SoundHound, the voice AI company, raises $25M after laying off 40% of staff earlier this month • TechCrunch

AI may be getting hyped as the next billion dollar (or, much bigger) opportunity these days after that mega round for OpenAI from Microsoft, but that rising tide is not lifting all boats. SoundHound — the voice AI company that provides conversational AI services for automotive, connected home and hospitality applications — earlier this month…

Semtech closes $1.2bn Sierra Wireless deal to pair LoRa and cellular in 10x IoT market

US firm Semtech has concluded its acquisition of Canada’s Sierra Wireless for $1.2 billion, nearly doubling its annual revenue. The deal, announced in August last year, brings together Semtech’s LoRa/LoRaWAN property, enabling non-cellular low-power wide-area (LPWA) IoT in unlicensed spectrum, with Sierra Wireless’ well-established cellular-based IoT business, offering the both low-power and higher-performance IoT in…

Top tips for securing your smartphone

Our smartphones are perhaps the most-used gadgets we own these days, allowing us to browse the web, fire off emails, keep in touch with friends and more. While there are a lot of built-in protections that come with modern smartphones, as with any device that you use to access the internet, you want to make…

Bill Gates investment aims to tackle cow burps

Bill Gates is backing a firm that’s working to reduce the harmful effects of cow burps. The billionaire co-founder of Microsoft has invested in Australian climate technology startup Rumin8, which is developing a dietary supplement that stops cows from burping out methane — a damaging greenhouse gas impacting climate change. Due to the way their…