Tips and tricks for all

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat : SlashNext, which offers AI-driven anti-phishing services for enterprise communications, raises a $26M Series B — Phishing, a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a message designed to trick a victim into revealing sensitive information or installing malware or ransomware, is on the rise. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3mtjwXc

India-based grocery delivery startup Zepto emerges from stealth with $60M from Glade Brook Capital, Nexus, Y Combinator, and others (Manish Singh/TechCrunch)

Manish Singh / TechCrunch : India-based grocery delivery startup Zepto emerges from stealth with $60M from Glade Brook Capital, Nexus, Y Combinator, and others — Two 19-year-old entrepreneurs, who have previously collaborated on a number of projects including a ride-hailing commute app for school kids and last year left Stanford … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3bzNvGt

YouTube's mistaken deletion of a channel belonging to UK news outlet Novara Media draws criticism over the company's power as a content regulator (Adam Satariano/New York Times)

Adam Satariano / New York Times : YouTube's mistaken deletion of a channel belonging to UK news outlet Novara Media draws criticism over the company's power as a content regulator — Novara, a London news group, fell victim to YouTube's opaque and sometimes arbitrary enforcement of its rules. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2ZGPuq4

A look at "creepypasta", ghost stories such as Slender Man that spread online, and how decentralized myth-making can explain the rise of meme stocks and QAnon (Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan/Financial ...)

Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan / Financial Times : A look at “creepypasta”, ghost stories such as Slender Man that spread online, and how decentralized myth-making can explain the rise of meme stocks and QAnon — Or: how the tale of Slender Man can explain the rise of QAnon. … These words, posted on a forum in 2009 … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/318U0OC

After a three-day outage, Roblox says it has begun incrementally restoring service to some players (Zack Zwiezen/Kotaku)

Zack Zwiezen / Kotaku : After a three-day outage, Roblox says it has begun incrementally restoring service to some players — According to Roblox's status page, all versions of the game have been down since Oct 28 starting at 7 pm EST — Roblox, one of the most popular games in the world, has been down for over … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2ZDMPOh

Estimate: Apple's iOS App Tracking Transparency policy cost Snap, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube almost $10B in combined lost ad revenues so far (Patrick McGee/Financial Times)

Patrick McGee / Financial Times : Estimate: Apple's iOS App Tracking Transparency policy cost Snap, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube almost $10B in combined lost ad revenues so far — Forcing apps to ask for permission to track users for advertising purposes leads to big hit for social media platforms from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2Y2FeYB

Industry and government officials say Gaia-X, a project to reduce EU's cloud dependency on US tech giants, is hamstrung by infighting and bloated bureaucracy (Politico)

Politico : Industry and government officials say Gaia-X, a project to reduce EU's cloud dependency on US tech giants, is hamstrung by infighting and bloated bureaucracy — The initiative, meant to boost Europe's cloud services, is failing to fix the problems it was intended to solve. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3w15Nde

Experts say sourcing chips has turned almost into a lottery amid the global chip shortage, as wait times have ballooned to 22 weeks as of October (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal : Experts say sourcing chips has turned almost into a lottery amid the global chip shortage, as wait times have ballooned to 22 weeks as of October — Nearly a year into the crisis, some customers are finding it is taking months more than expected to get needed parts from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3btEr60

Apple's $19 Polishing Cloth has become its most back-ordered new product with shipments delayed until January; source: the company isn't surprised by the demand (Daisuke Wakabayashi/New York Times)

Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times : Apple's $19 Polishing Cloth has become its most back-ordered new product with shipments delayed until January; source: the company isn't surprised by the demand — It's a $19 cloth. — OAKLAND, Calif — Apple this month unveiled an array of new gadgets: more powerful MacBook laptop computers … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3w0pUZ6

Beijing-based Huice, a SaaS provider that helps e-commerce businesses manage orders and more, raises a $312M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 (Eudora Wang/DealStreetAsia)

Eudora Wang / DealStreetAsia : Beijing-based Huice, a SaaS provider that helps e-commerce businesses manage orders and more, raises a $312M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 — Huice, which develops software-as-a-service (SaaS) solutions to enable smart retail, has raised $312 million in a Series D round led by SoftBank Group Corp's Vision Fund 2. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3CxTsj8

BackBox, which provides companies with network automation, security, and management software, raises $32M Series A led by Elsewhere Partners (Kyle Wiggers/VentureBeat)

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat : BackBox, which provides companies with network automation, security, and management software, raises $32M Series A led by Elsewhere Partners — BackBox, a network automation, security, and management service provider, today announced that it raised $32 million in a series A round led by venture firm Elsewhere Partners. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3mvC6hk

In 2018, Oculus' Jason Rubin sent a paper to Facebook execs laying the foundation for Meta's ambitions and detailing the need to own the VR market (Salvador Rodriguez/CNBC)

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC : In 2018, Oculus' Jason Rubin sent a paper to Facebook execs laying the foundation for Meta's ambitions and detailing the need to own the VR market — - In 2018, an Oculus executive named Jason Rubin wrote a 50-page document headlined “The Metaverse” that he sent to a Facebook board member and some top execs. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3BxekFQ

Profile of barbershop booking app Squire, which is on track to triple its revenue to $12M in 2021 after raising $60M at a $750M valuation in July (Amy Feldman/Forbes)

Amy Feldman / Forbes : Profile of barbershop booking app Squire, which is on track to triple its revenue to $12M in 2021 after raising $60M at a $750M valuation in July — Songe LaRon and Dave Salvant left their desks behind to create booking software for the nation's 109,000 barbershops. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3brq1U8

