What's Popular on Techmeme
Wide-ranging interview with Elon Musk on Neuralink and the future of brain chip implants, his thoughts on AI being an existential threat to humanity, and more
Amazon unveils Amazon One, a new biometric technology that allows shoppers to pay using their palm, to be first implemented at two Amazon Go stores in Seattle
vox.com · 40 mins ago
Vienna-based crypto brokerage Bitpanda raises $52M Series A led by Peter Thiel's Valar Ventures, bringing its total raised to ~$100M
Polish e-commerce site Allegro raised ~$2.3B in Warsaw's largest ever IPO, valuing the company at $11.2B
Lenovo debuts foldable ThinkPad X1 Fold with a 13-inch OLED screen, 11th-gen Intel processors, and 8GB RAM, available for pre-order now, starting at $2,499
A deep dive into Signal, whose downloads surged in the US amid BLM protests, as it becomes an app of choice among protesters, dissidents, and journalists
Russian startup NtechLab, which helps analyze footage captured by large number of surveillance cameras in real time, raises $13M
Pew survey of 12K+ US adults: 26% said they get news from YouTube while only 23% of those said they "often" get news from channels of established news orgs
McAfee has filed for a Nasdaq IPO in a filing with the SEC, listing the size of the offering as $100M which is a placeholder likely to change
French startup Exotec, which builds autonomous industrial robots for warehouses, raises $90M Series C led by 83North
Disney sells TrueX, an ad-tech company it absorbed as part of its acquisition of 21st Century Fox assets in 2019, to Gimbal; a source says for less than $100M
Amazon launches Personal Shopper for men's fashion for $4.99 per month, expanding on its similar offering for women rivalling Stitch Fix
techcrunch.com · 13 hours ago
Microsoft is investigating an authentication error impacting multiple Microsoft 365 services, including Office, Teams, Power Platform, and Dynamic365
Boston- and Shenzhen-based XtalPi, which uses AI for drug discovery and development, raises $319M Series C led by SoftBank's Vision Fund
Google Meet adds noise cancellation on Android and iOS for G Suite Enterprise and Enterprise for Education customers; also adds attendance reports for schools
Former Amazon exec and her family settle with SEC over insider trading scheme that led to profits of $1.4M, agrees to penalties of $1M+ and to pay back profits
fortune.com · 15 hours ago
Google says it's working on making it easier for Android users to install and use third-party app stores, starting with Android 12 next year
With Netflix, Spotify, and others bypassing Google's 30% cut of IAPs, Google now says all Play Store apps must use its billing system, giving a year to comply
After Las Vegas-area school officials refuse to pay a ransom, hackers publish information on students, including social security numbers and grades
Judge proposes a jury trial for the Apple vs Epic case, likely to start in July 2021, while seemingly pushing back on some of Epic's key points in the hearing
Philippines payment processing startup PayMongo raises $12M Series A led by Stripe, says it has processed almost $20M in payments since launching
Kioxia Holdings, the chipmaker spun out of Toshiba in 2018, calls off $16B IPO after saying that export restrictions on Huawei were hurting its business
Noyo, which provides APIs that link health insurance companies, brokers, employers, and more, raises $12.5M Series A led by Costanoa Ventures and Spark Capital
China's Sina Corp., which operates Weibo, agrees to go private in a $2.59B deal, after an entity led by its chairman boosted its offer to $43.30 per share
Study: Google's online shopping search still disadvantages EU rivals despite an EU crackdown three years ago, sending <1% of traffic to rival services
ShipBob, which helps e-commerce businesses streamline fulfillment and manage inventory, raises $68M Series D led by SoftBank's Vision Fund
Roku launches a redesigned $100 Ultra with Dolby Vision, shipping in Oct., with plans to add AirPlay 2 and HomeKit support to some 4K Roku models later in 2020
Roku launches $130 Streambar, which combines a compact soundbar with a 4K and HDR streaming device, shipping in mid-October
Dell announces updated XPS 13 and XPS 13 2-in-1 with Intel's Tiger Lake CPUs, Thunderbolt 4, and more, shipping on Sept. 30 starting at $999
Amazon plans to add 5,300 jobs in Vancouver by 2023, where it currently employs 2,700 people, capitalizing on lower wages and skilled graduates
bloomberg.com · 20 hours ago
ITIF analysis of Trump and Biden's tech policies shows Biden offers a concrete agenda while Trump has focused on tax cuts, deregulation, and alleged bias
Sources: DuckDuckGo failed to win Google's Q4 auction for placement on Android's default search engine choice screen in big EU countries
Social media platforms need to publicly declare a unified strategy to combat election misinformation, including Trump prematurely claiming victory via tweet
A look back at HOTorNOT, created in 2000 by two UC Berkeley grads on a lark, which was one of the first popular sites to let users create a public profile
Leaked trove of data used by Trump's 2016 campaign, likely for ad targeting purposes, details ~200M Americans, uses a "Deterrence" label on 3.5M Black Americans
LinkedIn rolls out its own version of Stories and adds Zoom, BlueJeans, and Teams video integrations as part of wider redesign
Fiture, a Chinese startup that offers smart home fitness equipment, raises $65M Series A led by Tencent
A look at the Zhenhua database, created by a Chinese tech company with government ties, that compiles personal info on ~2.4M people globally, most from the US
Federal judge grants a preliminary injunction against a Trump administration order that would have banned TikTok from US app stores
A look at VC Guide, which lets startup founders post reviews on VCs anonymously, as critics say it is focused on individuals rather than on firm-level feedback
Parts of Amazon's law enforcement request portal that are visible on the web provide a rare glimpse into how the company handles law enforcement requests
techcrunch.com · 2 days ago
Pastebin adds two new features, Burn After Read and Password Protected Pastes, that experts say will make it easier to disguise malware operations
Interviews with Michael Abrash and Andrew Bosworth on the tech behind Facebook's AR glasses, how Facebook will use the personal data from the glasses, more
Amazon, which had struggled to gain a foothold in Italy, benefited from a shift to online shopping during pandemic lockdown as 75% of Italians shopped online
nytimes.com · 2 days ago