Network Support Blog

Atlas VPN: Safari now has an estimated 1B+ users, making it the second browser to pass the milestone, behind Chrome's 3.37B+, but ahead of Edge's 212M+ and Firefox's 179M+  —  Browsers can connect you to any place on the internet.  It retrieves and renders data to show it nicely on your screen. https://bit.ly/3x3bjwQ

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Menlo Microsystems, which aims to make circuit breakers and electrical switches far more efficient, raises $150M, bringing its total raised to $225M  —  Menlo Microsystems unveiled its Ideal Switch recently and it also raised $150 million to shake up the electronics industry. https://bit.ly/3z7RF5y

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: Vendia, a blockchain-based multi-cloud enterprise data sharing service, raises a $30M Series B led by NewView Capital, bringing its total funding to $50M  —  Vendia, a blockchain-based platform that makes it easier for businesses to share their code and data with partners across applications … https://bit.ly/3M2BdGD

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times: A profile of Paramount three years into its streaming shift, an underdog choosing to continue alone as Netflix and Disney dominate and other streamers cut deals  —  The dominance of Netflix and Disney in streaming has forced many companies to join forces.  So far, Paramount has gone its own way. https://bit.ly/3NOHmYl

Cat Zhang / Pitchfork: How musicians like Weezer frontman Rivers Cuomo use Discord: artists share ideas, host parties, and engage with fans, who help with moderation and other tasks  —  Originally launched as a messaging app for gamers, the platform has become an intimate place for artists and fans to connect and build community. https://bit.ly/3a63jU4

Vishal Chawla / The Block: BlockSec: a buggy smart contract on Mirror Protocol, a Terra DeFi app for betting on stocks using synthetic assets, was exploited for ~$90M over seven months  —  Quick Take  — The exploit was accidentally discovered by a Terra community member last week.  — It has been confirmed by security analysts BlockSec. https://bit.ly/38vWWsH

Karen Hao / Wall Street Journal: Report: Google, Bing, and YouTube regularly return Chinese state media content in the top US results on China's human-rights record and the origins of COVID-19  —  On issues important to Beijing, official Chinese sources also enjoy strong placement on YouTube and other widely used U.S. services, a new report finds https://bit.ly/3GyyDan

Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review: How self-driving startups Wayve, Waabi, and Autobrains are using end-to-end AI learning, hoping to leapfrog market leaders like Cruise and Waymo  —  The mainstream approach to driverless cars is slow and difficult.  These startups think going all-in on AI will get there faster. https://bit.ly/3m1Kxje

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac: Kuo says that TSMC's roadmap from 2021 suggests this year's iPhone “A16” chip will stick to a 5nm process and new Macs later this year will also have a 5nm CPU  —  Analyst Ming-Chi Kuo pointed out on Twitter today that the public roadmap for TSMC's silicon processes indicates … https://bit.ly/3a84yC3

Mike Masnick / Techdirt: Latest AICO Act revisions are carveouts for telcos and financial companies and do not fix real problems with the bill, like a disguised content moderation ban  —  Look: there are very real issues with the state of the internet today, including the amount of power a few companies have. https://bit.ly/3m0QvRr

Sujith Somraaj / Decrypt: As Terra blockchain reboots, freshly minted new LUNA tokens started trading on a number of exchanges and swiftly plummeted about 70% from the opening price  —  After peaking at $19.54 earlier on Saturday, it's been mostly downhill.  —  Terraform Labs early Saturday launched a new version … https://bit.ly/3lRTAmX

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: Nansen: TerraUSD collapse wasn't a work of a single attacker but likely a result of investment decisions from a small number of large UST holders  —  The collapse of the TerraUSD (UST) stablecoin that sent shockwaves throughout the crypto ecosystem can't be attributed to a single attacker, according to researcher Nansen. https://bit.ly/3LXzvpZ

Yang Jie / Wall Street Journal: Chinese government data shows domestic smartphone shipments fell 30% YoY to ~86M units in the first four months of 2022 amid the resurgence of COVID-19 in China  —  From Apple to chip makers, companies warn of fewer shipments and weaker consumer spending in the world's biggest smartphone market https://bit.ly/3t2ZZjf

