I have little doubt San Francisco users will be fine, but with tens of thousands of cities in the U.S., will there be variances in the level of internet freedom across the country? Telecom companies are hardly saints on filtering, but they also just want your money. Next year’s mayor may well care about what sites you are surfing. I realize that in some circles, . But overall, I am not buying it. Spending tens of billions of dollars and waiting years for service is not my idea of a good solution to fix net neutrality. If we want to fix net neutrality, then fix it. Although the FCC has ruled the way it has today, that doesn’t mean that the ruling is by any means permanent. Congress can still pass whatever law it wants regarding telecom regulation. As difficult as it is to pass a bill in Congress, it is enormously easier and cheaper than this alternative. |
Hulu and Steven Spielberg are bringing back ‘Animaniacs’ | Darrell Etherington | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | Hulu will be resurrecting 90s animated cartoon hit . Yes, Yakko, Wakko and Dot , from the 90s. In this bizarre twist, which is probably designed to activate some kind of nostalgia center in the brains of 90s kids who are now of child-rearing age, executive producer Steven Spielberg is returning in the same role, and Hulu will also be streaming all existing 99 episodes of , along with and all of which are available today. The new episodes are set to start streaming in 2020, so there’s a couple of years left to wait, but that gives you time to catch up on the existing series. Those hit the air starting in 1993, which makes me feel very old, and also I can’t help thinking about them without tasting peanut butter sandwiches in the back of my throat. This is not the future I was expecting, and honestly it’s probably better than we deserve. |
Appcanary shuts down its vulnerability scanning service as the team joins GitHub | Frederic Lardinois | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | , a that helps developers scan the third-party packages and libraries they use to write their code for potential , today announced that it will shut down its service on June 1 and that the team is joining GitHub. The two companies did not disclose the financial details of the transaction, but our understanding is that this is primarily an acqui-hire. “From when we cofounded , to building (the now defunct) , to , our goal from the beginning was to improve the world’s security by preventing the use of vulnerable software,” Appcanary founders Max Veytsman and Phill Mendonça-Vieira write in today’s announcement. “At the time, this required placing a bet on building a certain kind of business, and for a variety of reasons that bet didn’t work out.” Before the acquisition, Appcanary charged users $29 per month to run up to three agents (to monitor three servers), with pricing going up from there. It’s worth noting that GitHub, too, recently a that helps developers monitor their code for these kind of vulnerabilities. Unsurprisingly, the Appcanary founders note that they will work on “expanding GitHub’s security tooling,” including these previously announced features. A GitHub spokesperson we heard from echoed the general theme of Appcanary’s announcement: “We are excited that the Appcanary team – Phillip Mendonça-Vieira and Max Veytsman – have joined the GitHub team. They will be bringing their expertise to the GitHub community, helping to enhance security offerings for our developer community. GitHub is committed to investment and development of additional functionality in the Security Alerts space.” Come June 1st, Appcanary’s services will all shut down and the founders are directing users to services like , , , and for their vulnerability scanning needs. We're super excited to announce that we're joining GitHub to bring security to the masses! Appcanary the product will continue to be supported for existing customers until June 1st 2018. — Appcanary (@appcanary) |
TiVo debuts its ‘Next-Gen’ platform for pay TV providers looking to fight cord cutting | Sarah Perez | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | TiVo today introduced a new ” as it’s being called, that will allow pay TV operators to better keep up with the changes in how consumers prefer to watch television today. The platform lets operators offer modern-day features to their customers – like personalization, recommendations, voice control, and more to their managed set-top boxes. It also includes support for mobile devices and for customers’ streaming players, like Apple TV, Amazon Fire TV, and Android TV. In short, the platform is TiVo’s bet that operators need help to stem the tide of cord cutting. With better software, they’ll be able to retain their pay TV customers by including the sort of features that have become the baseline for other services – like personalization or voice – while also making it easier for customers to access pay TV, streaming, on-demand, and their DVR all in one interface. That’s what TiVo’s own consumer-facing boxes do, of course. But TiVo (and Rovi, the company that it back in 2016 then itself TiVo) had based their business models on traditional TV viewing. These days, consumers are watching more online via sites like YouTube and Netflix, and ditching pay TV in numbers greater – and faster – than the industry expected. Many younger users don’t even watch on television sets – just phones and laptops. These changes have left TiVo vulnerable, which is why it’s moving into the enterprise space with this “Next-Gen” solution. The platform itself includes several products, starting with TiVo for Linux set-top boxes and TiVo for Android TV. Operators who power their managed set-top boxes with either platform can use this Next-Gen platform to offer a wide feature set including personalization, recommendations, conversational voice command and control and, most importantly, the combination of the pay TV content with everything else from the world of streaming and on-demand. There’s also a separate product called TiVo for Streamers that would allow pay TV operators to offer “bring your own device” programs to customers. That way, consumers could opt to use their own Android TV, Apple TV or Fire TV to watch both pay TV and streaming content, without the need for a set-top box. There’s also TiVo for Mobile, which supports whatever mobile strategy the pay TV provider has adopted. For example, it could be used to stream content from set-top boxes, from the cloud without a connection to the set-top box, or both. Meanwhile, for emerging markets in Central and Eastern Europe, Asia, Africa and Latin America, TiVo’s Cubi Solutions offers what it calls a “value-based” (read: cheaper) solution. TiVo’s Flex-Mode software lets the operators combine their current infrastructure with IP video and other over-the-top content, as they transition to fully IPTV solutions over the years ahead. A number of traditional providers are in the throes of this today – Dish has Sling TV, AT&T runs DirecTV Now, and Comcast has Instant TV, for example. But they’ve built up their own platforms, so wouldn’t be TiVo customers. Instead, this solution would be targeted towards other, perhaps smaller partners. According to , possible clients in the U.S. would be RCN Corp., Mediacom Communications, Armstrong, GCI, Grande Communications, Midco, and Atlantic Broadband. But TiVo hasn’t announced any deals at this point – it’s just putting the news out there, ahead of CES. The company says it has other CES announcements planned, though, but didn’t say if they’re related to this or its other consumer efforts. |
Panic will soon no longer sell Transmit for iOS | Greg Kumparak | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Panic Inc., the team behind a bunch of excellent iOS/Mac apps (like Coda, Transmit, and Prompt), are about to retire one of their products. Sometime “very soon”, Transmit for iOS will be taken off the App Store. Transmit is Panic’s take on a modern file manager for FTP/SFTP/Amazon S3 servers. After over a decade as a Mac app, Panic rebuilt Transmit for iOS and released it around the end of 2014. Panic has a full breakdown on its thinking , but in short: there just weren’t enough people buying the iOS version of Transmit to cover the cost of making it. Transmit for Mac, meanwhile, will live on, as will Panic’s other iOS apps. If you still want a copy of the iOS version, even knowing that it won’t be supported moving forward, Panic is leaving it up briefly for anyone who wants to make a last minute purchase. It’ll keep working until something changes in iOS that breaks it. If, on the other hand, you bought it recently (“the last 60 days or so”) and aren’t too happy, Panic says to email them so they can make things right. |
Crunch Report | GoPro Cuts 200-300 Jobs | Khaled "Tito" Hamze | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Tito Hamze
Tito Hamze
Tito Hamze
Chris Gates TechCrunch C/O Tito Hamze
410 Townsend street
Suite 100
San Francisco Ca. 94107 |
Mapbox makes another acquisition to bolster its navigation toolkits | Jonathan Shieber | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | , the developer of mapping applications that competes with Google Maps, and , has acquired the developers behind in a bid to strengthen its navigation toolkits. The acquisition, made as Mapzen was winding down, brings the Valhalla development team in-house for a bargain price that Mapbox chief executive Eric Gunderson declined to disclose. “It’s one of those classic things where having a long-term relationship you become close to people and when shit starts going a little sideways, there’s an opportunity,” Gunderson told me of the acquisition. Through the work both companies had been doing on the Valhalla open-source project, Mapbox’s developers had been collaborating with the team behind the project for more than a year. Mapping is a critical component of any autonomous technology for self-driving cars, and powers a wide array of advertising services and features on mobile devices. Late last year, Mapbox raised around $164 million from SoftBank to become a credible competitor to Google Maps and Here in autonomous driving and in new arenas like augmented reality. Already companies like Snap, MasterCard, Instacart and Airbnb use the Mapbox SDK for their applications. The access to those users gives Mapbox anonymized telemetry data from an aggregated 200 million users. Echoing , he said that the company has 900,000 developers using its SDK in various products, and all of that location data is being fed back to Mapbox to strengthen its mapping tools. Unlike other routing services that pre-compute directions based on information acquired from every road in a given area, the Valhalla toolkit means that routing decisions can be made in real time — improving efficiency for companies that desperately need it. Delivery services, logistics companies and ride-hailing services see better mapping and routing as a revenue generator. The faster a driver can reach a destination, the faster they’re able to pick up a new fare or make another delivery, which reduces the need for more drivers on the road and increases profits for companies. “The world is live updating and that means you need to have a constant sensor network out there,” says Gunderson. And unlike Waze and Google Maps, which own the underlying data associated with any use of their tools, Mapbox lets the app developers who use its service keep the data about their customers. All Mapbox wants is the anonymized location. “We get anonymous latitude and longitude data back and then stitch that back into the network… using the sensor network, but the sensor network is your phone,” says Gunderson. He said that through the SDK, Mapbox actually has more sensors on the road than almost any other company (Google Maps is till the monster here, through the data they collect with Android). Mapzen’s Valhalla development team “This is going to immediately have benefits for some of our OEM auto customers,” Gunderson said. “Turn by tun directions with real-time traffic data and a more lightweight footprint (for the application),” are all benefits that OEM’s will enjoy, he said. “The data transfer is very light to devices and it’s also super customizable. It will allow the routing network to build more customizable data experiences.” |
Robomart is the latest startup to try and unseat the local convenience store | Jonathan Shieber | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | The startup assault on the humble neighborhood store continues to intensify. First came Bodega, , and to bring the non-perishable necessities available at the corner store to the masses and “disrupt” the corner store. Now there’s , which wants to bring the groceries, baked goods and prepared foods of the supermarket aisle to your doorstep with a white-labeled service for wholesalers and big box retailers. The culmination of a ten-year vision from founder Ali Ahmed, Robomart is an autonomous grocery store department on wheels. Robomart is the serial entrepreneur’s latest startup. Ahmed, who first conceived of the rolling grocery store concept while an employe at Unilever ten years ago, went on to found which was around the social sharing of media content. From LuteBox, the London-based entrepreneur moved on to the now-defunct , a competitor to the U.S.-based on-demand concierge services like Magic, which pitched a bespoke service where users could — for a fee — get almost anything their hearts desired (but ). At its height, Dispatch had 1500 deliverers and the company received the most orders from folks who wanted grocery deliveries (this was in the early days of on-demand before Instacart, etc. had brought grocery delivery to the masses). After investors bought Ahmed out of Dispatch, the entrepreneur moved to Santa Clara, Calif. to start Robomart. “I believe we’re creating a new category,” Ahmed says. “We think we’re competing with the sidewalk robots.” In fact, Ahmed seems to be competing with the corner store — which offers the same fractional amount of goods with the argument of proximity and convenience. Just as sidewalk robots are being met with friction in California, Robomart also expects to face some tough hurdles.Traffic and parking are probably the biggest among them. And while Ahmed argued that his autonomous delivery vehicles could be purchased by a collective of local stores to compete with big box retailers (or wholesalers who are looking to go direct) — those companies are the more likely customers. Customers would license the platform, vehicle and all, on a 24 month lease. “It’s significantly cheaper than setting up a new store,” Ahmed said. “And customers can shop for goods without pre-ordering.” Interiors come equipped with either a refrigeration or heating system, and Ahmed says he’s talked to wholesalers about equipping separate trucks to mimic different sections of a grocery aisle — from dairy, to poultry, to meat, to vegetables. A final benefit for retailers, Ahmed said, is that grocers and other retailers who license the technology will retain all of the customer information rather than giving it away to Uber, Postmates, Instacart or others. The company, part of and a graduate of the , is in the process of building out prototypes through partnerships with , the once heralded — — developer of a prototype electric vehicle in 1996,and . a wireless charging startup for electric vehicles which has yet to deliver a product to market (although Hevo Power has in the California desert). Those are not the partners that instill the most confidence in an operation’s success, but Ahmed insists that he’s in discussions with food wholesalers and big box retailers on the development of vehicles for the road. When they’re rolled out, Ahmed claims that they’ll be fully autonomous. The company aims to license the technology to grocery stores — providing them with the Robomart vehicle, a wireless charging device (courtesy of Hevo Power) and an autonomous fleet management and on-demand ordering system designed by Robomart’s team of three engineers (all of whom have been with Ahmed since LuteBox). [gallery ids="1583325,1583326,1583327,1583328"] |
