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Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Startup Genome study finds global VC funding fell 20% since the onset of COVID-19 in December 2019 — Global venture capital funding has dropped by 20% since the onset of the coronavirus crisis in December 2019, according to a new report by Startup Genome. — The drop was even more pronounced in China, where the pandemic began.
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Jailbreaking team Unc0ver has released a tool that will jailbreak most versions of iOS from 11 to the 13.5; the tool makes use of a 0-day flaw in the iOS kernel — The Unc0ver tool works on all versions of iOS from 11 to 13.5, the current release. — Over the years, Apple …
Danny Crichton / TechCrunch:
New York City-based Spruce, whose tech helps buyers, sellers, and lenders digitize paperwork for completing real estate transactions, raises $29M Series B — Real estate is one of those classic industries we always talk about in Silicon Valley: multi-trillion dollars in scale in terms …
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Run The World, which helps clients organize and host virtual conferences and events, raises $10.8M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz and Founders Fund — Some businesses have boomed, and others have gone bust due to the COVID-19 crisis — without question, live events is one sector that has been hit hardest.
A renowned iPhone hacking team has released a new “jailbreak” tool that unlocks every iPhone, even the most recent models running the latest iOS 13.5.
For as long as Apple has kept up its “walled garden” approach to iPhones by only allowing apps and customizations that it approves, hackers have tried to break free from what they call the “jail,” hence the name “jailbreak.” Hackers do this by finding a previously undisclosed vulnerability in iOS that break through some of the many restrictions that Apple puts in place to prevent access to the underlying software. Apple says it does this for security. But jailbreakers say breaking through those restrictions allows them to customize their iPhones more than they would otherwise, in a way that most Android users are already accustomed to.
The jailbreak, released by the unc0ver team, supports all iPhones that run iOS 11 and above, including up to iOS 13.5, which Apple released this week.
Details of the vulnerability that the hackers used to build the jailbreak aren’t known, but it’s not expected to last forever. Just as jailbreakers work to find a way in, Apple works fast to patch the flaws and close the jailbreak.
Security experts typically advise iPhone users against jailbreaking, because breaking out of the “walled garden” vastly increases the surface area for new vulnerabilities to exist and to be found.
The jailbreak comes at a time where the shine is wearing off of Apple’s typically strong security image. Last week, Zerodium, a broker for exploits, said it would no longer buy certain iPhone vulnerabilities because there were too many of them. Motherboard reported this week that hackers got their hands on a pre-release version of the upcoming iOS 14 release several months ago.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
JioMart rolls out its online grocery delivery service, including directly sourced farm produce, in dozens of cities in India, after a month of testing in Mumbai — The rationale behind the deluge of dollars flooding into billionaire Mukesh Ambani's Reliance Jio Platforms is beginning to become …
Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:
An internal build of Google Messages 6.2 shows end-to-end encryption could be coming soon to RCS messages — Today, the folks at APKMirror got ahold of an internal “dogfood” build of Google Messages version 6.2. Here, “dogfood” is used in the sense of the phrase “eat your own dog food,” …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Report: Amazon, Microsoft, and Google are among American tech companies providing web services to blacklisted Chinese surveillance firms like Dahua, Hikvision — - Amazon, Microsoft and Google are among a number of American firms that are providing various web services to blacklisted Chinese surveillance firms, a new report claims.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Trump is considering the establishment of a commission that would examine allegations of anticonservative bias and censorship on social media — Move is likely to draw pushback from tech companies; ACLU raises free-speech concerns — WASHINGTON—President Trump is considering establishing …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Researchers discuss ShinyHunters, a hacking group that is hawking what it claims is ~200M stolen records on the dark web since May 1 from at least 13 companies — In the first two weeks of May, they've hit the dark web, hawking 200 million stolen records from over a dozen companies.
On Wednesday, May 27, at 4:33 p.m. US Eastern Time, NASA astronauts Bob Behnken and Doug Hurley are scheduled to launch into orbit for a rendezvous with the International Space Station. This is standard stuff, except for three important facts: it will be the first time in almost nine years that American astronauts have flown to space from American soil; it will be the first time in history astronauts have reached low Earth orbit on a commercially built rocket and spacecraft; and it will the first time in its 18-year history that SpaceX has launched humans into space.
The mission, called Demo-2, is set to take off from Kennedy Space Center in Florida. Behnken and Hurley will fly to the ISS aboard the SpaceX Crew Dragon, launched using the company’s flagship Falcon 9 rocket. The mission could last anywhere between 30 and 119 days, depending on the status of Crew Dragon and whether NASA needs the pair to stay longer to help out with operations on the station. The agency won’t make that decision until they are already in orbit. Regardless, 119 days is the maximum because Crew Dragon’s solar arrays are currently not designed to withstand degradation for longer than 120 days.
The launch date for the follow-up Crew Dragon mission to the ISS, Crew-1, won’t be set until Demo-1 returns safely to Earth. That mission, which plans to take one Japanese and three American astronauts into space, will use a version of the capsule that’s designed to last 210 days in orbit.
