If the current presidential administration’s approach to climate change could be summarized in one sentence, it seems that sentence would be “smoke em if you got em.” By the administration’s own estimate, on its current course (if nations around the world do nothing more to respond to the climate change threat) the planet will warm…
Intel interim CEO Bob Swan issued an uncharacteristically frank letter today, highlighting the company’s supply issues. The executive blames the surprising growth of an unexpectedly rebounding PC industry for the shortage. Swan says that rebound is driven by “strong demand for gaming as well as commercial systems.” It’s a bit of a perfect storm here.…
Online education is a $160 billion+ industry today, but as it continues to mature, there are some inevitable ebbs and flows. In the latest development, TechCrunch has learned and confirmed that Udacity — the $1 billion startup co-founded by Sebastian Thrun that specialises in “nanodegrees” in tech subects that range from AI and coding through…
US government investigators have lost a case to force Facebook to wiretap calls made over its Messenger app. A joint federal and state law enforcement effort investigating the MS-13 gang had pushed a district court to hold the social networking giant in contempt of court for refusing to permit real-time listening in on voice calls.…
To keep up with the growing sizes of early-stage funding rounds, Y Combinator announced this morning that it will increase the size of its investments to $150,000 for 7 percent equity starting with its winter 2019 batch. Based in Mountain View, Calif., YC funds and mentors hundreds of startups per year through its 12-week program that…
Even if you never log into Facebook itself these days, the other apps and services you use might be impacted by Facebook’s latest big, bad news. In a follow-up call on Friday’s revelation that Facebook has suffered a security breach affecting at least 50 million accounts, the company clarified that Instagram users were not out…
A Gizmodo report on Wednesday detailed the latest in a long series of Facebook privacy blunders. The report said, and Facebook confirmed, that users with two-factor authentication (2FA) enabled had inadvertently been giving their phone number up to advertisers who used it for targeting purposes. The irony, which I’m assuming isn’t lost on Facebook, is…
The same day Apple released its latest macOS Mojave operating system, a security researcher demonstrated a potential way to bypass new privacy implementations in macOS using just a few lines of code and access sensitive user data. On Monday, Apple started rolling out its new macOS Mojave 10.14 operating system update to its users, which…
Controlling and scaling massive Internet of Things (IoT) installations is difficult, especially in asset-rich organisations, such as industrial and manufacturing companies. More, with each connected thing being a data point that could tell both operators and business leaders how the organisation is running – and predict how it will run in the future – managing…
Picture it. The scene is Silicon Valley. Suddenly an investment firm materializes on the scene and starts writing checks bigger than anyone is accustomed to seeing. Fellow investors start to privately complain. Its partners are poseurs, they say. The firm is driving up valuations, they continue. It’s going to ruin venture capital, they conclude. It…
