Tech Drop Every Minute

Brian Heater / TechCrunch : Bear Robotics, which develops food service robots that aim to reduce the workload of human waitstaffs, raises a $81M Series B led by IMM   —  One of the most interesting things about following food robotics startups over the past couple of years is tracking all of the different tasks companies … from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3tez1FP

Zachary Warmbrodt / Politico : Congress is unlikely to pass major legislation to regulate crypto, as Senator Warren emerges as a vocal critic while some progressives embrace the industry   —  The lack of consensus among Democrats means it's unlikely Congress will act anytime soon to pass major legislation on the direction of regulation of the new market. from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3i8t8DI

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg : Thoughts on newly announced iPhone SE, iPad Air, and Mac Studio, and an in-depth look at the M2 chip, Mac Pro, iMac Pro, and Apple's future display plans   —  Here are my thoughts on Apple's new iPhone SE, iPad Air and Mac Studio, as well as an in-depth look at the M2 chip, Mac Pro, iMac Pro and future display plans. from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3tPQbc1

Bojan Pancevski / Wall Street Journal : People are sending news about Ukraine to Russians using a website that randomly selects from a list of ~20M phone numbers and ~140M email addresses in Russia   —  Website developed by hackers is new initiative in West's battle to counter Russia's propaganda campaign from Techmeme https://bit.ly/36gzWwc

Joel Khalili / TechRadar : Profile of Aleksandr Litreev, a Russian exile who made a popular app to let detained protesters find legal help and a blockchain-based VPN to bypass censorship   —  Aleksandr Litreev escaped trial in Russia and now he's a thorn in the government's side  —  Audio player loading... from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3I6rkFU

Michael Wayland / CNBC : NHTSA issues final rules eliminating the need for highly automated and self-driving vehicles to include manual controls such steering wheels or pedals   —  - Federal vehicle safety regulators have cleared the way for the production and deployment of truly driverless vehicles … from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3I4kNLU

Bill Toulas / BleepingComputer : Russia has created its own trusted TLS certificate authority as sanctions prevent Russian sites from renewing existing TLS certificates   —  Russia has created its own trusted TLS certificate authority (CA) to solve website access problems that have been piling up after sanctions prevent certificate renewals. from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3vYa6rQ

Abner Li / 9to5Google : Google rolls out a rapid Air Raid Alerts system for Android phones in Ukraine   —  Google today issued an update on its response to the war in Ukraine.  Among other ongoing efforts, Android users in Ukraine will soon have rapid Air Raid Alerts natively built into their phones. from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3KADk4c

Tiernan Ray / ZDNet : AI services company C3.ai files for IPO, reports revenue of $157M in the fiscal year ending April 2020, up 71% YoY, and a deficit of $293M at the end of July   —  The software-as-a-service company that has been using masses of GPUs to run deep learning programs plans to list under the ticker “AI.” from Techmeme https://bit.ly/38ILJTw

Shoshana Wodinsky / Gizmodo : Ticketmaster's UK wing fined ~$1.6M by the UK ICO after a report found they failed to put appropriate security measures in place prior to their 2018 data breach   —  Ticketmaster's UK wing has been fined £1.25 million pounds (roughly $1.6 millions) following an investigation … from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3kzolK9

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat : Facebook plans to use machine learning to sort its moderation queue prior to human review, prioritizing viral and potentially severe content first   —  Facebook says it's using AI to prioritize potentially problematic posts for human moderators to review as it works to more quickly remove content that violates its community guidelines. from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3kqSBHn

Cameron Faulkner / The Verge : Oculus Quest 2 update adds support for 90Hz games; an Oculus Move app for tracking fitness metrics while playing is coming in the following week   —  Plus, the mobile app will be able to record the headset's screen in late November  —  Oculus has rolled out its first big update … from Techmeme https://bit.ly/2UpQRn3

Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac : iOS 14.3 beta code indicates Apple may suggest third-party apps to users during the iPhone or iPad setup process, likely to appease antitrust concerns   —  As Apple has been investigating for anti-competitive practices, the company is working on new ways to avoid these accusations and even sanctions from governments around the world. from Techmeme https://bit.ly/38F7rYy

Ars Technica : Many Mac users experienced app slowdowns during the launch of Big Sur, possibly due to issues with Apple's OCSP service being unable to validate certificates   —  Even Macs that didn't upgrade to Big Sur had problems.  —  Mac users today began experiencing unexpected issues … from Techmeme https://bit.ly/36xpCN6

BuzzFeed News : At all-hands, Zuckerberg said that Biden won the election, Bannon violated policies but not enough to shutter his account, Facebook isn't adverse to legislation   —  As false claims declaring that Joe Biden isn't the president-elect flourish on his platform, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg told employees … from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3nnsDq7

Arjun Kharpal / CNBC : From 2020's Singles' Day sale, which was extended to 12 days from 24 hours previously, Alibaba reported sales of $56.4B while JD.com reported sales of ~$30.1B   —  - Alibaba set a new sales record for the annual Singles Day shopping event.  — Singles Day is typically a 24-hour shopping event … from Techmeme https://bit.ly/35ry9C1

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet : Google patches two Chrome zero-days that were exploited in the wild, after tips from anonymous sources; Google has patched five Chrome zero-days in three weeks   —  Google has now patched five Chrome zero-days in three weeks.  —  Google has released today Chrome version 86..4240.198 to patch … from Techmeme https://bit.ly/36pY6B3

Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech : Analysis of Apple's A14 chip shows an increase in single-thread performance of nearly 3x in 5 years, suggesting M1 will be a formidable rival to x86 incumbents   —  From Mobile to Mac: What to Expect?  —  To date, our performance comparisons for Apple's chipsets have always been in the context … from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3naykYe

Bloomberg : Online mortgage lender Better.com has raised ~$200M Series D led by L Catterton according to an internal memo; sources say the round values the company at $4B   —  Online mortgage lender Better.com has closed a new funding round led by private equity firm L Catterton, according to an internal memo reviewed by Bloomberg News. from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3phdmZD

Yonhap News Agency : Strategy Analytics: in Q3, Samsung sold more smartphones in the US than Apple for the first time in three years; Samsung had 33.7% marketshare, Apple had 30.2%   —  Samsung Electronics Co. sold the largest number of smartphones in the United States in the third quarter of the year … from Techmeme https://bit.ly/3ljwILp