NASA has not launched humans into space from American soil since the space shuttle flew for the last time on July 21, 2011. The plan has always been for NASA to turn over its low-Earth-orbit missions to the private sector—first for cargo resupply missions to the ISS and then for astronaut flights themselves through the Commercial Crew Program (CCP). NASA gave massive contracts to Boeing and SpaceX to build the crew vehicles required—and hoped to have them up and running by 2017.
In the interim, NASA has paid Russia more than $4 billion to take its astronauts to the ISS aboard Soyuz missions. But the timeline slipped, forcing NASA to shell out additional money for Soyuz tickets and at one point raising the strange possibility the ISS would be unoccupied for the first time in two decades. The financial burden and the cratering of US-Russian relations through the last decade put more pressure on NASA to end its reliance on Soyuz. A successful Demo-2 mission gives NASA a preferable new option for its human spaceflight program.
SpaceX and Boeing have almost never been on schedule. Although SpaceX aced all its major tests, it experienced its most significant setback in April 2019, when a launchpad fire destroyed one of its Crew Dragon capsules just a month after the vehicle finished a successful uncrewed test flight. That explosion eventually pushed Demo-2 into 2020. The December test flight for Starliner, meanwhile, never even made it to the ISS because of one of many software glitches. Boeing will redo this mission later in the fall.
Wednesday’s mission, nevertheless, is a big leap forward for both SpaceX and the commercial space industry. SpaceX CEO Elon Musk wants to send humans to Mars one day through its Starship vehicle and establish a sustainable interplanetary transportation system. Crew Dragon is the first step toward making SpaceX a human spaceflight company, and the vehicle itself is expected to run private astronaut and tourist missions in the coming years. If successful, Crew Dragon’s and Starliner’s inaugural crewed missions will demonstrate that private spaceflight is technically viable, although the companies will still have to make the business case.
The Commercial Crew Program wasn’t simply a selfless act by NASA to open up opportunities to private industry; it was also a way to save money. In the space shuttle’s heyday, each mission cost nearly $1.8 billion (in 2020 dollars). Now NASA is paying SpaceX $55 million per astronaut for every Crew Dragon mission. A recent analysis by the Planetary Society estimates that NASA has invested just $6.6 billion to bring Crew Dragon and Starliner to the launchpad—much cheaper than what the agency likely would have spent developing its own vehicle for low-Earth-orbit transportation. Instead, NASA has focused its own resources on developing deep-space architecture for a return to the moon and eventual travel to Mars (that program is also far behind schedule).
There’s been a fair share of criticism directed at NASA’s and SpaceX’s decision to continue with Demo-2during the covid-19 pandemic. One of the most prominent voices was former NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver, who told The Atlantic in April: “I’m not sure risking so many lives to launch two people to the same place we’ve been going for 20 years should be prioritized.”
With many of NASA’s projects slowed or outright halted by the pandemic, CCP has been one of the few programs continuing as regular business. Though the agency has minimized Behnken’s and Hurley’s contact with the outside world, the hundreds of NASA and SpaceX personnel required to launch the mission must still risk coronavirus exposure. NASA and SpaceX both say they are taking precautions to increase social distancing between people on site and having employees work in shifts to minimize contact. Spectators are being asked to stay home and watch the launch remotely. “No virus is stronger than the human desire to explore,” NASA administrator Jim Bridenstine tweeted in April. And Musk has publicly stated his opposition to lockdown measures, even reopening a Tesla factory in Fremont, California, in defiance of stay-at-home orders. If Demo-2 is delayed, it won’t be because of coronavirus.
Seth Colaner / VentureBeat:
An overview of how governments around the world are using smartphone data, apps, drones, facial recognition, and AI to track COVID-19 and surveil citizens — Now that the world is in the thick of the coronavirus pandemic, governments are quickly deploying their own cocktails of tracking methods.
No birthday goes uncelebrated on the internet. Before you blow the candles and cut that cake, check these websites and guides for a happy birthday.
In a world where everything is going digital, why not birthday celebrations too? From virtual birthday parties on video calls to apps that pump up the special day, the internet has it all. You can get a free Happy Birthday song, create a fake newspaper with your details, or check out intergalactic happenings on your birthday.
The first thought that pops into one’s head about an online birthday celebration is to do a birthday party on a video call. How do you do that though? And is it any fun? Well, a few people tried it, and they’re sharing tips and tricks to have an entertaining remote birthday party video call.
All three posts are worth reading and offer a range of advice, hacks, and tips. They have a few common words of wisdom for virtual birthday parties.
First and foremost, allow for some advance planning for participants. Ensure most people know each other. Have a common activity, like a drink or food you can all eat at the same time, or a fun dress code like party hats. And whoever hosts the party should have a few topics they can involve all people in, or ask them to prepare in advance.
