Network Support Blog

Abner Li / 9to5Google: Sources: Google plans to launch the Pixel Watch 2 in fall 2023 with a Snapdragon W5 series chip and Fitbit Sense 2-like sensors, alongside the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro  —  We revealed at the start of May that Google is planning to announce the Pixel Watch 2 alongside the Pixel 8 and 8 Pro … http://www.techmeme.com/230530/p27?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230530p27

Aidan Ryan / The Information: Source: MoonPay insiders, including CEO Ivan Soto-Wright, cashed out $150M in shares as part of the crypto payment startup's $555M Series A in November 2021  —  In November 2021, just as crypto prices were hitting all-time highs, MoonPay—a crypto payments startup that celebrities including Jimmy Fallon … http://www.techmeme.com/230530/p26?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230530p26

Mark Kleinman / Sky News: Source: HSBC plans to rebrand Silicon Valley Bank UK, acquired for £1, as HSBC Innovation Banking and announce the change during London Tech Week in June  —  Europe's biggest lender will next month announce that SVBUK is being renamed HSBC Innovation Banking, Sky News learns. http://www.techmeme.com/230529/p7?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230529p7

Damilare Dosunmu / Rest of World: Activists and telecom experts say the Kenyan government's plan, approved by the Supreme Court, to track counterfeit phones is “excessive” and threatens privacy  —  The Supreme Court granted the communications regulator permission to implement a program that combats counterfeits. http://www.techmeme.com/230528/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230528p3

Bloomberg: The median gain in Microsoft, Alphabet, Amazon, Meta, Tesla, Apple, and Nvidia stocks is 43% since January, almost 5x the S&P 500, bolstered by AI optimism  —  Rarely does a tech-powered stock rally come along that isn't pilloried for the fragility of its foundation. http://www.techmeme.com/230527/p10?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230527p10

FinSMEs: Germany-based Sastrify, which operates a marketplace for buying and managing SaaS subscriptions, raised a $32M Series B, bringing its total funding to $55.2M  —  Sastrify, a Cologne, Germany-based provider of a platform for buying and managing SaaS subscriptions, raised $32M in Series B funding. http://www.techmeme.com/230526/p10?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230526p10

The Block: Paradigm appears to have removed crypto and Web3 mentions from its website's home page, as sources say the VC is expanding its focus to “frontier” tech like AI  —  - VC firm Paradigm is taking its crypto-only focus to include “frontier” technologies such as AI, two sources with knowledge of the situation told The Block. http://www.techmeme.com/230525/p29?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230525p29

Abner Li / 9to5Google: Google expands Play Games Beta on PC to Europe and New Zealand, bringing the offering to 56 countries total and over 100 Android games  —  As telegraphed earlier this year, the Google Play Games on PC Beta is now available in Europe and New Zealand. … This is a big expansion … http://www.techmeme.com/230524/p34?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230524p34

Jon Porter / The Verge: Samsung demos multiple OLED panels, including a long rollable display and one that measures heart rate, blood pressure, and stress levels from a user's finger  —  The Rollable Flex is an interesting new flexible screen from Samsung Display that can be unrolled from just 49mm to 254.4mm, over five times its length. http://www.techmeme.com/230523/p50?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230523p50

Yossi Matias / The Keyword: Google expands its AI flood forecasting tool Flood Hub to 460M people, from 20 countries up to 48 hours in advance to 80 countries up to seven days in advance  —  Flood Hub is expanding to 80 countries, providing forecasting up to 7 days in advance of a flood to 460 million people. http://www.techmeme.com/230522/p28?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230522p28

Tiyashi Datta / Reuters: Zoom reports Q1 revenue up 3% YoY to $1.11B, vs. $1.08B est., Enterprise revenue up 13% YoY to $632M, and customers contributing $100K+ annually up ~23% YoY  —  Zoom Video Communications Inc (ZM.O) on Monday raised its annual revenue forecast, betting on hybrid work trends to sustain demand for its video-conferencing services. http://www.techmeme.com/230522/p27?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230522p27

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: An overview of the executive team behind Apple's upcoming mixed reality headset  —  Apple is just a few weeks away from debuting its mixed-reality headset.  This past week, I gave an in-depth look at the device's development and features.  Now, here's a list of the key people involved in the project. http://www.techmeme.com/230521/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230521p5