A look at student activity monitoring software GoGuardian, whose usage in US schools exploded during lockdowns as some say it adds to kids' psychological strain (Bloomberg)

Bloomberg : A look at student activity monitoring software GoGuardian, whose usage in US schools exploded during lockdowns as some say it adds to kids' psychological strain — The pandemic caused schools to embrace laptops, tablets, Zoom, and an app called GoGuardian that tracks everything students (and, sometimes, parents) do online. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3jRlLBO

Roblox has been down since about 7PM ET Oct. 28, with some speculating that the outage may be related to a Chipotle promotion, but the company denies a link (Tom Warren/The Verge)

Tom Warren / The Verge : Roblox has been down since about 7PM ET Oct. 28, with some speculating that the outage may be related to a Chipotle promotion, but the company denies a link — Roblox is having some server issues — Roblox has been down for more than a day, with the game and its related website offline for millions of players. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3nCCDxk

Q&A with EIC Nilay Patel on The Verge's 10th anniversary, tech media's advance from early breathless gadget reviews, subject-source relationships, and more (Delia Cai/Vanity Fair)

Delia Cai / Vanity Fair : Q&A with EIC Nilay Patel on The Verge's 10th anniversary, tech media's advance from early breathless gadget reviews, subject-source relationships, and more — After a decade covering the Zucks, Googles, and Ubers of the scene, the Verge editor in chief reflects on tech's troublesome relationship with the rest of the world. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3nKQgdJ

How the rhetoric surrounding techno-globalism has shifted, from countries advocating for a free, open internet to imposing limits to protect national interests (Foreign Affairs)

Foreign Affairs : How the rhetoric surrounding techno-globalism has shifted, from countries advocating for a free, open internet to imposing limits to protect national interests — Two key words were missing from the statements that followed the inaugural in-person summit in September of the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3mr0wIH

Meta's promised metaverse is going to be boring and is meant to distract us from the world that Facebook helped break (Ethan Zuckerman/The Atlantic)

Ethan Zuckerman / The Atlantic : Meta's promised metaverse is going to be boring and is meant to distract us from the world that Facebook helped break — It was terrible then, and it's terrible now. — In a booth at Ted's Fish Fry, in Troy, New York, my friend Daniel Beck and I sketched out our plans for the metaverse. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2ZCUGeB

Meta is just playing catch-up as Roblox, Steam VR, VRChat, and other platforms have already developed metaverse-like experiences (Gene Park/Washington Post)

Gene Park / Washington Post : Meta is just playing catch-up as Roblox, Steam VR, VRChat, and other platforms have already developed metaverse-like experiences — In addition to announcing Facebook's rebranding to Meta on Thursday, Mark Zuckerberg delivered a number of lofty promises about the metaverse and its features. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2ZFMPNu

Analysis: Florida startups have raised about $1.3B in Series A and Series B funding so far in 2021, which is more than quadruple the $277M raised in all of 2020 (Joanna Glasner/Crunchbase News)

Joanna Glasner / Crunchbase News : Analysis: Florida startups have raised about $1.3B in Series A and Series B funding so far in 2021, which is more than quadruple the $277M raised in all of 2020 — The hype around South Florida as an up-and-coming startup hub isn't just hype. Seed- and early-stage investment … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3jQQBuu

Advocates for the blind say DMCA exemptions to break ebook DRM for accessibility should be permanent, rather than having to be renewed every three years (Damon Beres/Wired)

Damon Beres / Wired : Advocates for the blind say DMCA exemptions to break ebook DRM for accessibility should be permanent, rather than having to be renewed every three years — Advocates will once again be granted a DMCA exception to make accessible versions of texts. They argue that it's far past time to make it permanent. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3pRzTPw

Indian online beauty products retailer Purplle raises a $75M Series E led by Kedaara Capital at a $630M valuation (Saritha Rai/Bloomberg)

Saritha Rai / Bloomberg : Indian online beauty products retailer Purplle raises a $75M Series E led by Kedaara Capital at a $630M valuation — - Purplle reaches valuation of $630 million in new funding round — Local e-commerce rival Nykaa is raising funds in an IPO — Purplle, the Indian online beauty … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2Y1ssK0

Chinese smart home devices maker Aqara raises a $155M Series C from investors including state-backed Shenzhen Capital and China Telecom (Liya Su/DealStreetAsia)

Liya Su / DealStreetAsia : Chinese smart home devices maker Aqara raises a $155M Series C from investors including state-backed Shenzhen Capital and China Telecom — Chinese smart home devices maker Aqara, which is owned by Xiaomi-backed Lumi United Technology, has raked in an aggregate of 1 billion yuan ($155 million) in its Series C round of financing. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3vVTwqo

Chinese ride-sharing startup T3 raises a $1.2B Series A led by state-backed conglomerate CITIC Group, as rival Didi faces a regulatory crackdown (Nikkei Asia)

Nikkei Asia : Chinese ride-sharing startup T3 raises a $1.2B Series A led by state-backed conglomerate CITIC Group, as rival Didi faces a regulatory crackdown — 2-year-old startup joins race to snag market share from embattled company — TOKYO/HONG KONG — Chinese ride-hailing company T3 Chuxing … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2Y1Wttc

Meta acquires Within, the company behind VR fitness game Supernatural; Within will continue working on the game and help Meta improve future VR hardware (Mitchell Clark/The Verge)