Techmeme

Abrar Al-Heeti / CNET:Sensor Tower: TikTok has passed 1.5B downloads worldwide on the App Store and Google Play, with 614M downloads in 2019 so far, up 6% YoY  —  The app has had 614 million downloads so far just this year, according to mobile intelligence…

Emma Newburger / CNBC:HP board unanimously rejects Xerox's ~$33B cash and stock offer to acquire the company  —  HP's board of directors said Sunday that they unanimously rejected a proposal from Xerox to acquire the company, because the offer is not in…

Jim Salter / Ars Technica:How the mesh Wi-Fi router startup Plume is winning partnerships with some of the biggest US and international ISPs, despite Eero's fire sale to Amazon  —  Simplified device management might be more attractive than Wi-Fi mesh…

Mike Murphy / Quartz:Profile of Mixhalo, a live-music app being offered by bands like Aerosmith as a VIP experience, to let fans hear the music at live shows as the band intended  —  Think back to the first time you saw a high-definition TV program. …

Mark Harris / MIT Technology Review:New research shows that thousands of ships in Shanghai, the world's busiest port, are falling victim to spoofing of GPS systems that has left experts baffled  —  A sophisticated new electronic warfare system is being…

Derek Wallbank / Bloomberg:Enlitic, which is working on an AI-aided medical diagnostic tool that can read radiology scans, announces $25M Series B-1, following a $15M Series B in April  —  Health technology startup Enlitic announced it had completed a $25…

NoCamels:Israel-based Pcysys, which has developed a cybersecurity risk assessment service that uses automated penetration testing, closes $10M Series A  —  Israeli cybersecurity startup Pcysys, announced on Wednesday that it completed a $10 million Series…

Katherine Davis / AmericanInno:Chicago-based Apervita raises $22M for its cloud-based platform that enables insurers and healthcare providers to share clinical and insurance claims data  —  Chicago healthcare startup Apervita has raised new financing…

Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:Loop Returns, which helps stores on Shopify handle online returns, raises $10M Series A led by FirstMark Capital  —  Loop Returns, the startup that helps brands handle returns from online purchases, has today announced the close…

Annie Musgrove / Tech.eu:pureLiFi, which is developing optical Gigabit Li-Fi components that can be integrated into mobile devices, raises $18M Series B from Temasek, others  —  pureLifi, a light communication company founded as a spin-out of the…

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:DroneDeploy, a drone mapping and analytics platform, raises $35M Series D, bringing its total raised to $90M, says it now has over 5,000 enterprise customers  —  DroneDeploy, a startup developing a holistic cloud-based drone…

Kevin Roose / New York Times:As millions pay for premium subscriptions to have a “clean” digital media experience, privacy and freedom from advertising are gradually becoming luxury goods  —  A decade ago, an internet video start-up called Hulu boldly…

Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:Qualia, which streamlines closing of real estate deals and claims to handle 15%+ of all US transactions, raises $55M Series C, bringing its total raised to $95M  —  Anyone who has bought a home knows that the sheer amount…

Pew Research Center:Survey: ~60% US adults believe they can not avoid data collection by corporations or govt., 81% think the risks of corporate data collection outweigh benefits  —  Majorities think their personal data is less secure now, that data…

Josh Dzieza / The Verge:A look at Roundup, Montana, which has become a hub in Amazon's supply chain with prep centers that repackage sellers' goods according to Amazon's specifications  —  How the tiny town of Roundup, Montana, became a hub in Amazon's…