Leo Schwartz / Fortune: Bitcoin payment service Strike expands to 65 countries, beyond the US, El Salvador, and Argentina, and says it has taken a regulation-first approach in the US  —  Since starting in 2019, the Bitcoin-powered payments app Strike has aimed to become a global crypto-powered equivalent to Venmo or Cash App. http://www.techmeme.com/230520/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230520p5

Lia Haberman / ICYMI: Meta briefed some creators on Instagram's decentralized text-based app that may launch in June 2023 with a Twitter-like design, Mastodon compatibility, and more  —  Meta's hosting secret meetings with select creators to share details  —  [a sneak peek at Instagram's new text-based app] http://www.techmeme.com/230519/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230519p13

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: Restaurant365, which sells restaurant management software, raised $135M led by KKR and L Catterton at a $1B+ valuation, bringing its total funding to $288M  —  The price of food continues to go up and up, but surprisingly that hasn't (yet?) played out as pressure on the wider restaurant industry. http://www.techmeme.com/230519/p12?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230519p12

Tom Warren / The Verge: Nvidia debuts the $299 GeForce RTX 4060, its cheapest 40-series card, and $499 RTX 4060 Ti 16GB, available in July; the RTX 4060 Ti 8GB ships on May 24 for $399  —  Nvidia has officially announced its RTX 4060 family of GPUs.  This includes the RTX 4060 Ti, which will debut next week … http://www.techmeme.com/230518/p31?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230518p31

CoinDesk: Grayscale says the US SEC warned that the Filecoin token meets the definition of a security and asked Grayscale to withdraw its Filecoin Trust application  —  Grayscale announced last month that the SEC suggested FIL might be a security.  —  CORRECTION (May 18, 2023, 00:25 UTC) … http://www.techmeme.com/230517/p37?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230517p37

Rohan Goswami / CNBC: Elon Musk says working from home is “morally wrong” when service workers still have to show up, calling tech workers the “laptop classes living in la-la-land”  —  - Elon Musk called Silicon Valley engineers a part of “laptop classes living in la-la land” … http://www.techmeme.com/230516/p37?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230516p37

Jay Peters / The Verge: WhatsApp debuts Chat Lock, letting users put chats in a password/biometrics-protected folder and get notifications that don't show the sender or message content  —  WhatsApp is getting a new “Chat Lock” feature intended to make it easier to keep conversations more private. http://www.techmeme.com/230515/p26?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230515p26

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Developer logs: Apple tests an M3 with 12 CPU cores, 18 GPU cores, and 36GB of RAM; Meta pulls Messenger from Apple Watch and launches WhatsApp on WearOS  —  As Apple prepares to launch its next M2 Macs, the company is already ramping up testing of M3 chips. http://www.techmeme.com/230514/p5?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230514p5

Prachi Patel / IEEE Spectrum: US universities are revamping their semiconductor curricula and forging industry partnerships to train staff as the CHIPS Act aims to kickstart US chipmaking  —  The CHIPS Act could require 50,000 new engineers  —  The CHIPS and Science Act, aimed at kick-starting chip manufacturing in the United States … http://www.techmeme.com/230514/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230514p4

Livemint: Indian streaming service JioCinema introduces a Premium subscription plan, offering content from studios like HBO, up to four logins, and more for ₹999 per year  —  JioCinema has introduced a new Premium subscription plan, providing its users with access to a broader range of content. http://www.techmeme.com/230513/p10?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230513p10

Tracy Wang / CoinDesk: Binance announces its exit from Canada, saying the country's “new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits” makes the market “no longer tenable”  —  The world's largest crypto exchange by volume said new guidance related to stablecoins and investor limits prompted the exit. http://www.techmeme.com/230512/p18?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230512p18

Akash Sriram / Reuters: Crosspoint Capital Partners plans to acquire Canadian cybersecurity company Absolute Software for $657M, or a 34% premium to the US-listed stock's last close  —  Canada's Absolute Software (ABST.TO) said on Thursday it had agreed to be taken private by Crosspoint Capital Partners for $657 million … http://www.techmeme.com/230511/p30?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230511p30

