Two-thirds of freelancers on Fiverr say they’re servicing the NFT industry. But is it sustainable?
An Optical Spy Trick Can Turn Any Shiny Object Into a Bug
Anything from a metallic Rubik’s cube to an aluminum trash can inside a room could give away your private conversations.
From BioWare to Beer: How Greg Zeschuk Makes Dreams Come True
The studio cofounder isn’t in the gaming industry anymore, but he’s still building new things—and still playing games.
With Meta handicapped by Apple’s ATT, Shopify should build an advertising business to complement Shop Pay and the Shopify Fulfillment Network (Ben Thompson/Stratechery)
Ben Thompson / Stratechery: With Meta handicapped by Apple’s ATT, Shopify should build an advertising business to complement Shop Pay and the Shopify Fulfillment Network — Tobi Lütke, who famously started Shopify when he realized that the software he built to run his snowboard shop was a much bigger opportunity …
London-based fintech Weavr, which offers online businesses preconfigured financial service APIs, raises a $40M Series A led by Tiger Global (PYMNTS.com)
PYMNTS.com: London-based fintech Weavr, which offers online businesses preconfigured financial service APIs, raises a $40M Series A led by Tiger Global — Embedded finance startup Weavr raised $40 million in a Series A funding round led by Tiger Global, with participation from Mubadala Capital, Latitude Fund, QED Investors, Anthemis and Seedcamp.
Berlin-based Zenjob, which offers a marketplace that connects students looking for a side job with over 2,500 companies, raises a $50M Series D led by Aragon (Natasha Lomas/TechCrunch)
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: Berlin-based Zenjob, which offers a marketplace that connects students looking for a side job with over 2,500 companies, raises a $50M Series D led by Aragon — More money for casual job-matching in Europe: Zenjob, a marketplace platform that targets students looking for side jobs in sectors like retail …
Singing in the brain
For the first time, MIT neuroscientists have identified a population of neurons in the human brain that lights up when we hear singing, but not other types of music. These neurons, found in the auditory cortex, appear to respond to the specific combination of voice and music, but not to either regular speech or instrumental […]
Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodgson on Entrepreneurship and Self-Doubt
The three-time founders share their hard-won lessons.
To Reach Your Goals, Embrace Self-Compassion
Four strategies to help you let go of paralyzing perfectionism and move forward.
Why Some Companies Thrived During the Pandemic
A conversation with consultant Keith Ferrazzi on cultivating “radical adaptability.”
Facilio, which uses AI to help companies manage real estate, raises a $35M Series B led by Dragoneer, following a $6.4M Series A in 2018 (Kul Bhushan/Tech in Asia)
Kul Bhushan / Tech in Asia: Facilio, which uses AI to help companies manage real estate, raises a $35M Series B led by Dragoneer, following a $6.4M Series A in 2018 — Facilio, an AI-driven proptech platform, has raised US$35 million in a series B funding round led by Dragoneer Investment Group.
SoFi will acquire Technisys, which makes tools for banks, for around $1.1B in an all-stock deal; after going public via SPAC, SoFi’s stock is down 28% in 2022 (Peter Rudegeair/Wall Street Journal)
Peter Rudegeair / Wall Street Journal: SoFi will acquire Technisys, which makes tools for banks, for around $1.1B in an all-stock deal; after going public via SPAC, SoFi’s stock is down 28% in 2022 — The all-stock deal is CEO Anthony Noto’s latest move to make the onetime student lender into a full-service bank
Indian online healthcare service MediBuddy, which offers doctor video calls and more, raises a $125M Series C led by Quadria Capital and Lightrock India (Deepsekhar Choudhury/Business Standard)
Deepsekhar Choudhury / Business Standard: Indian online healthcare service MediBuddy, which offers doctor video calls and more, raises a $125M Series C led by Quadria Capital and Lightrock India — MediBuddy, an online healthcare company, has raised $125 million in funding from Quadria Capital and Lightrock India, along with participation from existing investors.