Member of group that used Grindr to find and assault gay men gets 15 years | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | The first sentencing has been handed down in a Texas case centered on the use of Grindr as a platform from which to perpetrate hate crimes. Nigel Garrett was given 15 years yesterday after pleading guilty to a list of crimes including assault, carjacking, and use of firearms, . Garrett, and three accomplices to having arranged on the dating app for gay men to meet victims at their homes in several Texas cities, where they would tie them up, assault and rob them. The accomplices await sentencing (the maximum is life). These crimes ought to be of interest to the tech world because they are very much enabled by tech. While of course assaults against people because of their race, sexual orientation, religion and so on are obviously possible (and frequent) without the aid of an app, something like Grindr exemplifies the risk of having that information accessible instantly to anyone. On the other hand, the nature of the apps also means that there is a wealth of evidence in a case like Garrett’s that the crimes were specifically targeted at a population. There’s no doubt that these men targeted people of a certain sexual orientation, as there might be in a street assault. “Hate crimes are violent crimes, but also attack the fundamental principles of the United States,” said Acting Assistant Attorney General John Gore in a statement in August. Those principles are increasingly being tested and abused online, so it’s good to see these digitally-enabled crimes pursued aggressively. The trail of digital clues, such as app and phone records, was no doubt crucial to building a strong case, and will be in more and more investigations going forward. I’ve asked Grinder for comment on what if anything it can do (or has done) to prevent crimes like this or aid in their resolution. Notably this case was pursued by the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division, which has been attempting to crack down on hate crimes recently. |
Someone stole a piece of China’s new solar panel-paved road less than a week after it opened | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Putting solar panels into our roads isn’t the craziest idea, but we may as well admit that it poses some unique challenges. For instance, people may want to walk away with pieces of it. That’s what happened in China, anyway, just five days after authorities opened up what they claim is the world’s first solar panel-paved highway. As reported by the (and ), the experimental kilometer-long stretch of road in Shandong is covered in more than 10,000 solar panels, sandwiched between an insulating layer on the bottom and a durable, transparent one on top — less than 3 cm thick all told. There are coils that may in the future charge electric cars as they drive over it, and the system can even warm up in order to melt snow and ice. It opened to use on December 28. Unfortunately, during an inspection on the morning of January 2, officials found a narrow piece missing, neatly cut. About 6 inches wide and 6 feet long, the piece didn’t appear to have detached on its own — suggesting someone stole it. But why? Solar panels are cheap, and this wasn’t very much of them anyway. One official said it may cost thousands to repair, but why such a small piece? And why not take it before the road was operational? If sabotage was the goal, why cleanly take such a small chunk instead of damaging or painting over a larger section? That it appears to have been done by a “professional team,” (Google’s translation) according to an industry source cited by the local news channel, may give some insight. Perhaps they’re interested in the technology, speculated another source. Indeed if a group wanted to replicate the photovoltaic sandwich and offer a similar product for a lower price, this might be exactly what they’d do. The practice is not uncommon in China, but this seems an unlikely target for counterfeiting. At any rate, the road is now open after repairs were made, and no further pieces have been stolen. The biggest loss here, for now anyway, seems to have been commuters’ time. The local police, however, are continuing their investigation. |
Apple adds a documentary series about extraordinary homes to its streaming lineup | Sarah Perez | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Apple has greenlit a new documentary series called “Home,” according to a out today. The series will give viewers an “inside look” at extraordinary homes from around the world — and those who built them — over the course of 10 one-hour episodes. The show is the latest addition to Apple’s growing lineup of original shows, which are increasingly more competitive to those you’d find on other streaming services, like Netflix, Amazon and Hulu. Yesterday, for example, word came out about The show also includes notable behind-the-scenes talent with Nichelle Tramble Spellman, a writer and producer for “The Good Wife” and “Serial” producer Sarah Koenig. Koenig will be consulting on the show, which focuses on true crime podcasts’ growing popularity. Apple also has a in the works, exec produced by Steven Spielberg and , Ronald D. Moore. With the new documentary series, that makes five shows Apple is working on — and the first that’s not a fictional TV drama of some sort. Variety notes that “Home” will be exec produced by Matt Tyrnauer and Corey Reeser of Altimeter Films, Matthew Weaver, Ian Orefice and Bruce Gersh from Time Inc. Productions, and Joe Poulin, CEO of Luxury Retreats. Tyrnauer will direct and Altimeter Films, Time Inc. Productions, and Media Weaver Entertainment will produce. Beyond that, little is known about the series itself — like which homes, where and whose. Still, “Home” and the other new shows sound like a big step up from Apple’s earlier efforts in originals, which included flops like “Planet of the Apps” and an expanded, |
AR/VR startups raised $3 billion last year led by a few industry juggernauts | Lucas Matney | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Tech companies working with augmented reality and virtual reality technologies raised more than $3 billion in venture funding in 2017. This data comes from analytics firm and suggests that while the buzz surrounding the AR/VR space has tapered off, the sheer amount of cash getting pumped into the industry is continuing to surge. Though the report’s numbers highlight 2017’s marked dollar increase over 2016 investments, deal flow seems to be lighter, with more than half of this cash coming from just four massive deals: While juggernauts like Niantic, Improbable and Unity were able to raise hundreds of millions from investors this year with pitches that undoubtedly touched on the future importance of AR/VR technologies, the strong, more traditional, gaming industry backbone that the companies have was likely key to them scoring that capital now. Magic Leap is the industry’s biggest outlier, and now that we actually have an idea what their first product is going to look like, it’s probably going to start looking more like a real company. We still don’t know when exactly their product is coming or how much it will cost, but we more critically have no idea how much of the company’s efforts will skew toward enterprise versus traditional consumers. For smaller companies that raised seed rounds for their VR ambitions in 2016 and 2017, the trend toward fewer deals (as evidenced by Crunchbase findings ) suggest that the frothiness is subsiding and there may be fewer follow-on rounds and more AR/VR startups joining the dead pool. In the latter half of 2017, the focus moved from headset-based VR to mobile-based AR with Apple’s ARKit and Google’s ARCore at the center of attention. The reception has been limited, given that the app’s built on the platforms have been skewed toward visualization only and pretty much suck as a result. The consumer AR headset space is largely bone-dry as companies wait to see where Apple points the industry and Microsoft and Magic Leap build for the consumers of 10 years from now. There are still signs of promise, but the AR/VR hype correction of 2017 took the wind out of a lot of sails in the AR/VR space, while Google, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft are the ones with pockets deep enough to see what’s left. It’s nice to see so much money found its way to startups, but when it comes to an emerging technology, seeing this downward trend in deal flow is concerning. |
Twitter asserts that it won’t ban Trump because he’s a world leader | Taylor Hatmaker | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Just days after President Trump’s tweets antagonized a foreign adversary over who would be first to start nuclear war, Twitter has addressed calls for the company to ban the chatty, often bellicose U.S. president. North Korean Leader Kim Jong Un just stated that the “Nuclear Button is on his desk at all times.” Will someone from his depleted and food starved regime please inform him that I too have a Nuclear Button, but it is a much bigger & more powerful one than his, and my Button works! — Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) In a vague post called “ ,” Twitter awkwardly sidestepped the controversy over whether Trump’s Twitter account violates its terms of service altogether, instead asserting that it doesn’t matter if a world leader violates its terms of service — they should have a home on the platform nonetheless. The post never names Trump. Their words: There’s been a lot of discussion about political figures and world leaders on Twitter, and we want to share our stance. Twitter is here to serve and help advance the global, public conversation. Elected world leaders play a critical role in that conversation because of their outsized impact on our society. Blocking a world leader from Twitter or removing their controversial Tweets, would hide important information people should be able to see and debate. It would also not silence that leader, but it would certainly hamper necessary discussion around their words and actions. We review Tweets by leaders within the political context that defines them, and enforce our rules accordingly. No one person’s account drives Twitter’s growth, or influences these decisions. We work hard to remain unbiased with the public interest in mind. We are working to make Twitter the best place to see and freely discuss everything that matters. We believe that’s the best way to help our society make progress. Whether Trump has in fact violated Twitter’s policies on user behavior is an open debate. Most users can’t back up their casual threats with a nuclear arsenal, so it’s safe to say that the Trump Twitter situation poses some uniquely weighty questions. Some even argue that Trump’s Twitter threats are an and can be categorized more as bizarrely articulated military policy than the kind of tweet that might violate Twitter’s rules banning “specific threats of violence.” While plenty of Trump’s older tweets dabble in online harassment, it sounds like anything goes for world leaders so long as they’re elected. But lots of despots are “elected.” Would Rodrigo Duterte get the same pass were he to threaten in specific terms? Would Kim Jong-un? According to this, it sounds like yes. If you’re still using Twitter, you probably won’t be surprised by the fact that the company retains its right to impose its own rules selectively — after all, it’s been doing so for years. Calling for Twitter to take an ideological stand in order to prevent a social media-spurred international nuclear conflict is a nice thought, but considering how deeply committed tech companies are to the illusion of neutrality — which happens to dovetail nicely with the spineless art of self-preservation — it’s not a very realistic one. |
FCC Commissioner Clyburn guts anti-net neutrality order in extended dissent | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | FCC Commissioner Clyburn’s passionate dissent at left no room for guesswork on her position on the Commission’s plan to eliminate net neutrality. But it wasn’t all she had to say. Yesterday, , is an extended statement that goes into further detail and strikes at the new rule’s numerous inadequacies. The whole statement is a whopping 6,000 words, and well worth reading in its entirety — especially if you missed her delivery of it on the day. Perhaps half its length is dedicated to the new, more technical exposition of the rule’s flaws. Chairman Pai took Commissioner Clyburn’s withering attack on his work in good spirit. Here are a few highlights I found in my read-through. Regarding the lack of evidence supporting the idea that net neutrality has held back innovation: We have seen self-serving statements from broadband providers that our net neutrality rules have somehow hamstrung them from bringing “innovative” new offerings to market before. They never did tell us what those offerings would have been at any real level of detail. My view is that if there indeed were innovative offerings that would have garnered any real consumer interest, the better course would have been to make those ideas public, and let consumers badger the contrarian FCC into submission. But, since no detailed plans of these other phantom offerings that were allegedly foreclosed by our rules were made public, my sense is that those offerings were as real as rainbow-maned unicorns. I’ve asked several broadband providers specifically about these “phantom offerings” and have gotten no replies. Regarding the argument that net neutrality led to a decline in investment: Nothing in this item convinces me that investment has dropped as a result of our net neutrality policies… To suggest that net neutrality rules shifted billions of dollars in capital beggars the imagination, and the record offers no proof that investment trends match the regulatory landscape. If you believe the information submitted by broadband providers in the record, that information tracks the Fed’s assessment of investment in the broader economy. This suggests that any alleged decrease in investment by broadband providers could be due to macroeconomic factors that influenced the overall economy, rather than the 2015 Open Internet rules. At best the jury is out on this claim, and companies themselves have stated on the record that net neutrality rules were not a factor in their investment plans. (I’ve asked about these statements too, to no avail.) On the history of Title I and II: The FCC majority is being disingenuous in its retelling of regulatory history, particularly as it relates to internet and packet-switched services. This majority is not “returning” to a time where packet-switched networking, and the internet access variant, in particular, were regulated as Title I services… painting the FCC’s past approach to internet access as a deregulatory nirvana fails to grapple with the truth of our regulatory past. There is not a single modern service that the majority would characterize as a telecommunications [i.e. a Title II] service, effectively reading that definition out of the statute. Hundreds of computer scientists who filed in the record agree that this reclassification is nonsensical and does not match up with the underlying internet technology. This can easily be lost in the regulatory gobbledygook that I will let the lawyers deal with, but I think it is illuminating to make a few points about this. I believe this exposes this as an outcome-oriented decision, devoid of any reasonable mooring in technology or consumer expectations. The first bit you can learn about in my , and the second bit in the of in its definition of how the internet works. Regarding the FCC declining to pursue net neutrality rules for mobile broadband: Although the majority concedes that the Commission has authority to impose open internet conduct rules on mobile broadband service licensees, it declines to do so because of its view that this would lead to imposing regulatory burdens on mobile licensees that are not placed on fixed broadband services. I do not see how the majority can properly reach that conclusion until it has reviewed the more than 47,000 complaints that the National Hispanic Media Coalition’s (NHMC) FOIA request revealed. This is another reason why the Commission should have delayed its vote on this item. Indeed, this late-breaking revelation that tens of thousands of complaints were left unaddressed is one of several black marks on the proceedings, and likely will figure in . Regarding the idea that the FTC will pick up where the FCC left off: Recall that the FTC must act after harm has already occurred, and must do so through litigation. This means no clear rules of the road for broadband, and that a startup or sole proprietor will likely be long gone before its complaint is adjudicated. Courts may deny the FTC’s efforts to impose antitrust remedies on broadband providers because the industry is ostensibly regulated by the FCC. Indeed, Verizon v. Trinko contains language that suggests that where there is an ostensible remedy for harm under the Communications Act, the courts will not go out of their way to find an antitrust violation. So, the very fact that the FCC disclaims authority might also undermine the FTC’s authority as well. The legal precedents here are complex, but essentially the FTC may be barred from applying antitrust law — which the new order constantly refers to as a remedy — because an expert agency is already on the beat. If the FCC won’t, and the FTC can’t, who will? No one, that’s who. And lastly, as a last flourish to the Commissioner’s extended statement: In short, we are trading in clear protections for uncertain ones, rock-solid legal authority for a shaky one, and robust enforcement authority for a weaker one…My fear is that this is yet another ploy to roll out the red carpet for broadband providers, while putting consumers in the long queue for the side door. Welcome to a regulatory-free zone. Curious what happens next in the battle for net neutrality? |
