Tech Talk

Sparrow Exchange , a Bitcoin and Ethereum options trading platform based in Singapore, announced today it has raised $3.5 million in Series A funding. The round was led by HDR Group, the owner of cryptocurrency exchange BitMEX, with participation from Signum Capital, Du Capital and FinLab EOS VC. The funding will be used to develop Sparrow’s platform and launch new products and services. Earlier this month, for example, it introduced an iOS-optimized mobile interface , and has other releases coming soon. Since launching a year ago, Sparrow has seen over $150 million in options trading volume. In a press statement, FinLab EOS VC Fund managing director Stefan Schuetze said, “We are excited to invest in Sparrow, which is developing the next generation of financial products by leveraging EOSIO for their on-chain settlement layer.” Despite the pandemic, the company says its seen an increase in volume over the past few months, as Bitcoin trading reached record highs in several countrie

It’s more than four years since major tech platforms signed up to a voluntary pan-EU Code of Conduct on illegal hate speech removals. Yesterday the European Commission’s latest assessment of the non-legally binding agreement lauds “overall positive” results — with 90% of flagged content assessed within 24 hours and 71% of the content deemed to be illegal hate speech removed. The latter is up from just 28% in 2016. However the report cards finds platforms are still lacking in transparency. Nor are they providing users with adequate feedback on the issue of hate speech removals, in the Commission’s view . Platforms responded and gave feedback to 67.1% of the notifications received, per the report card — up from 65.4% in the previous monitoring exercise. Only Facebook informs users systematically — with the Commission noting: “All the other platforms have to make improvements.” In another criticism, its assessment of platforms’ performance in dealing with hate speech reports found i

Apple has elected to drop support for Force Touch in watchOS 7, indicating that the Apple Watch Series 6 will not include the firm-press gesture from the outset. Force Touch used in the Weather app on watchOS 6 Force Touch can be used in ‌watchOS 6‌ to reveal hidden menus on ‌Apple Watch‌, such as options to clear notifications and customize the current Watch Face. These options will no longer be accessed using the Force Touch gesture when watchOS 7 is released. Apple's new Human Interface Guidelines for developers making apps for watchOS 7 confirms the change: Firm press and long press. In versions of watchOS before watchOS 7, people could press firmly on the display to do things like change the watch face or reveal a hidden menu called a Force Touch menu. In watchOS 7 and later, system apps make previously hidden menu items accessible in a related screen or a settings screen. If you formerly supported a long-press gesture to open a hidden menu, consider relocating the me

The law firm is currently asking Pixel 3 owners to share the problems they experienced and investigating whether or not the defects are hardware related. What you need to know Google may be slapped with a class-action lawsuit by a law firm for the Pixel 3's battery drain and camera issues. The law firm is currently investing whether the defects reported by Pixel 3 owners are hardware related. Some Pixel 3 owners had been complaining about battery issues on Google's support pages since April last year. In February this year, Google started paying out cash settlements for the original Pixel's class action lawsuit . Just two days after sending out settlement checks to Pixel and Pixel XL owners with defective microphones, the company began paying settlement checks to Nexus 6P owners with bootloop issues. It now looks like Google may soon have to deal with another class-action lawsuit due to the battery drain and camera issues plaguing some of its Pixel 3 series phones

French startup Swile , the startup formerly known as Lunchr, raised a $78.7 million (€70 million) Series C round a few months ago. The startup wants to manage all your corporate benefits and improve team building in general. Index Ventures is leading the round, Bpifrance and Idinvest are also participating. Index Ventures already led the company’s Series B round. The company first launched a payment card for your lunch. In France, companies have to contribute to lunch when it’s in the middle of a workday. Some companies offer a cafeteria with cheap meals, others hand out meal vouchers. Until recently, those meal vouchers were made out of paper. The vast majority of restaurants accept those vouchers as a payment method. Legacy meal voucher companies started offering prepaid cards that are specifically designed to work in restaurants and stores that participate in the network. Swile took advantage of that shift to offer a card that works better than what legacy players offer. For

Apple has quietly started selling its 2-meter Thunderbolt 3 cable priced at $129, offering a braided design and active cable technology that supports full Thunderbolt 3 data transfer speeds of up to 40Gb/s. This marks the first time the cable has been available as a standalone purchase, as it is otherwise only available included with the Pro Display XDR. Featuring a black braided design that coils without tangling, this 2-meter cable supports Thunderbolt 3 data transfer up to 40Gb/s, USB 3.1 Gen 2 data transfer up to 10Gb/s, DisplayPort video output (HBR3), and charging up to 100W. Use this cable to connect a Mac with Thunderbolt 3 (USB-C) to Thunderbolt 3 devices such as Pro Display XDR, docks, and hard drives. Passive Thunderbolt 3 cables like Apple's standard version are limited to shorter lengths of less than a meter, as they are unable to maintain maximum speeds over longer lengths. Active electronics in the cable connectors are required for longer-length cables, which a

Apple plans to launch a 24-inch iMac with a new design in the fourth quarter of 2020, analyst Ming-Chi Kuo said today in a research note obtained by MacRumors. Earlier this week, Kuo claimed that this redesigned iMac will be one of Apple's first two Mac models with a custom Arm-based processor , with the other being a future 13-inch MacBook Pro. Following years of rumors, Apple today confirmed its plans to switch to its own processors for its Macs , promising "incredible" performance and features. Apple said that it plans to release its first Mac with custom silicon by the end of 2020, and it expects to transition its entire Mac lineup away from Intel processors within around two years. In the meantime, Kuo expects Apple to refresh its existing Intel-based iMac in the third quarter of 2020, which encompasses July through September. It is unclear if this model will feature a new design. Apple last redesigned the iMac in 2012. A last-minute rumor suggested that App