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Ford said it will produce and sell an all-electric version of its popular Ford Transit cargo van for the North American market starting with the 2022 model year as part of the automaker’s broader bet on electrification.

The all-electric Transit, which will be assembled in the U.S., is part of Ford’s more than $11.5 billion investment in electrification through 2022. Ford’s EV plan includes an all-electric Transit for the European market that it announced in April 2019, the Mustang Mach-E SUV and an electric F-150 truck.

Ford’s decision to include commercial vans into its EV strategy is linked to sales in U.S. and the company’s outlook on future growth. The company’s U.S. truck and van fleet sales have grown 33% since 2015. Ford said it expects continued growth of van sales in the U.S. as e-commerce and “last mile” delivery increase.

Ford said it expects electric vehicles to grow to 8% of the industry in 2025 in the United States.

“Commercial vehicles are a critical component to our big bet on electrification,” Ford chief operating officer said Jim Farley said in a statement. “As leaders in this space, we are accelerating our plans to create solutions that help businesses run better, starting with our all-electric Transit and F-150. This Ford Transit isn’t just about creating an electric drivetrain, it’s about designing and developing a digital product that propels fleets forward.”

Ford will focus on tech features like in-vehicle internet and driver assistance.

“The world is heading toward electrified products and fleet customers are asking for them now,” Farley said. “We know their vehicles operate as a connected mobile business and their technology needs are different than retail customers. So Ford is thinking deeply on connectivity relationships that integrate with our in-vehicle high-speed electrical architectures and cloud-based data services to provide these businesses smart vehicles beyond just the electric powertrains.”

These built-in “smart” features could help customers optimize fleet efficiency and reduce waste or improve driver behavior, according to Ford, an indication that fleets will be able to access data collected through Ford’s telematics system using an embedded FordPass Connect modem featuring a 4G LTE Wi-Fi hotspot with connectivity for up to 10 devices. Ford said managers can use Ford’s data tools like live map GPS tracking, geofencing and vehicle diagnostics to see key performance indicators at a glance for vehicle and driver.

Source: Tech Crunch

Clothing giant J.Crew said an unknown number of customers had their online accounts accessed “by an unauthorized party” almost a year ago, but is only now disclosing the incident.

The company said in a filing on Tuesday with the California attorney general that the hacker gained access to the customer accounts in or around April 2019.

According to the letter, the hacker obtained information found in the customer’s online account — including card types, the last four digits of card payment numbers, expiration dates, and associated billing addresses. Online accounts also store the customer’s order numbers, shipping confirmation numbers, and shipment statuses.

A spokesperson for the company confirmed that hacker used a technique known as credential stuffing, where existing sets of exposed or breached usernames and passwords are matched against different websites to access accounts.

The spokesperson said a “small number” of customers were affected but did not say specifically how many.

Companies operating in the state are mandated to warn the state’s attorney general’s office of security incidents involving more than 500 California residents. The letter to the attorney general’s office said it’s a “multi-state” notification, indicating that customers in other states are also affected.

A bigger, unanswered question is why it took J.Crew took almost a year to detect and disclose the incident to regulators and customers.

The spokesperson said “routine web scanning” detected the improper access and that customers were “promptly notified.” It’s not known when the scanning took place or why the account breaches weren’t detected sooner. Under the laws of both California and New York — where J.Crew is headquartered — there’s no specific time period under which a company must disclose a breach, only that customers are notified in “the most expedient time possible and without unreasonable delay.”

J.Crew becomes the latest in a string of companies disclosing security incidents as a result of credential stuffing. Amazon-owned doorbell maker Ring, Chipotle, Spotify and game streaming service Twitch have all seen customers complain of account breaches in the past year.

Source: Tech Crunch

At Facebook’s 2019 F8 developer conference, the company announced plans to introduce desktop apps for its popular communications app Messenger. Now, less than a year later, the Messenger Mac App is beginning to roll out. Though not yet available in the U.S., Messenger for Mac has popped up the Mac App Store in several non-U.S. markets.

We asked Facebook to confirm whether this signals a broader rollout that will include the U.S.

A company spokesperson responded that this is not yet a full launch.

“We’re conducting a small test of the Messenger app for macOS in a couple of markets,” the spokesperson said. “We don’t have a date when it will be available as we’re still gathering feedback from our users,” they added.

9to5Mac and iPhone Hacks first spotted the app’s launch, referencing a post published to a French tech news site called MacGeneration. However, you can visit the French Mac App Store URL directly to confirm.

We’ve also seen Messenger arrive in a few other international markets, including Mexico and Australia, for example. (There may be more as well — we haven’t yet clicked through links on every global Mac App Store to confirm them one by one.)

The desktop version of Messenger offers a similar feature set to the mobile client, including support for voice and video chat, in addition to texting. Group chats, calls, and video chats are available too. And like the mobile app, users can share files, react with emojis, and enable a dark theme to cut down on glare.

The app is built using Electron, not Catalyst. While Electron is a popular way of building apps for the desktop from a web app, but not the most secure by any means.