The quantum computing apocalypse is imminent | Shlomi Dolev | 2,018 | 1 | 5 |
In the ancient world, they used cubits as an important data unit, but the new data unit of the future is the qubit — the quantum bits that will change the face of computing. Quantum bits are the basic units of information in quantum computing, a new type of computer in which particles like electrons or photons can be utilized to process information, with both “sides” (polarizations) acting as a positive or negative (i.e. the zeros and ones of traditional computer processing) alternatively or at the same time. According to experts, quantum computers will be able to create breakthroughs in many of the most complicated data processing problems, leading to the development of new medicines, building molecular structures and doing analysis going far beyond the capabilities of today’s binary computers. The elements of quantum computing have been around for decades, but it’s only in the past few years that a commercial computer that could be called “quantum” has been built by a company called . Announced in January, the D-Wave 2000Q can “solve larger problems than was previously possible, with faster performance, providing a big step toward production applications in optimization, cybersecurity, machine learning and sampling.” — and that it expected that by the end of 2017 it would be able to commercialize quantum computing with a 50-qubit processor prototype, as well as provide online access to 20-qubit processors. IBM’s announcement followed the September Microsoft of a new quantum computing programming language and stable topological qubit technology that can be used to scale up the number of qubits. Taking advantage of the physical “spin” of quantum elements, a quantum computer will be able to process simultaneously the same data in different ways, enabling it to make projections and analyses much more quickly and efficiently than is now possible. There are significant physical issues that must be worked out, such as the fact that quantum computers can only operate at cryogenic temperatures (at 250 times colder than deep space) — but Intel, working with Netherlands firm , is convinced that it is just a matter of time before the full power of quantum computing is unleashed. “Our quantum research has progressed to the point where our partner QuTech is simulating quantum algorithm workloads, and Intel is fabricating new qubit test chips on a regular basis in our leading-edge manufacturing facilities,” said Dr. Michael Mayberry, corporate vice president and managing director of Intel Labs. “Intel’s expertise in fabrication, control electronics and architecture sets us apart and will serve us well as we venture into new computing paradigms, from neuromorphic to quantum computing.” The difficulty in achieving a cold enough environment for a quantum computer to operate is the main reason they are still experimental, and can only process a few qubits at a time — but the system is so powerful that even these early quantum computers are shaking up the world of data processing. On the one hand, quantum computers are going to be a boon for cybersecurity, capable of processing algorithms at a speed unapproachable by any other system. By looking at problems from all directions — simultaneously — a quantum computer could discover anomalies that no other system would notice, and project to thousands of scenarios where an anomaly could turn into a security risk. Like with a top-performing supercomputer programmed to play chess, a quantum-based cybersecurity system could see the “moves” an anomaly could make later on — and quash it on the spot. “Quantum computing will definitely be applied anywhere where we’re using machine learning, cloud computing, data analysis. In security that [means] intrusion detection, looking for patterns in the data, and more sophisticated forms of parallel computing,” according to Kevin Curran, a cybersecurity researcher at Ulster University and IEEE senior member. But the computing power that gives cyber-defenders super-tools to detect attacks can be misused, as well. Last year, scientists at MIT and the University of Innsbruck a quantum computer with just five qubits, conceptually demonstrating the ability of future quantum computers to break the RSA encryption scheme. That ability to process the zeros and ones at the same time means that no formula based on a mathematical scheme is safe. The MIT/Innsbruck team is not the only one to have developed cybersecurity-breaking schemes, even on these early machines; the problem is significant enough that representatives of NIST, Toshiba, Amazon, Cisco, Microsoft, Intel and some of the top academics in the cybersecurity and mathematics worlds met in Toronto for the yearly last year. The National Security Agency, too, has sounded the alarm on the risks to cybersecurity in the quantum computing age. The NSA’s “ ” says that “many experts predict a quantum computer capable of effectively breaking public key cryptography” within “a few decades,” and that the time to come up with solutions is now. According to many experts, the NSA is far too conservative in its prediction; many experts believe that like a decade to a decade and a half, that it could happen even sooner. And given the leaps in progress that are being made on almost a daily process, a commercially viable quantum computer offering cloud services could happen even more quickly; the D-Wave 2000Q is called that because it can process 2,000 qubits. That kind of power in the hands of hackers makes possible all sorts of scams that don’t even exist yet. For example, forward-looking hackers could begin storing encrypted information now, awaiting the day that fast, cryptography-breaking quantum computing-based algorithms are developed. While there’s a possibility that the data in those encrypted files might be outdated, there is likely to be more than enough data for hackers to use in various identity theft schemes, among other things. In fact, why wait? Hackers are very well-funded today, and it certainly wouldn’t be beyond their financial abilities to buy a quantum computer and begin selling encryption-busting services right now. It’s likely that not all the cryptography-breaking algorithms will work on all data, at least for now — this is a threat-in-formation — but chances are that at least some of them will, meaning that even now, cyber-criminals could utilize the cryptography-breaking capabilities of quantum computers, and perhaps sell those services to hackers via the Dark Web. That NSA document that predicted “decades” before quantum computers become a reality was written at the beginning of 2016, which shows how much progress has been made in barely a year and a half. The solution lies in the development of , consisting of information theoretically secure schemes, hash-based cryptography, code-based cryptography and exotic-sounding technologies like lattice-based cryptography, multivariate cryptography (like the “Unbalanced Oil and Vinegar scheme”), and even supersingular elliptic curve isogeny cryptography. These, and other post-quantum cryptography schemes, will have to involve “algorithms that are resistant to cryptographic attacks from both classical and quantum computers,” according to the NSA. Whatever the case, it’s certain that the threats to privacy and information security will only multiply in the coming decades, and that data encryption will proceed in lockstep with new technological advances. |
Verizon acquires autonomous threat detection startup Niddel | Ron Miller | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | (which owns this publication) announced today that , a startup that bills itself as an autonomous threat detection service. The acquisition price was not disclosed. primary product, Niddel Magnet is a subscription service that uses machine learning to locate infected or compromised machines inside an organization. It works completely autonomously and doesn’t require customers to generate their own code, rules, searches or even any kind of content. “Using machine learning to improve information accuracy significantly reduces false positives and significantly improves our detection and response capabilities,” Alexander Schlager, Verizon’s executive director for security services explained in a statement. Those capabilities were one of the primary reasons the company made the acquisition. Reducing those false positives is a big goal of the Niddel solution, especially in light of the shortage of qualified security analysts to help monitor these kinds of systems. “[Niddel Magnet] eliminates up to 96% of false positives, compared to traditional indicator-based threat hunting techniques. On average 40% of alerts represent novel threats identified by our patented supervised machine learning models’ extrapolation of existing threat knowledge,” the company wrote on its website. Niddel uses a variety of information from over 50 internal and external sources to track the kinds of security threats that could be affecting machines in customer organizations. In a time when companies are growing increasingly concerned about compromised machines, it purports to provide a completely automated solution, no longer requiring finding qualified analysts, something that is a huge challenge for companies. Niddel was founded in 2014. Verizon plans to incorporate Niddel’s technology into Verizon solutions in the coming months. |
Menlo, Benchmark, First Round sold Uber stakes worth hundreds of millions | Katie Roof | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Uber finally . Now we’re learning more about who sold what. It was already known that major shareholder Menlo Ventures was looking to sell shares, but we’re hearing confirmation that it wagered the majority of its holdings and successfully sold close to half of its stake, which Using this ownership percentage, we calculated that Menlo netted close to $1 billion from the transaction. We’ve also learned that First Round Capital attempted to sell most of its shares and successfully sold close to 40% of them. They were also said to own 4% of the company, which would mean it cashed out $800 million. Benchmark Capital gave up a sizeable stake as well. the venture capital firm sold about $900 million in Uber shares in the secondary transaction or almost 15% of its 13% stake. Benchmark declined to comment. Former CEO Travis Kalanick also He stepped down from his role in June, but remains on Uber’s board. Benchmark Capital , after promising to do so if the SoftBank transaction got done. The deal was significantly oversubscribed, meaning that sellers were only able to sell about 58% of what they attempted. This is despite the secondary transaction valuing Uber at roughly $50 billion, well beneath the close to $70 billion private market valuation in Uber’s last private round. Even though an , Uber shareholders must have been uncertain that the company would achieve a $70 billion market cap or even a $50 billion market cap on the stock market. Uber has a fast-growing business, but has faced lawsuit after lawsuit, and regulatory obstacles throughout the world. There’s also been a public outcry about its company culture. But not everyone opted to sell their stake. We’re hearing that Kleiner Perkins kept its Uber shares. And it wasn’t just venture capitalists and founders selling positions, the transaction gave early Uber shareholders an opportunity to sell as well. For many employees, this was the first opportunity to turn their paper riches into cash. In addition to the secondary transaction, SoftBank also invested $1.25 billion directly in Uber. This was at the previous valuation of close to $70 billion. |
A look back at the year that the Sub-Saharan African startup scene found its stride | Jake Bright | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | African tech in 2017 was about the normalization of market events mostly absent even a decade ago. There were acquisitions, multiple investment rounds, lots of expansion, big strategic partnerships and some surprise failures. Africa is fast becoming home to a dynamic tech sector. Here’s a snapshot of the news that shaped that transition over the last year. in October was one of the continent’s most notable. The technology training and job placement firm received Series C funding from , DBL Partners, the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative and Salesforce Ventures, among others. Andela said it would use the funds for continued expansion. The coding accelerator marked three years in May by office to locations in New York, Nigeria and Kenya. New investment also helped moved Africa’s startup boom into the used autos space. , Nigeria-based raised a $5 million Series A round from the to better connect used-car sellers to digital price quotes, first-time online service histories and offers. 2017 fintech funding went to Nigerian startups ($10 million) and ($1.25 million). In digital solar, Kenya’s raised $1.4 million. Agtech startup received $1 million from investors including Techstars Ventures and Cox Enterprises to bring Nigerian farmers online. In April, South African media and technology giant made a $70 million (majority stake) investment in Cape Town-based e-commerce company . South African digital cleaning startup concluded a Series A Round backed by, among others, . Several new African tech funding initiatives emerged in 2017. made seven of its first nine global investments in African startups. Lagos, London and Nairobi-based TLcom Capital raised $40 million for its new growth-stage . In April, The World Bank launched its accelerator to support Sub-Saharan African startups with business mentoring and up to $1.5 million in early-stage capital. In October, U.S.