Mission Everywhere

Ryan Browne / CNBC : UK-based fintech startup Revolut launches commission-free US stock trading service, including the ability to buy fractions of shares   —  KEY POINTS  —  Revolut users will be able to buy a fraction of shares in U.S. companies through its trading platform.  —  British fintech firm Revolut … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2LUAixu

Ride-sharing and transportation platform Didi Chuxing announced today that it has formed a joint venture with BP, the British gas, oil and energy supermajor. to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure in China. The charging stations will be available to Didi and non-Didi drivers. The news of Didi and BP’s joint venture comes one week after Didi announced that it had received funding totaling $600 million from Toyota Motor Corporation . As part of that deal, Didi and Toyota Motor set up a joint venture with GAC Toyota Motor to provide vehicle-related services to Didi drivers. BP’s first charging site in Guangzhou has already been connected to XAS (Xiaoju Automobile Solutions), which Didi spun out in April 2018 to put all its vehicle-related services into one platform. XAS is part of Didi Chuxing’s evolution from a ride-sharing company to a mobility services platform, with its services available to other car, transportation and logistics companies. In June, Didi also opened ...

Pearson , the London-based educational software maker, said today that thousands of school and university accounts, mostly in the United States, were affected by a data breach. The company added that it has notified affected users already and that the vulnerability has been fixed. The Wall Street Journal reports that the data breach happened in November 2018 and Pearson was notified by the Federal Bureau of Investigation in March. The perpetrator is still unknown. According to Pearson, unauthorized access was gained to 13,000 school and university accounts on AIMSweb, the company’s student monitoring and assessment platform. The data exposed included first and last names and, in some cases, date of birth and email addresses. Each account could potentially include information about thousands of students. Pearson added that it has no evidence that any of the exposed information was misused. It will offer free credit monitoring services to affected users as a “precautionary measure....

In May, venture capitalist Michael Moritz of Sequoia Capital warned in a Financial Times column that Amazon’s recent $575 million investment in the London-based delivery service Deliveroo could prove ominous for local restaurants. Wrote Moritz: “Amazon is now one step away from becoming a multi-brand restaurant company — and that could mean doomsday for many dining haunts.” Moritz was right to attract more attention to the deal. Deliveroo has begun operating shared kitchens from which it will not simply transport food to customers but eventually prepare it, too . His warning may even have played a role in this recent decision of Britain’s competition regulator to halt work on Amazon’s investment so it can first investigate whether the deal poses competitive concerns. Moritz knows the playbook because of Sequoia’s early investment in Rebel Foods , formerly known as Faasos, a once-small Pune, India-based company that now prepares a variety of foods in its cloud kitchens. As he say...

Fintech startup Revolut is launching its stock trading feature today. It’s a Robinhood-like feature that lets you buy and sell shares without any commission. For now, the feature is limited to some Revolut customers with a Metal card. While Robinhood has completely changed the stock trading retail market in the U.S., buying shares hasn’t changed much in Europe. Revolut wants to make it easier to invest on the stock market. After topping up your Revolut account, you can buy and hold shares directly from the Revolut app. For now, the feature is limited to 300 U.S.-listed stocks on NASDAQ and NYSE. The company says that it plans to expand to U.K. and European stocks as well as Exchange Traded Funds. There’s no minimum limit on transactions, which means that you can buy fractional shares for $1 for instance. You can see real-time prices in the Revolut app. When it comes to fees, Revolut doesn’t charge any fee indeed, but with some caveats. The feature is currently limited to Revolut M...

Got hardware? Well then, listen up, because our search continues for boundary-pushing, early-stage hardware startups to join us in Shenzhen, China for an epic opportunity; launch your startup on a global stage and compete in Hardware Battlefield at TC Shenzhen  on November 11-12. Apply here to compete in TC Hardware Battlefield 2019 . Why? It’s your chance to demo your product to the top investors and technologists in the world. Hardware Battlefield, cousin to Startup Battlefield , focuses exclusively on innovative hardware because, let’s face it, it’s the backbone of technology. From enterprise solutions to agtech advancements, medical devices to consumer product goods — hardware startups are in the international spotlight. If you make the cut, you’ll compete against 15 of the world’s most innovative hardware makers for bragging rights, plenty of investor love, media exposure and $25,000 in equity-free cash. Just participating in a Battlefield can change the whole trajectory of ...

