Local regional news

“Instant booking” apps that let tourists sign up for activities on very short notice have been in the news a lot lately, partly because of Klook’s new unicorn status, but also because of the proliferation of startups in the space, especially in Asia. With so many instant booking apps, are there any niches left to fill? FunNow thinks so. Instead of targeting tourists, FunNow serves locals who want to find new things to do in their cities. The Taipei, Taiwan-based startup announced today that it has raised a $5 million Series A led by the Alibaba Entrepreneur Fund, with participation from CDIB, a returning investor, Darwin Venture and Accuvest. The capital will be used to expand FunNow into Southeast Asian and Japanese cities. Along with a pre-A round closed last July, its newest funding brings FunNow’s total raised since its launch in November 2015 to $6.5 million. FunNow currently claims 500,000 members and 3,000 vendors, who provide more than 20,000 activities … [Read more...] about Taiwan startup FunNow gets $5M Series A to help locals in Asian cities find last-minute things to do

A defiant Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has stressed that his platform has now become a 'Fifth Estate' in the world alongside traditional news media and people no longer have to rely on traditional gatekeepers in politics or media to make their voices heard. Delivering a speech at Georgetown University in Washington, DC on Thursday, he said social media platforms have decentralised power by putting it directly into people's hands. "People having the power to express themselves at scale is a new kind of force in the world -- a Fifth Estate alongside the other power structures of society," said Zuckerberg, apparently challenging those who wish to break up the social networking giant. Senators and presidential candidates Elizabeth Warren and Kamala Harris are pitching hard to break up Facebook, amid regulators scrutinising the company over anti-competitive practices and privacy scandals. "People no longer have to rely on traditional gatekeepers in politics or media to make their voices … [Read more...] about Facebook now a ‘Fifth Estate’ alongside other power structures of society: Mark Zuckerberg

Local search service JustDial was found to contain a security flaw, through which a user account could potentially be hacked, but the company managed to rectify it in a day. A cyber security researcher, Ehraz Ahmed, uncovered the vulnerability, which was first reported by moneycontrol.com. Ahmed wrote in a blog post that one of JustDial’s internal APIs potentially allowed a hacker to log in to a user account bypassing the phone number. The flaw could then return an access token, system ID (SID) and user ID (UID). Using the SID, the hacker could access various accounts of the user. Besides, the UID would allow the hacker to post on the user’s profile. “Hackers and telemarketers can mine the data of JustDial by automating a script using a phone number dump found online,” Ahmed wrote. “The hackers can also access your Justdial Pay account and receive funds on your behalf by entering their bank account information in the Bank Details Settings, but they … [Read more...] about JustDial says has fixed security flaw that allowed hackers access

NEW DELHI: Flipkart and Amazon have a reason to thank the controversial TikTok. Popularity of the Chinese social media app, which lets people record short videos and post them online, has boosted sales of mobile phone tripods and accessories up to 10 times in a year. Tripods to prop up smartphones while recording videos and other products like mobile holders, connectors and on-the-go cables are selling like hot cakes across ecommerce platforms and retail stores in India as more and more people take to the video-sharing app to showcase their ‘talent.’ Flipkart and Amazon told ET that they’ve seen a huge spike in product categories, with sales sky rocketing to anywhere between 300% and 10 times within a year. More interestingly, higher sales are emanating from small towns and cities said industry insiders, where people use apps like TikTok in the hope of becoming social media influencers, and in turn get money from advertisers to plug in their product in a bid to be … [Read more...] about Why Amazon and Flipkart need to send ‘thanks note’ to TikTok

After years of speculations and rumours, Motorola is finally making a ‘huge’ splash in the market by bringing back the iconic Moto Razr smartphone. However, the difference this time is the use of a foldable screen instead of a single screen and physical key layout. The 2019 model is limited to the US region for now and is up for registration as well but considering Motorola India has used the image of the device on its Twitter page, there are rumours that it may hit the Indian shelves at some point in future. The details are not known yet. But what we do know is that Moto Razr (2019) is priced at $1,499.99, which is roughly Rs. 1,07,400 in the Indian currency. This is the third foldable screen smartphone that we have seen coming out this year after the Rs1,64,999 Samsung Galaxy Fold and Huawei Mate X, which is yet to hit the market. Moto Razr (2019) plays on the same design as the original one. It still has the flip design from the outside with the top half featuring a … [Read more...] about Moto Razr (2019) launched, sports two screens – one foldable