People are bad at spotting fake LinkedIn profiles generated by AI
Social media profiles with deepfake photos and AI-generated text fooled most participants in a study, even when there were obvious errors
New power sources
In the mid-1990s, a few energy activists in Massachusetts had a vision: What if citizens had choice about the energy they consumed? Instead of being force-fed electricity sources selected by a utility company, what if cities, towns, and groups of individuals could purchase power that was cleaner and cheaper? The small group of activists — […]
IRS says taxpayers wanting to access their accounts online will not be subjected to facial recognition if they choose to ID themselves in “a virtual interview” (Alan Rappeport/New York Times)
Alan Rappeport / New York Times: IRS says taxpayers wanting to access their accounts online will not be subjected to facial recognition if they choose to ID themselves in “a virtual interview” — The agency, dealing with controversy over its decision to use facial recognition software, said it would allow taxpayers …
An investigation shows how vigilantes use Facebook to incite ethnic killings in Ethiopia, accusing Meta of inaction on hate speech and misinformation (The Guardian)
The Guardian: An investigation shows how vigilantes use Facebook to incite ethnic killings in Ethiopia, accusing Meta of inaction on hate speech and misinformation — Social media giant accused of inaction after users post ‘horrifying and hateful content’ Civilians walk past an abandoned tank …
Despite billions spent over 15 years, Amazon’s grocery strategy is unprofitable and incoherent; Numerator: Amazon and Whole Foods had 2.4% US share in December (Annie Palmer/CNBC)
Annie Palmer / CNBC: Despite billions spent over 15 years, Amazon’s grocery strategy is unprofitable and incoherent; Numerator: Amazon and Whole Foods had 2.4% US share in December — – Amazon’s grocery endeavors have cost many billions of dollars over the past 15 years but have yet to yield a coherent strategy.
Can machine-learning models overcome biased datasets?
Artificial intelligence systems may be able to complete tasks quickly, but that doesn’t mean they always do so fairly. If the datasets used to train machine-learning models contain biased data, it is likely the system could exhibit that same bias when it makes decisions in practice. For instance, if a dataset contains mostly images of […]
A “hot Jupiter’s” dark side is revealed in detail for first time
MIT astronomers have obtained the clearest view yet of the perpetual dark side of an exoplanet that is “tidally locked” to its star. Their observations, combined with measurements of the planet’s permanent day side, provide the first detailed view of an exoplanet’s global atmosphere. “We’re now moving beyond taking isolated snapshots of specific regions of […]
How to Motivate Your Team When People Keep Quitting
Six strategies for managers.
Stacey Abrams and Lara Hodgson on Starting and Scaling a Small Business
Hard-won lessons from their longtime business partnership.
Agile Doesn’t Work Without Psychological Safety
Scrums and kanbans can’t help you if you’ve got a legacy culture that punishes vulnerability.
Brazil-based Sólides, which offers HR management software to over 12,000 Brazilian businesses, raises $100M from Warburg Pincus (Tatiana Bautzer/Reuters)
Tatiana Bautzer / Reuters: Brazil-based Sólides, which offers HR management software to over 12,000 Brazilian businesses, raises $100M from Warburg Pincus — Private equity firm Warburg Pincus has invested $100 million in Brazilian human resources startup Solides for an undisclosed minority stake …
Philippines-based PayMongo, which enables merchants to accept digital payments, raises a $31M Series B, following a $12M Series A in 2020 led by Stripe (Catherine Shu/TechCrunch)
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch: Philippines-based PayMongo, which enables merchants to accept digital payments, raises a $31M Series B, following a $12M Series A in 2020 led by Stripe — Philippines-based fintech PayMongo, which enables merchants to accept digital payments, announced today it has raised $31 million …
Check, which provides payroll digitization software, raises a $75M Series C led by Stripe, bringing its total funding to $119M and valuing the startup at $725M (Rashi Shrivastava/Forbes)
Rashi Shrivastava / Forbes: Check, which provides payroll digitization software, raises a $75M Series C led by Stripe, bringing its total funding to $119M and valuing the startup at $725M — As startups increasingly embed payroll into their software products, Check, a three-year-old startup that provides software tools …
A revolution in learning
To understand a country, it helps to know its schools. To grasp Mexico, MIT historian Tanalís Padilla believes, that means learning about its rural “normales,” teacher-training schools with outsized historical influence on the country’s politics. This might seem surprising. At its height, the system of rural normales consisted of only 35 such boarding schools, scattered […]
The 27 Best Presidents’ Day Sales on Home Goods and Tech
Make the most of your long weekend with deals for every room of the house—including the backyard.
