Network Support Blog

Abner Li / 9to5Google: Sources: Google's upcoming Pixel Watch will be powered by a 300mAh battery and will support cellular connectivity  —  While the look of Google's upcoming Wear OS device has thoroughly leaked, many questions about the internal hardware powering it remain.  Sources now tell 9to5Google … https://bit.ly/3MMLQOJ

Associated Press: Experts raise concerns about the use of a predictive child welfare algorithm in Allegheny County, PA, and its potential to harden racial disparity in the system  —  Inside a cavernous stone fortress in downtown Pittsburgh, attorney Robin Frank defends parents at one of their lowest points … https://bit.ly/3MHjRzP

Andrew Deck / Rest of World: A look at Zenly, a Snap-owned social mapping app still operating in Russia amid bans and exits of other Western apps; Zenly had 51M+ downloads in Russia in 2021  —  The app saw 51 million downloads in Russia in 2021.  —  On March 1, 2022, in the days following Russia's Ukraine invasion … https://bit.ly/3LyEkXr

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Exafunction, which aims to reduce AI development costs by abstracting away hardware, raises a $25M Series A led by Greenoaks, with Founders Fund participating  —  The most sophisticated AI systems today are capable of impressive feats, from directing cars through city streets to writing human-like prose. https://bit.ly/3ktYcyR

Christine Hall / TechCrunch: São Paulo-based Inventa, a wholesale marketplace for connecting SMBs with suppliers, raises a $55M Series B led by Greylock, bringing its total funding to $80M  —  When Inventa sees a good opportunity to grab some extra capital, it takes it.  However, as you will see … https://bit.ly/3krdgNR

New York Times: Instacart plans a strategy shift to sell software to grocers and more ads in its app, trying to avoid becoming another pandemic boom company that has fizzled  —  The grocery delivery start-up parted ways with its founder, slashed its valuation and shifted its strategy after sales slowed. https://bit.ly/37UpEDo

Wall Street Journal: Sources: Peter Thiel, Jack Dorsey, and others who dislike Twitter's direction pushed Elon Musk to launch a bid; Musk remains dismayed that Trump is still banned  —  Behind the scenes, fellow billionaires and internet provocateurs bent Tesla CEO's ear; Jack Dorsey's role  —  Elon Musk unveils the Tesla Model Y in 2019. https://bit.ly/3Kwbfuq

Casey Newton / Platformer: At an all-hands, CEO Parag Agrawal acknowledged Twitter was vulnerable to a takeover since it had historically underachieved and asked staff to “embrace change”  —  CEO Parag Agrawal on five years of regrets  —  Late Thursday night, Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal announced the company … https://bit.ly/3OMQIVx

Linda Sui / Strategy Analytics: Strategy Analytics: global smartphone shipments fell 11% YoY in Q1; Samsung led the market with a 24% share, a five-year high, and Apple had an 18% share  —  According to new research from Strategy Analytics, global smartphone shipments fell -11% YoY to 314 million units in Q1 2022. https://bit.ly/3s0zPNC

Annie Palmer / CNBC: Amazon reports Q1 advertising services revenue grew 23% YoY to $7.88B vs 8.17B est., and subscription services grew 11% to $8.4B  —  - Amazon on Thursday gave a revenue forecast that trailed analysts' estimates.  — Growth rates are at their slowest since the dot-com bust in 2001. https://bit.ly/38y3neo

Business Wire: Amazon reports Q1 revenue up 7% YoY to $116.4B, $3.8B net loss vs. $8.1B net income in Q1 2021, and AWS revenue up 37% YoY; stock down 10%+ on weak Q2 guidance  —  SEATTLE—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2022. https://bit.ly/3s0FxPn

Sean Hollister / The Verge: DJI admits that AeroScope drone tracking signals aren't encrypted, after claiming otherwise for almost a month, letting anyone track its drones and their pilots  —  The packets are in the air for anyone to grab  —  Last month, Ukraine Vice Prime Minister Mykhailo Fedorov accused DJI … https://bit.ly/3KvAKMi

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch: Snap launches Lens Cloud, a free collection of backend services to help Snap AR developers build dynamic, location-based multiuser augmented reality experiences  —  Snap isn't just the company behind popular social app Snapchat.  It has also built a powerful augmented reality developer … https://bit.ly/3vobNy8

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: In a ruling against Meta, the EU's top court affirms that consumer protection agencies can bring lawsuits against infringements of GDPR laws protecting data  —  A ruling by the European Union's top court today is set to unblock a raft of litigation brought by consumer protection organizations seeking … https://bit.ly/3rXl3XM

Peter Guest / Rest of World: An in-depth look at how governments in 60+ countries have enacted 935+ internet blackouts since 2016 to control populations and silence dissent  —  Seven years, 60 countries, 935 internet shutdowns: How authoritarian regimes found an off switch for dissent.  —  PROLOGUE  —  Special operation and peace https://bit.ly/3EUF5aF