Financial Times: Sources: the Broadcom-VMware deal happened within two weeks; Broadcom CEO had switched his focus to software amid regulatory headwinds for semiconductor deals  —  Hock Tan and Michael Dell agreed industry-defining deal, codenamed ‘Project Atlas,’ within two weeks https://bit.ly/3LR0xiM

Maureen Dowd / New York Times: Interview with Ted Sarandos about Netflix's recent share price plunge, backing Dave Chappelle's latest comedy special, Hollywood schadenfreude, and more  —  The Netflix executive says he — and the company he helped build — will survive a bout of bad earnings numbers.  — Give this article- - - Read in app https://bit.ly/3wSn9tD

Washington Post: Some teens say French social networking app Yubo, which had 18M downloads in the US, ignored reports that the Uvalde shooter threatened violence on the app  —  Young people who met the alleged gunman online said he had threatened to kidnap, rape or kill.  But they said their reports … https://bit.ly/3LYkRyJ

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: Microsoft researchers find high severity vulnerabilities in mce Systems' framework used by Android apps from carriers including AT&T, Telus, Rogers, and Bell  —  Microsoft security researchers have found high severity vulnerabilities in a framework used by Android apps from multiple large international mobile service providers. https://bit.ly/3LWXRjx

Rest of World: People from countries like Argentina, Venezuela, and Nigeria invested in Terra as they saw it as more stable than local currency, but lost thousands in savings  —  “I have nothing left, not even a penny.”  —  Valeria makes around $300 a month selling prepared food from her home in Buenos Aires. https://bit.ly/3wTh9C5

Agne Cimermanaite / Metaverse Post: Jadu, which is developing an AR game built around virtual objects owned by players in a metaverse, raises $36M led by Bain Capital Crypto  —  Jadu Mirrorverse — an AR game built around virtual objects owned by the players — just raised $36M to help create the Web3 “definitive AR & gaming platform … https://bit.ly/3lVPlXm

Amy Lewin / Sifted: Report: only 15% of GPs at European VC firms are women, managing just 9% of total assets; in the UK, 13% of GPs are women, managing 5% of total assets  —  Across Europe as a whole, 85% of VC GPs are men.  —  In worse than the average in the UK, where 87% of GPs are men. https://bit.ly/3NGK1TE

Jez Corden / Windows Central: Microsoft confirms it is developing an HDMI device codenamed Keystone, that connects to any TV or monitor, and offers Xbox game streaming  —  The key to the cloud.  —  For a few years, rumors have persisted that Microsoft was exploring building some form of streaming stick … https://bit.ly/3Gqltfi

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Poland-based Nomagic, which makes pick-and-place warehouse robots, raises a $22M Series A led by Khosla Ventures, Almaz Capital, and European Investment Bank  —  Robotics are playing a growing role in the world of e-commerce logistics and fulfillment — where they are seen not just as a way to speed … https://bit.ly/3wS3hIf

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Sleuth, an AI-powered tool that integrates with software development toolchains to measure developer productivity, raises a $22M Series A led by Felicis  —  As knowledge workers including software engineers shifted to remote work during the pandemic, executives expressed a concern that productivity would suffer as a result. https://bit.ly/3w5q2a0

Matt Craig / Forbes: Axiomatic Gaming, the parent of esports organization Team Liquid, raises $35M led by Ares Management, valuing Team Liquid at $415M  —  Axiomatic Gaming, the parent company behind esports organization Team Liquid, has raised $35 million in funding, the latest example of big investment money flowing into the industry. https://bit.ly/3ynjPJA

Olga Kharif / Bloomberg: As decentralized crypto bridges prove susceptible to hacks, with ~$1B stolen in February and March, centralized exchanges are rushing out bridge-like features  —  High-profile hacks on crypto “bridges” — which let users swap digital tokens across blockchains — are creating opportunities … https://bit.ly/3MUV0bO

Zoë Schiffer / @zoeschiffer: Ian Goodfellow, Apple's director of ML, is leaving due to its return to work policy, saying in a note that “more flexibility would have been the best policy”  —  Ian Goodfellow, Apple's director of machine learning, is leaving the company due to its return to work policy. In a note to staff, he said “I believe strongly that more flexibility would have been the best policy for my team.” He was likely the company's most cited ML expert. https://bit.ly/3LWUJ86

Brenda Goh / Reuters: China orders internet services to tighten controls to stop under-18s from tipping live streamers or becoming live streamers themselves without guardian consent  —  China on Saturday ordered internet platforms to step up governance of how under-18s use their livestreaming services as part … https://bit.ly/393vpio

