Network Support Blog

Molly Wood / The Atlantic: Microsoft is avoiding antitrust scrutiny by rebranding itself as nice and boring, even as it reverts to some of the behaviors that led to prosecution the '90s  —  How has Microsoft escaped the scrutiny of reinvigorated antitrust regulators?  —  About the author: Molly Wood is the host … https://bit.ly/2TNlCWr

Mark Harris / Wired: Analysis: since August 2020, 100+ warships from 16+ countries have had GPS-based location data faked to make it look like they crossed into disputed territory  —  The latest weapons in the global information war are fake vessels behaving badly.  —  ON SEPTEMBER 17 last year … https://bit.ly/3C5GCcm

Nikkei Asia: Vietnam-based VNLife, the parent company of VNPay, which helps banks provide mobile payment apps and other digital services, raises $250M at a valuation of $1B+  —  Payments system provider raises $250 million in deal led by US investors  —  TOKYO — Vietnamese payments provider VNLife … https://bit.ly/3zMsSBc

Dan Wang / Foreign Affairs: How US sanctions forced Chinese companies to develop key tech themselves, aligning the companies' incentives with China's goal of economic self-sufficiency  —  In 2016, AlphaGo, a computer program developed by machine learning experts in London, beat the world's top players of the classical Chinese board game Go. https://bit.ly/37d9Oj7

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: MoEngage, a customer engagement service that enables personalization across email, SMS, and more, raises $32.5M, bringing its total raised to $72M+  —  All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now.  Watch now.  —  MoEngage, an AI customer engagement platform based in San Francisco … https://bit.ly/3ig8Fhk

Jay Peters / The Verge: Snap says it resolved an issue that prevented some Snapchat users from logging in and advises users to manually update the app if the issue persists  —  Snap resolved an issue preventing users from logging in  —  Snapchat experienced a massive issue Thursday evening, with more than 125,000 users reporting problems on Downdetector. https://bit.ly/3C0sjp6

Karissa Bell / Engadget: Twitter announces updates to Spaces which will let users tweet directly from the Space; iOS users will be able to search for live and upcoming Spaces  —  another update that makes the audio feature easier to share and discover.  Now, users will be able to compose a new tweet directly from the Space … https://bit.ly/3j0Bb5v

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: La Haus, an online real estate marketplace operating in Mexico and Colombia, raises a $100M extension to its $35M Series B, bringing its total raised to $158M  —  La Haus, which has developed an online real estate marketplace operating in Mexico and Colombia, has secured $100 million in additional funding … https://bit.ly/3j0vPan

Bloomberg: As China expands oversight, Tencent's value dropped 23% in July, erasing ~$170B; nine of the top 10 losers in shareholder value in July were Chinese companies  —  - Tech giant is set to see its worst month ever after selloff  — Nine of top 10 market value losers in July are Chinese firms https://bit.ly/3BVnlKz

Karissa Bell / Engadget: Mark Zuckerberg says video now accounts for almost half the time spent on Facebook, and that Reels is the “largest contributor to engagement growth”  —  He wants Facebook to become a ‘metaverse company.’  —  Facebook users are spending a lot more time watching video … https://bit.ly/2V3sO10

Cody Toombs / Android Police: Google releases the first stable build of Jetpack Compose, a UI framework for Android, after two years in public development  —  Since its introduction during I/O 2019, Jetpack Compose was obviously destined to become the prescribed method of Android UI development. https://bit.ly/377MYJW

Andy Greenberg / Wired: Creators of PunkSpider say they're relaunching their search engine for hackable sites at Defcon next week to spur web admins to fix thousands of unpatched bugs  —  PunkSpider is back, and crawling hundreds of millions of sites for vulnerabilities.  —  THE WEB HAS long been a playground for hackers … https://bit.ly/2Vj6wbj

Jeff Grubb / VentureBeat: Microsoft's overall gaming revenue rose 11% YoY in Q4, with hardware revenue up 172% YoY, but Xbox content and services dipped 4% YoY  —  All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now.  Watch now.  —  Gaming continues to return growth for Microsoft. https://bit.ly/3BJSrop