Geektime: Israeli startup ARMO, which develops the open source Kubescape tool to secure Kubernetes projects, raises a $30M Series A led by Tiger Global and Hyperwise  —  ARMO, today (Wednesday) announced $30 million in funding for the first end-to-end open source Kubernetes security platform led … https://bit.ly/3EWRfjh

Ellery Biddle / Coda Story: A look at the impact outside the US if Twitter threw out its content rules and embraced an absolute commitment to free speech, including in India and Ethiopia  —  Musk's free speech absolutism could stoke conflict in countries like India and Ethiopia  — BY ELLERY BIDDLE 22 APRIL, 2022 - FEATURE https://bit.ly/3EVoR0Q

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Doppler, which offers encrypted tools for developers to manage app secrets, raises a $20M Series A led by CRV  —  Secrets management, or the use of tools to access and create digital authentication credentials, was growing in adoption pre-pandemic.  But as the health crises forced businesses … https://bit.ly/3kj0twN

Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg: Sources: Twitch is considering cutting the revenue share for top creators in its partner program to 50%, from 70%, among other changes to boost its revenue  —  Twitch, the Amazon.com Inc.-owned live-streaming website, is weighing potential changes to how it pays top talent … https://bit.ly/3KkT8aM

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: Amazon will increase its Music Unlimited plan on Prime from $7.99/month to $8.99/month and its Single Device plan from $3.99/month to $4.99/month on May 5  —  Amazon is increasing the price of its Unlimited Music subscription for Prime members, the company announced on its website. https://bit.ly/3LI8JlK

Jonathan Greig / The Record: The US DOJ charges Russian national Dmitry Olegovich Pavlov for helping operate and administer the Hydra Market darknet, after German police shut down the site  —  The US Justice Department on Tuesday filed charges against Dmitry Olegovich Pavlov, a 30-year-old Russian national accused … https://bit.ly/3JjtFxI

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Grafana Labs, which develops the popular Grafana visualization tools, raises a $240M Series D led by GIC, bringing its total funding to $540M  —  Grafana Labs, the company behind the popular Grafana visualization tools (and other open-source projects like the Prometheus monitoring system) … https://bit.ly/3x7iBBq

BuzzFeed News: Investigation reveals Worldcoin, which collects iris scans in exchange for free crypto, is wrestling with issues, from angry field operators to privacy concerns  —  As Kudzanayi strolled through the mall with friends, a small crowd caught his attention.  At its center, three men held … https://bit.ly/38xXUo3

Mitchell Clark / The Verge: Twitter requires removing tweets posted by government or state-affiliated media accounts that contain media of prisoners of war from the Russia-Ukraine conflict  —  It'll ‘ask government or state-affiliated media accounts’ to take down pictures featuring prisoners of war https://bit.ly/3jaTwNW

Dan Swinhoe / DCD: IBM unveils its z16 mainframe, generally available on May 31, which the company claims will be resistant to upcoming encryption-breaking quantum computers  —  New system offers AI capabilities and is reportedly quantum proof  —  IBM has unveiled the latest iteration of its Z-series mainframe. https://bit.ly/36YL1Tx

Juli Clover / MacRumors: Apple announces WWDC 2022 will be held from June 6 through June 10 as a virtual event; Apple will host an invite-only watch party on June 6 at Apple Park  —  Apple today announced that its 33rd annual Worldwide Developers Conference is set to take place from Monday, June 6 to Friday, June 10. https://bit.ly/3KbYful

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC: Twitter appoints Elon Musk to its board after Musk purchased a 9.2% stake in the company; Musk cannot own more than 14.9% of Twitter while on the board  —  - Elon Musk will join Twitter's board of directors after taking a 9.2% stake in the social media company, according to a release filed with the SEC. https://bit.ly/3r0R6FF

Eric Newcomer / Newcomer: Crypto investment firm Paradigm says it now has $13.2B under management, up 343% from December 2020, a16z has $54.6B, Sequoia $85.5B, and Tiger Global $124.7B  —  Andreessen Horowitz AUM rises 53% to $54.6 billion  —  In previously unreported financial filings, some of the technology … https://bit.ly/3uWRgix

Etan Vlessing / Hollywood Reporter: Roku and Amazon extend their distribution agreement, letting users continue to access Prime Video and IMDb TV apps on their Roku devices; Roku stock is up 7.19%  —  The new multi-year agreement means the Amazon Prime Video app will remain in Roku's Channel Store. https://bit.ly/3j71oQw

Emily Baker-White / BuzzFeed News: Former ByteDance employees say the company scraped Instagram, Snap, and others to make fake accounts on TikTok predecessor Flipagram, later renamed Vigo Video  —  In 2017, TikTok's parent company, ByteDance, scraped short-form videos, user names, profile pictures, and profile descriptions from Instagram … https://bit.ly/3x0MC5N

Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: Mailchimp discloses a breach where hackers accessed 319 accounts and stole “audience data” from 102 clients, leading to phishing scams of crypto users  —  Email marketing firm MailChimp disclosed on Sunday that they had been hit by hackers who gained access to internal customer support … https://bit.ly/3KecajK

Benoit Berthelot / Bloomberg: Amazon's plans for four large French distribution centres have been blocked or abandoned in the past six months over environmental and political concerns  —  Campaigners are successfully winning support in French courts to block Amazon.com Inc.'s plans to construct distribution facilities in the country. https://bit.ly/3DBAfi5

Wall Street Journal: How Brad Smith helps Microsoft avoid government scrutiny by being amicable with regulators while directing negative attention at the company's Big Tech rivals  —  President Brad Smith has taken an amicable role with regulators.  Rivals say he also directs negative attention toward them. https://bit.ly/3DAVG2y

Jessica Rizzo / Wired: As the first cases involving NFTs hit court dockets, a look at issues in play including outright scams, gaps in securities regulation, and contract enforcement  —  As the first cases involving NFTs hit the dockets, courts will decide questions around ownership, art, and commerce. https://bit.ly/3LBjKVZ

NBC News: Government record keepers and watchdogs worry that use of Wickr and other auto-deletion apps may help CBP and other agencies sidestep transparency requirements  —  In October, Laurence Brewer, the chief records officer of the National Archives and Records Administration … https://bit.ly/3J3OFbN

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: A look at how Apple's rumored iPhone and other hardware subscription programs may work, and the thinking behind forecasted expansion of its financial services  —  Apple's in-the-works iPhone hardware subscription service will squeeze more revenue from its giant user base. https://bit.ly/35zpvnC

damsondao / P — Mirror: Unpacking Terra's design for its algorithmic stablecoins and how partial collateralization using bitcoin reserves could impact its price stabilization mechanism  —  As Terra climbed crypto market cap rankings at the start of 2022 while most of the market dumped or stalled … https://bit.ly/3qZo7lM

Kollen Post / The Block: Interview with Ukraine's Deputy Minister of Digital Transformation, who says the government's crypto donation platform has raised $70M+ as of April 1  —  Quick Take  — The Block spoke with Alexander Bornyakov, Deputy Minister of the Ukrainian Ministry of Digital Transformation. https://bit.ly/3NMt6zS

Megha Paul / Tech.eu: Deepki, a Parisian provider of an ESG data intelligence platform for real estate, raises a €150M Series C round co-led by One Peak and Highland Europe  —  The Paris-headquartered startup offers a SaaS platform for real estate investors, owners and managers to improve the ESG performance … https://bit.ly/3ubyzJ7

Neil Cybart / Above Avalon: Apple's hardware categories are now gaining record new users after a 2017/2018 strategy change that let product groups independently update major product lines  —  During Apple's “Peek Performance” event held last month, the company announced not only a brand new Mac category with the Mac Studio … https://bit.ly/3Lyuvs0

Washington Post: How Binance, which trades on its own exchange and plays a number of roles that pose conflicts of interest, remains mostly unaccountable to its customers  —  On May 19, 2021, Francis Kim thought he had hit it big.  The Australia-based entrepreneur had been dabbling in derivatives trading … https://bit.ly/3j0eO0o

Zac Bowden / Windows Central: In a memo, EVP and CPO Panos Panay says Microsoft is moving Surface Duo OS, SwiftKey, Phone Link, and Microsoft Launcher under a new dedicated Android division  —  A new ‘Microsoft Android’ division houses Duo, SwiftKey, Launcher, and more.  —  What you need to know https://bit.ly/3uPVKaF

Aoyon Ashraf / CoinDesk: Bitcoin mining company PrimeBlock plans to go public via a SPAC merger at a $1.25B valuation; PrimeBlock generated $24.4M in Q4 2021 revenue  —  The deal is expected to close in the second half of this year.  —  Bitcoin miner PrimeBlock confirmed its plan to go public through a merger … https://bit.ly/3j3xxYV

Andy Chalk / PC Gamer: Twitch stops its Boost Train test, which let users boost a channel by purchasing subscriptions and bits, after it was used to push porn to the site's front page  —  It was bound to happen.  —  Audio player loading...  In October 2021, Twitch began testing a new feature that enabled viewers … https://bit.ly/3qXax2a

Alex Weprin / Hollywood Reporter: Filing: Andy Jassy received $212.7M in his first year as Amazon's CEO, mostly via stock; AWS CEO Adam Selipsky made $81.4M and consumer CEO Dave Clark made $56M  —  Jeff Bezos, who remains executive chairman of Amazon, earned $1.6 million, almost all in security costs paid by the company. https://bit.ly/38mw1iI