Financial Times: Sources: Allen Wu, who was replaced as CEO of Arm China by Liu Renchen, has refused to surrender control amid Shanghai's lockdown, where Arm China's HQ is based  —  Allen Wu refuses to surrender control in extraordinary corporate battle at UK chip designer  —  High in a Shenzhen office tower … https://bit.ly/38cx8Sj

Vauhini Vara / Wired: How low prices and influencers helped Chinese online fast fashion retailer Shein become the world's third biggest private company, claiming a 28% US marketshare  —  The Chinese company has become a fast-fashion juggernaut by appealing to budget-conscious Gen Zers.  But its ultralow prices are hiding unacceptable costs. https://bit.ly/3wuRfDB

Jennifer Elias / CNBC: Internal docs: Google is revamping performance reviews, resulting in higher pay, as it tries to ease tensions between staff and leadership about compensation  —  - Google introduced changes in efforts to streamline its performance reviews and promotions.  — Executives said the changes … https://bit.ly/3vNLUYF

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: SEC filing: Voodoo PC founder Rahul Sood's Irreverent Labs, which unveiled its NFT robot cock fighting game MechaFightClub in January 2022, raised $40M  —  Irreverent Labs has raised $40 million to further boost its efforts to create MechaFightClub, a robot cock fighting game that uses non-fungible tokens (NFTs). https://bit.ly/3yh7p5J

Alexandra Garfinkle / Yahoo Finance: An interview with a part-time employee who earns $10/hour at RaterLabs, a Google subcontractor evaluating search and ad-placement results for accuracy  —  Google Search may feel like magic, but the engine's efficacy relies on hourly employees who work for a subcontractor. https://bit.ly/3ykNN0B

Bloomberg: Sources: China has ordered government agencies and state-backed companies to replace foreign PCs with domestic ones running local OSes in two years  —  China has ordered central government agencies and state-backed corporations to replace foreign-branded personal computers with domestic alternatives within … https://bit.ly/3vO9jsS

James Clayton / BBC: The UK's DCMS plans to give the Digital Markets Unit powers to clamp down on Big Tech's “predatory practices”, following reports the UK shelved such plans  —  Large tech companies such as Google and Facebook will have to abide by new competition rules in the UK or risk facing huge fines, the government said. https://bit.ly/3vLuDPV

Aislinn Keely / The Block: The CFTC orders BitMEX's three cofounders to pay $10M each for not registering with the agency, and failing to implement anti-money laundering and KYC checks  —  The Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) has hit the founders of crypto exchange BitMEX with a total of $30 million in civil monetary penalties. https://bit.ly/3kOJtyR

Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch: Sources: On Deck, which connects founders with capital and advice, laid off 25% of its staff, or ~72 people, after raising ~$40M of a planned $100M-$150M fund  —  On Deck, a tech company that connects founders to each other, capital and advice, has laid off 25% off its staff, per sources familiar with the company. https://bit.ly/3OW2NrT

Mimi Billing / Sifted: Alan, which offers personalized mental health programs through its app, raises a €183M Series E led by Canadian Teachers Venture Growth at a €2.7B valuation  —  Alan, unlike many other big healthtech startups in Europe like Kry/Livi and Ada Health, has companies as its customers. https://bit.ly/3FmUoJj

Adi Robertson / The Verge: Twitter's open source Bluesky unit releases early code for a decentralized social network protocol, dubbed Authenticated Data Experiment, for developers to test  —  It's called the Authenticated Data Experiment  —  Bluesky, Twitter's open-source offshoot, has released early code for a decentralized social network protocol. https://bit.ly/3LMBVsl

Maxwell Strachan / VICE: A look at the crypto promotion market, where paid influencers and middlemen like Dapp Centre coordinate campaigns that sometimes push the limits of US law  —  Around the world, influencers are hawking crypto projects for pay on Twitter, YouTube, and TikTok—and sometimes pushing the limits of U.S. law. https://bit.ly/38Vn1RG

Sabahatjahan Contractor / Reuters: The SEC adds JD.com, Pinduoduo, Bilibili, and NetEase to a list of Chinese companies facing delisting from US exchanges due to noncompliance with auditing rules  —  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission added over 80 firms to its list of entities facing possible expulsion from American exchanges … https://bit.ly/3sczK9w

