Ford GoRide Health shifts to autonomy and shuts down in five cities

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Game of Thrones season 8 deleted scenes bring Dany and Missandei together - CNET

The season 8 DVD is finally out and there's only one reason to buy it: Khaleesi.

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Australian Taxation Office seeks to replace its managed network services

Work divided into six separate modules.

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Google Photos adds in-built conversation feature

Users can now send single images within the Google Photos app.

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Setting politics aside, Sequoia raises $3.4 billion for US and China investments

Noted Silicon Valley venture capital fund Sequoia Capital has raised nearly $1 billion for later-stage U.S. investments and roughly $2.4 billion for venture and growth deals in China, according to paperwork filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Tuesday.

The firm, famous for its investments in U.S. companies like Google, Instagram, Dropbox, LinkedIn, Snap and WhatsApp, is also an investor in some of China’s most successful startups.

These are companies like Alibaba, China’s e-commerce answer to Amazon; Ant Financial, a multibillion-dollar financial services powerhouse; JD.com, another e-commerce powerhouse; ByteDance, the owner of America’s latest social media sensation, TikTok; and Yitu, one of the national leaders in the development of machine learning applications.

These investments have not come without their share of controversy abroad. Yitu has been linked to the technology dragnet currently in place in Xinjiang, where an estimated 1 million religious and ethnic minorities are currently interned. Meanwhile, TikTok’s popularity in the U.S. has come with accusations of censorship in its treatment of posts that were supportive of both Xinjiang’s imprisoned population and the dissidents protesting mainland China’s increasing control over Hong Kong politics.

U.S. senators have already called for an investigation into TikTok, and Yitu was blacklisted by the U.S. Department of Commerce in October for its role in human rights violations in Xinjiang.

Setting politics aside, Sequoia has brought in $1.8 billion for its Sequoia Capital China Growth Fund V and about $550 million for Sequoia Capital China Venture Fund VII, per filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

It’s a sign that when valuations are concerned (ByteDance alone is now worth $78 billion, according to some reports), investors can overlook the potential political pitfalls of dealing with China.

Sequoia, led by Doug Leone, Michael Moritz, Roelof Botha and others, recently sought $8 billion for a global fund, its largest-ever fundraise, holding a first close of $6 billion in June 2018. In addition, the firm operates Sequoia Capital India, with offices in Menlo Park, Bengaluru, Mumbai, New Delhi, Singapore, Tel Aviv, Beijing, Hong Kong and Shanghai.

News of the fund comes at the tail end of another strong year for venture capital fundraising in the U.S. Firms, including 41-year-old NEA, filed to raise as much as $3.6 billion for a single fund. Meanwhile, Norwest Venture Partners, DCVC and Accel all closed new vehicles exceeding $500 million.

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Firewatch follow-up In The Valley of Gods 'on hold' indefinitely - CNET

Blame Half-Life: Alyx.

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Scientists develop artificial nerve cells which behave just like real cells - CNET

A tiny silicon chip could provide new treatment options for spinal cord injury and heart failure.

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Netflix's The Witcher: Critics praise the first episodes - CNET

Henry Cavill loses the cape and gets a horse in the new series.

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Google announces the top Play Store downloads of 2019

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Four fired employees plan to file charges against Google. Here’s what’s next

It may be a long road ahead for the four former Google employees who were unceremoniously fired, while attempting to organize a Google employee union. They have said they will file charges of “unfair labor practices” with the National Labor Relations Board.

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Samsung Galaxy Watch Active 2 review: A bite out of Apple

The Galaxy Watch Active 2 matures Samsung’s smartwatch line. For $280 you get a digital rotating bezel and LTE connectivity, not to mention ECG.

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How to add family members to your Apple Music subscription

Looking to save your family and maybe even yourself a little money? Here’s how to add family members to your Apple Music subscription in a few simple steps.

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Beats Powerbeats Pro review: Great design, with a flaw

Beats’ first true wireless earbuds, the Powerbeats Pro, borrow tech from Apple in a pair of waterproof earbuds with 9 hours of battery life. Unfortunately, an intermittent connection issue has us pumping the brakes on these Beats beauties.

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The best Android apps (December 2019)

Choosing which apps to download is tricky, especially given how enormous and cluttered the Google Play Store has become. We rounded up 100 of the best Android apps, each suited to a different occasion.