-based private equity firm TPG Growth raised , founded by TPG CEO Bill McGlashan with Bono’s support. In perhaps a sign of things to come, Africa also registered some significant outward tech investment. In added $795 million to its holdings in Berlin-based food delivery company Delivery Hero. African tech saw a number new products and platforms launch in 2017. In January, — an agtech app connecting small-plot farmers to markets, payments and logistics services — went live in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania. Africa’s first unicorn, e-commerce venture , introduced an SME lending program. ― Kenya’s largest telecom and M-Pesa mobile money provider ― went live with its Masoko e-commerce platform in November. Earlier in March, Kenyan communications hardware company — a waterproof, solar-powered Wi-Fi box that operates as a 3G hotspot and off-grid server. Africa also registered on the blockchain bandwagon. Earlier this month, 500 Startups-backed product aimed at disrupting Africa’s multi-billion-dollar remittance market. On expansion and partnerships, Facebook was very active on the continent in 2017. FB announced its Africa in February, detailed plans to boost on the continent in April and teamed up with MainOne and Tizeti Network to improve Nigeria’s in November. The company partnered with TechCrunch in October for the debut and with CcHub to launch Nigeria’s accelerator. Other big Silicon Valley names also registered in Africa in 2017. announced the opening of Cloud Form data centers in May and a partnership with in August to accelerate cloud adoption in Africa. Off of CEO Sundar Pichai’s July Nigeria trip, plans to train 10 million Africans in digital skills, increase funding to African startups and provide $20 million in grants to digital non-profits and modified versions of products (such as YouTube) in Africa. Google for Entrepreneurs also supported CcHub’s European tour in August. The same month, to allow African vendors to sell wares directly to American online consumers. On accelerators and capacity building, brought its frontier and emerging markets travel series ― Geeks on a Plane ― to Africa for the first time in March. in Nairobi targeting African startups using UAVs, 3D printing, smart sensors and IoT. The got a new CEO, Aaron Fu, and scaled its presence to include programs in Ghana, Nigeria, Kenya, South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire. And in October, Safaricom launched its innovation center in Nairobi, with a goal of leveraging the company’s commercial social network (i.e. M-Pesa) to connect people to new product solutions. Of course, no tech sector expands and grows all the time. In September, Y Combinator-backed French language VOD startup , ending subscription services in 29 countries. In November, Jumia e-commerce competitor Konga slashed 60 percent of its workforce and ended its pay on delivery service, reportedly to cut costs. It’s not clear if this is a sign of trouble or a realignment of business strategy, per Konga founder Medium post. Exits and public offerings are still scant in Africa’s tech landscape. There was a notable acquisition in online real estate startup ’s purchase of Jumia House Nigeria from e-commerce unicorn Jumia in November. Africa’s much anticipated and much delayed IPO of fintech firm Interswitch is expected in 2019, according to Nigerian tech insiders — who offered perspective on other African ventures with listing potential. African tech and politics collided on several occasions in 2017. In September, anti-government protests in , and the use of social media to mobilize them, led to the president shutting down the internet for several days. In a tech to power success story, movement — developed by local IT activists — went global, forcing the country’s government to restore connectivity after switching it off in response to demonstrations that started in January. Big revenue news from African tech startups is still elusive, but Paga offered promising info in August. The Nigerian digital payments firm reported its first , after processing 31 million transactions worth some since inception. And in July, teams from Nigeria and Ghana launched , with a little help from SpaceX and NASA — demonstrating the sky was not the limit for Africa’s scientists and techies in 2017. |
App revenue climbed 35 percent to $60 billion in 2017 | Sarah Perez | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Global app revenue climbed 35 percent in 2017 to reach nearly $60 billion, according to a new today from app intelligence firm Sensor Tower, which measured paid apps, subscriptions, and in-app purchases across both Apple’s App Store and Google Play. However, Apple is the one pulling in the most revenue, the report found – at nearly double that of Google Play. Specifically, Sensor Tower pegged App Store revenue at $38.5 billion last year, compared with an estimated $20.1 billion spent on Google Play. That’s 34.7 percent growth over 2016 for the App Store, compared with 34.2 percent growth for Google Play. Combined, the two app marketplaces total $58.7 billion in 2017, up around 35 percent from 2016’s total of $43.5 billion. Sensor Tower’s numbers are in alignment with Apple’s own figures, . Apple on Thursday said it had a record-breaking holiday season on the App Store with over a billion in revenue, and noted that – an over 30 percent increase from the year prior. $26.5 billion is the money paid out to developers – after Apple’s 30 percent cut. Sensor Tower’s report looks at estimated gross spending Apple’s cut, and its findings fall within 1 percent of the actual figure. Some of the increased revenue is likely due to mobile’s growth in emerging markets, as well as Apple’s newer support for in-app subscriptions. But Apple didn’t offer a breakdown as to how the revenue was generated or where. Instead it attempted to things like and the new crop of AR apps, like Pokémon Go. Certainly these things helped, but at this scale it’s more about the boom in developing markets, like China and India, that’s contributing to the climb. China, for example, ; and App Annie more recently attributed to several emerging markets, including China, India as well as other Southeast Asian nations, particularly Vietnam and Indonesia. Related to emerging markets’ impact on the app stores, first-time app installs across both the App Store and Google Play were also up. The report found that global first-time app installs grew to 91.5 billion in 2017, up around 13.5 percent from the estimated 80.7 billion in 2016. While multiple studies have found that a majority of U.S. consumers today , this growth rate points to the fact that there’s a lot of potential for new downloads in these emerging markets. This can also be seen in Sensor Tower’s data. It found the growth rate of Google Play app downloads was much larger than the App Store’s, at 16.7 percent versus 6.7 percent, respectively. This is because Android has a higher rate of adoption in developing markets. In total, Google Play saw 64 billion first-time installs to the App Store’s 28 billion. [gallery ids="1583147,1583146"] The report finally delved into mobile gaming revenue, which increased 30 percent year-over-year to an estimated $48.3 billion – or nearly 82 percent of all app revenue. Game downloads were more popular on Google Play, which accounted for 27.2 billion (77%) of the estimated 35.5 billion downloads. More details are on Sensor Tower’s site. |
Google says it sold a Google Home device every second since October 19 | Frederic Lardinois | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Google today that it sold “tens of millions of Google devices for the home” over the course of the last year and that it sold “more than one Google Home device every second since Google Home Mini started shipping in October.” With roughly 6.75 million seconds since October 19 (the day the Home Mini officially went on sale), chances are that we’re talking close to 7.5 million Google Homes. Google went all-in on its Google Assistant and its various Google Home devices in 2017. The launch of the Google Home Mini, which you could easily buy for $29 (and occasionally for $19 with store credit) gave the company a low-price competitor to Amazon’s Echo Dots, and even though it’s doubtful that Google made a lot of money of these sales, the move clearly paid off. Sadly, Google isn’t saying what the sales breakdown between the Google Home Mini and the regular-sized version was, but it’s a safe bet that the company sold quite a few more of the lower-priced gadgets. Google also today announced that its Assistant now runs on 400 million devices. This includes phones and watches, as well as devices from partners and even the iPhone. It’d be nice if we could compare Google’s numbers to Amazon’s, but Amazon is notoriously cagey about releasing any real sales numbers and instead opts for that are big on anecdotes and low on details. Unsurprisingly, these large numbers also make the Google Assistant ecosystem more attractive to device manufacturers that want to integrate their services with the Assistant. For the most part, this means and hardware from the likes of Nest, Belkin, Samsung, Philips and others. In total, there are now more than 1,500 smart home devices from more than 225 brands that support the Google Assistant. It’s probably a safe guess that Google isn’t randomly making today’s announcement ahead of CES, which is kicking off over the weekend. For the first time, Google is having a and most of this seems to be centered around the Assistant and its partner ecosystem. There’s a good chance we’ll see more Assistant-enabled hardware in the next few days. |
Distributed applications, teams, genes and geographies will shape the future of VC in 2018 | Lisa Marrone | 2,018 | 1 | 5 |
As the New Year dawns, new opportunities are emerging for savvy venture capitalists in a number of different fields. From new companies building businesses based on the genome, to businesses built on the blockchain, distributed applications, teams, genes and geographies will shape the future of the venture capital industry. |
Spotify’s chief content officer is out | Megan Rose Dickey | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Ahead of going public, Spotify Chief Content Officer Stefan Blom announced today he’s leaving the company, . “We are grateful for Stefan’s many contributions to the company over the years and we wish him the very best,” a Spotify spokesperson told TechCrunch. “Looking ahead, the content team is well positioned to execute on our strategy.” Blom, who spent a little more than three years at the streaming music startup, was responsible for leading Spotify’s licensing deal renewals last year with Warner Music Group, Universal Music Group and Sony Music. The timing of Blom’s departure is notable. In the past week, Spotify confidentially filed for , reached a and was hit with a from Wixen Music Publishing. Wixen represents artists like Tom Petty, Missy Elliot, Stevie Nicks and Neil Young. The suit, filed December 29, alleges copyright infringement, specifically alleging Spotify is using thousands of its songs without a proper license. The lawsuit seeks at least $1.6 billion in damages and injunctive relief. This suit comes following a , Ferrick v. Spotify. That suit, Wixen alleges, “does not adequately compensate Wixen or the songwriters it represents.” Needless to say, investors have a lot to process. |
null | Brian Heater | 2,018 | 1 | 4 | null |
Original Content podcast: Netflix’s ‘Bright’ offers dumb fun with orcs and elves in modern LA | Anthony Ha | 2,018 | 1 | 5 |
Netflix’s original film has been , but Darrell Etherington and Anthony Ha, the hosts of TechCrunch’s enjoyed it — kind of? Maybe? As Darrell put it: “I don’t regret watching it.” To be clear, it’s a very silly movie, combining -style high fantasy with the kind of morally ambiguous police drama that director David Ayer ( ) is known for. Will Smith stars as Daryl Ward, a human police officer, who’s unwillingly paired up with Nick Jacoby (played by Joel Edgerton), the LAPD’s first orc. In this episode, we talk about our reactions to the film, and whether could actually be good. We also discuss the over YouTube star and . You can listen to the episode in the player above, or find us in your podcast player of choice. If you like the show, please let us know by leaving a review on Apple. You can also . |
GE Appliances is launching its own version of Quirky for businesses called Giddy | Jonathan Shieber | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | GE Appliances (now a subsidiary of the Chinese appliance manufacturer Haier) is spinning out a crowd-sourced product development business as a service for corporate customers under the name . It’s the idea that won’t die — even though several of the companies that originally supported it have foundered over the years. Companies like and tried to tap the maker community to create product development shops that would leverage amateur engineering and design talent and at-home prototyping to create new products to sell to the mass market. Those companies raised more than $100 million dollars in combined financing to pursue their vision, but Quirky and Local Motors has seen its vision for letting 1,000 car designing engineers flourish stall out. Now GE Appliances, which once celebrated its Quirky connection, is taking the same model and pitching it to other corporations. From its headquarters in Louisville, Kentucky, GE Appliances had incorporated the Quirky model as a subsidiary called FirstBuild, which the company was using to test new products. Some of those products, like and , have had success and actually made it to market. “Companies are continuing to evolve the way they approach innovation, and are more willing to go outside their four walls to generate good ideas,” said Giddy chief executive Taylor Dawson, in a statement. “We’re giving businesses access to fresh thinking, while providing opportunities for people to do what they love and gain experience.” Since its launch, FirstBuild has expanded from Louisville to offices in Shanghai and a planned location somewhere in India set to be unveiled in 2018. Giddy takes the Quirky and FirstBuild model and sells it to companies as a mobile platform through which companies can post challenges to employees and outside designers. The company said it will launch its first challenge at CES, . Businesses pay a fee to use Giddy, but amateur inventors, hobbyists and makers can join for free. They will be able to peruse challenges and find some that interest them. “Yes, the technology is great, but the value is in Giddy’s creative community from artists to engineers and makers,” said Dawson in a statement. “We saw the power of community and open innovation at FirstBuild. If it worked that well for GE appliances, we’re confident other companies can benefit from a similar approach.” |
Amazon’s a la carte TV service, Amazon Channels, adds CBS All Access | Sarah Perez | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | Amazon’s a la carte TV subscription service, , just added another big name to its lineup. Today, Amazon and CBS announced that CBS’s over-the-top streaming service, CBS All Access – yes, the home to the new “Star Trek” – will now be available on Amazon Channels. However, only the higher-priced, $9.99/month commercial-free subscription will be offered for the time being. The lower-cost, $5.99/month Limited Commercials plan will arrive in the “coming months,” CBS said. Amazon Channels first in the U.S. back in 2015 as the less-catchy “Amazon Streaming Partners.” It later rebranded and to select European markets last year. The goal with the service – which today is exclusive to Prime subscribers and Prime Video members – is to offer premium programming options as a complement to Amazon Prime Video. The service is aimed at cord cutters who don’t want to buy one of the newer TV subscription services which bundle many channels together, but instead want to build their own lineup. The current U.S. lineup of over 140 channels includes popular paid subscriptions, like HBO, Cinemax, Showtime, Starz, PBS Kids, Sundance Now, and others. It also offers a larger selection of channels aimed at niche audiences – like those featuring lifestyle content, workout and health videos, educational content, horror movies, and more. At one point, Amazon toyed with the idea of bundling channels to offer its own “skinny bundle” of TV programming to rival Sling TV, Hulu Live TV, YouTube TV and others, but with the broadcast and cable TV networks. As a result, the company decided to make Amazon Channels’ a la carte programming its main focus going forward. But this move also meant Amazon Channels was lacking in broadcast network content. With the addition of CBS All Access the channel lineup gets another big draw, thanks to CBS’ current popularity due to its original, streaming-only series, “Star Trek: Discovery,” along with other originals like “The Good Fight” (a “The Good Wife” spinoff), “No Activity,” and more to come, like “$1,” “Strange Angel,” and a new “The Twilight Zone.” The subscription also includes CBS’s back catalog, current broadcast programming, and access to in select markets. The latter is especially important to football fans, as it means access to the NFL on CBS. Live streams also are useful for watching live events, like “The 60th Annual Grammy Awards.” For CBS, the Amazon deal means access to a broader audience and support for a range of devices via the Prime Video app. The company says Prime members in the U.S. will be able to watch CBS All Access on more than 600 devices via Prime Video’s app for TVs, game consoles, set-top boxes, including Apple TV, and connected devices, including Amazon Fire TV, mobile devices and the web. |
Crunch Report | Telegram and Instagram Are Being Restricted in Iran | Khaled "Tito" Hamze | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | Tito Hamze
Tito Hamze
Tito Hamze
Tito hamze TechCrunch C/O Tito Hamze
410 Townsend street
Suite 100
San Francisco Ca. 94107 |
