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Showing posts from April, 2021

Early bird extension gives you more time to save on passes to TC Early Stage 2021: Marketing and Fundraising

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Startup life, especially in the early innings, is nothing short of hectic. Who wouldn’t love a clone or two to help get everything done? Well, we can’t clone you, but we can give you more time to sign up and save on a pass to TC Early Stage 2021: Marketing and Fundraising on July 8-9. We’re extending the early bird deadline to Friday, June 4 at 11:59 pm (PT) . Sweet! That should help calm the cray-cray and save you $100 on admission to our virtual two-day bootcamp experience. Of course, you don’t need to wait. Buy your pass now while it’s top-of-mind and feel the joy of having one less task on your to-do list. Not familiar with TC Early Stage? It’s specifically designed to help new startup founders learn essential entrepreneurial skills to build a successful startup. We tap the very best experts in the startup ecosystem, and they deliver actionable insights you can put in place now, when you need them most. At TC Early Stage 2021, top-tier investors, veteran founders and respecte...

Ahead of the Epic vs. Apple trial, which starts on Monday, a look at what is at stake, how the trial will work, key witnesses who will testify, and more (David Pierce/Protocol)

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David Pierce / Protocol : Ahead of the Epic vs. Apple trial, which starts on Monday, a look at what is at stake, how the trial will work, key witnesses who will testify, and more   —  On Monday, Apple and Epic Games will meet in court to decide one of the most consequential antitrust arguments in the history of the tech industry. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3gS3Lqh

CA appellate court rules Amazon is responsible for the safety of third-party products it sells, rejecting Amazon's claim of merely connecting buyers and sellers (David Lazarus/Los Angeles Times)

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David Lazarus / Los Angeles Times : CA appellate court rules Amazon is responsible for the safety of third-party products it sells, rejecting Amazon's claim of merely connecting buyers and sellers   —  Should Amazon, which accounts for roughly half of all online sales, be legally and financially responsible for the safety … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2QDvCQA

China says 33 apps, including apps made by Baidu and Tencent, violate rules in gathering personal information, which must be rectified within 10 working days (Bloomberg)

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Bloomberg : China says 33 apps, including apps made by Baidu and Tencent, violate rules in gathering personal information, which must be rectified within 10 working days   —  - Violators include software provided by Baidu and Tencent  —  China said thirty-three applications, including map navigation software provided … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/336J4id

Florida plans to fine social media for banning politicians

The Florida bill proposes fines up to $250,000 per day for companies which violate the rules. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/2R9GYvo

IDC: global tablet shipments grew 55.2% YoY, most since 2013, to reach 39.9M units in Q1; Apple led with 12.7M shipments, up 64.3% YoY; Samsung 8M, up 60.8% YoY (Mike Peterson/AppleInsider)

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Mike Peterson / AppleInsider : IDC: global tablet shipments grew 55.2% YoY, most since 2013, to reach 39.9M units in Q1; Apple led with 12.7M shipments, up 64.3% YoY; Samsung 8M, up 60.8% YoY   —  Apple's iPad retained the dominant share of the tablet industry in the first quarter of 2021 as the product segment grew more than 50% year-over-year. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3tammAt

More US agencies potentially hacked, this time with Pulse Secure exploits

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Enlarge (credit: Getty Images) At least five US federal agencies may have experienced cyberattacks that targeted recently discovered security flaws that give hackers free rein over vulnerable networks, the US Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency said on Friday. The vulnerabilities in Pulse Connect Secure, a VPN that employees use to remotely connect to large networks, include one that hackers had been actively exploiting before it was known to Ivanti, the maker of the product. The flaw, which Ivanti disclosed last week , carries a severity rating of 10 out of a possible 10. The authentication bypass vulnerability allows untrusted users to remotely execute malicious code on Pulse Secure hardware, and from there, to gain control of other parts of the network where it's installed. Federal agencies, critical infrastructure, and more Security firm FireEye said in a report published on the same day as the Ivanti disclosure that hackers linked to China spent months e...

Developer-focused video platform Mux achieves unicorn status with $105M funding

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Barely more than eight months after announcing a $37 million funding round , Mux has another $105 million. The Series D was led by Coatue and values the company at more than $1 billion (Mux isn’t disclosing the specific valuation). Existing investors Accel, Andreessen Horowitz and Cobalt also participated, as did new investor Dragoneer. Co-founder and CEO Jon Dahl told me that Mux didn’t need to raise more funding. But after last year’s Series C, the company’s leadership kept in touch with Coatue and other investors who’d expressed interest, and they ultimately decided that more money could help fuel faster growth during “this inflection moment in video.” Building on the thesis popularized by A16Z co-founder Marc Andreessen, Dahl said, “I think video’s eating software, the same way software was eating the world 10 years ago.” In other words, where video was once something we watched at our desks and on our sofas, it’s now everywhere, whether we’re scrolling through our social medi...

As concerns rise over forest carbon offsets, Pachama’s verified offset marketplace gets $15 million

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Restoring and preserving the world’s forests has long been considered one of the easiest, lowest cost, and simplest ways to reduce the amount of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. It’s by far the most popular method for corporations looking to take an easy first step on the long road to decarbonizing or offsetting their industrial operations. But in recent months the efficacy, validity, and reliability of a number of forest offsets have been called into question thanks to some blockbuster reporting from Bloomberg. It’s against this uncertain backdrop that investors are coming in to shore up financing for Pachama , a company building a marketplace for forest carbon credits that it says is more transparent and verifiable thanks to its use of satellite imagery and machine learning technologies. That pitch has brought in $15 million in new financing for the company, which co-founder and chief executive Diego Saez Gil said would be used for product development and the continued expansi...