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Fitbit Versa 2 review: The subscription smartwatch

The Fitbit Versa 2's multi-day battery, smartwatch features, and $200 price should set it apart. But it falls short in an unexpected way -- fitness.

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Shark IQ Robot R101AE Self-Emptying Robot Vacuum review

I reviewed the IQ robot, and here's my take on the device. With minimal interaction required on your part, it'll keep you focused on other, more pressing matters.

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The MacBook Pro is getting a killer feature iPhone users can only dream about

Next year’s MacBook Pro could get an incredible new feature that puts its rivals -- as well as the iPhone -- to shame and shows Apple still cares about the device.

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The best Nintendo Switch games

The Nintendo Switch’s lineup has steadily grown since its launch in 2017, becoming a powerhouse hybrid console with a great mix of first-party games, third-party ports, and innovative indies.

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Best Cyber Monday deals 2019: The final list of sales still available this week

Black Friday and Cyber Monday have ended but some sales extend for the week. Here's everything you need to know about the next batch of deals this Cyber Week 2019.

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How to clean your AirPods or AirPods Pro case

Dirt and grime can cause cosmetic and functional damage to your AirPods' charging case. Don't let it. Here's how to clean your AirPods case effectively — on the interior and exterior.

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Samsung’s Galaxy Note 10 Plus Review: Renaissance Phone

The Galaxy Note 10 Plus takes everything great about the Galaxy S10 Plus and raises the bar a little higher. You'll need to get past some gimmicky features, but it's more than the sum of its many parts.

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Fronted, from former Bud, Monzo and Apple employees, wants to make life easier for renters

Fronted, a new London-based startup aiming to make life easier for renters, is breaking cover today.

The company, founded by Jamie Campbell, Simon Vans-Colina, and Anthony Mann — former employees at Bud, Monzo and Apple, respectively — will launch early next year with a fintech product to help renters finance their rental deposits.

The plan is get accepted into the FCA “sandbox” program (run by the U.K. financial services regulator) to begin lending cash that can only be used for a rental deposit.

The thinking is that by using Open Banking and other financial technology and offering a credit product designed to finance deposits directly, Fronted can lend more cheaply than existing options, such as credit cards, pay-day lenders, and overdrafts, or insurance-backed membership schemes, and at lower risk.

“Renting sucks — anyone who rents knows it,” Fronted CEO Jamie Campbell tells me. “There are so many problems to solve and we intend to tackle them all bit by bit. But first, we are going to pay people’s rent deposits for them so they can pay us back in bite-size manageable amounts. Deposits are a large upfront expense and most people either use mum and dad to sort it out or stay where they are (in the worst cases they do to pay-day lenders)”.

In a call late last week with Campbell and CTO Vans-Colina, the pair explained that renters that apply to use the Fronted service will be asked to link their bank using Open Banking, therefore sharing their recent transaction data, and provide details of the property they wish to rent. Then, once Fronted has run the required checks and agreed to provide credit, the startup sends the money directly to the estate agent to be placed in the U.K.’s Deposit Protection Scheme, meaning that the loan never touches the renter’s hands (or wallet).

“Customers will have a direct debit to pay us back over a set schedule, or they can pay it all off when they have the money to do so, [and] we don’t charge any fees,” says Campbell. There is also a planned “holiday mode” that will allow customers to temporarily reduce their monthly payments in order to help avoid falling into financial difficulty.

“Ultimately this first product is designed to be very convenient and we believe people will opt for this more manageable alternative to a normal deposit,” adds Campbell. “There are customers of ours that will be in ‘hidden households’ unable to move because of the upfront fees… Deposits can [also] sometimes take a long time to be returned from the schemes (something the government recently launched an enquiry into). Fronted wants to serve people who might otherwise be ‘double-exposed’ by deposits. We hope this first product increases social mobility by providing liquidity when people need it”.

Initially, Fronted will generate revenue through interest charged. It then plans to extend its fintech product offering with additional money-advance services “to help smooth out the bumps of renting”.

“We also intend on rolling out a ‘turn up and turn on’ service for utilities and internet,” says the Fronted CEO.

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Larry Page and Sergey Brin Hand Over Alphabet’s Reins

Google chief Sundar Pichai is now also the CEO of Alphabet, but Page and Brin aren’t totally out of the picture.

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