⌚️ Google has completed its $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit, the company announced Thursday.

The news follows the EU’s announcement late last year that it had approved the deal, after Google made a series of commitments about its planned operation of Fitbit and use of the its health data.

These pledges include not using Fitbit users’ health and wellness data for Google’s ad tracking.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/14/22188428/google-fitbit-acquisition-completed-approved

❤️ Bumble publicly filed for an IPO on Friday.

Whitney Wolfe Herd, a co-founder of Tinder, launched the dating-app company in 2014. The app is unique by requiring women to initiate conversations with men within 24 hours of a match. 

Bumble has 42 million monthly average users and 2.4 million paying users, per the filing.

https://www.businessinsider.com/bumble-files-to-go-public-ipo-2021-1

📱 WhatsApp said on Friday that it would delay a planned privacy update, as the Facebook-owned messaging service tries to stem a backlash by users worried about the changes.

WhatsApp said it would push back the changes, to May 15 from Feb. 8, to give users more time to review what it planned to do.

Many users and some media outlets interpreted the notification as a marked shift in WhatsApp’s data-sharing practices, mistakenly believing that the company could now read people’s conversations and other personal data.

People flocked to other messaging services, including apps like Signal — which offers so-called end-to-end encryption like WhatsApp — and Telegram, which offers some encryption options.

https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/15/technology/whatsapp-privacy-changes-delayed.html

🦆 DuckDuckGo, a search engine focused on privacy, increased its average number of daily searches by 62% in 2020 as users seek alternatives to impede data tracking.

DuckDuckGo does not track user searches or share personal data with third-party companies.

Because DuckDuckGo doesn’t track users, it’s not clear exactly how many people use it. However, the search engine's CEO, Gabriel Weinberg, estimates that nearly 25 million users use the platform. 

The news comes as more users flock to privacy-focused apps as companies, including Whatsapp, are changing their privacy policies. Signal and Telegram are seeing a rise in users amid these changes.

https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/2021/01/18/search-engine-duckduckgo-increases-traffic-google-competitor/4202556001/

🚙 Microsoft is joining forces with Cruise, the self-driving subsidiary of General Motors, to help speed up the commercialization of autonomous vehicles.

The software giant is also chipping in on a new equity investment of $2 billion for Cruise, along with previous investors Honda and GM, bringing the AV company’s valuation up to a whopping $30 billion.

Last year, Cruise unveiled the Cruise Origin, a fully driverless prototype vehicle without a steering wheel, pedals, or any controls typically associated with human driving.

Cruise recently began testing its fully driverless vehicles in San Francisco for the first time.

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/19/22238407/microsoft-cruise-self-driving-investment-azure-cloud

🍏 Apple is reportedly working on developing a high-end virtual reality headset for a potential sales debut in 2022.

The headset would include its own built-in processors and power supply, and could feature a chip even more powerful than the M1 Apple Silicon processor that the company currently ships on its MacBook Air and 13-inch MacBook Pro.

The headset will reportedly focus mostly on VR, but will also include some augmented reality features, in a limited capacity, for overlaying visuals on real-world views fed in by external cameras.

https://techcrunch.com/2021/01/21/apple-said-to-be-working-a-high-priced-standalone-vr-headset-as-debut-mixed-reality-product/

📰 Google threatened to disable its search engine in Australia if it’s forced to pay local publishers for news.

Google opposes a proposed law intended to pay media companies for displaying snippets of articles in search results.

Facebook Inc., the only other company targeted by the legislation, also opposes the law. The social media platform reiterated at Friday’s hearing it’s considering blocking Australians from sharing news on Facebook if the law is pushed through.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-01-22/google-threatens-to-remove-search-in-australia-as-spat-escalates

🍪 A new Google machine learning initiative aims to replace the rancid cookies with a privacy-first alternative. The search giant calls the system Federated Learning of Cohorts (FLoC).

FLoC (pronounced “flock”) allows businesses to send ads to groups of potential customers rather than specific individuals.

The system uses machine learning algorithms to create clusters of people with similar browsing habits. All the data analyzed by the algorithms — including your web history — is kept private on the browser and not uploaded anywhere else.

Google now plans to make FLoC available for public trials through a March update to Chrome. The company will also test the cohorts with advertisers in the second quarter of this year.

