Sources: Apple is readying the widest array of new hardware products in its history this fall; Joe Bass, head of software engineering for Apple's car team left (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: Sources: Apple is readying the widest array of new hardware products in its history this fall; Joe Bass, head of software engineering for Apple's car team left  —  Apple Inc. is nearing its first launch event of the year, with a new iPhone SE and iPad on tap.

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Dealogic: Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet announced more acquisitions in 2021 than in any other year in the past decade (CNBC)

CNBC: Dealogic: Microsoft, Amazon, and Alphabet announced more acquisitions in 2021 than in any other year in the past decade  —  - Microsoft, Alphabet and Amazon all announced more acquisitions in 2021 than any other year in the past decade, according to Dealogic.

2h

Analysis: AR/VR startups raised nearly $1.9B in Q4 2021, more than any quarter ever, making 2021 the second-best year for AR/VR funding at nearly $3.9B raised (Chris Metinko/Crunchbase News)

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News: Analysis: AR/VR startups raised nearly $1.9B in Q4 2021, more than any quarter ever, making 2021 the second-best year for AR/VR funding at nearly $3.9B raised  —  Although the term metaverse has been around for nearly 30 years—coined in the novel “Snow Crash”—Facebook's name change to Meta …

4h

Berlin-based Lendis, which helps companies set up and manage employees' equipment and software for hybrid work, raises an €80M Series A in equity and debt (Patricia Allen/EU-Startups)

Patricia Allen / EU-Startups: Berlin-based Lendis, which helps companies set up and manage employees' equipment and software for hybrid work, raises an €80M Series A in equity and debt  —  Today, Lendis has just announced an €80 million Series A funding round for its SaaS solution that helps companies to set …

7h

How longstanding disagreements between the FCC and FAA over potential risks to aircraft remained unresolved in the lead up to the 5G C-band rollout in the US (Wall Street Journal)

Wall Street Journal: How longstanding disagreements between the FCC and FAA over potential risks to aircraft remained unresolved in the lead up to the 5G C-band rollout in the US  —  Longstanding disagreements between federal agencies over potential risks to aircraft remained unresolved in the days leading to the 5G debut

13h

EU Parliament passed Digital Services Act, including provisions banning targeted ads based on highly sensitive personal data, limiting dark patterns, and more (Luca Bertuzzi/Euractiv)

Luca Bertuzzi / Euractiv: EU Parliament passed Digital Services Act, including provisions banning targeted ads based on highly sensitive personal data, limiting dark patterns, and more  —  A large majority of MEPs voted in favour of the Digital Services Act on Thursday (20 January), after plenary amendments introduced important changes to the text.

17h

How UK stage theater companies are using AR and VR to broadcast productions to viewers at home as the pandemic pushes companies to experiment with new art forms (Andrew Dickson/New York Times)

Andrew Dickson / New York Times: How UK stage theater companies are using AR and VR to broadcast productions to viewers at home as the pandemic pushes companies to experiment with new art forms  —  The Interactive Storytelling Studio at the National Theater in London is using technology to bring a miniature musical to viewers' homes.

20h

How advances in semiconductor fabrication equipment are being applied to producing nano-scale microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS (Christopher Mims/Wall Street Journal)

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal: How advances in semiconductor fabrication equipment are being applied to producing nano-scale microelectromechanical systems, or MEMS  —  For years, engineers have made microchips ever smaller and more powerful.  Now they're applying the technology to a host of miniature marvels.

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Plaid acquires Cognito, which offers ID verification and compliance services to financial firms, source says for ~$250M in cash and stock (Alex Wilhelm/TechCrunch)

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch: Plaid acquires Cognito, which offers ID verification and compliance services to financial firms, source says for ~$250M in cash and stock  —  Plaid, a fintech unicorn known for its APIs that connect consumer bank accounts to financial applications, announced today that it is buying Cognito.

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Bengaluru-based StockGro, a social investment startup with a gamified app for learning about and participating in stock markets, raises a $32M Series A (Sneha Shah/The Economic Times)

Sneha Shah / The Economic Times: Bengaluru-based StockGro, a social investment startup with a gamified app for learning about and participating in stock markets, raises a $32M Series A  —  Mumbai: Social investment startup StockGro has raised $32 million led by marquee global investors such as Bitkraft Ventures, General Catalyst …

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