The Best Personal Safety Devices, Apps, and Alarms
Your smartphone or wearable could help you out in a truly dangerous situation. Here are some options to consider.
Any Single Galaxy Reveals the Composition of an Entire Universe
In computer simulations, researchers have discovered that a neural network can infer the amount of matter in a whole universe by studying just one galaxy.
Tropic, which helps enterprises buy and manage software as well as to identify cost savings on purchases, raises a $40M Series B led by Insight Partners (Christine Hall/TechCrunch)
Christine Hall / TechCrunch: Tropic, which helps enterprises buy and manage software as well as to identify cost savings on purchases, raises a $40M Series B led by Insight Partners — Global spend on enterprise software was expected to reach $599 billion by the end of 2021, and new forecasts say it is now projected […]
Interview with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the company’s strategy after its failed Arm bid, Omniverse’s progress, and its bet on self-driving cars (Dean Takahashi/VentureBeat)
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: Interview with Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang on the company’s strategy after its failed Arm bid, Omniverse’s progress, and its bet on self-driving cars — Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang didn’t get to fulfill his dream of acquiring Arm for $80 billion. Regulators held the deal up and Huang called off the deal […]
Expected Mac 2022 lineup: Mac mini with M1 Pro and M2; 13″ MacBook Pro, 24″ iMac, and MacBook Air with M2; iMac Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max; a half-sized Mac Pro (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Expected Mac 2022 lineup: Mac mini with M1 Pro and M2; 13″ MacBook Pro, 24″ iMac, and MacBook Air with M2; iMac Pro with M1 Pro and M1 Max; a half-sized Mac Pro — As Apple gears up for its first product launch event of the year, the spotlight turns to […]
How to Use Google Chrome’s Enhanced Safety Mode
You get a safer, more secure browser experience, but Google gets a lot more data about you.
The Best Podcasts for Everyone
Get your fix of tech, true crime, pop culture, or comedy with these audio adventures.
‘Disruption’ Is a Two-Way Street
There’s a wave of innovation that we’re failing to recognize—and it’s being led by users and networks, not tech companies.
HR experts, industry execs, and government officials in Taiwan say the current shortage of chip talent on the island is the most serious they have ever seen (Nikkei Asia)
Nikkei Asia: HR experts, industry execs, and government officials in Taiwan say the current shortage of chip talent on the island is the most serious they have ever seen — Semiconductor giants hike salaries to lure island’s dwindling number of graduates — TAIPEI/HSINCHU, Taiwan …
A look at challenges facing Trump’s upcoming Truth Social app, including finding users willing to leave mainstream apps, competition from Gettr and Parler, more (New York Times)
New York Times: A look at challenges facing Trump’s upcoming Truth Social app, including finding users willing to leave mainstream apps, competition from Gettr and Parler, more — Truth Social, the former president’s hard-right alternative to Twitter, could open its doors next month.
Cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Fireblocks buys First Digital, a stablecoin and digital asset payments technology service, sources say for $100M (Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss/Reuters)
Gertrude Chavez-Dreyfuss / Reuters: Cryptocurrency infrastructure provider Fireblocks buys First Digital, a stablecoin and digital asset payments technology service, sources say for $100M — Fireblocks, an infrastructure provider for cryptocurrencies, has acquired First Digital, a stablecoin and digital asset payments technology platform.
