Tips and tricks for all

Monica Chin / The Verge : Intel launches new Iris Xe Max discrete GPU, with first laptops now available from Acer, Dell, and Asus   —  Try out Intel's new discrete GPU  —  Earlier this month, the public got its first glimpse of Iris Xe Max, Intel's new discrete GPU for thin-and-light laptops, at an Acer press event. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3jHYWxz

Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic : How Trump's presidency has changed the internet, from fueling conspiracy theories to forcing social media platforms to reexamine their content policies   —  How the president changed life online—for better and for worse  —  Being online has changed Donald Trump. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3mBQxh9

Welcome back to This Week in Apps, the TechCrunch series that recaps the latest OS news, the applications they support and the money that flows through it all. The app industry is as hot as ever, with  a record  204 billion downloads and $120 billion in consumer spending in 2019. People are now  spending  three hours and 40 minutes per day using apps, rivaling TV. Apps aren’t just a way to pass idle hours — they’re a big business. In 2019, mobile-first companies had a  combined  $544 billion valuation, 6.5x higher than those without a mobile focus. Top Stories Here Comes Apple One Thanks for all the market research, app developers. Image Credits: Apple Apple issued a slight beat on earnings  this week, despite the COVID pandemic and a 20% decline in iPhone sales year-over-year, including a drop in China. But for app developers who already have a large install base to serve across Apple’s mobile devices, it’s Apple’s expansion into ...

Hello and welcome back to  Equity , TechCrunch’s venture capital-focused podcast ( now on Twitter! ), where we unpack the numbers behind the headlines. As promised, the whole gang is back, this time to chew on the biggest, baddest, worstest, and most troubling earnings reports from the current cycle. This week saw Amazon and Alphabet and Microsoft and Apple and Facebook report, along with a host of smaller companies. Spoiler alert: there were more tricks than treats. Danny , Natasha and Alex wanted to get to the bottom of the big tech results, asking what really mattered from each of them? Then it was time to dig into themes. We saw plan price increases coming from Netflix and Spotify , advertising getting a boo-st from politics and 2020’s overall meltdown, and boo-ming billions of consumer interest in…desktops. After that, a dive into the results of smaller SaaS and cloud companies, picking out trends that might help us see around the corner a bit; is the tech boom s...

Lara O'Reilly / Digiday : Interview with Petra Wikström, director of public policy at Schibsted, on joining the Coalition for App Fairness to pressure app store owners to change rules   —  Nordic publishing giant Schibsted became one of 20 new members of the recently formed Coalition for App Fairness earlier this month. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2Je9yaT

New York Times : Misinformation on social media, alongside Trump's lies, is overwhelming local election officials across the US as they shoot down rumors via phone and email   —  From Philadelphia to Sonoma County, Calif., election officials said they were working marathon hours to fight a flood of falsehoods. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/385bCwa

Last month’s report that there may be phosphine gas in the Venusian clouds  came with a stunning implication: extraterrestrial life. On Earth, phosphine is a chemical produced by some kinds of bacteria that live in oxygen-poor conditions. Its presence on Venus, announced by a team led by Cardiff University’s Jane Greaves, raised the possibility that there could be life in what has long been thought one of the most inhospitable environments in the solar system: a planet that’s covered in thick clouds of sulfuric acid, with an atmosphere that’s 96% carbon dioxide, and where the pressure at the surface is 100 times greater than Earth’s. Oh, and it experiences temperatures up to  471 °C —well above the melting point of lead.  Since the initial report, though, doubt about the finding has crept in. Three different preprint papers (none of which have been published in a peer-reviewed journal, although one has been accepted) were unable to find the same evidence of phosphine on ...

Rest of World : Filipino activists and journalists want Facebook to tackle deadly disinformation coming from the government, resulting in enemies being “red-tagged” and killed   —  Targeted by government misinformation, activists are asking Facebook to do more to tackle a deadly epidemic of “red-tagging.” from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2TEKsE9

For years — decades, even — there was little question about whether you could become a venture capitalist if you weren’t comfortable financially. You couldn’t. The people and institutions that invest in venture funds want to know that fund managers have their own “skin in the game,” so they’ve long required a sizable check from the investor’s own pocket before jumping aboard. Think 2% to 3% of the fund’s total assets, which often equates to millions of dollars. In fact, five years ago, I wrote that the real obstacle to becoming a venture capitalist has less to do with gender than with financial inequality. I focused then on women, who are paid less ( especially Black and Hispanic women), and who possess less wealth. But the same is true of anyone of lesser means. Consider that one or two partners trying to raise a $50 million debut fund have to come up with $1.5 million. They’ll collect management fees off that $50 million fund — the standard is 2% annually for the fund’s investmen...

Joseph Marks / Washington Post : A look at CISA's wide-ranging operation to secure the 2020 election against hacking, which includes the launch of a 24/7 virtual war room on Election Day   —  A 24/7 war room will operate from Election Day until local officials are confident in the results.  It shows just how far DHS's cybersecurity agency has come since 2016. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/31Z7xWA

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer : CISA, FBI say an Iran-linked APT targeted unsecured state election websites to harvest US voter info used to send threatening emails to some Democratic voters   —  DHS CISA and the FBI today shared more info on how an Iranian state-sponsored hacking group was able to harvest voter registration info … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3eaLL7j

Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat : Hands-on with the Dash Cart at an Amazon Fresh store: cart sensors worked fine, but a two-bag limit, bag fill limit, and real-world hassles hinder experience   —  There were no lines outside Irvine, California's new Amazon Fresh grocery store on its opening day last week … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2HHFSTr

Mikey Campbell / AppleInsider : Apple rejects an app designed to verify a person's ballot status in PA, says the app violates its guideline which forbids compiling user data without consent   —  Apple on Friday rejected an app designed to ensure ballots are being correctly counted in Pennsylvania, saying the software violates App Store privacy guidelines. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3kIQcsx