Alibaba is doubling down on its logistics affiliate Cainiao, two years after acquiring a majority stake in the firm. The Chinese giant said today it would invest an additional 23.3 billion yuan (about $3.33 billion) to raise its equity in Cainiao to 63% from 51%. Cainiao was co-founded by Alibaba in 2013 to bring organization in…
Welcome to TNW Basics, a collection of tips, guides, and advice on how to easily get the most out of your gadgets, apps, and other stuff. From November 12, startup digital-only challenger bank Revolut will share user data with credit bureaus, social media companies, and analytics firms, Silicon Republic reported. On one hand, data sharing helps…
Two former employees of Twitter have been charged with spying on thousands of Twitter user accounts on behalf of the Saudi Arabian government, likely with the purpose of unmasking the identity of dissidents. According to an indictment filed on November 5 and unsealed just yesterday, one of the charged Twitter employees, American citizen Ahmad Abouammo,…
The Daily Crunch is TechCrunch’s roundup of our biggest and most important stories. If you’d like to get this delivered to your inbox every day at around 9am Pacific, you can subscribe here. 1. Saudi Arabia reportedly recruited Twitter employees to steal personal data of activists Saudi Arabian officials allegedly paid at least two Twitter…
Does it feel like your iPhone is being a little quick to shut down apps running in the background lately? Go update it. Apple has just released iOS 13.2.2, which patches up this issue (which caused background apps to “quit unexpectedly”), along with a handful of other annoyances. While it doesn’t offer up anything in…
Cities have always been America’s centers of power, driving the economy forward through competition. But now, they’re ceasing to lead the country’s innovation. As jobs and talent have clustered, expertise has spilled over urban boundaries. In locations like the Gulf Coast, Texas Triangle, Great Lakes and Southern California, metropolitan areas are cooperating across borders to…
Early adopters of Disney+ are mostly watching Marvel and Star Wars movies and TV shows, according to a new third-party report by SimilarWeb out today. The analytics firm measured Disney+ usage in its debut market, the Netherlands, where the service went live for a trial run back in September ahead of its global rollout, and…
SpaceX CEO Elon Musk went into a bit more detail about the timelines and vehicle requirements to not only reach Mars, but to set up a sustainable base on the Red Planet that can serve as an actual city, supporting a local population. That’s the long-term vision for Musk and his space technology company, after…
The Industrial Internet Consortium (IIC) has added new definitions of ‘IoT sensor’ and ‘IoT actuator’ to its updated ‘dictionary’ of technical definitions for the industrial IoT (IIoT) sector. These terms describe similar IoT devices with dissimilar definitions, it says. We consider these definitions, below. The new volume of the IIC’s technical dictionary , version 2.2,…
Disney+ will launch in the U.S., Canada and the Netherlands on November 12th, a bit shy of a week from today. On November 19th, it’ll expand to Australia and New Zealand. But what about the rest of the world? Disney has kept quiet about its plans for other countries, presumably because going live in another…
