Network Support Blog

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch: Mux, an API-based video streaming and analytics service, raises $105M Series D led by Coatue, at a valuation of $1B+, bringing its total raised to $175M  —  Barely more than eight months after announcing a $37 million funding round, Mux has another $105 million. https://bit.ly/332Wtb0

BBC: English soccer and cricket clubs and other sporting bodies begin a four-day boycott of Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram, protesting abuse on the platforms  —  Football clubs, players, athletes and a number of sporting bodies have begun a four-day boycott of social media in an attempt … https://bit.ly/3e4hUir

Mark Wilson / Fast Company: Experts detail how Apple AirTags can be used by an abuser to discreetly track a partner despite built-in protections, especially when victims are not iOS users  —  AirTags are powerful surveillance technology.  And the National Network to End Domestic Violence believes Apple has more work to do to fix them. https://bit.ly/3nz0Ynj

Jordan Novet / CNBC: Amazon says AWS had Q1 revenue of $13.50B, 32% growth YoY and 28% growth QoQ, beating estimates and contributing $4.16B to operating income  —  - Amazon Web Services revenue growth accelerated in the first quarter even as the segment leads the cloud infrastructure market. https://bit.ly/3eDaa62

Nandita Bose / Reuters: US Labor Secretary says most gig workers should be classified as employees deserving of related benefits; shares of Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash are down sharply  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's top labor official said most gig workers in the United States should be classified as … https://bit.ly/3nxTz7K

Mike Butcher / TechCrunch: Berlin-based digital asset custody and financial services provider Finoa raises $22M Series A led by Balderton Capital  —  Institutions need to keep their crypto assets somewhere.  And they aren't going to keep it on some random, or consumer-grade crypto operation.  This requires more sophisticated technology. https://bit.ly/3gOVQdd

Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter: Apple says it has 660M subscriptions across its platform; Apple Q2 Services revenue hit a record $16.9B, up from $13.3B a year ago  —  The tech giant's overall revenue hit $89.6 billion, up 54 percent from a year prior.  —  Apple's services business is off to a hot start in 2021. https://bit.ly/3eL1drA

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch: Splitwise, which helps groups split expenses, raises $20M Series A, says its tens of millions of users have shared or managed bills totaling ~$90B since 2011  —  This morning Splitwise, a Providence, Rhode Island-based startup announced that it has closed a $20 million Series A. https://bit.ly/2PwMN5H

Syhunt: Analysis of a password dump containing 3.28B leaked passwords, which includes 1.5M+ passwords associated with government email addresses from around the world  —  Paper by Felipe Daragon and Syhunt Team.  April 26.  2021  —  OUR ANALYSIS  —  Following customer and media requests … https://bit.ly/2PxrdOs

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: Pinterest misses on user growth in Q1, with 478M MAUs vs. 480.5M est., as revenue beats, with $485M, up 78% YoY, vs. $474M est.; stock down ~10% after hours  —  - Shares of Pinterest dropped as much as 10% in after-hours trading on Tuesday after it missed on user growth expectations in its first-quarter earnings. https://bit.ly/3vq9s2R

Sarah McBride / Bloomberg: Iterable, which offers SMS, email, and app notification growth marketing services and is valued at ~$2B, ousts CEO for taking LSD before a board meeting in 2019  —  Marketing startup Iterable Inc. dismissed its chief executive officer over violations of company policy, Iterable said in a note to employees on Monday. https://bit.ly/3xsLzcO

Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal: A look at the risks posed by data, including geolocation, harvested from common apps for phones belonging to US intelligence officers and military personnel  —  Apps show troop movements buried in data available for purchase: ‘a major risk to national security’ https://bit.ly/3eyjJTL

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch: Lyft says it is selling its self-driving unit, called Lyft Level 5 with ~300 employees, to Toyota's Woven Planet Holdings subsidiary for $550M  —  Ride-hailing company Lyft has sold off its autonomous vehicle unit to Toyota's Woven Planet Holdings subsidiary for $550 million … https://bit.ly/3ve7Wki