Naturally, a virtual birthday celebration isn’t going to be as fun as a real one. But if circumstances dictate such limitations, then you can still have a merry old birthday. All you need then is Zoom or any of the great Zoom alternative video chat apps.
1HappyBirthday.com has a customized birthday song maker. Search for your name on the website, and if it’s listed, download the free song wishing you a happy birthday. It’s not the usual Happy Birthday song, but a different peppy and lively number.
The collection of names is surprisingly large, including odd ones that you might not easily find. In our search, we found most of the MakeUseOf staff’s names.
Apart from the song, every bit of audio you want related to birthdays, you’ll find on this site. In Movie Birthday Wishes, you’ll find famous quotes from movies as audio clips that you can play or download. It collects pop-rock birthday songs, Spanish and Mexican birthday songs, and lyrics for all of them.
1Happy Birthday also hosts a bunch of mini birthday games. Enter any birth date to find exactly how many days, weeks, months, or years old that person is. Get random information and trivia about things that happened on your birthday. Or play the “Younger or Older” game if you like pop culture.
Would you like to know which song was topping the charts on the day you were born, or every birthday after that? My Birthday Hits has the answer. And it will quickly create a playlist of all these songs on Spotify.
Key in your birth date and the website generates a grid of the #1 song in the USA on that date each yet. Click any song to open it with an embedded YouTube video, and a bit more information about how long it stayed at the top. My Birthday Hits also throws in the top movie and the top book of that year, if you’re interested.
At the bottom of the results page where you input your birthday, you’ll find playlist options. You can copy-paste a text file of all songs, and search and add them to a playlist in your favorite music streaming app. Or grab the Spotify track list and add it to a playlist. It’s a little time-consuming, but the end result is fun.
My Birthday Hits has a catalog of hit songs going back to the 1940s. So if you’re less than 80 years old, you’ll get a list of every hit on your birthday (or any special date).
We’re just a tiny speck in our galaxy, let alone the whole universe. But while we’re exploring the Earth, the Hubble Telescope is exploring the Milky Way, constantly photographing events for over 30 years. What if something cool happened on your birthday?
This official NASA mini-site lets you find the universe’s highlight on your birthday. You can only filter by month and day, not by year, which is a bit of a bummer. But you’ll quickly forget about that limitation as the site brings up a galactic event with a colorized photo.
The image comes with a short description educating you about its significance. You can also visit the Hubble site link to learn more about it, as well as related trivia. On a day when many consider their own mortality and meaning, it’s marvelous to get this big picture perspective.
Newspaper pages are a cool way to commemorate birthdays. The Birthday Times lets you create a fake newspaper page from the day you were born, but goes a long way in trying to look authentic. It’s filled with little things to bring that era alive while customizing it to you. Add your name and birth date, with the year, to begin.
The Birthday Times has 10 elements, starting with a big headline announcing your arrival. Then the US President of that time visits you, followed by a wrap-up of news events of that year.
Other elements of that year include a sports event, the Academy Awards, musical hits, and even an ad of that era. Surprisingly, more than all the words, the ad provides a unique and cool feel for the era that’s hard to replicate.
You can purchase a PDF copy of this newspaper front page for $3.99, or have it printed and sent to you for $5.99. You can’t change the text, but if you want to customize the newspaper, you could try making your own through free templates like Make My Newspaper.
Online birthday celebrations are great, but the gifts get a little difficult. Sure, if you ordered them well in advance to ship in time, that works.
But if it’s last-minute or unavailable, you can send a cash gift online in a creative way. It’s a nice compromise that still looks and feels like a gift, not the digital equivalent of cash stuffed in an envelope.
Read the full article: 5 Unique Ways to Celebrate Birthdays Online
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Moves by Joe Rogan and others don't mean YouTube will get cut out of the podcast game, because creator success still relies upon discoverability on the platform — What does podcasting on YouTube look like without Rogan? — Joe Rogan is largely moving on from YouTube …
Annie Musgrove / Tech.eu:
London-based Blink, an app that helps companies and orgs connect with their frontline workers, raises £8.2M Series A led by Partech as it launches publicly — Blink, a London-based app that connects frontline employees, has announced £8.2 million in funding from Partech Partners and a group of angel investors.
Tony Wan / EdSurge:
PresenceLearning, which helps school districts provide speech and mental health therapy to students online, raises $27M Series D, bringing total raised to $70M+ — Speech and other special-education professionals were already in short supply even when classes were in session.
Kai-Fu Lee / Wired:
AI has played a useful but fragmented role in the global fight against COVID-19, from predicting outbreaks to aiding diagnosis and drug discovery efforts — Disease diagnosis, drug discovery, robot delivery—artificial intelligence is already powering change in the pandemic's wake.
Jael Goldfine / PAPER:
Facebook has had a recent influx of millennial and Gen Z users, some of whom say certain Facebook groups offer unemployment support, job search help, and more — Facebook is for old people. Everybody knows that! Usage plummeted in 2019, most sharply among Gen-Z and millennials.