The US Government blocks MoneyGram’s $1.2B sale to Alibaba’s Ant Financial | Jon Russell | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | The proposed acquisition of global payment service MoneyGram by Alibaba’s Ant Financial is off after the U.S. Government blocked the $1.2 billion deal. Ant Financial, the Alibaba affiliate which controls Alipay — China’s top mobile wallet — and other financial services, after it beat off . as a means to develop its cross-border payment network into the U.S., and major corridors including India and the Philippines, but instead it will “explore and develop initiatives” to collaborate with MoneyGram’s business. “The geopolitical environment has changed considerably since we first announced the proposed transaction with Ant Financial nearly a year ago. Despite our best efforts to work cooperatively with the U.S. government, it has now become clear that CFIUS [Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States] will not approve this merger,” . “Establishing this new strategic cooperation with MoneyGram will add a partner with global remittance capabilities to our ecosystem and, while Ant Financial won’t have a direct ownership relationship with MoneyGram, we look forward to working closely with the MoneyGram team to make our platform even more accessible – particularly to unbanked and underserved communities globally – and create even better experiences for our customers,” added Doug Feagin, President of Ant Financial International. Per terms of the agreement, Ant has paid $30 million to MoneyGram for terminating the acquisition process. MoneyGram’s share price dropped by around 10 percent to $12.02 on the news, before recovering to around $12.40 in out-of-hours trading at the time of writing. The collapse of the deal is a huge blow to Ant, which spent much of 2017 developing its mobile payment network beyond China and into Southeast Asia, India, Korea, Japan and other parts of Asia with a series of partnerships and investments. MoneyGram not only added the U.S. to that strategy, but it had the potential to give Ant a physical network of cross-border offices and a much large slice of the global cross-payment industry. But now it is not to be, and it will be interesting to see what approach Ant — which is hotly tipped to go public in a massive IPO — will take to fill the void beyond this new “strategic business cooperation” with MoneyGram. The collapse of the deal marks a second China-led acquisition of a U.S. tech company to have failed during U.S. President Trump’s tenure. Back in September, due to potential security risks. Prior to the Trump administration, just three deals had been blocked over the past 27 years. |
These psychedelic stickers blow AI minds | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | Machine learning systems are very capable, but they aren’t exactly . They lack common sense. Taking advantage of that fact, researchers have created a wonderful attack on image recognition systems that uses specially printed stickers that are so interesting to the AI that it completely fails to see anything else. Why do I get the feeling these may soon be popular accessories? , and it’s only by cognitive shortcuts that even humans can see properly — so it shouldn’t be surprising that computers need to do the same thing. One of the shortcuts these systems take is not assigning every pixel the same importance. Say there’s a picture of a house with a bit of sky behind it and a little grass in front. A few basic rules make it clear to the computer that this is not a picture “of” the sky or the grass, despite their presence. So it considers those background and spends more cycles analyzing the shape in the middle. : What if you messed with that shortcut, and made it so the computer would ignore the house instead, and focus on something of their choice? They accomplished it by training an adversary system to create small circles full of features that distract the target system, trying out many configurations of colors, shapes and sizes and seeing which causes the image recognizer to pay attention. Specific curves that the AI has learned to watch for, combinations of color that indicate something other than background and so on. Eventually out comes a psychedelic swirl like those shown here. Put it next to another object the system knows, like a banana, and it will immediately forget the banana and think the picture is “of” the swirl. The names in the images are different approaches to creating the sticker and merging it with existing imagery. This is done on a system-specific, not image-specific basis — meaning the resultant scrambler patch will generally work no matter what the image recognition system is looking at. What could be done with these? Stick a few on your clothes or bag and maybe, just maybe, that image classifier at the airport or police body cam will be distracted enough that it doesn’t register your presence. Of course, you’d have to know what system was running on it, and test a few thousand variations of the stickers — but it’s a possibility. Other attempts to trick computer vision systems have generally relied on making repeated small changes to images to see if with a few strategically placed pixels an AI can be tricked into thinking a picture of a turtle is in fact a gun. But these powerful, highly localized “purturbations,” as the researchers call them, constitute a different and very interesting threat: Our attack works in the real world, and can be disguised as an innocuous sticker. These results demonstrate an attack that could be created offline, and then broadly shared… Even if humans are able to notice these patches, they may not understand the intent of the patch and instead view it as a form of art. This work shows that focusing only on defending against small perturbations is insufficient, as large, local perturbations can also break classifiers. The researchers presented their work at the Neural Information Processing Systems conference in Long Beach. |
Samsung’s C-Lab projects include smart glasses and a portable directional speaker | Brian Heater | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | Samsung’s Creative Lab is one of the more entertaining additions to CES in the last several years. Deemed C-Lab for short, the department is a sort of in-house accelerator, where Samsung employees can build and spin-off startups, all while leveraging the electronics giants’ seemingly bottomless resources. The results are always a bit of a mixed bag, but often present an entertaining alternative to the latest phone/tv/washing machine iterations from its parent company. , the company’s showing off three new offerings, and, as with past years, a couple of them are focused on solving issues of accessibility. Relumino is probably the most compelling of the bunch. The system is built on an app of the same name introduced by the spin-off at Mobile World Congress last year, aimed at helping improve imagery for people with visual impairments. This time out, the system adds hardware to the equation. The “smart glasses” are actually Samsung’s Gear VR in the demo video — and, indeed, the system uses a similar combination of smartphone and headset to display sharper images. As with that system, the phone is doing all of the heavy lifting here, housing the electronics, capturing images and sending them to the lenses. GoBreath, meanwhile, is aimed at people suffering from lung damage. The system is comprised of a portable device and a mobile app with exercises designed to teach various breathing methods. The app can track progress over time and share that information with a doctor. S-Ray (Sound-Ray) is the most consumer-focused of the bunch. It essentially shrinks the technology found in larger directional speakers to a more portable size. Like those systems, the S-Ray offers a hyper-focused listening experience beamed in one direction at the listener. The speaker eliminates the need for headphones, without forcing everyone around you to listen to your music. We’ll be getting a closer look at the project next week at CES. |
Spotify faces $1.6 billion lawsuit from music publisher alleging copyright infringement | Megan Rose Dickey | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | Spotify is facing a $1.6 billion lawsuit from Wixen Music Publishing, the publisher that represents artists like Tom Petty, Missy Elliot, Stevie Nicks and Neil Young, . The suit, filed December 29, alleges copyright infringement, specifically alleging Spotify is using thousands of its songs without a proper license. The lawsuit seeks at least $1.6 billion in damages and injunctive relief. Before Spotify launched in the U.S., the company made deals with major record labels to obtain the appropriate rights to the sound recording copyrights in the songs, the lawsuit states. What Spotify failed to do, according to the lawsuit, was “obtain the equivalent rights for the compositions.” The lawsuit goes on to say, “As a result, Spotify has built a billion dollar business on the backs of songwriters and publishers whose music Spotify is using, in many cases without obtaining and paying for the necessary licenses,” the lawsuit alleges. Wixen also alleges Spotify has “knowingly, intentionally, and repeatedly” reproduced those songs over the internet to California residents. This suit comes following a , Ferrick v. Spotify. That suit, Wixen alleges, “does not adequately compensate Wixen or the songwriters it represents.” In that settlement, Spotify admitted to failing to obtain necessary statutory licenses to reproduce and/or distribute musical compositions on its platform, the lawsuit says. “Consequently, while Spotify has become a multibillion dollar company, songwriters and their publishers, such as Wixen, have not been able to fairly and rightfully share in Spotify’s success, as Spotify has in many cases used their music without a license and without compensation,” the lawsuit states. I’ve reached out to Spotify and Wixen. I’ll update this story if I hear back. The case is Wixen Music Publishing, Inc. v Spotify USA. [scribd id=368281208 key=key-S6sOe6OWmqFsUSLfMu8M mode=scroll] |
The FCC is still tweaking its net neutrality repeal (but that’s normal) | Devin Coldewey | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | You may think, from the pomp accompanying to repeal the 2015 net neutrality rules, that the deed was accomplished. Not so — in fact, the order hasn’t even reached its final form: the Commission is still working on it. But while it may be frustrating, this is business as usual for regulations like this, and concerned advocates should conserve their outrage for . The “Restoring Internet Freedom” rule voted on last month was based on at which it would be adopted. But as reports at the time noted, significant edits (i.e. not fixing typos) were still going into the draft the day before the FCC voted. Additional citations, changes in wording and more serious adjustments may be underway. It may sound like some serious shenanigans are being pulled, but this is how the sausage was always made, and it’s actually one of Chairman Ajit Pai’s handful of commendable efforts that the process is, in some ways at least, more open to the public. Ordinarily the final draft of the rule might not be given out until after the vote, having been only circulated among FCC staff and other D.C. insiders. It’s something Pai has never tired of criticizing previous FCCs for, and one of the first changes he made. Now orders like this one are released well ahead of time — but the process of fixing and updating them continues just as it did before, well past the actual vote (the timing, , is all over the place). We’re just privy to the details now. It’s right there in the rule’s introduction: The issues referenced in this document and the Commission’s ultimate resolution of those issues remain under consideration and subject to change. This document does not constitute any official action by the Commission. However, the Chairman has determined that, in the interest of promoting the public’s ability to understand the nature and scope of issues under consideration, the public interest would be served by making this document publicly available. And indeed, it makes perfect sense that work should continue as long as it can in order to better bolster the chances of an order like this surviving. An extra citation, legal precedent or expert commentary could make all the difference. The question of exactly is being changed, however, we will have ample time to investigate: The rules will soon be entered into the federal register, at which point they both come into effect and . And there’s to scrutinize and oppose. I’ve asked the FCC if it will issue its own documentation of changes to the rule made after the final draft. But that’s just the start of the next phase of the battle for net neutrality, . |
null | Sarah Perez | 2,018 | 1 | 5 | null |
Airbnb beats big property landlord’s lawsuit in California | Megan Rose Dickey | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | A California judge has dismissed Apartment Investment & Management Company’s lawsuit against Airbnb. , Aimco, which owns or manages about 50,000 properties, sued Airbnb, Aimco, which filed the lawsuit in both California and Florida state courts, was seeking monetary damages as well as court orders to stop Airbnb from enabling people to breach their leases. Aimco’s beef with Airbnb is that its platform brings people with “unvetted personal histories” with “no vested interest in maintaining a peaceful community atmosphere” inside their buildings. In October, Aimco filed a motion for a preliminary injunction to halt Airbnb’s operations at four of its Southern California properties. Airbnb, however, argued that Aimco’s ban on subleasing was not enforceable under California law. Airbnb also argued that it can’t be held responsible for the conduct of Aimco’s tenants and their guests. Citing the Communications Decency Act’s protection of website operators from liability for the content people post on their sites, Airbnb sought a dismissal of the lawsuit. But Aimco argued Airbnb is an information content provider, which would make Airbnb legally responsible for the content on its site. The court, however, has concluded Airbnb is not an information content provider, given that Airbnb simply hosts the content rather than creates it. “This conduct does not make Airbnb an information content provider,” U.S. District Judge Dolly M. Gee said in her ruling. “As stated above, an information content provider is statutorily defined as “any person or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or development of information provided through the Internet or any other interactive computer service.” Airbnb, of course, is pleased with the court’s decision, a spokesperson said in a statement to TechCrunch. “The partnerships we have established with landlords have made it clear that home sharing can be a win-win situation for everyone,” the spokesperson said. “The Airbnb Friendly Buildings Program allows tenants to leverage their greatest expense to make extra money and can create new economic opportunities for landlords. We are excited to have many such partnerships in place and we continue to see tremendous interest from forward-looking landlords and developers who understand that home sharing is going to be part of the solution, especially for Millennials who are facing historic debt.” Aimco still has an active lawsuit against Airbnb in Florida. As its spokesperson, Cindy Lempke, noted to TechCrunch, the court denied Airbnb’s motion to dismiss. Regarding the California case, Aimco says it disagrees with the judge’s reasoning and application of the CDA. “Airbnb is not a passive online platform, but an active and knowing participant in the illegal short-term rentals of our apartments,” Lempke said. “Aimco has made the deliberate choice to expressly prohibit short-term rentals to unaccountable Airbnb users who have not undergone our background screening, who cause disruption for our residents, and who are apt to treat our apartments like hotel rooms rather than homes. We will continue to do all we can to stand up for our residents, advocate for our private property rights, and address the upheaval caused by Airbnb.” Below is a copy of the Gee’s dismissal. [scribd id=368274812 key=key-z70pmvI61teTbjmzvWiE mode=scroll] |
You can get that $29 battery replacement, regardless of your iPhone’s health | Brian Heater | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | null |
