Tado, the German smart home startup that specializes in thermostats and more recently moved into flexible “time of use” energy tariffs based on loadshifting technology, is today announcing the next step in its life as a business. It’s going public by way of a SPAC deal. GFJ ESG Acquisition, a German SPAC entity focused specifically […]
A Bluetooth bug in a popular at-home COVID-19 test could falsify results
A security researcher found a Bluetooth vulnerability in a popular at-home COVID-19 test allowing him to modify its results. F-Secure researcher Ken Gannon identified the since-fixed flaw in the Ellume COVID-19 Home Test, a self-administered antigen test that individuals can use to check to see if they have been infected with the virus. Rather than […]
Spotify is launching Apple-like ratings for podcasts
If you’ve ever listened to a podcast, you’ve probably heard a host ask you to leave a review on Apple Podcasts in their end credits. Now, that script might flip to “leave a review on Apple Podcasts and Spotify.” Spotify announced today that it’s implementing a five-star rating system, similar to Apple’s, in an attempt […]
Meta’s Horizon Worlds is available in the US and Canada for 18+ users
The company formerly known as Facebook is taking a step toward its goal to transport us to the metaverse. Now, Horizon Worlds — the Second Life or Minecraft of Meta’s VR apps — is expanding out of invite-only beta, opening up to all users over 18 years old in the U.S. and Canada. This is […]
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri will testify before the Senate on teen mental heath
Head of Instagram Adam Mosseri will testify before the Senate for the first time as part of a series of hearings about online safety for children and teens. Per The New York Times, Mosseri’s hearing will take place on December 6. Mosseri’s upcoming testimony comes after Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) wrote a letter to Facebook […]
NFT music rights startup Royal banks $55M investment led by a16z Crypto
Less than three months after announcing a $16 million seed round led by Founders Fund and Paradigm, NFT music rights startup Royal has raised another major bout of funding, banking a $55 million Series A from Andreessen Horowitz’s crypto investment arm. The startup partners with musicians and allows users to buy NFTs which represent collective […]
Get an early look at the iMerit ML DataOps Summit agenda
Get ready to engage with more than 1,000+ senior-level leaders — the people forging data solutions that fuel artificial intelligence and machine learning — at the iMerit ML DataOps Summit on December 2, 2021. This day-long deep dive into AI and ML will touch on tech industries across the spectrum, including autonomous mobility, healthcare AI, […]
Former head of Facebook app Fidji Simo defends company following whistleblower testimony
The former head of the Facebook app, who reported directly to CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Fidji Simo, defended the social network at the start of an interview at the WSJ Tech Live event this afternoon. The exec was there to discuss her new role as Instacart CEO and her vision for the future of food delivery, […]
Five Seasons Ventures pulls in €180M fund to tackle human health and climate via FoodTech
FoodTech is booming in Europe and is growing exponentially. In 2020, €3 billion went into European FoodTech companies (State of European Tech Report, March 2021), and the pandemic has accelerated demand as consumers have shifted to grocery delivery. The industry has also been affected by the rise of direct-to-consumer food brands. Finally, the pandemic created […]
OpenSea admits incident as top exec is accused of trading NFTs on insider information
The “eBay of NFTs” is running into a scandal as it admits one of its employees traded the crypto digital assets using insider information from the platform. Yesterday, a top executive at NFT platform OpenSea was accused of front-running sales on the platform, purchasing pieces from NFT collections before they were featured on the homepage […]