Janelle Lawrence / Bloomberg: eBay's ex-senior global security manager, the first of five former staffers convicted in a cyberstalking campaign against eBay critics, gets 18 months in prison  —  - Philip Cooke took part in macabre plot to scare blogger  — Cooke had spent 27 years with Santa Clara Police Department https://bit.ly/3y9oGuS

Reuters: Tencent says it is temporarily suspending WeChat user registrations in China as it upgrades its systems to comply with new security regulations  —  Tencent's (0700.HK) WeChat has temporarily suspended registration of new users in mainland China as it undergoes a technical upgrade … https://bit.ly/3i5zG6M

Stephen Nellis / Reuters: Intel says its Foundry Services will build chips for Qualcomm and AWS and lays out a roadmap to catch up with TSMC and Samsung by 2025  —  Intel Corp (INTC.O) said on Monday its factories will start building Qualcomm Inc (QCOM.O) chips and laid out a roadmap to expand its new foundry business … https://bit.ly/3xdfO6k

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE: Box rolls out Box Sign, which lets users electronically sign contracts and request signatures, following its $55M acquisition of SignRequest earlier this year  —  Box Inc. is building out its content cloud with the addition of an important new capability.  —  The company said today it's rolling … https://bit.ly/3x4Dgm8

Elizabeth Dias / New York Times: As part of its expanded outreach to US churches, Facebook is offering subscription tools for exclusive content and donation tools during live streams  —  The company is intensifying formal partnerships with faith groups across the United States and shaping the future of religious experience. https://bit.ly/3kXU4Zm

Yinka Adegoke / Rest of World: Kenyan tech founders say there is a funding bias toward North American and European expats in the country; analysis: only one Kenyan founder raised $1M+ in 2019  —  To break the cycle of favoritism and white privilege, Kenya's tech ecosystem needs to back itself with money and self-belief. https://bit.ly/3i2PY0c

Sami Fathi / MacRumors: Mark Gurman: Face ID on the Mac is likely coming within a couple of years, and all iPhones and iPads will transition to Face ID within that timeframe, too  —  Apple plans to bring Face ID to the Mac within the next “couple of years,” respected Bloomberg journalist Mark Gurman said today in the latest edition of his Power On newsletter. https://bit.ly/3rzaGYJ

Omar Faridi / Crowdfund Insider: AuthenticID, which offers AI-based identity proofing and verification to help businesses fight fraud, raises $100M from Long Ridge Equity Partners  —  - Twitter- Facebook- LinkedIn- Pinterest- Reddit- HackerNews- Telegram- Weibo- Email- Print- Subscribe  —  AuthenticID recently announced … https://bit.ly/2TxjuSm

Ashwin Rodrigues / VICE: A look at the presence of crypto in hip-hop culture, beginning as early as 2013, including meme songs, rapper Nas's Coinbase investment, and illicit ICOs  —  Nas made a fortune with his Coinbase investment.  Soulja Boy claims to be the first to make a song about Bitcoin.  Big Sean is sending your girl Doge. https://bit.ly/3kS1BZO

Christine Hall / TechCrunch: Sendlane, which helps e-commerce companies automate email and SMS marketing, raises $20M Series A; CEO says Sendlane, which is seeing $7M+ in ARR, is profitable  —  Sendlane, a San Diego-based multichannel marketing automation platform, announced Thursday it raised $20 million in Series A funding. https://bit.ly/371eA38

South China Morning Post: China orders Tencent Music to relinquish exclusive licensing deals  —  The music arm of the Shenzhen-based company must relinquish its exclusive music rights within the next 30 days Tencent will be able to retain its exclusive deals with independent artists China's most valuable technology … https://bit.ly/3xYvJq6

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg: YouTube has avoided criticism by Biden and others for vaccine misinformation, after Biden criticized Facebook, possibly because its content is harder to track  —  Hi, it's Mark Bergen.  Erin Elizabeth was kicked off Facebook.  Elizabeth, owner of an alternative health blog, is one of the … https://bit.ly/3rADwrJ