Varun Mishra / Counterpoint Research : Analysis: in Q2 2019, global smartphone shipments declined 1% YoY, making it the 7th consecutive quarter of declining shipments; Samsung shipments grew 7.1% YoY   —  Overall smartphone shipment declined 1% in Q2 2019, making it the seventh consecutive quarter of declining shipments. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2YCqgTf

Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab : After 6 months of fact-checking for Facebook, Full Fact published 96 fact-checks, was paid ~$171k, wants Facebook to share more data with fact-checkers   —  In December 2016, Facebook enlisted a handful of U.S.-based news organizations (ABC News, Snopes, PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and the AP) … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2GETDOS

Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez / The San Francisco Examiner : Lyft has made its 1,000 e-bikes in San Francisco “unavailable to riders” following two reports of bikes catching fire   —  The flames appear to have originated from the battery  —  The battery of an electric Lyft bicycle appeared to catch fire Wednesday in the Lower Haight. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2YtHqGX

Liam Tung / ZDNet : Google to let G Suite admins select users for the Advanced Protection Program, designed to prevent cyberattacks against high-profile users, in the coming days   —  You might never need to change your password again if you're part of the G Suite Advanced Protection Program. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2YAmXfk

Visa is pitching a new way for startups in the fintech space to get to market faster by using its rails and a group of pre-approved partners. The Fast Track program, a variant of an investment commitment and ecosystem of services the company has already launched in other geographies around the world, comes to the U.S. without an investment commitment, but with a pre-defined list of partners that will help new financial services startups launch more quickly, the company said. Chiefly, the process makes it easier to integrate with Visa . It’s an attempt to put the payment processor’s network, VisaNet, at the center of a vast array of services ranging from payroll to business to business payments and online banking, online lending, and even digital wallets. “There’s about $17 trillion in cash and checks today that hasn’t gone digital and $20 trillion in business to business that’s happening over wires and check… those are all opportunities for Visa,” says Terry Angelos, a former finte...

Facetune, a photo editing app that empowers users to cover their gray hairs, refine their jaw lines, and reshape their noses, was first introduced around six years ago, and it quickly climbed to the top of the download charts, becoming Apple’s most popular paid app of 2017. Despite stiff competition , it has remaining highly popular , too. That staying power hasn’t been lost Goldman Sachs Private Capital Investing, Insight Partners or ClalTech, which just gave Facetune’s parent company, Lightricks , $135 million in Series C funding at a post-money valuation of $1 billion. The investment firms — two of which led a $60 million round in the company less than a year ago —  are getting much more than Facetune in the deal. Lightricks, based in Tel Aviv, has 260 employees supporting six products across three divisions, including Facetune, whose second version was rolled out this year; Enlight, a line of mobile photography and editing tools that aims to make photo editing more acces...

Will Greenwald / PCMag : Review of DJI's RoboMaster S1 programmable robot tank toy: nice camera, supports both Python and Scratch, but it's pricey at $500 and it lacks module options   —  Editors' Rating:  —  4.00  —  EXCELLENT  —  PCMag reviews products independently, but we may earn affiliate commissions from buying links on this page. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2KdTGlL

Shares in Apple climbed 4% in premarket trading, promising a $40 billion boost to the iPhone maker's market capitalization that would lift it past $1 trillion yet again. The stock is set to rise after Apple posted record third-quarter service revenues. AppleCare, Music, and cloud services set fresh sales highs, while the App Store posted a third-quarter revenue record. iPhone sales fell 12%, an improvement from their 17% drop in the second quarter, while Mac, iPad, and wearable sales rose. Watch Apple trade live . Shares in Apple climbed 4% in pre-market trading, promising a $40 billion boost to the iPhone maker's market capitalization that would lift it past $1 trillion yet again. The stock's gains came after the technology titan released a robust set of third-quarter earnings. Services revenue jumped 13% to a record high of around $11.5 billion, offsetting a 2% drop in product sales and lifting total revenue by 1% to $53.8 billion. However, higher costs drove ...

