Mike Wheatley
Latest from Mike Wheatley
Angry Birds’ creator wields the axe, lays off 110 of its staff
Angry Birds creator Rovio Entertainment Ltd. has just laid off almost 15 percent of its staff – some 110 workers – but has put a positive spin on the situation as it had originally planned to dump more than this number. In a statement, Rovio said its “ workforce will be reduced by approximately 110 ...
Serious security flaw found in popular social login schemes
Security researchers from IBM’s X Force have found a glaring flaw in the way some social login features are configured that could allow attackers to gain easy access to people’s web accounts. Social login is a way to sign in to websites without creating account. Instead, netizens can use login details from a social network ...
Uber claims fresh funding puts its value at a staggering $41 billion
Whatever misgivings people have about Uber Inc., they’re certainly not shared by venture capitalists, who’ve just ploughed another $1.2 billion into the popular car-sharing app. Uber says it generated the cash in a private equity fundraising round, which apparently put the firm’s valuation at a staggering $41 billion. If true, Uber is now right up ...
SoftBank plunks down $250M to fund Uber rival in Asia
Japanese telecom giant SoftBank might become a target for Uber Inc’s aggresive executives after it invested $250 million into the citizen taxi service’s biggest rival in Southeast Asia – a startup called GrabTaxi. The GrabTaxi app has seen massive growth in Southeast Asia, and is now Uber’s biggest rival in the region. With SoftBank’s backing, the ...
20M businesses face Windows Server 2003 end of support risk
About 20 million businesses will face a major security risk in the next 221 days that could leave their IT systems wide open to vulnerabilities and threats from cyberattackers. That’s the assessment of Dell Inc. anyway, which this week took the opportunity to warn businesses that Microsoft will be ending support for its Windows Server ...
Google’s just killed CAPTCHAs with fluffy kittens and mouse clicks
Google has developed a new recognition system to let humans and not automated ‘bots’ access websites with a single click, replacing the hated “captchas” that have plagued the web for over a decade. Somewhat fittingly called the “No CAPTCHA reCAPTCHA”, the system alows humans to effortlessly click a single tick box to prove they are ...
Blab raises $8.8M to help brands know where and when to advertise
Predicting the future has been extremely profitable for social intelligence startup Blab Inc, which has just raised $8.8 million of its targeted $11.6 million series B funding round, pushing its total funding over $15 million. Blab doesn’t possess any magic crystal balls, but what it does have is a smart predictive algorithm that helps advertising ...
Senator Franken doesn’t want a Lyft, he wants answers
Uber’s troubles have been well documented over the previous few weeks, but though the negative press doesn’t seem to have deterred its investors, it’s biggest rival Lyft has seized on the opportunity to steal some of its business. Lyft has gone out of its way to reassure consumers it doesn’t share Uber’s carefree attitude towards ...
AWS offers big ‘reserved instance’ discounts, but Google’s still cheaper
Amazon Web Services Inc. raised a few eyebrows at its re:Invent conference last month when it didn’t announce any more price cuts. Now we know why that is – Rather than just slash prices blindly once again, it’s being a bit smarter with its discounts by offering two new billing tiers for its Reserved Instances ...
Uber’s PR problems pile up with latest privacy breach
Uber Inc. has been bedeviled by privacy concerns following revelations about its “God View” tool that grants employees access to users’ personal data. Although Uber tried to persuade its customers it can be trusted by publishing its privacy policy on its blog last month, there seems to be just no end to the negative press. ...