Sarah Kessler / OneZero :
Companies are increasingly using employee survey data, from services like Perceptyx that offer a “union vulnerability index”, to predict and squash organizing — Employee survey platforms allow employers to sort groups of employees by the departments, locations, and demographics most likely to unionize
Friday, July 31, 2020
Kevin Collier / NBC News:
A look at Election Cyber Surge, which aims to bolster US election cybersecurity by matching local election officials with cybersecurity experts who want to help — As election officials across the country prepare for November without knowing if they'll receive additional federal funds …
Mike Schulman / The Keyword:
Google updates its “Why this ad” feature, now “About this ad”, to show verified names of advertisers and is testing “trust tokens” to replace 3rd-party cookies — Vice President, Ads Privacy and Safety — Privacy is core to our work at Google …
Cade Metz / New York Times:
William English, who alongside Douglas Engelbart built the first computer with a mouse and showed it at “The Mother of All Demos”, dies at 91 — He was one of the computing pioneers who “showed what a computer interface could — and should — look like,” a colleague said.
CNBC:
President Trump says he will act as soon as Saturday to ban TikTok from the United States — - President Donald Trump on Friday told reporters he will act as soon as Saturday to ban Chinese-owned video app TikTok from the United States. — President Donald Trump on Friday told reporters …
Kislay Verma:
When companies have too many smaller teams, slicing problems too thinly, they face high coordination costs as teams become too dependent on each other — “The two pizza team” paradigm has become really popular in the context of organizing software teams. The idea is to have small …
Christine Hall / Crunchbase News:
Lemonaid Health, which offers an on-demand service for accessing health care online, raises $33M Series B, bringing its total raised to $55M — Interest in telemedicine continues to increase, and Lemonaid Health raised an oversubscribed $33 million Series B round of funding to develop …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple has acquired Mobeewave, a startup with tech that could transform iPhones into payment terminals; one source says deal is worth ~$100M — - Apple acquires Canada's Mobeewave for about $100 million — Apple Inc. has acquired Mobeewave Inc., a startup with technology …
Daniel Grant / Wall Street Journal:
COVID-19 has pushed museums to improve their online offerings, including virtual tours, as they explore potential business models based on digital content — When Covid-19 forced museums to shut their buildings spring, many created new virtual offerings for visitors. That digital content is likely here to stay.
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Netflix is rolling out playback speed controls of up to 0.5x slower or 1.5x faster on Android devices and is set to begin testing the option for iOS — Stream up to 0.5 times slower or 1.5 times faster — Netflix is letting people choose the speed at which they want to watch something …
Bloomberg:
Sources: President Donald Trump plans to sign an order to direct China's ByteDance to divest its ownership of TikTok — President Donald Trump plans to sign an order to direct China's ByteDance Ltd.'s to divest its ownership of the popular U.S.-based music-video app TikTok …
Sean Keane / CNET:
Canalys, Counterpoint, and IDC agree that Huawei became the biggest smartphone vendor in Q2, surpassing Samsung, and pushing Apple to the third place — Samsung and Apple held the top spot for years, but Canalys Counterpoint and IDC say the coronavirus pandemic gave the Chinese company the edge.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook confirms it will begin rolling out official music videos across its platform in the US, and introduce a new Music destination within Facebook Watch — Facebook today confirmed it will begin rolling out official music videos across its platform in the U.S., as TechCrunch first reported …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Porch, which connects homebuyers to movers, insurance providers, TV/internet companies, and others, to go public at a $523M valuation via merger with a SPAC — Porch, a real estate technology venture and home improvement marketplace that has spent four years quietly renovating its own business …
Financial Times:
Sources: Nvidia in talks to buy Arm in a cash-and-stock deal that would value it at more than the $32B SoftBank paid to buy the UK chip designer in 2016 — US chipmaker seeks cash-and-stock purchase of UK chip designer from its Japanese owner — US chip company Nvidia is in talks to buy …
Politico:
North Face and Heineken are among the companies who say they will resume Facebook ads from August, Levi Strauss and Smucker Co. will continue the boycott — More than 1,000 organizations stopped ads for the month of July, without getting many concessions. Can they keep it going and build global pressure?
Steven Musil / CNET:
Twitter permanently bans the account of white supremacist David Duke — Duke's Twitter account was “permanently suspended” for violating the company's policy against hateful conduct, a spokesperson for the social network says. — White supremacist David Duke has been permanently banned …
Amy Lewin / Sifted:
Netherlands-based “Slack for doctors” app raises $10.5M Series A led by Heal Capital, with Philips Health Technology Venture Fund and EQT Ventures participating — The collaboration tool for medics wants to ensure you never have to explain why you're in hospital 20 times over ever again.
Caitlin Dewey / OneZero :
A look at the “hustle economy”, where unemployed teachers, cooks, and dancers are turning to Patreon, Twitch, and OnlyFans to monetize their digital offerings — Unemployed teachers, cooks, dancers are turning to Patreon, Twitch, and OnlyFans — e have nothing to sell besides physical touch.
Bloomberg:
The French startup scene also suffers from a lack of diversity, but it cannot be measured because it is mostly illegal in France to track people's ethnicity — - Bloomberg polled top venture capital firms on diversity policy — 'Absence of ethnic diversity doesn't seem to bother investors'
South China Morning Post:
Chinese importers are ramping up chip imports through Hong Kong before US sanctions shut the route; chip imports to China through Hong King are up 11% YoY — Re-exports of semiconductors through Hong Kong to the mainland jumped by 11 per cent in the first half of the year from the same period …
Thursday, July 30, 2020
Bloomberg:
Sources: Facebook has completed deals with the three largest music companies, Universal, Sony, and Warner, for the right to show music videos — - Social giant also could bankroll some video production — Music videos have surged on YouTube during the pandemic
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Emails from Jeff Bezos and other Amazon employees suggest the acquisition of Ring was for “market position - not technology” — ‘And that market position and momentum is very valuable’ — On Wednesday, the House Judiciary Committee held its last hearing as part …