Month: December 2018

    • China-based bike-sharing startup Hellobike says it has raised "billions of yuan", or hundreds of millions of dollars, led by Primavera Capital and Ant Financial (Alex Wilhelm/Crunchbase News)

    Alex Wilhelm / Crunchbase News: China-based bike-sharing startup Hellobike says it has raised “billions of yuan”, or hundreds of millions of dollars, led by Primavera Capital and Ant Financial  —  Morning Markets: Capping off a week of stock market turmoil, there’s new capital in the market for bike-sharing startups. China-based bike-sharing startup Hellobike says it

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    Improved Controller For E-Skateboards

    [Timo] recently purchased himself a Acton Blink Qu4tro electric skateboard. Performance-wise, the board was great, but the controller left a lot to be desired. There were issues with pairing, battery displays, and just general rideability. Like any good hacker, he decided some reverse engineering was in order, and got to work. Initial results were disheartening – the

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    • Facebook responds to NYT report about its content moderation practices, says its policies are public and that it has about 15,000 content reviewers globally (Facebook)

    Facebook: Facebook responds to NYT report about its content moderation practices, says its policies are public and that it has about 15,000 content reviewers globally  —  Yesterday, The New York Times published an article about the the way we moderate content on Facebook. Facebook responds to NYT report about its content moderation practices, says its

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    • Essential says it won't restock Essential Phone anymore, will still sell accessories and provide software updates and is focusing on its "next mobile product" (Kellen/Droid Life)

    Kellen / Droid Life: Essential says it won’t restock Essential Phone anymore, will still sell accessories and provide software updates and is focusing on its “next mobile product”  —  It wasn’t the successful, industry-changing run we had all hoped for from the startup founded by Android creator Andy Rubin … Essential says it won't restock

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    • Zuckerberg's tone-deaf year-end note reads like 1,000 words of patting himself on the back and shows little contrition or empathy for the harm Facebook caused (Zack Whittaker/TechCrunch)

    Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: Zuckerberg’s tone-deaf year-end note reads like 1,000 words of patting himself on the back and shows little contrition or empathy for the harm Facebook caused  —  After the year Mark Zuckerberg’s had, you’d think he’d struggle to appear so chipper.  —  “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made … Zuckerberg's tone-deaf

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    • Netflix debuts its first choose-your-own-storyline movie, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, developed over 18 months using Twine, a game writing tool (Peter Rubin/Wired)

    Peter Rubin / Wired: Netflix debuts its first choose-your-own-storyline movie, Black Mirror: Bandersnatch, developed over 18 months using Twine, a game writing tool  —  BY NEARLY ANY measure, Netflix has had a ridiculous year.  When all is said and done, the company will have spent upwards of $10 billion … Netflix debuts its first choose-your-own-storyline

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    • Netflix no longer allows new or returning users to pay for subscription via its iOS app, requires them to sign up and pay via its website (Manish Singh/VentureBeat)

    Manish Singh / VentureBeat: Netflix no longer allows new or returning users to pay for subscription via its iOS app, requires them to sign up and pay via its website  —  Netflix is further distancing itself from Apple’s iTunes tax bracket.  Earlier this year, the streaming giant enabled iOS users in more than two dozen

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    • Samsara, maker of sensors and GPS units for fleet vehicle management, raises $100M at $3.6B valuation from existing investors a16z and General Catalyst (Cheddar)

    Cheddar: Samsara, maker of sensors and GPS units for fleet vehicle management, raises $100M at $3.6B valuation from existing investors a16z and General Catalyst  —  Samsara, one of the hottest tech start-ups in the freight and logistics space, is raising $100 million in fresh funding, Cheddar has learned. Samsara, maker of sensors and GPS units

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    • Mark Zuckerberg posts year-end reflections on the issues that Facebook encountered in 2018 and its efforts to deal with them (Mark Zuckerberg)

    Mark Zuckerberg: Mark Zuckerberg posts year-end reflections on the issues that Facebook encountered in 2018 and its efforts to deal with them  —  For 2018, my personal challenge has been to focus on addressing some of the most important issues facing our community — whether that’s preventing election interference … Mark Zuckerberg posts year-end reflections

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