The tech remains under development, but the tests suggest it could provide more privacy than those unpalatable cookies.

https://thenextweb.com/neural/2021/01/26/google-unveils-privacy-friendly-ai-cookie-killer/

🔋 Google announced on Wednesday a new feature for electric vehicle owners that uses artificial intelligence to sort through thousands of public charging stations while finding the best route.

Google is using a newly developed routing algorithm that uses a type of math called “graph theory” to present charging stop recommendations to EV owners based on their location, the amount of range left in their vehicle, and the type of plug their vehicles use.

Google writes:
“Now when you enter a destination that requires two or more recharge stops, algorithms in Maps will search and filter through tens to thousands of public charging stations to find the most efficient route — all in less than 10 seconds. You can see how long each charge will take and your updated total trip time, so your final ETA will never again be a mystery.”

https://www.theverge.com/2021/1/27/22252261/google-maps-electric-vehicle-charging-station-ai

💵 Apple delivered its largest quarter by revenue of all time on Wednesday at $111.4 billion in its first-quarter earnings report for fiscal 2021. It’s the first time Apple crossed the symbolic $100 billion mark in a single quarter, and sales were up 21% year over year.  

Apple released new iPhone models in October. The four iPhone 12 models are the first to include 5G, which investors believed could drive a “supercycle” of users clamoring to upgrade. iPhone revenue was up 17% from the same period last year. 

Cook said that Apple’s total install base for iPhones is over 1 billion, up from the previous data point of 900 million.

Apple’s results for the quarter ending in December weren’t just driven by 5G iPhone sales. Sales for every product category rose by double-digit percentage points.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/01/27/apple-aapl-earnings-q1-2021.html

☁️ Amazon’s cloud-computing business reported 28% revenue growth in the fourth quarter.

Revenue at AWS climbed to $12.7 billion from $9.95 billion a year earlier. AWS revenue represented 10% of Amazon’s total sales.

Amazon said Andy Jassy, who runs the cloud division, will succeed Jeff Bezos as CEO of Amazon in the third quarter of this year.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/02/aws-earnings-q4-2020.html

☁️ Google’s cloud business reported operating loss of $5.61 billion in 2020. It brought in $13.06 billion in revenue for the year.

The unit’s losses appear to be growing as the company invests heavily in sales staff.

The company said the cloud unit lost $4.65 billion on $8.92 billion in revenue in 2019, and lost $4.35 billion on $5.84 billion in revenue in 2018.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/02/google-cloud-lost-5point61-billion-on-13point06-billion-revenue-last-year.html

📰 Microsoft Corp said it fully supported proposed new laws in Australia that would force internet giants Google and Facebook Inc to pay domestic media outlets for their content.

Both Alphabet Inc’s Google and Facebook have called the laws unworkable and said last month they would withdraw some key services from Australia if the regulations went ahead.

Google’s search engine has 94% of the country’s search market, according to industry data.

Microsoft in its statement said it will offer small firms a chance to transfer advertising business to Bing with no costs and that it would invest further in the product to ensure it is competitive.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-australia-media-microsoft-idUSKBN2A307W

🚙 Apple is close to finalizing a deal with Hyundai-Kia to manufacture an Apple-branded autonomous electric vehicle at the Kia assembly plant in West Point, Georgia.

The so-called “Apple Car,” which is being developed by a team at Apple, is tentatively scheduled to go into production in 2024.

“The first Apple Cars will not be designed to have a driver,” said one source with knowledge of the current plan. “These will be autonomous, electric vehicles designed to operate without a driver and focused on the last mile.”  That could mean Apple cars, at least initially, could focus on package food delivery operations and firms incorporating robotaxis.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/03/apple-and-hyundai-kia-driving-towards-deal-on-apple-car.html

🛰 SpaceX disclosed in a public filing on Thursday that its Starlink satellite internet service now has “over 10,000 users in the United States and abroad.”

Elon Musk’s company began a public beta program of Starlink in October, with service priced at $99 a month, in addition to a $499 upfront cost to order the Starlink Kit, which includes a user terminal and Wi-Fi router to connect to the satellites.

Starlink is SpaceX’s ambitious project to build an interconnected internet network with thousands of satellites, known in the space industry as a constellation.