Karissa Bell / Engadget: Twitter rolls out encrypted DMs, but both sender and recipient must be verified users, no support for group messages, and message metadata is not encrypted  —  There are still some major limitations to the feature.  —  Twitter is beginning to roll out its long-promised encrypted direct messaging feature. http://www.techmeme.com/230510/p60?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230510p60

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch: UVeye, which uses computer vision and AI for vehicle inspections, raised a $100M Series D led by Hanaco VC, a source says at an ~$800M valuation  —  UVeye's automated vehicle inspection technology may have started out as a system to detect security threats, but the six-year-old Israeli startup … http://www.techmeme.com/230509/p46?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230509p46

Andrew Hutchinson / Social Media Today: Twitter lets users reply directly to any DM with a threaded message and react to messages with a wider range of emojis  —  Twitter has released two new updates for DMs, which have been in the works for a few months, but are now getting a full launch in the app. http://www.techmeme.com/230509/p45?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230509p45

Washington Post: In a Twitter video, Tucker Carlson says he will relaunch his Fox show on the social network; Elon Musk says Twitter did not sign a deal “of any kind whatsoever”  —  The former Fox News host tweeted a video saying he's moving his show to the social media site. http://www.techmeme.com/230509/p44?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230509p44

Jennifer Surane / Bloomberg: PayPal reports Q1 total payment volume up 10% YoY to $354.5B, vs. $349.5B est., net revenue up 9% to $7.04B, and operating income up 41% to $1B; PYPL down 5%+  —  PayPal Holdings Inc. shares slumped after the payments giant warned that its adjusted operating margin won't grow as quickly … http://www.techmeme.com/230508/p16?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230508p16

Jessica Lyons Hardcastle / The Register: The organizers of DEF CON AI Village, set to run from August 10 to August 13, 2023, say they will host “thousands” of people to find bugs and biases in LLMs  —  Can't wait to see how these AI models hold up against a weekend of red-teaming by infosec's village people http://www.techmeme.com/230507/p4?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230507p4

Will Oremus / Washington Post: AI text generators are quietly authoring more of the internet; more AI-generated books and personalized articles mean fewer clients buying human-written content  —  From recipes to product reviews to how-to books, artificial intelligence text generators are quietly authoring more and more of the internet. http://www.techmeme.com/230506/p8?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230506p8

Theo Wayt / The Information: Amazon is working on AI tools to generate photos and videos for merchants' ad campaigns on its platform, as the company seeks to build a broader ad business  —  Amazon is building a team to work on artificial intelligence tools that will generate photos and videos for merchants to use … http://www.techmeme.com/230505/p13?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230505p13

Apple: Apple reports Q2 revenue down 3% YoY to $94.84B, declining for a second quarter in a row but beating estimates of $92.96B, and net income down 3% YoY to $24.16B  —  Services revenue reaches new all-time high iPhone revenue sets March quarter record  —  CUPERTINO, CALIFORNIA Apple today … http://www.techmeme.com/230504/p26?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230504p26

Kif Leswing / CNBC: Qualcomm reports Q2 revenue down 17% YoY to $9.28B, vs. $9.1B est., net income down 42% YoY to $1.7B, and forecasts Q3 revenue below estimates; QCOM drops 5%+  —  - Qualcomm reported second-quarter earnings on Wednesday that were in line with analyst expectations but saw sales from handset chips … http://www.techmeme.com/230503/p27?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230503p27

Peter Kafka / Vox: Q&A with Nick Denton, Jonah Peretti, and also Ben Smith, whose book Traffic details the rise and fall of BuzzFeed and Gawker, on digital media and its reckoning  —  A conversation with two media pioneers — plus Ben Smith, whose new book chronicles their rise and fall. http://www.techmeme.com/230502/p39?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230502p39

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: A glitch on Twitter's desktop website has been randomly logging out some users and preventing some from logging back in, adding to the service's list of issues  —  Twitter is not dead yet, it's just randomly logging out a number of its users.  After reporting earlier today that Twitter … http://www.techmeme.com/230501/p16?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230501p16

Nidhi Subbaraman / Wall Street Journal: Some US hospitals test if GPT-3 can cut the time staff spend replying to online queries; a study claims the first ChatGPT version replied better than doctors  —  Pilot program aims to see if AI will cut time that medical staff spend replying to online inquiries http://www.techmeme.com/230430/p3?utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=blogger#a230430p3