What's Popular on Techmeme
Subscription podcast startup Luminary lowers monthly US subscription prices, from $7.99 a month to $4.99, and also cuts international rates
A look at India's food delivery market, where the prospect of continued cash-burn is forcing market leaders Swiggy and Zomato to explore other business areas
As tech becomes dominant force in digital economy, Silicon Valley's culture since 1970s, of nimble startups successfully challenging incumbents, is fading away
Fitbit confirms it has begun the rollout of blood oxygen monitoring feature to some of its wearables
PitchBook: West Coast's share of total US VC deal value dropped to 50.2% in 2019 vs. 62.3% in 2018; 78% of funding went to CA, NY, and MA, up from 75% in 2018
Google sets timeline for phasing out support for Chrome Apps across all operating systems by July 2022; the change won't affect Chrome extensions
NextNav raises $120M for its positioning system that uses a cellular signal to determine vertical position of smartphones inside multi-story buildings
The e-sports industry is increasingly coming under tax scrutiny by US states, amid ever-rising sums of prize money and an uptick in interstate competitions
App Annie: consumers downloaded 204B apps in 2019, up 6% YoY, and spent $120B on apps, subscriptions, and in-app features globally
Sophos researchers find 25 "fleeceware" apps on the Play Store, installed by 600M+ users, that abuse the apps' free trial mechanic to charge obscene fees
US and China sign a "phase one" trade deal that seeks to limit theft of American tech and trade secrets by Chinese companies, such as through joint ventures
US and China sign "phase one" trade deal that they say will clamp down on counterfeit and pirated goods, some of which end up on Amazon and other platforms
Sources: Apple has acquired Seattle-based Xnor.ai, which develops low-power, edge-based AI image recognition tools, for around $200M
As companies comply with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA, many have insecure practices for giving users their data and some outsource user identity verification
Productboard, a platform for product managers, raises $45M Series B led by Sequoia and Bessemer Venture Partners, source says at a $350M post-money valuation
YouTube launches Profile cards that show user's public information and comment history on the current channel, starting with Android
Former Microsoft employees and third-party developers reflect on the rise and fall of Microsoft Kinect, which was once billed as the future of Xbox
Oviva, which provides a tech-based approach for Type 2 diabetes treatment in Europe, raises $21M Series B led by MTIP, bringing its total raised to $34M
Interview with US CTO Michael Kratsios on the government's recent regulatory framework for AI, the potential for an AI cold war with China, and more
Anyline, which develops optical character recognition tech that developers can use to build OCR functions in their apps, raises $12M Series A led by Project A
Zinier, which provides workplace automation tools, raises $90M Series C led by ICONIQ Capital, bringing its total raised to $100M+
Cloudflare says it will provide its security services free for US political campaigns, including DDoS mitigation, load balancing, and anti-bot protections
6Sense, which helps automate B2B sales processes with AI, raises $40M Series C led by Insight Partners, bringing its total raised to $105M
Verbit, which provides AI-assisted transcription and captioning services to professional users, raises $31M Series B led by growth equity firm Stripes
How cloud-native gaming on platforms like Google's Stadia has the potential to usher in entirely new gameplay experiences and business models
In a Q&A, Jack Dorsey discusses Twitter's thinking around an edit button and says "we'll probably never do it"
Amid an antitrust probe and protests by small merchants, Jeff Bezos travels to India to announce a further $1B investment into Amazon's operations over 5 years
techcrunch.com · 3 days ago
A look at how US pressure, driven by national security and trade concerns, has led to China seeking increased technological self-sufficiency
Austin-based startup FlashParking, which develops a parking management platform, raises $60M from L Catterton
French mobile payments app Lydia raises $45M Series B led by Tencent and says it has 3M users in France
Microsoft begins rolling out its Chromium-based Edge browser, available now for Windows and macOS
YouTube for iOS adds filters for its Subscriptions tab allowing users to sort videos via All, Today, Unwatched, Continue Watching, Live, and Posts tags
Facebook will now notify users via email and the Facebook App when their account is used to login into a third-party app or website
Sources: Apple is preparing for a legal fight with the DOJ, similar to San Bernardino, which was not legally resolved before FBI dropped the case
Equifax to pay $380.5M to members of a class action suit whose data was compromised in 2017 breach, after a federal judge approved the final settlement Monday
Toyota launches Kinto in Europe, a package of four separate mobility programs including car sharing, car pooling, and subscription-based leasing
Cellebrite, whose tech was likely used to unlock the San Bernardino shooter's iPhone, buys BlackBag for $33M to expand its capabilities beyond smartphones
In a tweet, Trump criticizes Apple for refusing to unlock phones of violent criminals, says his administration helps Apple "all of the time" on trade
US data center giant Equinix announces it is acquiring bare metal cloud provider Packet, a NYC startup that has raised over $36M
Source: hands-on with a leaked Samsung Galaxy S20+ shows it has a 120Hz 3200 x 1440 display, ultrasonic under-display fingerprint scanner, and no headphone jack
Twitter suspends Grindr from its ad platform as it investigates report that the dating app shared sensitive data with ad tech partners including Twitter's MoPub
Hotel and flight search service Hipmunk says it's shutting down on January 23, a few years after SAP acquired it
Gartner: global Mac shipments in Q4 dropped by 3% YoY, to 5.26M units, as the overall PC market saw growth for the first time since 2011
Passwordless authentication platform Trusona raises $20M led by Georgian Partners, with participation from Microsoft's M12, Kleiner Perkins, Akamai, others
Pandora debuts Test & Tune, a suite of audience measurement tools in open beta that provide insights into campaigns' effectiveness while they are underway
Google acquires no-code app development platform AppSheet, which had raised ~$19M to date, with plans to migrate AppSheet services to Google Cloud
Amazon reinstates FedEx's ground delivery for Prime shipments, saying the shipper has consistently met its delivery requirements, after suspending it last month
cnbc.com · 4 days ago