The app’s arrival comes only days after Facebook introduced its slimmed down and faster Messenger app for iOS. The new mobile app does away with the Discover section to simplify the app’s interface and reorients the Messenger experience around people and Stories, not businesses and apps.

Facebook recently announced it has canceled this year’s F8 conference due to the coronavirus outbreak. That could mean we’ll see more news and launches from Facebook that it would have otherwise waited to reveal.

Source: Tech Crunch

With just over one month to go until its official launch date, the short-form, subscription streaming service Quibi has closed on $750 million in new financing, according to a report in the company’s private PR firm The Wall Street Journal.

The company declined to disclose exactly who invested in the new round (which is always a great sign) and didn’t comment on how the new investment would effect the company’s valuation.

Chief Executive Officer Meg Whitman told the Journal that the new financing was made to ensure that the company would have the financial flexibility and runway to build a long-term business, but it’s likely that companies as diverse as Brandless and WeWork said the same thing about their goals when raising capital, as well.

Despite the doubt surrounding its success, Quibi managed to sell out of the initial $150 million in available advertising for the service’s first year.

Whether it’s as big of a hit with potential subscribers as with advertisers remains to be seen. The service could still become the Mike Bloomberg campaign of streaming media — a lot of money and no discernible result.

Source: Tech Crunch

For the first time in eight months, people in Kashmir can use WhatsApp, Facebook, Twitter and other social media services without any fear or use of specialized software — though things are not back to normal yet.

India said on Wednesday that it has temporarily lifted the ban on social media services and on the much broader internet, giving some relief to people and tens of thousands of businesses in the Himalayan region for two weeks.

New Delhi imposed a total communications blackout in the India-controlled territory in early August last year after withdrawing the special rights of Jammu and Kashmir. The government said the move was necessary to maintain peace in the region.

The move, which eventually became the biggest internet shutdown and crackdown of social media in any democracy, received wide criticism from human rights activists around the globe, as well as from lawmakers in the U.K. and the U.S.

The region, home to more than 7 million people, faced many challenges without access to the internet. The Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industry said that at least 150,000 jobs were lost.

India’s top court ruled in January that the Narendra Modi -controlled government’s move to enforce an “indefinite” communications blackout amounted to abuse of power, and sought an explanation.

In the wake of the order, India opened access to about 300 websites, which did not include social media services, and capped mobile data speeds at 2G level. One analysis had found that more than a third of the whitelisted websites were largely inaccessible.

To bypass the censorship, some users began to use VPN apps on their smartphone, an act that local authority quickly deemed “unlawful” and moved to open cases against hundreds of citizens.

On Wednesday evening (local time), several people in Kashmir confirmed that they were able to access WhatsApp and other social media services again — though there remains restriction on their mobile data speed.

According to a notice issued by the region’s home secretary, the restoration of the internet will remain in effect till March 17.

Source: Tech Crunch

Source: Tech Crunch

Managed by Q co-founder Dan Teran had a plan. After selling his office management company to WeWork last year for tidy $220 million — $100 million in cash and the rest in stock — he wanted to buy it back when WeWork decided to sell it off, along with some other properties that it viewed as extraneous, following a management shake-up last fall.

According to Bloomberg originally — and confirmed by our sources — Teran, who was employed by WeWork for five months after the sale as its head of corporate development and ventures — looked to put together a package to acquire the company beginning in December. To do so would require a substantial sum, however — enough to both buy the company, plus working capital to maintain its current staff and support its customers.

In the end, SoftBank-controlled WeWork apparently better liked the proposal of of an outside bidder, and that’s Eden, a five-year-old company competes directly with Managed by Q. At least, Eden is confirming today that it has successfully bid $25 million in cash for Managed by Q, whose technology and accounts and an untold number of employees will also be incorporated into its offerings.

The money comes from a new, $29 million round that JLL, the commercial real estate services giant, just led for Eden in a round that also includes participation from the Y Combinator Continuity Fund and individual investors.

The new round is separate from a $25 million round that Eden closed in November and that was led by Reshape, with participation from Fifth Wall Ventures, Mitsui Fudosan, RXR Realty, Thor Equities, and Bessemer Venture Partners, along with numerous other firms.

Said Eden CEO Joe Du Bey in an emailed statement to us: “Eden is proud to partner with Managed By Q to further our mission of creating a better place to work, for everyone. Managed By Q’s amazing customers, service vendors, team, and product makes it a huge win-win for all stakeholders. JLL leading the round and becoming a strategic partner to Eden is also exciting and will further accelerate our growth as we work to better serve the SMB category together.”

Teran did not respond to a separate press request yesterday, but if he’s frustrated by the outcome, he still has that sale last year to WeWork to celebrate.

In the meantime, Eden —  which launched in 2015 as as on-demand tech repair and support service but eventually found itself in the same office management business as Managed by Q (both connect offices with third-party providers) — has now consolidated its market share, and obviously for a dramatically better price than WeWork paid less than a year ago.

The company, which until today employed roughly 70 people, was already active in 25 markets as of late November, including Berlin and London, and it featured more than 2,000 service providers on its platform. Its acquisition of Managed by Q takes it that much further.

Source: Tech Crunch