Apple buys app development service Buddybuild | Brian Heater | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | Apple continues to ramp up its efforts to court developers by making it easier to create and iterate their apps for its platforms. The iPhone giant has now acquired No financial terms have been disclosed for the deal. Buddybuild’s service But with Google outstripping Apple in downloads, you can see some of the math that might lead Apple to making sure its platform and app tools remain developer-friendly and replete with new features and tools to make it easier to use. Buddybuild was founded in 2015 by former Amazon employees Dennis Pilarinos and Christopher Stott. In its nearly three years of existence, the startup has managed to raise around $8.8 million, including a led by Kleiner Perkins Caufield back in May of 2016. |
Some apps were listening to you through the smartphone’s mic to track your TV viewing, says report | Sarah Perez | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | There may be a reason why that refuses to die – and not just because Facebook’s ad technology has gotten so good, it’s downright creepy. As it turns out, some apps are listening. Well, kind of! According to a , a number of apps using software from a company called Alphonso use the smartphone’s microphone to listen for audio signals in TV ads and programs, then sometimes even connect that data with places you visit or the movies you go see. The NYT’s report found that over 250 games using Alphonso software were available in Google Play, and some were also found in Apple’s App Store. Some of the apps were games and others were aimed at children. Apptopia, an app intelligence firm that’s tracking Alphonso’s software distribution as well, says it’s only now seeing 106 apps on Google Play and 24 on the App Store, with the exception of any paid apps and those that require iOS 11. While Alphonso’s software is not exactly the same situation as that ongoing Facebook meme – the one that has a number of people convinced Facebook is listening to their verbal conversations in order to target ads – it is an indication that surreptitious audio technology like this is at least possible. And that further fuels the conspiracy. There are some differences between what Alphonso is doing and what Facebook is continually accused of, however. Alphonso’s software is not focused on recording your personal conversations, the company . Instead, it’s listening for audio signals emitted by the TVs in order to track viewing behavior. This data, in turn, can be sold to advertisers. The technology here is very similar to other software It had then alerted app developers using Silverpush’s software that they could be in violation of Section 5 of the FTC Act, if they said they weren’t collecting or transmitting this same sort of TV data when, in fact, they do. The FTC also pointed out that the apps in question weren’t telling users that they were monitoring their TV viewing habits even when the app wasn’t in use. The case with Alphonso’s software sounds suspiciously similar. It serves as yet another reminder to be careful of what you install on your phone, and to carefully review an app’s permissions – especially if it’s asking for access to something it shouldn’t require, like a game that needs to turn on your microphone, for example. Thankfully, today’s app stores operated by Apple and Google require apps get user consent when an app wants to tap into the microphone. On apps distributed by the iOS App Store, there’s even a dedicated pop-up that forces you to agree to the microphone usage when the app first runs. Additionally, you can check where you’ve consented to microphone use in apps for yourself. In iOS Settings, go to Privacy –> Microphone; on modern Android, go to Apps & notifications –> App Permissions, then Microphone. However, no matter how the consent information is presented, it’s often quickly agreed to – in some cases, even by children. Plus, it’s just not clear to many consumers that an app will continue to be listening even when their phone is not being used and stowed away in their pocket, for example. (Alphonso’s software can work in a pocket, too, The NYT said.) At least the FTC historically hasn’t looked too kindly on companies that try to slip this sort of behavior past consumers. Early in 2017, for instance, it for collecting viewing history from 11 million smart TVs with proper consumer consent, for example. |
What to expect at CES 2018 | Brian Heater | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | Christmas just ended and the New Year hasn’t even dawned — but we’re already ramping up for CES mode, and we’re taking you down with us. The biggest tech show of the year is set to officially kick off January 9 — which actually means the big announcements will start in earnest several days before. The fact that the show falls so ridiculously close to New Year’s is no coincidence (and, actually, this one is slightly later than 2017’s event). Now that everyone’s made their big consumer electronic gift purchases, it’s time for the industry to trot out the next generation of devices. And for many companies, CES really does set the tone for the entire year’s product cycle. That said, some of the show’s impact has dulled in recent years. Product cycles have shifted and many big companies like Samsung tend to hold their really big announcements at their own events. Meanwhile, other big tech shows have increasingly drawn attention away from CES, including, most notably, MWC, the big mobile show that kicks off around a month and half later. With so much of the industry (and, for that matter, the world) in a seemingly transitional state, 2018 seems to be shaping up to be a bit of slow year for the show. Many of the of big trends for the event were dominant forces in past years. Connected homes will likely dominate the show yet again, led by the explosive popularity of Alexa and Google Assistant. Some past themes will likely see a shift, meanwhile, as past years’ fascination with VR shifts to a more AR focus. So here’s what we know — or think we know — about the upcoming show’s biggest news, pulled from exhibitor lists, the rumor mill and an examination of larger industry trends. An LG representative shows a smartphone with Home Chat in front of an LG smart refrigerator on the final day of the 2014 International CES, January 10, 2014 in Las Vegas, Nevada. The LG Smart Home system with the Home Chat smart platform allows users to communicate with home appliances via text message. Photo: ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images This is the biggest no-brainer of the show. The smart home dominated last year’s event, and it’s showing no sign of slowing. In fact, connected hubs like the Amazon Echo and Google home have made home automation an even larger focus. This, in turn, means you can expect more smart home devices from the usual players — names like August, Canary, Ring and Kwikset are all on the list of exhibitors. You also can expect to see showings from longstanding home product manufacturers embrace these technologies as a way to bring themselves up to speed with 21st century technologies. Last year also saw a big explosion in HomeKit-compatible devices. After all, while Apple’s never really been a direct player in CES, its smart home solution is a good way to keep Siri and iOS relevant at the show. That’s doubly important, given the recent delay of HomePod, the company’s first Siri-focused piece of hardware. Smart home offerings will no doubt run the gamut from locks to thermostats to vacuums. And keep in mind, CES has always been a big show for appliances from companies like LG and Samsung. Last year’s show saw a refrigerator sporting Bixby — it hasn’t exactly been a gangbuster year for Samsung’s smart assistant, but don’t be too surprised if it starts popping up on washing machines, vacuums and the like. 2017 was the year that Amazon and Google really truly opened their respective assistants up to third-parties. Though that really happened toward the middle of the year, around IFA, as companies like Sony and JBL began releasing their own versions of Echo and Home, often with far better sound quality than what either Amazon or Google were offering at the time. This CES is bound to see a veritable deluge of smart speakers from third parties, offering up features like portability that users don’t really get with first-party hardware. And heck, we might even see another Cortana speaker in the mix. Maybe. LG already jumped the gun on the show by announcing a new Google Assistant-enabled speaker in amongst a deluge of different audio offerings. Assistants will also no doubt start creeping directly onto other pieces of third-party hardware — Garmin recently announced the Speak car plug-in. CES 2018 will be the year that Google and Amazon attempt to assert how pliable and adaptable their assistants really are. Google, in particular, is reportedly planning quite a presence at this year’s show — which is pretty uncharacteristic for the company. At best, it’s usually there through partner products, including Android phones and Chromebooks. This time, however, the company has reserved a couple of spaces in and around the Las Vegas Convention Center, and all signs point to Assistant taking center stage. That said, don’t be surprised if Daydream VR is also along for the ride. Virtual reality has been a tent-pole CES attraction in recent years, and that’s likely to continue to be the case — though the past year has seen the industry shift its focus somewhat over the past year toward AR/MR. That move is almost certainly going to play out on consumer electronics’ biggest stage. As with smart speakers, this will be a chance for third-parties to shine on existing platforms. And all signs point to a renewed focus on standalone and/or wireless headsets. Qualcomm will almost certainly be making a big push on this front through various partners. The chipmaker has been showing off its Snapdragon 835 dev kit and has already brought some high-profile partners on board for standalone VR headsets, including, most notably, Oculus’s Go, which made its debut back in October. Google’s Daydream will likely have a big moment at the show. Lenovo just had a headset pass through FCC approval, which means it could well appear onstage at CES. The rumored “Mirage” name is almost too perfect for a Las Vegas debut. Augmented reality, meanwhile, is getting quite the platform this time out. It will be the focus of multiple panels and will be getting its own “Marketplace” in one of the Convention Center halls — one sure sign that a technology has made it in the eyes of the CEA. That one’s still a bit small this year, though it does feature some key players, including Sony, Zeiss and Kodak. Another perennial CES favorite in recent years, the wearable market was pretty tumultuous in 2017. It was up, it was down, sometimes people seemed to trend toward the low end of devices, sometimes everything appeared to be coming up smartwatch. CES 2018 is likely to be another year of throwing stuff against the wall to see what sticks. Big players in the space like Fitbit are going to be present at the show, but as with many mobile companies, they tend to prefer using their own event to launch product. Besides, the company just announced the Ionic smartwatch a few months back, so it’s likely to be pretty quiet for the show. As with the connected home space, CES is a great showcase for non-tech companies to dip their toes in the water. Past years have seen smart shoes and t-shirts, and we’re likely to see more of the same on that front. If there’s an article of clothing that can house a sensor, you’ll be seeing some version of it at this year’s CES. Past years have also been a showcase for Android Wear devices from companies like Motorola and LG, but all signs point to Google’s wearable operating system being virtually dead in the water, and CES 2018 doesn’t appear to be doing much to change that. CES just isn’t a big show for phones — especially with Mobile World Congress hot on its heels. Practically all of the major players will be present (Apple, of course, being a notable exception), but this isn’t really a big show for flagships. That said, we may see the first devices sporting Qualcomm’s newly announced Snapdragon 845. Sony is one of the companies that loves using CES as a springboard for new phones. Past years have seen a number of new Xperia devices, and indeed, one rocking the 845 has been rumored for the show. As for actual U.S. availability on those phones, well, that’s never really been Sony’s strong suit. Huawei, on the other hand, is said to be bringing some already announced smartphones to the States and CES, including the popular Mate 10 and MediaPad M5, because yes, tablets are still a thing. The biggest story on the mobile front, however, is going to be 5G everywhere. This week, the CEA added a 5G keynote to its schedule, featuring reps from Verizon, Qualcomm and Baidu. Expect that buzzword to be everywhere, as big players like Intel and Samsung push it as the connective tissue between all of the show’s big announcements, from drones to self-driving cars to smart appliances. |
Facebook, not Twitter, will live stream this year’s Golden Globes’ red carpet pre-show | Sarah Perez | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | Facebook has scored the exclusive rights to live stream this year’s Golden Globes’ red carpet pre-show – a . On Tuesday, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association (HFPA) and dick clark productions announced the two-hour event would be exclusively available on the Golden Globes Facebook page from 6 to 8 p.m. ET (3 to 5 p.m. PT) on Sunday, January 7, 2018. This is not the main awards show, mind you, but rather the official red carpet where celebrities are photographed and asked softball questions about their wardrobes, plus-ones, and who they’re hoping will win. When Twitter live streamed the event, the company collaborated with the Hollywood Foreign Press to source questions from fans’ tweets. This time around, the HFPA will leverage Facebook’s technologies and platforms to enhance the experience for viewers, including sourcing fans’ questions from Facebook. The Golden Globes Facebook Page will also post exclusive live footage, including 360-degree videos captured at the event along with other backstage content. In addition, the @goldenglobes Instagram account will offer similar exclusive footage shared in real-time, and the main @Instagram Story will be hosted by one of the red carpet hosts, Laura Marano. The other event hosts include AJ Gibson, Jeannie Mai, and Scott Mantz. The ability to post to both Facebook and Instagram likely sweetened the deal for the HFPA. For example, the main Instagram account today has 230 million followers – or 230 million potential viewers for the red carpet Instagram story. Twitter, meanwhile, has 330 million monthly actives in total. The Golden Globe Awards Facebook Page is followed by 2.3 million users, though it may acquire more viewers for the red carpet event, as anyone can visit the page to watch – not just those who explicitly “liked” it. Plus, as notes, the Golden Globes’ other media partners will post to Facebook and use Instagram Live for sharing photos and videos from the event, as well, providing even more exposure. “Facebook has had a long collaborative relationship with the entertainment community, and we’re thrilled to be able to extend that through our work with the Golden Globes,” Sibyl Goldman, head of Facebook’s Entertainment Partnerships in a statement. “We always aim to create unique experiences which bring communities together, and partaking in the kickoff of award season in conjunction with the Hollywood Foreign Press Association, is a demonstration of our commitment to bring fans together through entertainment they enjoy.” The awards show itself will be less accessible for streaming. The show is live on NBC on January 7th, and available through in select markets, if you can authenticate with your pay TV credentials. Some paid streaming TV services, like Sling TV, Hulu Live TV, YouTube TV and others offer NBC in select markets as well. |
