Facebook and Twitter pull out of the SXSW conference citing COVID-19 concerns; event organizers say the conference is proceeding as planned  —  Twitter pulled out earlier today  —  Facebook has pulled out of the upcoming SXSW conference in Austin, TX, according to a company statement given to Business Insider.

Kuo says Apple is working on six products with mini-LED tech including an iMac Pro refresh for Q4'20, a 7.9" iPad mini coming in 2020, and a 14.1" MacBook Pro  —  Apple has six mini-LED products in the works that are set to debut in 2020 and 2021, and production is not expected to be delayed …

Robinhood again suffered a “major outage” on Tuesday, after saying issues were resolved on Monday, and will reach out to users about compensation “case by case”  —  - Robinhood saw a second day of glitches that kept clients from trading as markets rebounded.

Let's Encrypt discovers a bug in its Certification Authority Authorization code, meaning affected users need to manually force-renew certs to avoid downtime  —  Let's Encrypt users will need to manually force-renew once to avoid downtime.  —  On Leap Day, Let's Encrypt announced …

WhatsApp says a dark mode will become available for iOS and Android users today, after months of testing, on by default for users with system dark mode enabled  —  Facebook finally says hello to darkness  —  WhatsApp is finally getting a new dark mode on iOS and Android today.

iPhone maker Foxconn says it expects its Chinese plants to begin operating normally by the end of March, after the disruption caused by the coronavirus  —  - Hon Hai says its facilities are at 50% seasonal capacity  — The epidemic has disrupted Apple's finely tuned supply chain

Honeywell says it will launch a quantum computer within three months with a quantum volume of at least 64, the world's most powerful quantum computer  —  Under Honeywell's quantum plans, customers will connect directly to systems housed by the company.  Honeywell will use quantum computing …

Amazon says it will speed up same-day delivery for Prime members in Philadelphia, Phoenix, Orlando, and Dallas thanks to newly built smaller warehouses  —  Amazon today unveiled its latest initiative to speed up delivery times on millions of items for its growing cadre of Prime members.

Brookings study: only 10 US cities have grown their share of tech jobs since 2010, resulting in less diversity for companies and no economic windfall elsewhere  —  Austin is one the few cities to see substantial growth in its share of tech workers.  Rick Kern/WireImage  —  Where tech jobs go, so does wealth.

Interviews with dozens of people shed light on how Brad Parscale, a political newcomer, leveraged Facebook and its ad platform to help Trump win in 2016  —  Brad Parscale used social media to sway the 2016 election.  He's poised to do it again.  —  In September, at a resort hotel in the Coachella Valley …

Prescription drug companies are ramping up Facebook ads, often accessing user data via loopholes, with the sector's mobile spend roughly tripling in two years  —  Pharmaceutical companies are ramping up their spending on social media, triggering some patient advocate concerns about privacy

Mac Pro 2019 review: beautiful design, very quiet, but most apps don't push performance limits, expansion slots still can't use Nvidia GPUs, and it's pricey  —  Apple's back in the pro game, but can it keep up?  —  Reviewing the new Mac Pro has been an interesting challenge.

Bolt, a Miami Beach-based electric scooter startup co-founded by Usain Bolt, closes $30M Series A at a $100M valuation led by Rokk3r Fuel ExO  —  Bolt Mobility, a Miami Beach-based electric scooter company co-founded by Olympic sprinter Usain Bolt, announced Tuesday that it closed a Series A funding round …

Profile of Hideo Kojima, a legend like few others in the gaming industry, as he looks past Metal Gear Solid with Death Stranding  —  He's an auteur whose bizarre creations — the Metal Gear Solid series and, most recently, Death Stranding — have become huge blockbusters.  Why do gamers find them so captivating?

Talespin, which uses VR/AR to develop enterprise training tools, raises $15M Series B led by Cornerstone OnDemand, bringing its total raised to $20M  —  Talespin made itself famous for a virtual reality demo where managers learn how to fire a hapless worker named Barry.

Physical security startup Deep Sentinel, which uses cameras and AI to prevent break-ins, extends its Series A to $24M and launches Deep Sentinel for Business  —  Deep Sentinel, a physical security startup that leverages cameras, AI, and around-the-clock monitoring to prevent break-ins …

How a security analyst sent his mother to a state correctional facility with fake credentials to plant malicious USB drives, resulting in the director using one  —  Security analyst John Strand had a contract to test a correctional facility's defenses.  He sent the best person for the job: his mother.

Report: senior management at Apple rebuffed some operations execs' suggestion to relocate part of its manufacturing from China to Vietnam as early as 2015  —  Production on Apple's devices has been stymied in recent weeks due to delays caused by the coronavirus outbreak in China.

Behind Facebook's rewrite of Messenger, going live today, that has shrunk the iOS app's size from 130MB to 30MB and its codebase from 1.7M to 360K lines of code  —  To make its iPhone messaging app run better—especially on older phones—Facebook rewrote it from the ground up.  The new version is going live now.

Public, a stock investing app that allows users to buy fractions of shares, raises $15M Series B led by Accel and Greycroft, bringing total raised to ~$24M  —  Investing in the stock market can be intimidating for many.  It can also be difficult for those who don't have tons of extra cash …