James Vincent / The Verge: Alphabet announces Intrinsic, a new company to build software for industrial robots, as part of its “other bets” that includes Waymo, Wing, and Verily  —  Intrinsic is one of Alphabet's other bets, like Waymo and Wing  —  Google's parent-company Alphabet has a birth to announce … https://bit.ly/3wVqMgw

Jaewon Kang / Wall Street Journal: Instacart says it is partnering with Fabric to build robot-equipped warehouses for supermarkets, with space for 10K-50K items, over the next 12 months  —  The grocery delivery company says it plans to build and operate fulfillment centers for supermarkets  —  Instacart Inc. is entering … https://bit.ly/3xVsQGB

Matthew Gault / VICE: Old stories on news sites including WaPo are displaying embedded porn videos after the domain for the defunct video service Vidme was bought by a porn company  —  Stories on major news sites like ‘The Washington Post,’ and ‘New York Magazine’ currently have porn embedded in them. https://bit.ly/3rvx0SY

BBC: Names and addresses of thousands of customers of a UK firearm marketplace have been posted on the dark web following a data breach  —  Thousands of names and addresses belonging to UK customers of a leading website for buying and selling shotguns and rifles have been published to the dark web following a “security breach”. https://bit.ly/2V43CHF

Andy Greenberg / Wired: China's hacking activities are increasingly resembling those of Russia and North Korea after the Ministry of State Security largely took over operations in 2015  —  The country's hackers have gotten far more aggressive since 2015, when the Ministry of State Security largely took over the country's cyberespionage. https://bit.ly/3xYvOKx

Cameron Faulkner / The Verge: Oculus rolls out v31, adding Messenger Reactions, a new Security Settings panel, and a new “Invite to App” button that makes it easier to invite friends to play  —  Invite friends, react on Messenger, and have your passwords autofill in the Browser https://bit.ly/2UrMN9D

Sean Hollister / The Verge: Amazon unveils over 50 new features for Alexa devices to drive growth for skills developers, like featured skill cards, which are recommended on the home screen  —  Widgets, featured skill cards, and more  —  Amazon's Alexa devices are ambient computers, not the kind you use all day. https://bit.ly/3wVpQZz

Packy McCormick / Not Boring: A look at Axie Infinity, a Pokémon-like blockchain-based game in which people buy digital pets as NFTs; the game generated $12.2M revenue in June, $79M+ in July  —  Welcome to the 1,267 newly Not Boring people who have joined us since last Monday!  Join 61,505 smart, curious folks by subscribing here: https://bit.ly/2Upl09P

Kanishka Singh / Reuters: Report: UK suspends grants to its largest fab, Newport Wafer Fab, which was bought by a Dutch firm owned by China's Wingtech, amid national security concerns  —  British ministers have cut off taxpayer-funded payments to Britain's biggest microchip factory after its sale to a Chinese-owned technology company … https://bit.ly/3kIxzaO

Bloomberg: Biden nominates Jonathan Kanter, a long-time foe of Google, to become the DOJ's antitrust chief  —  - Kanter has represented Microsoft, Yelp in anti-Google push  — Biden's appointments signal aggressive antitrust agenda  —  President Joe Biden plans to nominate Jonathan Kanter as head … https://bit.ly/3rlNDRg

Forbes: BlockFi CEO confirms it received an order from the New Jersey Bureau of Securities to stop accepting new Interest Accounts; existing users won't be impacted  —  I write about how digital assets are going to change the world  —  According to a draft press release from the New Jersey Office … https://bit.ly/3BllGh0

The Guardian: Snowden calls for spyware trade ban amid NSO news, saying the industry should not exist and “they don't make vaccines—the only thing they sell is the virus”  —  NSA whistleblower warns of world in which no phone is safe from state-sponsored hackers if no action taken https://bit.ly/3eCyFRD

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: Rappi, a Colombian on-demand delivery startup, says it has raised $500M+ Series F led by T. Rowe Price at a $5.25B valuation, bringing its total raised to $2B+  —  Rappi, a Colombian on-demand delivery startup, has raised “over” $500 million at a $5.25 billion valuation in a Series G round led … https://bit.ly/3z6c1sK