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Facebook rolls out a miniplayer that will allow Facebook users to stream music and podcasts from Spotify through the Facebook app on iOS or Android  —  Facebook announced last week an expanded partnership with streaming music service Spotify that would bring a new way to listen to music … https://bit.ly/2R2WYPz

Kaavya Chandrasekaran / The Economic Times: upGrad, an online education startup focused on the post K-12 space, raises $120M from Singapore's sovereign fund Temasek, sources say at a $575M-$675M valuation  —  Education technology startup upGrad, promoted by media entrepreneur Ronnie Screwvala, said it has raised $120 million … https://bit.ly/3nkAkyx

Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg: Survey finds direct correlation between the percentage of someone's net worth invested in crypto and negative impacts to their personal relationships  —  - A greater portion of assets in crypto makes issues more likely  — Big gains or losses of money can have an effect: analyst https://bit.ly/3nk0IbA

Anna Hensel / Modern Retail: Affirm to acquire Returnly, a software startup that allows retailers to offer store credit before an item is returned, for $300M in a cash and equity deal  —  Buy now, pay later startup Affirm is looking to acquisitions to gain an edge over its competitors. https://bit.ly/3dPXGZJ

Duncan Riley / SiliconANGLE: Cherre, which uses AI to index and analyze real estate data from disparate public and private sources, raises $50M Series B, bringing total raised to $75M  —  Real estate data management and analytics startup Cherre Inc. has raised $50 million in new funding to enable it to expand its platform offering … https://bit.ly/3aFfDIj

CNN: Sources familiar with the investigation of SolarWinds breach say hackers from Russia's SVR intelligence agency likely still maintain access to US networks  —  Washington (CNN)The White House's top official on the response to the massive SolarWinds hack says the sweeping measures announced … https://bit.ly/3sOGA2G

Jack Bandy / Technically Social: Study finds that Twitter's algorithmic timeline greatly reduces exposure to external links when compared to the chronological timeline  —  New research on Twitter's timeline curation algorithm sheds light on how it shapes what we're exposed to.  —  How does Twitter's algorithm change what users see in their timelines? https://bit.ly/3xlpg8F

Brian Contreras / Los Angeles Times: Trump's last post on Facebook, which now has 700K+ comments, has become a weird internet memorial where his fans and critics still converge to argue and troll  —  At first glance, Donald Trump's Facebook page seems like it's been dead for months.  —  The former president's last post … https://bit.ly/32J38aj

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record: Click Studios, maker of the enterprise password manager Passwordstate, notified its 29K customers about a supply chain attack deployed via an update of the app  —  A mysterious threat actor has compromised the update mechanism of enterprise password manager application Passwordstate … https://bit.ly/3vgkQ1b

Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter: Federal judge rejects motion to dismiss a lawsuit against Apple that alleges the “Buy” option in iTunes is deceptive as Apple can still terminate access  —  Rejecting a motion to dismiss, a federal judge says it is plausible that consumers don't know that access to purchased content can be revoked. https://bit.ly/3sMoXQP

Ed Zitron / Where's Your Ed At: Clubhouse lacks opportunities for virality and monetization that Twitch, Snapchat, and Discord have, and its product is one feature that has been copied easily  —  Clubhouse, an app which allows you to join audio conversations with other people (a function unavailable in any other app or device), is now worth $4 billion. https://bit.ly/3av5ldK

Kif Leswing / CNBC: Intel reports Q1 revenue of $18.6B, flat YoY, vs. $17.90B est., Data Center Group revenue of $5.56B, down from $6.99B YoY, and PC unit volumes were up 38% YoY  —  - Intel's first-quarter earnings are the first with CEO Pat Gelsinger at the helm.  — He's already announced a turnaround … https://bit.ly/3nejRM5

Michael Grothaus / Fast Company: Apple executives detail privacy and anti-stalking protections built into AirTags and insist they are designed just to track items, not people or pets  —  Apple's “Spring Loaded” event on Tuesday offered a bonanza of new hardware announcements, including some unexpected ones. https://bit.ly/3aAunbk