Shares in Apple climbed 4% in premarket trading, promising a $40 billion boost to the iPhone maker's market capitalization that would lift it past $1 trillion yet again. The stock is set to rise after Apple posted record third-quarter service revenues. AppleCare, Music, and cloud services set fresh sales highs, while the App Store posted a third-quarter revenue record. iPhone sales fell 12%, an improvement from their 17% drop in the second quarter, while Mac, iPad, and wearable sales rose. Watch Apple trade live . Shares in Apple climbed 4% in pre-market trading, promising a $40 billion boost to the iPhone maker's market capitalization that would lift it past $1 trillion yet again. The stock's gains came after the technology titan released a robust set of third-quarter earnings. Services revenue jumped 13% to a record high of around $11.5 billion, offsetting a 2% drop in product sales and lifting total revenue by 1% to $53.8 billion. However, higher costs drove ...

This is a preview of a research report from Business Insider Intelligence , Business Insider's premium research service. To learn more about Business Insider Intelligence, click here . Current subscribers can read the report here . Virtual reality (VR) offers immersive experiences in which users can hear, see, and interact with 360-degree digital environments using head-mounted displays (HMDs) and handheld motion devices. The technology has been historically associated with consumer-facing gaming, but it’s been gaining traction in the enterprise over the past year. In fact, companies such as Macy’s, Lowe’s, Walmart, and UPS, among others, have all launched new VR programs since 2017. And as more businesses look to tap the technology, this will drive enterprise VR hardware and software revenue to jump 587% to $5.5 billion in 2023, up from an estimated $800 million in 2018, according to Business Insider Intelligence estimates. This shows that retailers and brands should look into...

Russell Brandom / The Verge : Apple joins Google, Facebook, and Twitter in the open-source Data Transfer Project, will develop interoperable systems to bring data in and out of iCloud   —  Just over a year after its official launch, the Data Transfer Project is announcing a new set of partners and features. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2LXSXIP

Station F is the world’s biggest startup campus and it’s based in Paris. Director Roxanne Varza first unveiled Station F at TechCrunch Disrupt back in December 2016. That’s why I’m excited to announce that Station F director Roxanne Varza is joining us at TechCrunch Disrupt Berlin to give us an update and tell us about future plans. If you aren’t familiar with Station F, it starts with a beautiful building. Originally built in 1929, it is now classified as a historical monument. But now, it’s also a high-tech building and a cornerstone of the French tech ecosystem. Varza has managed to create a community of entrepreneurs, VC funds and big tech companies that work, share knowledge and collaborate. In addition to Station F’s own Founders Program and Fighters Program, you can become a Station F member by joining a partner program. Facebook, Naver (Line), Ubisoft, Microsoft and plenty of others all run their own incubator from Station F. And it’s been working really well as there ar...

Good morning! This is the tech news you need to know this Wednesday. Apple finally revealed when its sleek new credit card will launch . The Apple Card will be launching in August, the company said on its earnings call, confirming a previous report from Bloomberg. Apple's iPhone sales slump continued in Q3, but Mac and wearable growth helped top targets . Apple's iPhone sales fell 12%, but were better than analysts had forecast. The woman suspected of stealing more than 100 million people's data from the bank Capital One clued in the FBI because she boasted about a hack on GitHub, Slack, and Twitter, according to court documents filed by federal prosecutors on Monday . Capital One on Monday revealed that the data of some 106 million people had been compromised in the breach, which it said occurred in March. The Chinese tech firm Huawei said it saw a massive sales increase in the first half of 2019, despite pressure from the US trade ban . Overall revenue was up 23...