October 10, 2019
Daily Crunch: Apple pulls Hong Kong app
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Less than a day after Apple was criticized by Chinese state media for allowing HKmap in the App Store, the crowdsourced map app said it had been delisted.
This is Apple’s second reversal on the issue, which it explained with a statement claiming it learned that the app “has been used in ways that endanger law enforcement and residents in Hong Kong.”
2. Grammarly raises $90M at over $1B+ valuation for its AI-based grammar and writing tools
Grammarly provides a toolkit used today by 20 million people to correct their written grammar, suggest better ways to write things and moderate their tone depending on who will be doing the reading.
3. Okta wants to make every user a security ally
Okta is giving end users information about suspicious activity involving their login, while letting them share information with the company’s security apparatus.
4. Waymo to customers: ‘Completely driverless Waymo cars are on the way’
Waymo’s existing programs all use a human safety driver behind the wheel. Now the Alphabet-owned company is getting ready for completely driverless rides.
5. Calm and Room made a $4,000 branded ‘meditation booth’
From the looks of it, the Calm Booth by Room is little more than a standard Room booth, with frosted glass, softer lighting and “a soothing misty forest interior.” But it’s a pretty smart partnership between two white-hot startups.
6. Creators of modern rechargeable batteries share Nobel prize
The prize this year honors M. Stanley Whittingham, John Goodenough and Akira Yoshino, all of whom contributed to the development of what is today the most common form of portable power.
7. Silicon Valley’s competing philosophies on tech ethics with The New Yorker’s Andrew Marantz
Marantz has in recent years trained his attention on the tech world and its contribution to social unrest in the United States and beyond. And he has just published a new book, “Antisocial: Online Extremists, Techno-Utopians, and the Hijacking of the American Conversation.” (Extra Crunch membership required.)
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