Millions of WordPress Sites Got a Forced Update for a Serious Bug
The mandatory patch addressed a critical vulnerability in a widely used plugin that allowed untrusted visitors to download a website’s backups.
Take Your Tunes Anywhere With Our Fave Bluetooth Speakers
These are our favorite portable speakers of all shapes and sizes, from clip-ons to a massive boom box.
Russia Was Behind DDoS Attacks Against Ukraine, US Officials Say
Plus: A crypto crime crackdown, Roblox ripoffs, and more of the week’s top security news.
Q&A with Intel EVP Dr. Ann Kelleher on lessons learned from the company’s misadventures with 10nm process nodes, its vision for Foundry Services, and more (Dr. Ian Cutress/AnandTech)
Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech: Q&A with Intel EVP Dr. Ann Kelleher on lessons learned from the company’s misadventures with 10nm process nodes, its vision for Foundry Services, and more — It’s somewhat of an understatement to say that Intel’s future roadmap on its process node development is one of the most aggressive in the […]
How Apple may get to $1T in revenue by 2030, from $366B in 2021, using its hardware expertise, high consumer trust, and capital reserves to enter new markets (Scott Galloway/No Mercy/No Malice)
Scott Galloway / No Mercy / No Malice: How Apple may get to $1T in revenue by 2030, from $366B in 2021, using its hardware expertise, high consumer trust, and capital reserves to enter new markets — Round numbers have no inherent meaning — they’re a consequence of 10 fingers. But they provide a benchmark, […]
Project Zero: Linux developers patch security holes faster than anyone else, in an average of 25 days vs Google in 44 days, Apple in 69, and Microsoft in 83 (Steven Vaughan-Nichols/ZDNet)
Steven Vaughan-Nichols / ZDNet: Project Zero: Linux developers patch security holes faster than anyone else, in an average of 25 days vs Google in 44 days, Apple in 69, and Microsoft in 83 — Linux programmers do a better job of patching security holes than programmers at Apple, Google, and Microsoft.
A look at Microsoft’s AI system in Argentina’s Salta province to predict teenage pregnancies, which faced pushback from activists for being invasive and opaque (Wired)
Wired: A look at Microsoft’s AI system in Argentina’s Salta province to predict teenage pregnancies, which faced pushback from activists for being invasive and opaque — A government leader in Argentina hailed the AI, which was fed invasive data about girls. The feminist pushback could inform the future of health tech.
Convictional, which offers a one-stop shop for retailers to source, onboard, integrate, and trade with suppliers, raises a $40M Series B led by YC Continuity (Christine Hall/TechCrunch)
Christine Hall / TechCrunch: Convictional, which offers a one-stop shop for retailers to source, onboard, integrate, and trade with suppliers, raises a $40M Series B led by YC Continuity — Retailers have traditionally onboarded their drop-ship, marketplace and wholesale suppliers using electronic data interchange …
Kubecost, whose open source tools helps businesses monitor, manage, and optimize Kubernetes spend at scale, raises a $25M Series A led by Coatue Management (Christine Hall/TechCrunch)
Christine Hall / TechCrunch: Kubecost, whose open source tools helps businesses monitor, manage, and optimize Kubernetes spend at scale, raises a $25M Series A led by Coatue Management — In the past year, Kubernetes adoption exploded, with over 5.6 million developers using the cloud-native tools — an increase of 67% from the year prior.
Toward a stronger defense of personal data
A heart attack patient, recently discharged from the hospital, is using a smartwatch to help monitor his electrocardiogram signals. The smartwatch may seem secure, but the neural network processing that health information is using private data that could still be stolen by a malicious agent through a side-channel attack. A side-channel attack seeks to gather […]
Credit card-sized device focuses terahertz energy to generate high-resolution images
Researchers have created a device that enables them to electronically steer and focus a beam of terahertz electromagnetic energy with extreme precision. This opens the door to high-resolution, real-time imaging devices that are hundredths the size of other radar systems and more robust than other optical systems. Terahertz waves, located on the electromagnetic spectrum between […]