Maria Deutscher
Latest from Maria Deutscher
A year after release, Microsoft reverts Skype’s controversial redesign
With 300 million monthly users, Skype is one of Microsoft Corp.’s biggest assets in the consumer software market. The company is now taking the service back to its roots in a bid to address recent usability concerns. The update, announced Friday, undoes the main changes that Microsoft made to Skype as part of a controversial ...
Report says Alibaba halted U.S. cloud expansion, company denies change
Updated with Alibaba statement: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.’s cloud business may be experiencing strong overall growth, but the company has apparently struggled to make inroads into the ever-important U.S. market. That’s according to a new report in The Information today that claimed the Chinese e-commerce giant is putting the brakes on its stateside infrastructure expansion plans. However, Alibaba issued ...
Qualcomm debuts new software to improve sound on mobile devices
Most of the core activities for which consumers use their handsets, from making calls to watching videos, involve audio. And a growing portion of that audio is being transmitted wirelessly to devices such as cordless headsets as more handset makers forgo the traditional headphone jack. Today, Qualcomm Inc. introduced software called aptX Adaptive that it ...
Google teams up with Harvard to predict earthquake aftershocks with AI
Earthquakes play out in phases. The first major tremor, or mainquake, unleashes the brunt of the tectonic forces below and is then followed by a series of aftershocks that are smaller yet can still seriously endanger buildings damaged by the initial movement. Google LLC and Harvard University hope to mitigate the threat posed by these aftershocks ...
Mozilla plans new privacy controls for Firefox to block web trackers
The Mozilla Foundation today detailed plans to add a set of privacy controls to Firefox that will prevent websites and advertisers from tracking users’ online activity. Nick Nguyen, the browser maker’s vice president of product, wrote in a blog post that the features will roll out over the coming months. The first capability is set ...
Apple acquires AR hardware startup Akonia Holographics
Apple Inc. has quietly acquired a hardware startup called Akonia Holographics LLC that focused on developing components for augmented reality headsets. The iPhone maker confirmed the deal after it came to light late Wednesday with the customary statement it provides to verify acquisitions. “Apple buys smaller companies from time to time, and we generally don’t discuss our purpose or plans,” ...
SPECIAL REPORT: THE FUTURE OF THE DATA CENTER
Blockchain-powered ‘Internet Computer’ startup Dfinity raises $102M
A group of leading venture capital firms believes that Dfinity can make blockchain technology viable for large-scale computing applications. The Swiss startup today announced that it has raised a hefty $102 million financing round jointly led by Andreessen Horowitz and Polychain Capital, a prominent crytocurrency fund. They were joined by a half-dozen other institutional investors. ...
Google overhauls Wear OS to up the ante against Apple
Hot on the heels of a report that Apple Inc. could launch a new iteration of the Apple Watch next month, Google LLC is upgrading its own wearable technology. The company today unveiled an overhauled version of its Wear OS platform that will bring significant changes to the user experience. The new release introduces deep ...
SPECIAL REPORT: THE FUTURE OF THE DATA CENTER
VMware targets edge computing with Project Dimension and new IoT features
VMware Inc. unveiled at its annual VMworld conference today an upcoming appliance and new software features geared toward edge computing use cases. Edge computing is an approach that lets companies process data where it’s created, at the metaphorical boundary of the corporate network, instead of sending it to a centralized backend location. The term has risen to ...
Lacework raises $24M in funding to improve cloud security
The past year has seen multiple high-profile incidents where companies left sensitive data in insecure cloud deployments. Lacework Inc. wants to make it easier to keep information hosted off-premises safe. The security startup announced today that it has raised a $24 million Series B funding round led by Sutter Hill Ventures to support the effort. Lacework provides a software-as-a-service platform that can sift through ...