It’s the New Year and you’re getting laundry-folding robots, because the 1960s thought of everything | Jonathan Shieber | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | The robot laundry-folding wars are heating up. The is in the early stages of partnering with the U.S. and Israeli-based laundry-folding robot designer on product development and manufacturing in the latest volley in the battle to bring a commercially viable laundry-folding robot to market. As technology moves inexorably closer to an episode of the Jetsons ( ), it’s only fitting that laundry-folding robots become the next step on the path. FoldiMate took with its early prototype for a laundry-folding robot, and the company will be back again this year to unveil its new device and to speak more fully about what the partnership with BSH will entail. “We have come a long way since then,” FoldiMate’s chief executive, Gal Rozov says of his company’s progress since that CES 2017 debut. The company has more than 200,000 followers waiting for the opportunity to pre-order the laundry-folding robotic device and is looking forward to the unveiling of a new and improved FoldiMate. These two partners aren’t the only players in the laundry-folding robot game. is working with Panasonic on the — which aims to bring its own vision of a laundry-folding machine to the masses. from funds affiliated with Henry Kravis and George Roberts, two of the founders of the gargantuan private equity investment firm KKR, the laundroid is clearly the better funded device — but the partnership with BSH will go a long way toward leveling the playing field. There’s also a significant price difference between the two devices. FoldiMate was aiming for a price point of around $850 as of last May, while laundroid is already retailing at $14,000 in Japan and has a targeted price of $2,000. For Rozov, FoldiMate is the culmination of a seven-year journey for the software developer turned company founder. The rationale behind FoldiMate is simple. Rozov hated folding clothes… but still wanted to help out around the house. FoldiMate has raised $3 million from undisclosed angel investors, but is counting on the partnership with BSH to take its business to the next level. “We believe we’ve gotten to a point where the technology is mature enough and we’re satisfied enough with the results,” to begin bringing the product to market, says Rozov. BSH will help with that process. “The best way to reduce risk with making such an endeavor with all of our challenging deadlines would be to have a partner,” Rozov tells me. “So we have decided to go deeper into discussions with BSH.” From its headquarters in Munich, BSH has become the second largest appliance manufacturing in the world (behind Whirlpool). “We have a big expertise in washing machines, dryers and garment care,” says Fridolin Weindl, head of crisis communication and international coordination for BSH Home Appliances Group. “FoldiMate has shown very innovative thinking and development of laundry folding solutions and this of course was interesting to us.” If everything goes well, Rozov said that FoldiMate will look to go to market alongside BSH. These devices are already a hit with consumers who hear about them (all of my friends… and friends’ parents… want them), and move us further along the path to automated housekeeping services. Here’re some teaser images for the new FoldiMate to tide you over till CES. [gallery ids="1582044,1582045,1582046,1582047"] |
UK eyeing ‘extremism’ tax on social media giants | Natasha Lomas | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | The UK government has kicked off the new year with another warning shot across the bows of social media giants. In an interview with the newspaper, security minister Ben Wallace hit out at tech platforms like Facebook and Google, dubbing such companies “ruthless profiteers” and saying they are doing too little to help the government combat online extremism and terrorism despite hateful messages spreading via their platforms. “We should stop pretending that because they sit on beanbags in T-shirts they are not ruthless profiteers. They will ruthlessly sell our details to loans and soft-porn companies but not give it to our democratically elected government,” he said. Wallace suggested the government is considering a tax on tech firms to cover the rising costs of policing related to online radicalization. “If they continue to be less than co-operative, we should look at things like tax as a way of incentivizing them or compensating for their inaction,” he told the newspaper. Although the minister did not name any specific firms, a reference to encryption suggests Facebook-owned WhatsApp is one of the platforms being called out (the UK’s Home Secretary has also previously WhatsApp’s use of end-to-end encryption as an aid to criminals, as well as attacking itself). “Because of encryption and because of radicalization, the cost… is heaped on law enforcement agencies,” Wallace said. “I have to have more human surveillance. It’s costing hundreds of millions of pounds. If they continue to be less than co-operative, we should look at things like tax as a way of incentivizing them or compensating for their inaction. “Because content is not taken down as quickly as they could do, we’re having to de-radicalize people who have been radicalized. That’s costing millions. They can’t get away with that and we should look at all options, including tax,” he added. Last year in Europe the German government agreed a targeting social media firms over hate speech takedowns. The so-called NetzDG law came into effect in — with a three-month transition period for compliance (which ended yesterday). It introduces a regime of fines of up to €50M for social media platforms that fail to remove illegal hate speech after a complaint (within 24 hours in straightforward cases; or within seven days where evaluation of content is more difficult). UK parliamentarians investigating extremism and hate speech on social platforms via a committee enquiry also urged the government to impose fines for takedown failures last , accusing tech giants of taking a laissez-faire approach to moderating hate speech. Tackling online extremism has also been a for UK prime minister Theresa May’s government, and one which has attracted wider backing from G7 nations — converging around a . Responding now to Wallace’s comments in the Sunday Times, Facebook sent us the following statement, attributed to its EMEA public policy director, Simon Milner: Mr Wallace is wrong to say that we put profit before safety, especially in the fight against terrorism. We’ve invested millions of pounds in people and technology to identify and remove terrorist content. The Home Secretary and her counterparts across Europe have welcomed our coordinated efforts which are having a significant impact. But this is an ongoing battle and we must continue to fight it together, indeed our CEO recently told our investors that in 2018 we will continue to put the safety of our community before profits. In the face of rising political pressure to do more to combat online extremism, tech firms including Facebook, Google and Twitter last summer focused on reducing the accessibility of Internet services to terrorists. This followed an announcement, in December 2016, of a shared industry hash database for collectively identifying terror accounts — with the newer intended to create a more formal bureaucracy for improving the database. But despite some public steps to co-ordinate counter-terrorism action, the UK’s Home Affairs committee expressed with Facebook, Google and Twitter for failing to effectively enforce their own hate speech rules in a more recent evidence session last month. Though, in the course of the session, Facebook’s Milner, claimed it’s made progress on combating terrorist content, and said it will be doubling the number of people working on “safety and security” by the end of 2018 — to circa 20,000. In response to a request for comment on Wallace’s remarks, a YouTube spokesperson emailed us the following statement: Violent extremism is a complex problem and addressing it is a critical challenge for us all. We are committed to being part of the solution and we are doing more every day to tackle these issues. Over the course of 2017 we have made significant progress through investing in machine learning technology, recruiting more reviewers, building partnerships with experts and collaboration with other companies through the Global Internet Forum. In a major shift last YouTube broadened its policy for taking down extremist content — to remove not just videos that directly preach hate or seek to incite violence but also take down other videos of named terrorists (with exceptions for journalistic or educational content). The move followed an after marketing messages were shown being displayed on YouTube alongside extremist and offensive content. Answering about how YouTube’s recommendation algorithms are actively pushing users to consume increasingly extreme content — in a sort of algorithmic radicalization — Nicklas Berild Lundblad, EMEA VP for public policy, admitted there can be a problem but said the platform is working on applying machine learning technology to automatically limit certain videos so they would not be algorithmically surfaceable (and thus limit their ability to spread). Twitter also moved to last year — responding to user criticism over the continued presence of hate speech purveyors on its platform despite having community guidelines that apparently forbid such conduct. A Twitter spokesman declined to comment on Wallace’s remarks. Speaking to the UK’s Home Affairs committee last month, the company’s EMEA VP for public policy and communications, Sinead McSweeney, conceded that it has not been “good enough” at enforcing its own rules around hate speech, adding: “We are now taking actions against 10 times more accounts than we did in the past.” But regarding terrorist content specifically, Twitter reported a big decline in the proportion of pro-terrorism accounts being reported on its platform as of , along with apparent improvements in its anti-terrorism tools — claiming 95 per cent of terrorist account suspensions had been picked up by its systems (vs manual user reports). It also said 75 per cent of these accounts were suspended before they’d sent their first tweet. |
Fast-growing Chinese media startup ByteDance enters 2018 with some uncertainty | Jon Russell | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | had a bumpy ride into 2018 after falling foul of China’s internet censors for the first. ByteDance, the new media firm behind news app Toutiao and , had a standout 2018. Its valuation jumped to more than $20 billion, it picked a number of international services — including Musical.ly and for $86 million — and began to execute on an ambitious plan to expand beyond China, where Toutiao alone claims 120 million users. That international expansion might be a little more urgent now after Toutiao, its flagship service, was taken offline for 24 hours in the run-up to New Year’s Eve, . Toutiao is a one-stop-shop app for news that is aggregated from Chinese media. It and Hong Kong-based Phoenix Television were shutdown for a day because they had “exerted a bad influence on online opinion,” according to the Beijing Internet Information Office. The duo were said to have promoted “pornographic and vulgar content.” ByteDance did not return multiple requests for comment. The app has since resumed normal service, but the incident shows that it is now firmly on the radar of China’s internet censors. China took a heavy-handed approach to regulating the internet last year, with some of tech’s biggest names in the country bearing the brunt at times — particularly around media and news content. , as they surged in popularity, while a number of because they did not “actively promote socialist core values.” This 24-hour ban serves as a warning that Toutiao, too, must adhere to Beijing’s focus. “Generally, China’s leaders have been obsessed with the containment of negative coverage, and under Xi Jinping we’ve seen a rather dramatic decline in serious coverage by China’s media,” David Bandurski, co-direct of the University of Hong Kong’s , in September. “What we’re now seeing is a war on the non-serious. It’s no longer enough for media content to avoid the negative. It must be adequately positive,” Bandurski added. That would make now a good time to expand overseas. That’s something that ByteDance has been working on for some time, perhaps in the knowledge that sooner or later it would catch Beijing’s eye. The firm has made moves in the U.S., via the Musical.ly deal and from , and it is working to make Toutiao global by using the same AI technology in its English-language news reader apps and News Republic, which it recently acquired from Cheetah Mobile. With Musical.ly, however, it will be focused on growing its presence in China and the rest of Asia, where it is far weaker than the U.S. market, where the service claims some 60 million users. Getting trapped in China’s censorship web is a rite of passage for any consumer startup, but it also represents the first serious check on the growth of ByteDance. After a break-out 2017, this year is shaping up to offer a different kind of challenge. |
YouTube star Logan Paul apologizes for video of apparent suicide victim | Jon Russell | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | January is less than two days old and already we have a reminder of the bad side of YouTube after it emerged that Logan Paul, a brash 22-year-old with over 15 million subscribers and a clothing line in his name, posted then removed a video that included footage of an apparent suicide victim. The video was taken at Aokigahara, a forest in Japan that is known for suicides. Titled “We found a dead body in the Japanese Suicide Forest” with a thumbnail image of Paul standing in front of a blurred out body, the video got more than 1 million views before being removed within 24 hours. In the video, Paul, a number of other YouTubers and a guide who accompanied them found the body of a man who had apparently hanged himself. Paul zoomed his video camera to show the body and later took close-up footage with only the face blurred out while the guide phoned the police. The YouTuber — who stars in MGM’s film which is due out this year and is part of YouTube’s paid-for Red subscription service — said in the video that he originally intended to focus on the haunted aspect of the forest. When one of his group said he didn’t feel good after seeing the hanging body, Paul said “You never stand next to a dead guy?” and laughed. Paul responded to anger at the posting with an apology in which he claimed he was trying to raise awareness of suicide and suicide prevention. Dear Internet, — Logan Paul (@LoganPaul) In his apology, Paul claimed he has posted videos for more than 15 months which got him “caught up in the moment without fully weighing up the possible ramifications.” This wasn’t a live blog and, as many pointed out on Twitter, Paul and his team had ample time during editing or preparation to elect not to post the video. Dear , How dare you! You disgust me. I can't believe that so many young people look up to you. So sad. Hopefully this latest video woke them up. You are pure trash. Plain and simple. Suicide is not a joke. Go rot in hell. Ap — Aaron Paul (@aaronpaul_8) Dear , When my brother found my sister’s body, he screamed with horror & confusion & grief & tried to save her. That body was a person someone loved. You do not walk into a suicide forest with a camera and claim mental health awareness. — Anna Akana (@AnnaAkana) There are no official figures for suicides in Aokigahara, primarily because the Japanese government doesn’t want to promote the forest as a suicide destination, but since the 1950s. Japan’s suicide rate is although figures have declined in recent years. The latest government report found that 21,897 people took their own life in 2016 — while that represented the lowest number for 22 years, suicide remains the top cause of death for people aged 15-39. with Paul’s younger brother, Jake, last year. The younger Paul had been in the media for in the West Hollywood neighborhood he moved into. The duo are not the only big name stars from Google-owned YouTube who ran into trouble. following anti-Semitic content on his channel, while for using the n-word in a broadcast. Last year saw YouTube continue to cement its position as the internet’s go-to video portal, but a number of troubling incidents demonstrated and — now — bots that create content aimed at gaining clicks from children. In response, YouTube cut down on unsuitable content — removing channels deemed — while it for kid-focused content, and pledged to . |
