Maria Deutscher
Latest from Maria Deutscher
Aiming for simplicity, Twitter releases first major web redesign in 7 years
Twitter Inc. today started rolling out a refreshed version of its desktop website that brings an entirely new interface, simplified navigation controls and more customization options for users. The update marks the service’s first major redesign in seven years. It’s the fruit of a nearly two-year development effort that saw Twitter not only overhaul the interface but ...
Qualcomm targets premium devices with 5G-ready Snapdragon 855 Plus chip
The pace of semiconductor development has on the whole become slower with the decline of Moore’s law, but there are exceptions. Qualcomm Inc. today cut short its usual 12-month chip refresh cycle and debuted a new version of its flagship mobile processor aimed at the next generation of high-end handsets. The Snapdragon 855 Plus is, as ...
Broadcom, Symantec reportedly end acquisition talks after price disagreement
Shares of Symantec Corp. are down more than 13% today after word emerged that acquisition talks with Broadcom Inc. have broken down. Two weeks ago, the market learned by way of a leak that Broadcom was looking to acquire the cybersecurity provider for more than $15 billion. CNBC and Bloomberg reported this morning that the ...
Amperity reels in $50M to tame brands’ customer data
Amperity Inc., a data management startup that counts major brands such as Starbucks Inc. among its customers, today announced that it has closed a $50 million funding round. The Series C investment brings Amperity’s total raised to $87 million. It included contributions from Goldman Sachs, Madrona Venture Group, Tiger Global Management and a number of ...
Amazon said to be readying premium Echo speaker, Alexa-powered robot
Amazon.com Inc. is continuing its quest to make its Alexa voice assistant available in every device form factor and price point. The next addition to the company’s product line, Bloomberg reported today, could be a premium Echo smart speaker that will compete with Apple Inc.’s HomePod and Google Home Max. The latter two devices’ main ...
Self-driving car startup Argo AI lands $2.6B investment from VW
Argo AI LLC, one of the leading contenders in the race to develop fully autonomous vehicles, today revealed that it has received a $2.6 billion investment from Volkswagen AG. The deal comes two years after Ford Motor Co. bought a majority stake in the startup for $1 billion. Argo has since been essentially operating as a semi-independent ...
Oracle loses legal appeal against Pentagon’s $10B cloud computing contract
A federal court today dismissed an appeal from Oracle Corp. to revise JEDI, the Pentagon’s $10 billion cloud computing contract, dealing another blow to the company’s chances of securing a slice of the deal. Oracle filed suit in December after an earlier petition to the Government Accountability Office failed. The company argued that the JEDI ...
AWS launches EventBridge to put its cloud at the center of companies’ IT operations
Amazon Web Services Inc. today launched EventBridge, a service that will enable companies to connect their technology and business systems more easily to its cloud platform. Even enterprises that have gone all-in on AWS still use external cloud applications to support their operations. In many cases, it’s useful to have the data generated by those applications available ...
Backed by $100M in new funding, Luminar unleashes road-ready lidar sensor
Just over two years after exiting stealth mode, lidar startup Luminar Technologies Inc. is ready to shift its commercialization efforts into high gear. Luminar today launched a new lidar sensor for self-driving vehicles that’s three times smaller than the prototype it has been testing so far. The device, dubbed Iris, is about the size of ...
Amid automation efforts, Amazon pledges $700M to retrain 100,000 workers
Amazon.com Inc. today committed $700 million to help 100,000 employees, or about a third of its U.S. workforce, move into high-growth fields such as data science and software development. The Upskilling 2025 initiative is launching seven months after the company introduced a $15 minimum wage for its 350,000-plus stateside staffers. That move primarily benefited workers in Amazon’s ...