Muvija M / Reuters: Tencent to buy British video game developer Sumo Games for $1.27B, a 43% premium on Sumo's Friday closing price  —  Chinese tech giant Tencent Holdings (0700.HK) will buy video game company Sumo Group (SUMO.L) in a deal that values the British firm at 919 million pounds ($1.27 billion), the companies said on Monday. https://bit.ly/37041h3

Ashley Carman / The Verge: A look at short-form audio apps like Racket, Beams, and Quest that let users record and share voice clips, as Facebook plans to enter the space with Soundbites  —  “So I've identified a few metrics and KPIs that I'm going to start tracking in order to better my overall life experience,” … https://bit.ly/36LvV00

Zachery Eanes / Raleigh News & Observer: Raleigh, NC-based insightsoftware, which makes financial reporting and budgeting software, receives ~$1B investment from PE firm Hg at a valuation of $4B  —  Raleigh software company insightsoftware draws a $1 billion investment  —  ORDER REPRINT →  —  Raleigh-based insightsoftware … https://bit.ly/3hMgNpi

Kyriacos Nicolaou / Cyprus Mail: Cyprus-based LearnWorlds, which allows users to create interactive online courses without needing any programming knowledge, raises $32M from Insight Partners  —  LearnWorlds, a company based in Cyprus, has procured a $32 million minority investment from global venture capital and private equity firm Insight Partners. https://bit.ly/2VTE5RQ

Flavia Rotondi / Bloomberg: An Italian museum is using cameras to monitor people looking at artwork, to define a work of art's “attraction value” and accordingly change museum layouts  —  As Italy's museums and galleries welcome back tourists and try to recoup some of the 190 million euros ($225 million) … https://bit.ly/2UWhJhP

Yana Pashaeva / Slate: Sales of counterfeit COVID vaccine cards are thriving on Telegram, where scammers even promise to get a buyer's info registered into an official database  —  First, people cheated to receive a COVID vaccine shot.  Now, they cheat to not get one.  —  As some venues, businesses, workplaces … https://bit.ly/3ktvSOo

Nilesh Christopher / Rest of World: Some restaurants in India are moving from Zomato and Swiggy to direct order services like DotPe due to their lower commissions and more access to customer data  —  Ahead of the company's $1.3 billion IPO, restaurants are moving to other platforms with lower commissions that provide more access to customer data. https://bit.ly/3eslx1u

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: OpenAI disbands its robotics team that researched machines that learn tasks like solving a Rubik's Cube, to focus on domains that are more data-rich  —  OpenAI has disbanded its robotics team after years of research into machines that can learn to perform tasks like solving a Rubik's Cube. https://bit.ly/3z8zkSA

Manish Singh / TechCrunch: Reliance Retail says it has acquired a controlling stake in Indian search and discovery company Just Dial for $469M  —  Reliance Retail said on Friday it has acquired a controlling stake in 25-year-old Indian search and discovery firm Just Dial for $469 million. https://bit.ly/3BdgOKz

Stephanie Condon / ZDNet: AWS announces general availability of Amazon HealthLake, a HIPAA-eligible service that allows health organizations to store and work with health data in cloud  —  The service is part of the cloud giant's AWS for Health initiative, which provides specialized cloud services for healthcare, biopharma and genomics customers. https://bit.ly/3er0UCJ

Bloomberg: Sources: Scribd is in talks to go public as soon as this year, via an IPO in Q4 or through a merger with a SPAC, and could be valued at about $1B  —  Scribd Inc., an online platform for e-books, podcasts and audio books, is in discussions to go public as soon as this year, according to people with knowledge of the matter. https://bit.ly/3hHbPtW

Jay Peters / The Verge: Valve announces Steam Deck, its long-rumored Switch-like handheld gaming device with a 7" touchscreen display, available in December from $399  —  It starts at $399  —  Valve just announced the Steam Deck, its long-rumored Switch-like handheld gaming device.  It will begin shipping in December. https://bit.ly/3ic3Mog