life

Foresite Capital Secures $900 Million in Sixth Fund for Healthcare and Life Sciences Investing

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Despite having 47 IPOs, 28 M&As and 58 FDA-approved drugs under its belt, the 13-year-old multi-stage healthcare and life sciences firm took two years to raise its sixth fund. On Wednesday, Foresite announced that it closed its sixth fund with $900 million. Last summer, Foresite co-led a $115 million Series F into CG Oncology, a drug discovery company that had a successful IPO listing in January. Foresite intends to back about 20 companies from its sixth fund, writing checks from a couple of million up to $75 million. “Over a decade ago, we named the firm Foresite because we thought we had an idea of where healthcare was headed,” Tananbaum said.

“Exploring the Potential of Generative AI: How Siri and Google Assistant Seek to Revolutionize Their Effectiveness”

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The subject has been a massive question mark looming over Cupertino for the last few years, as competitors like Google and Microsoft have embraced generative AI. Apple’s near-term strategy is a deep integration between existing properties and generative AI, with Siri at the center. Rather than replacing Assistant outright, Google has been integrating its generative AI platform into different applications. Smart speakers have a broader bellwether for platforms like Siri, Alexa and Google Assistant. Other people do it well.”The company’s approach to generative AI is currently in the same place.

“Exploring Saturn’s Moons: NASA’s Serpentine Robot on a Mission to Uncover Extraterrestrial Life in Frigid Oceans”

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The latter has made snake robots a compelling addition to search-and-rescue teams, as the systems can squeeze into spots people and other robots can’t. That means a lot of ice, as NASA researchers are planning to send it to Saturn’s small, cold moon, Enceladus. Twenty-first-century flybys from Cassini have revealed a water-rich environment, making the ice-covered moon a potential candidate for life in our solar system. The eventual plan is to use the snake robot, Exobiology Extant Life Surveyor (EELS), to explore oceans beneath the moon’s crust and finally answer one of the universe’s big, open questions. In fact, CMU spinout HEBI Robotics designed the modules being used in this early version of the system.

“Reddit’s Initial Public Offering Takes Off as Share Prices Skyrocket 60% in Mere Moments”

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Reddit sold $203 million worth of contracts to AI companies for access to its data earlier this year. In the wake of a compression in tech valuations since the implosion of the 2021-era asset bubble, few tech companies have tested public markets. Early trading results do not always augur a trouble-free public market life, however. Secondaries investors recently told TechCrunch that they weren’t sure that a successful Reddit IPO would be enough to bring life back into the IPO market in 2024. But with Astera Lab’s impressive performance yesterday and Reddit’s strong showing today, maybe there will be more life in the IPO market this year than many thought.

“Exploring the Future of Twitch: Beyond Livestreaming”

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Twitch is looking at life beyond the livestream Livestreaming is a tough business. “So the goal really is like, a lot more people seeing more Twitch content every time they’re in Instagram, every time they’re in TikTok, every time they’re in YouTube Shorts. “… Live content is very different from offline content, and offline content has a somewhat easier ability to go viral. Content on Twitch is extremely long form, with streamers regularly broadcasting gameplay or just chatting for many hours per session. Unfortunately for Twitch, many compelling alternatives to broadcasting one’s life for hours on end exist, particularly in the form of YouTube.

Europe’s Tech Investment Slump: A Report of Renewed Hope

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New report confirms Europe’s tech investment doldrums, but there are signs of lifeEurope is suffering from a big hangover after the tech investment party of the 2020-2021 period. That said, compared to pre-pandemic levels, VC investment in European startups is up, historically speaking, and reached $60 billion, according to a new report. 2023 marked a reset and major correction in investment levels globally. According to the report, Europe is sitting on “record levels of dry powder” and “producing more new founders than the U.S.”, funding remains slow. Climate Tech overtook FinTech as Europe’s most popular sectorAI’s share of total investment in Europe soared to a record high of 17%5.

“Unveiling the Mystery: OnePlus’ Three-Year Awaited Launch of a New Smartwatch”

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Why OnePlus waited three years to release a new smartwatch A OnePlus exec discusses how the company is squeezing 100 hours out of the Watch 2OnePlus’ second smartwatch captured media interest this week, courtesy of its stated 100 hours of battery life. If the device does its job correctly, users won’t notice the shift, beyond the extra battery life it brings. The OnePlus Watch 2 is also notable for the three-year gap between releases. This morning, ahead of the device’s official unveiling, I sat down with Tuomas Lampen, OnePlus Europe’s head of strategy on a pair of folding chairs outside Google’s MWC booth. In terms of functionality, the first OnePlus Watch more closely resembled pre-Apple Watch smartwatches.

“Maximizing Battery Life: The Power of Dual Chips and Wear OS Tweaks in the OnePlus Watch 2”

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Officially unveiled this morning at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona after a few months of teases, the OnePlus Watch 2 does get some points for originality. Battery continues to be the lowest hanging fruit in the smartwatch world. Like the Apple Watch, OnePlus’ Watch 2 has a Power Saving Mode. The company notes,WearOS apps and the Always On Display will not work when the device is in Power Saving Mode. Other features such as calling, messaging, and exercise modes will still work on Power Saving Mode however some of their more power intensive functions will be limited to preserve battery life, eg.

Stellantis Executive Optimistic About Prospects of Waymo Partnership for Self-Driving Delivery Vans

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This “deepened” partnership will focus on commercial self-driving Ram delivery vans, a target that was first announced in 2020 and promptly faded from public view. Discussions on this “improved” deal have focused, in part, on a crux around driverless delivery: how does the package get from the vehicle to the customer? Waymo, which is owned by Google parent-company Alphabet, currently doesn’t operate a commercial delivery service using its self-driving vehicles. That deal did include a future plan to include delivery via Uber Eats, but as of today, it has not launched, according to a Waymo spokesperson. Under the deal, Fiat Chrysler — now known as Stellantis — would handle the manufacturing and provide Waymo with minivans that built in redundancies designed for autonomous driving.

Streamline Your Digital Life with Yorba: The Mint-Like Organization Service

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Spend enough time online, and you’ll collect a digital paper trail of accounts, logins, subscriptions, mailing lists, and passwords wrapped up in data breaches. From its web-based dashboard, you can organize, monitor, and manage your online accounts, unsubscribe from mailing lists, cancel subscriptions, review privacy policies, and more. The end result is something like a Mint for your entire online life, so to speak. Instead, it works by connecting with your online accounts, like your Gmail, and soon other online services and cloud storage providers. Some of the functionality Yorba offers may not be unique.