DOJ says SAP voluntarily admitted to violating Iran sanctions and exporting software to users in the country 20K+ times between 2010 and 2017, and will pay $8M+ (Charlie Osborne/ZDNet)

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Charlie Osborne / ZDNet : DOJ says SAP voluntarily admitted to violating Iran sanctions and exporting software to users in the country 20K+ times between 2010 and 2017, and will pay $8M+   —  SAP says it accepts “full responsibility for past conduct.”  —  SAP has reached a settlement with US investigators to close … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3u8SUvU

Apple charged over 'anti-competitive' app polices

The tech giant faces huge fine and may be forced to make changes to the App Store. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/3gPLRo5

Robotic arm harvests apples and other technology news

LJ Rich looks at some of the best technology news stories of the week. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/3t97KkK

Tech Tent: Apple’s ad-tracking bombshell

The programme examines the impact of Apple's new operating system on the ad industry. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/3eB5uNS

These people aren't real but could help tackle bias in tech

How technology that generates fake faces is helping to tackle bias in facial recognition systems. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/3xAC6jF

Amazon posts profit and revenue growth as Q1 results highlight impact of Covid-19 on its business

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/3gR2W0U

The case for vaccine passports: the real world versus the digital world

from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/3gWmnpn

Roku has removed YouTube TV from its channel store after Roku and Google failed to come to a distribution agreement; existing users will continue to have access (Sara Fischer/Axios)

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Sara Fischer / Axios : Roku has removed YouTube TV from its channel store after Roku and Google failed to come to a distribution agreement; existing users will continue to have access   —  YouTube TV has been removed from Roku's channel store, after Roku and YouTube TV parent Google failed to come … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3u9peih

Darktrace shares jumped as much as 40% on its London Stock Exchange debut, after its IPO raised £165M at an opening value of £1.7B (Tim Bradshaw/Financial Times)

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Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times : Darktrace shares jumped as much as 40% on its London Stock Exchange debut, after its IPO raised £165M at an opening value of £1.7B   —  Cambridge-based cyber security company and its backers raise £165m in London debut  —  Darktrace saw its shares jump by as much as 40 per cent … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3aR8apO

Europe charges Apple with antitrust breach, citing Spotify App Store complaint

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The European Commission has announced that it’s issued formal antitrust charges against Apple, saying today that its preliminary view is Apple’s app store rules distort competition in the market for music streaming services by raising the costs of competing music streaming app developers. The Commission begun investigating competition concerns related to iOS App Store (and also Apple Pay) last summer . “The Commission takes issue with the mandatory use of Apple’s own in-app purchase mechanism imposed on music streaming app developers to distribute their apps via Apple’s App Store,” it wrote today. “The Commission is also concerned that Apple applies certain restrictions on app developers preventing them from informing iPhone and iPad users of alternative, cheaper purchasing possibilities.” The statement of objections focuses on two rules that Apple imposes in its agreements with music streaming app developers: Namely the mandatory requirement to use its proprietary in-app purc...

EU charged Apple with antitrust violations saying the iPhone maker squeezed rival music streaming apps by requiring them to use Apple's in-app payments system (Sam Schechner/Wall Street Journal)

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Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal : EU charged Apple with antitrust violations saying the iPhone maker squeezed rival music streaming apps by requiring them to use Apple's in-app payments system   —  EU accuses Apple of forcing many apps to use its in-app payment system on which it takes commissions, saying it ‘distorted competition’ in music streaming from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3nBAkdx

Amazon hopes pandemic habits stick after profits triple

The tech giant may be entering a "golden age" as the pandemic boosts its range of businesses. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/2QLrBcy

From Sutter Hill's Snowflake investment to Accel's bet on UiPath, Altos Ventures' bet on Roblox, and more, a look at VC firms poised to reap blockbuster profits (Eliot Brown/Wall Street Journal)

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Eliot Brown / Wall Street Journal : From Sutter Hill's Snowflake investment to Accel's bet on UiPath, Altos Ventures' bet on Roblox, and more, a look at VC firms poised to reap blockbuster profits   —  Sutter Hill's Snowflake bet eclipses some of the biggest returns in U.S. startup history  —  Nearly a decade ago … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/32ZKeMH

The ransomware surge ruining lives

A coalition is calling for action from governments as victims describe crippling cyber-attacks. from RSSMix.com Mix ID 8290670 https://ift.tt/2R9dr59

Eclipse Ventures has $500 million more to digitize old-line industries and bring them up to speed

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Two years ago , we talked with Lior Susan, the founder of now six-year-old Eclipse Ventures in Palo Alto, Ca. At the time, the outfit believed that the next big thing wasn’t another social network but instead the remaking of old-line industries through full tech stacks — including hardware, software and data — capable of bring them into the 21st century. Fast forward, and nothing has changed, not inside of Eclipse anyway. While the world has gone through a dramatic transformation owing to the coronavirus pandemic — never has the U.S.’s crumbling infrastructure been so apparent to so many – Eclipse is backing exactly the same kinds of companies that it always has and with the same size fund. Indeed, after closing its second and third funds with $500 million, the firm quietly closed its fourth vehicle earlier this month with $500 million in capital commitments from predominantly endowments. This morning, we talked with Susan about Eclipse’s focus on revitalizing old industries that rem...