Nikkei Asia: Indonesia-based Halodoc, a medical teleconsultation and online drug delivery service, raises $80M Series C led by Astra with Temasek and others participating  —  Conglomerate Astra and Singapore's Temasek among first-time investors  —  TOKYO — Halodoc, one of Indonesia's largest health-tech startup … https://bit.ly/3arWauA

Ari Levy / CNBC: UiPath closes at $69 on its debut, valuing the company at $35.8B, after pricing shares at $56 and raising $1.34B  —  - UiPath and its investors sold about 23.9 million shares at $56 apiece, bringing in $1.34 billion in the IPO.  — The company, whose software automates repetitive office tasks … https://bit.ly/3tLs6li

Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac: Apple Support article says lost AirTags will be readable by any NFC-enabled device, including Android devices, when in Lost Mode  —  After numerous rumors, Apple finally introduced AirTag during today's special event.  Apple's item tracker works based on the ultra-wideband U1 chip and relies … https://bit.ly/2QntUCr

Rita Liao / TechCrunch: Beijing-based Laiye, which develops robotic process automation software, raises $50M Series C+  —  Robotic process automation has become buzzy in the last few months.  New York-based UiPath is on course to launch an initial public offering after gaining an astounding valuation of $35 billion in February. https://bit.ly/3sAsGB6

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: Ahead of its congressional testimony, Tile shares concerns of unfair competition regarding AirTag, which is tightly integrated with Apple's Find My network  —  Now that Apple's lost item finder AirTag has officially been introduced, competitor Tile is going on record ahead of its testimony … https://bit.ly/2RM7pHH

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac: Apple updates 11" and 12.9" iPad Pros with M1, 8-core GPU, Thunderbolt, up to 2TB storage, 5G, 1080p FaceTime HD camera, and a miniLED screen on the 12.9" model  —  As part of the Apple event today, the company unveiled the new lineup of iPad Pro tablets.  The 2021 11-inch and 12.9-inch iPad Pro feature … https://bit.ly/3sxG4Wt

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC: PayPal to launch a local wallet in China focused on cross-border payments; PayPal is the first foreign firm with 100% ownership of a payments platform in China  —  - PayPal plans to set up a local wallet in China focused on cross-border payments.  — In January, the U.S. fintech became … https://bit.ly/32syySj

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: Geico, the 2nd-largest US auto insurer, says hackers could steal customer driver's license numbers from its site from Jan. 21 through March 1; bug now patched  —  Geico, the second-largest auto insurer in the U.S., has fixed a security bug that let fraudsters steal customers' driver's license numbers from its website. https://bit.ly/3apcpIU

Paresh Dave / Reuters: Researchers say Google Translate and other tools could be contributing to misunderstandings of legal terms with conflicting meanings such as “enjoin”  —  (Reuters) - Translation tools from Alphabet Inc's Google and other companies could be contributing to significant misunderstanding … https://bit.ly/3xa1cp9

Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech: Interview with Intel's VP of Xeon, Lisa Spelman, on the new features in its 10nm Ice Lake Xeon Scalable chips, its data center processor roadmap, and more  —  With the launch of Intel's Third Generation Xeon Scalable platform based on 10nm Ice Lake processors, Intel has upgraded a part of the company that makes the BIG money. https://bit.ly/2Q6k48b

Peter Kafka / Vox: Sources: Facebook will announce a suite of audio products on Monday, including a Clubhouse-like app, a podcast discovery product connected to Spotify, and more  —  Announcements are coming on Monday, but some products won't show up for a while.  —  Facebook wants you to start talking, and listening, on Facebook. https://bit.ly/3svqbQu

Nilay Patel / The Verge: A look back at the netbook explosion of the late 2000s and how iPads, Chromebooks, and appliance-like computers took the netbook's place  —  The sound of a slow processor screaming  —  There's an Apple event next week, and it's looking fairly likely that we'll see updated models of the iPad Pro and perhaps the iPad Mini. https://bit.ly/3gm5x2W

Julie Jargon / Wall Street Journal: Roblox is working on content ratings for games and on ways to make parental controls easier to find and use, to address sexual content issues on its platform  —  Sexual role-play and ‘dating’ are common on the children's gaming platform; parental controls help make it a safer space https://bit.ly/3ebiZnx