The company has launched more than 1,000 Starlink satellites to date, including a launch of another 60 satellites early Thursday morning. SpaceX’s next Starlink launch is scheduled for Friday morning.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/04/spacex-starlink-satellite-internet-service-has-over-10000-users.html

🚙 Hyundai Motor Co. and its affiliate Kia Motors Corp. said that they aren’t in talks with Apple Inc. to develop an autonomous vehicle, responding to intense speculation about the potential new product by the iPhone maker and backing up reports that discussions paused weeks ago.

Apple paused discussions with Hyundai and Kia weeks ago about building an electric vehicle, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg late last week.

Apple has discussed similar plans with other auto manufacturers.

Shares of Hyundai fell as much as 8.4% in Seoul, while Kia slumped 15.3%.

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-02-08/hyundai-kia-say-they-aren-t-in-ev-discussions-with-apple?srnd=technology-vp

📈 The price of bitcoin reached as high as $48,000 on Tuesday, building on gains following news that electric-car maker Tesla has invested $1.5 billion in the cryptocurrency and may accept it as future payment for products.

For the bitcoin faithful, it was a monumental move by a big company to invest in the digital currency and allow payments. But on the other side, some analysts questioned Tesla’s move, given the volatility of the cryptocurrency, as well as share prices of the electric-car maker.

Bitcoin’s year-to-date gain is up more than 60% in 2021.

https://www.marketwatch.com/story/bitcoin-blows-past-45-000-to-fresh-highs-above-47-000-driven-by-teslas-investment-11612861528

🚙 Electric-vehicle startup Rivian, which is backed by Amazon Inc and Ford Motor Co, is looking to go public as soon as September at a valuation of about $50 billion or more.

The company’s deliveries of pickups would start in June, while those of SUVs would begin in August. Launch editions of the vehicles are priced at $75,000 and $77,500, respectively, with a 300-mile (480 km) driving range for both.

In 2019, Amazon ordered 100,000 electric vans from Rivian. The first Amazon vehicles go into production at Rivian’s factory in Normal, Illinois in late 2021, with all deliveries to be completed by 2024.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-rivian-ipo-idUSKBN2AA07S

🎧 Facebook has a team working on a new project that aims to replicate the core functionality of the buzzy new social media app Clubhouse.

The Facebook project is intended to create audio-based chat rooms for users, but it's still in the early stages.

Clubhouse quickly leapt from obscurity to notoriety in recent weeks, as big names like Elon Musk and even Mark Zuckerberg himself joined the service and participated in live chats.

Clubhouse's key functionality is voice-based communication: Users join group voice-chat rooms. Though Twitter has a similar function named Spaces, it hasn't caught on like Clubhouse has.

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-reportedly-working-on-clubhouse-competitor-2021-2

💛 Shares of Bumble, which operates a dating app under the same name, closed up 63.5% in their initial public offering Thursday on the Nasdaq.

The company closed trading with a market cap of about $7.7 billion.

On Bumble, founded in 2014 by CEO Whitney Wolfe Herd, women have to initiate the first conversation for heterosexual matches. At 31, Wolfe Herd is the youngest female founder to take a U.S. company public.

The company said it had 12.3 million monthly active users as of Sept.

The company’s main competitor is Match Group, which owns Hinge, Tinder and several other dating competitors, and has a market cap of $45.5 billion.

https://www.cnbc.com/2021/02/11/bumble-ipo-bmbl-starts-trading-on-nasdaq.html

⌚️ Facebook is pushing further into the hardware space by building a smartwatch that it plans to start selling to consumers sometime in 2022.

The company's foray into smartwatches will force it to take on companies like Apple, which leads the pack with around 55% of global smartwatch sales, Samsung, and Google, which acquired Fitbit.

Facebook has pushed further into hardware in recent years with its Oculus VR headsets and Portal video-streaming devices, hoping it can become less dependent on other dominant hardware makers, though it hasn't made much progress yet.

Still, Facebook hopes its smartwatch will make it less dependent on Apple and Google, whose operating systems power most of the world's mobile devices.

https://www.businessinsider.com/facebook-building-smartwatch-start-selling-2022-apple-health-data-privacy-2021-2