Ryan Browne / CNBC: France becomes the first major European nation to grant regulatory approval for Binance, after a backlash from UK, Italy, and Singapore regulators in 2021  —  - Binance is now listed as a registered digital asset service provider by French stock market watchdog AMF. https://bit.ly/3ycYxOA

Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal: Publicis will acquire Profitero, which provides e-commerce software and analytics to over 4,000 brands, sources say for about $200M  —  Advertising holding companies are increasingly helping marketers reach and sell consumers directly online  —  French advertising holding company Publicis Groupe SA … https://bit.ly/3sbNSzI

Packy McCormick / Not Boring: Interview with Shopify's Alex Danco, who heads its blockchain team, on how Web3, crypto, and NFTs can reshape commerce, making Shopify “wallet-aware”, and more  —  Alex Danco Joins to Explain NFTs and How Shopify is Becoming Wallet-Aware … Today's Not Boring is brought to you by... Mighty Networks https://bit.ly/3KBGVyw

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch: LottieFiles, which develops plugins for app developers to create, edit, and test JSON-based Lottie animations, raises a $37M Series B led by Square Peg Capital  —  Lottie animations are everywhere.  The JSON-based file format, first introduced as an open source library by Airbnb engineers … https://bit.ly/3kDYnYM

Matt Milano / Android Authority: Samsung unveils Universal Flash Storage 4.0, claiming it offers twice the speeds of UFS 3.1, making it ideal for 5G phones, with mass production set for Q3 2022  —  5G smartphones are about to get much faster.  —  TL;DR  — Samsung's UFS 4.0 flash storage will offer twice the performance of 3.1. https://bit.ly/3kDdscX

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC: Airbnb Q1: nights and experiences up 59% YoY to 102.1M, vs 100.9M est., revenue up 70% YoY to $1.51B, vs $1.45B est., and a $19M net loss, down from $1.2B YoY  —  - Airbnb is expecting a strong summer as travel continues to rebound from the coronavirus pandemic. https://bit.ly/3LOpMmM

Abiola Ayodele / VentureBeat: Kintent, which automates security compliance audit preparation, raises an $18M Series A led by OpenView  —  Every technology vendor must pass client security scrutiny, which is generally a time-consuming process involving exhaustive questionnaires.  Kintent, a fast-growing startup … https://bit.ly/3w1CXdd

Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: Traceable AI, which offers services to protect APIs from cyberattacks, raises a $60M Series B led by IVP at a $450M post-money valuation  —  Traceable AI, a startup offering services designed to protect APIs from cyberattacks, today announced that it raised $60 million in a Series B round led … https://bit.ly/3vYYgMC

Christine Hall / TechCrunch: Chile-based Xepelin, which offers B2B payments, financial info, data models, and more to SMBs in Latin America, raises a $111M Series B led by Avenir and Kaszek  —  Fintech companies and other entities have moved the needle for consumer payments in Latin America, particularly during the global pandemic … https://bit.ly/3kvo79A

Jules Wang / Android Police: Telegram's latest iOS beta includes exclusive reaction emoji and stickers for Telegram Premium subscribers, a sign of the company's plans to monetize messaging  —  It looks like the app is getting ready to make money off of you  —  For as robust of a messaging app as it is, Telegram does need to make money. https://bit.ly/39z4Q4T

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg: Facebook plans to stop letting users add podcasts to the service this week, start removing them on June 3, and discontinue Soundbites and its central audio hub  —  Facebook is pulling out of podcasts and plans to remove them altogether from the social-media service starting June 3. https://bit.ly/3vAokys

Mike Wheatley / SiliconANGLE: LinearB, which helps developers improve efficiency by providing engineering analytics and workflow optimization, raises a $50M Series B led by Tribe Capital  —  Software developer intelligence platform LinearB Inc. said today it has closed on a new $50 million round of funding that brings its total amount raised to date to $71 million. https://bit.ly/3OVZUHA

Katie Jennings / Forbes: Waltz Health, whose search tool helps patients compare drug prices across marketplaces and pharmacies, emerges from stealth with a $35.4M Series A led by GV  —  After a 30-year career as an executive at some of the country's largest pharmacy benefit managers - the middlemen … https://bit.ly/38KJktz