Dina Temple-Raston / NPR: Company officials, victims, experts, and intel officials discuss the SolarWinds hack, which successfully compromised ~100 companies and a dozen govt. agencies  —  “This release includes bug fixes, increased stability and performance improvements.”  —  The routine software update … https://bit.ly/3dse4PV

Rest of World: Internet blackouts following a military coup have shut down swathes of the online economy in Myanmar, where internet penetration had surged to around 43%  —  Amid internet blackouts, economic isolation, and massive strikes, a decade of development is unwinding. https://bit.ly/3tnDYtz

Nikkei Asia: Sources: at least four types of equipment vital to chip production are in short supply and lead times for wire bonding machines have grown to 10-12 months  —  Longer delivery times mean slower ramp-up of production capacity  —  TAIPEI/TOKYO — Trying to solve the global chip crunch? https://bit.ly/3dpQiUA

Stacie Sherman / Bloomberg: Governor Andrew Cuomo signs a bill requiring all ISPs in New York to offer basic broadband access to low-income families for no more than $15 a month  —  - Law caps basic internet service at $15 a month in New York  — Universal access was key priority of commission led by Schmidt https://bit.ly/3dnpYdQ

Ryan Browne / CNBC: Dogecoin, the cryptocurrency that started out as a joke in 2013, now has a market cap of $40B after growing nearly 400% in the past seven days  —  - Dogecoin is a cryptocurrency based on the “Doge” meme, which rose to popularity in late 2013.  It started out as a joke. https://bit.ly/32mpGh6

James Rundle / Wall Street Journal: For the first time, NATO wargames include scenarios exploring the impact of widespread cyberattacks on financial infrastructure  —  Financial industry helped plan scenarios in which widespread disruption would hit banks and other firms  —  One of the world's largest cyber wargames is … https://bit.ly/3wYphPV

Aparna Narayanan / Investor's Business Daily: TuSimple, which is developing autonomous trucks, closes flat in its trading debut, after raising $1.35B in its IPO, giving it a market cap of ~$8.5B  —  TuSimple stock closed unchanged on the Nasdaq Thursday after the self-driving vehicle startup raised more than $1 billion through an initial public offering. https://bit.ly/3agIQJl

Matthew Boyle / Bloomberg: Walmart says it is investing in GM's self-driving unit Cruise, bringing its latest round to $2.75B, up from $2B in January when Microsoft invested  —  - Deal brings Cruise's latest funding round to $2.75 billion  — Walmart joins fellow Cruise investors Microsoft and Honda https://bit.ly/3e3lFDz

Ashley Carman / The Verge: Some Clubhouse power users discuss the app's problems with scammers, moderation issues, stolen jokes, copied room concepts, celebrity imposters, and more  —  Fake laughs, imposters, and scams — behind the invite-only audio app's most obsessive users  —  For the first time since the pandemic started … https://bit.ly/3sfaQ6o

Bloomberg: Profile of 23-year-old Nick Lim, who founded Vancouver-based VanwaTech, a hosting provider for white supremacist websites like Daily Stormer and 8kun  —  Two and a half months before extremists invaded the U.S. Capitol, the far-right wing of the internet suffered a brief collapse. https://bit.ly/3mPIaj6

Abner Li / 9to5Google: Google announces Assistant updates, including helping find misplaced iPhones, even those in silent mode, and improvements to online food ordering checkout  —  Google today announced a handful of new Assistant features, while making others more widely available. https://bit.ly/32eDeuR

Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review: A glossary to help decode the language used by Google and Facebook to reassure the public about AI responsibility without inviting deeper scrutiny  —  50-ish words you can use to show that you care without incriminating yourself.  —  AI researchers often say good machine learning is really more art than science. https://bit.ly/3sgkp57

Ari Levy / CNBC: Nasdaq sets Coinbase's reference price at $250 per share for its direct listing, which would value the cryptocurrency exchange at $65.3B  —  - The Nasdaq said on Tuesday that Coinbase's reference price for its direct listing is $250, which would value the company around $65.3 billion on a fully diluted basis. https://bit.ly/32c8QBh