Lab-made meat startup SuperMeat raises $3M seed to develop ‘clean’ chicken | Steve O'Hear | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | , an Israeli biotech and food-tech startup that is developing lab-made chicken meat, has raised $3 million in seed funding, as it becomes the latest of a crop of so-called ‘clean meat’ companies to get off the ground. Others in the space include Bill Gates, Atomico and DFJ-backed , and Hampton Creek, which is also lab-grown meat. Backing SuperMeat are U.S.-based venture capital fund New Crop Capital, and “mission-oriented” VC firm Stray Dog Capital, in addition to strategic investment from PHW, one of Europe’s largest poultry producers. The latter signals less disruption and more transformation, SuperMeat CEO and co-founder Ido Savir told me in a call last week. Savir, who has been an ethical vegan for the past 20 years, says that PHW’s investment is proof that the food industry is ready to embrace new technology, specifically in enabling food production to further scale and in a more sustainable way. That’s the longterm, though not yet realised, promise of ‘clean meat,’ which is produced in a lab by growing real animal cells. In SuperMeat’s case, those extracted from a chicken. Put over simply, the process involves feeding the cells the correct nutrients to produce muscle and fat, as would ordinarily happen were they grown inside an animal’s body. If lab-made meat could replace the need to rear (and slaughter) animals, it would be hugely beneficial in reducing the environmental impact that industrial farming has, as well as reducing the spread of food-borne illnesses. “The potential benefits for public health and animal welfare are considerable,” says the SuperMeat CEO. I agree, pointing out that the widespread use of antibiotics in farming is frightening, especially in light of fast-developing antibiotic resistance. The company also cites conducted by Oxford and Amsterdam Universities that says switching to clean meat will allow a reduction of up to 98 percent in greenhouse gas emissions, 99 percent in land exploitation, and up to 96 percent in water usage. Meanwhile, the demand for meat is to double by 2050. However, it’s still very early days for ‘clean meat’. Like competitors in the space, SuperMeat has a number of major hurdles to cross, both in terms of the core science of growing meat in a lab that actually tastes good, and developing a manufacturing process that would enable these ‘clean meat’ farms to scale and at a cost that can compete with animal-reared meat. It reckons it is still up to three years away from putting SuperMeat products on supermarket shelves. To that end, the Tel Aviv startup has, for now, ditched the utopian dream of lab-grown whole organs, such as a chicken breast, in favour of initially creating lab-made chicken that can be used in processed foods. Crucially, says Savir, the company has put together a group of experts to think about scalability from the get-go. They include people from the pharmaceutical industry with knowledge of growing cells in a lab and the nutrients needed to cultivate them, along with other scientists, food engineers, and, of course, chefs. Commenting on the new partnership with SuperMeat, PHW-Gruppe’s CEO Peter Wesjohann said: “We at PHW have time and again left the beaten path in conducting our business. This approach not only facilitates the development of best-in-class animal welfare concepts in our core poultry business, but will also lead to the strengthening of our vegan product portfolio, confirming our leading role in the global consumer trend towards a cleaner, more protein-rich diet”. |
Telegram and Instagram being restricted in Iran | Natasha Lomas | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | Messaging app Telegram and Facebook-owned social sharing platform Instagram appear to be being blocked in Iran. Iran state TV said yesterday that authorities were temporarily blocking the services to “maintain peace”, according to the news agency. The country has seen a rising wave of anti-government protests in recent days and ministers have accused social media of fueling dissent. On Saturday Iran’s ICT minister, Mohammad-Javad Azari Jahromi tweeted directly at Telegram founder Pavel Durov — claiming that one of the platform’s channels “is encouraging hateful conduct, use of Molotov cocktails, armed uprisings, and social unrest” and urging Durov to act to “stop such encouragements via Telegram”. : A Telegram channel is encouraging hateful conduct, use of Molotov cocktails, armed uprising, and social unrest. NOW is the time to stop such encouragements via Telegram. — MJ Azari Jahromi (@azarijahromi) In a on his Telegram channel yesterday, Durov said the authorities had “imposed a block on Telegram”, adding that it is “not clear whether permanent or temporary”. He also confirmed that Telegram admins had suspended the channel that Jahromi had been objecting to — naming it as @amadnews — but claimed this was as a result of the channel admins having broken Telegram’s terms of service rules by “calling its subscribers to use Molotov cocktails and firearms against police”. Responding to Jahromi’s Durov also noted that: “Calls for violence are prohibited by the Telegram rules. If confirmed, we’ll have to block such a channel, regardless of its size and political affiliation.” Following the suspension of @amadnews, Durov writes that the channel admins were able to “reassemble most of their subscribers (800,000) in a new peaceful channel, which we welcomed” — after apologizing for breaking Telegram’s ToS and pledging “not to promote violence in future”. At the time of writing neither Instagram nor Telegram could be reached for comment. Telegram has a large user base in Iran — with that it has ~40M monthly active users, which amounts to around half the population of the country, and 25M daily active users. With media censorship a fact of life in Iran, digital services and apps such as Telegram have offered citizens an alternative outlet for accessing information — including, when service blocks are imposed, the capacity for more tech savvy users to use other digital tools (such as proxy servers) to circumvent attempts to restrict access to uncensored content. However the Iranian government has been pushing for control over foreign messaging platforms — including, in , calling for companies to move their servers to Iran, sparking privacy fears. Last year Durov was forced to that Telegram had moved some of its servers to the country — saying rather it had installed some local caching nodes to speed up download times. The local CDNs could not in any way aid state censorship of the platform, he . Iran’s government has also been targeting Telegram channel administrators — issuing a requirement that admins of channels with more than 5,000 members register with the Ministry of Culture and Islamic Guidance. Those not registering risk prosecution. While registered admins expose themselves to the — putting channels under greater pressure to self-censor. The regime also appears to be cranking up the public pressure on Durov to police content it doesn’t like — such as the now suspended @amadnews channel — though the Telegram founder has been quick to point to counter-examples where the platform has resisted authorities’ demands. Iranian authorities are blocking access to Telegram for the majority of Iranians after our public refusal to shut down and other peacefully protesting channels. — Pavel Durov (@durov) Whether Telegram can continue to walk this line and successfully avoid a permanent block in Iran remains to be seen. (The Indonesian government used blocks to wring content-related concessions out of Telegram, focused on removing ISIS-related channels and improving its local moderation systems.) Telegram’s actions here, in suspending a popular channel following a state request, have drawn accusations of collusion with the Iranian regime, even as the platform continues to anger the Iranian government by providing an ongoing outlet for uncensored political content. So Durov looks to be facing the proverbial choice between a rock and a hard place — leaving his critics to decry his technical choices. You can't keep an independent, destabilizing service from being blocked in authoritarian regimes, you can only delay it. So you need to be thinking about how to continuing protecting people by making the service accessible *even after the block.* — Edward Snowden (@Snowden) |
Amazon shipped over 5 billion items with Prime in 2017 | Sarah Perez | 2,018 | 1 | 2 | Amazon still won’t officially reveal how many consumers worldwide participate in its Amazon Prime membership program, but it did today offer a few new stats related to that program’s adoption and growth. The company on Tuesday that more new, paid members joined Prime worldwide in 2017 than any other year. It also noted that over 5 billion items worldwide shipped with Prime in 2017, including via one-day and two-day shipping. The company has never before released details around how many items it has shipped via Prime in a year’s time, and declined to provide last year’s figures for comparison purposes. The closest it got last year was that over a billion items shipped via Prime and Fulfillment by Amazon during the 2016 holidays. To some extent, the increases in membership and shipments represent the expanded reach of Prime in 2017, and its more recent arrival in key markets – not only its ability to convert online shoppers to paying members. For example, Prime in 2017 arrived in Mexico, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Singapore, in addition to existing markets including the U.S., U.K., Spain, Japan, Italy, India, Germany, France, China, Canada, Belgium and Austria. Contributing to Prime’s growth is the fact that the program is still relatively new to one of the world’s biggest markets, India, where it launched back in . Though India didn’t start offering Prime this year, its existence in that country has certainly impacted 2017’s numbers. For instance, India became Amazon’s fastest-growing market for Amazon Prime this year, having grown nearly 5 times between the beginning of the year and October, Amazon earlier this fall. Today, the company told us that more Prime members joined in India than any other country in its first year. Amazon Prime has grown stateside in 2017, as well. A third-party estimate from Consumer Intelligence Research Partners, , said that 63 percent of Amazon customers are now Prime members, and that Prime had grown to 90 million U.S. Prime members. While we don’t know the official number of Prime members worldwide, we do know that the number of “new paid members” in 2017 is at least more than 20 million. This is because Amazon “tens of millions” of new paid Prime members in Q4 2016 – a number which Amazon confirmed to mean 20 million. [gallery ids="1582026,1582027,1582030,1582031,1582032,1582033,1582034,1582035,1582029"] Prime shipments have also likely been impacted by Amazon’s ability to get its Alexa-powered devices into customers’ homes, where they enable easy re-ordering of household staples, like packaged goods, diapers, dog food, and more. After the holidays, Amazon it sold “tens of millions” of Alexa-enabled devices worldwide over the holidays. That indicates over 20 million Alexa devices have been sold to date, to various third-party . Amazon today added that its Alexa-powered Echo Dot along with Fire TV Stick were the best-selling products of the year on Amazon, across manufacturers. They were also the top sellers on and the thanks to deep discounts and other big pushes from Amazon. Amazon offered a few other milestones today, alongside its Prime shipment and membership numbers. For example, it noted that Prime members used their digital benefits including Prime Video, Prime Music, and Prime Reading more than ever before. It also said December 30, 2017 was the biggest streaming day of the year around the world for Prime Video; Twitch Prime members worldwide ordered more than five million pre-release games with a Prime discount; and Amazon’s fulfillment and shipping network increased by more than 30 percent in square footage worldwide in 2017. |
The Chinese think Palo Alto is dumpy | Danny Crichton | 2,018 | 1 | 20 | Good news! The great is finally over. Google tells me , but thankfully, humans seem to have filtered out any more stories or follow ups. Silicon Valley can rest easy. But wait! There is another crisis brewing, and it isn’t the animal fecal matter in your algae water. Over the past few days, we’ve seen the creation of a brand new genre of tech press article which might be called “the Chinese are really bored with Silicon Valley.” (My sources tell me the Albanians are also bored with the Valley, but no one apparently cares what they think these days. Albania is in Africa, right?). Apparently, and this is true because , Palo Alto looks kind of dumpy. Color me as shocked as the green of this fungal H20. Dumpy? Have they the Persian rug store on University? As the Journal describes a group of Chinese founders visiting the Valley, “To many in the group, northern California’s low-rise buildings looked shabbier than the glitzy skyscrapers in Beijing and Shenzhen.” Finally, someone noticed. But it wasn’t just the WSJ that got in on the action. , which emphasized the growing financial opportunities and career options on the Chinese mainland compared to the U.S. From the article: “Yet the search for returnees has spurred a thriving cottage industry. In WeChat and Facebook cliques, headhunters and engineers from the diaspora exchange banter and animated gifs.” Banter animated gifs. My god the Valley is screwed. This whole trend piece genre is kind of weird, particularly in the context of the other Silicon Valley freakout this week, which was Mike Moritz’ editorial in the . Plus, Moritz and his “western eye” points out, the Chinese reuse teabags! So basically, “The Chinese” living in Silicon Valley are sending animated gifs, bantering, and complaining about shabby Palo Alto buildings all the while dreaming of moving to Asia to reuse teabags and not see their children. And people say journalism is dead. Now, I am being flippant (if you hadn’t noticed, you might want to delete your angry tweet from a couple of paragraphs ago). There really is an important trend that people should be paying attention to when it comes to global worker mobility and particularly the mobility of Chinese tech workers. But it is deeply amusing to me to see the fear of a brain drain in a region that has probably drained more brains from the rest of the world than any other place. China has much to be proud of in its tech sector. The so-called BAT companies — Baidu, Alibaba, and Tencent — are together worth more than a trillion dollars today. Transportation services startup , and news content platform . , second only to the United States. The broader ecosystem is even more compelling. and are starting to rival Silicon Valley levels. The number of startups is also huge, and China is probably home to more tech startups than all ecosystems but the Valley (and maybe the Valley, too, depending on how you count). Plus, the government is putting its money where its mouth is. Back in 2008, the Chinese government launched the to recruit 1,000 overseas researchers to the mainland. Those recruitment programs have expanded and continue unabated. Furthermore, the government has placed , and will put billions of dollars to work in related industries. In short, China together has some of the most interesting, fastest-growing technology companies in the world right now, and is also giving them the royal treatment. It is hardly surprising then that given the tremendous growth in its domestic startup ecosystem, overseas Chinese engineers would start to look back toward China for their next career steps. For all of the concerns of the press that there is a new brain drain in Silicon Valley, I think we can rest easy. Despite Palo Alto’s shabby look, lack of mobile payments, and lack of face-recognition software, America still has many, many desirable qualities. It’s safe and clean. Corruption is reasonably rare. Universities are still the best in the world. The bureaucracy around running a business is reasonably simple and well-trodden. Freedom of speech and expression is also strong. It’s important that America doesn’t rest on its laurels, but neither should we go into full crisis mode to change a system that has produced some of the most impactful companies in the world. Maybe a few more Chinese are leaving Silicon Valley these days. Maybe. That sounds like both a warning, and an opportunity to build and heal the tech divide between two great powers. Maybe both sides can drink some raw water from the Yangtze River. |
Subsets and Splits
No community queries yet
The top public SQL queries from the community will appear here once available.