Reading List

The most recent articles from a list of feeds I subscribe to.

Samsung is adding two new Galaxy Ring sizes

Cat paw sneakily reaching out to swipe the Galaxy Ring
Photo by Victoria Song / The Verge

Samsung is making the Galaxy Ring available to more people by adding size 14 and 15 rings to its options starting on January 22nd. With the expansion, which was rumored last month, the company says its ring sizes now run from five to 15, though it caveats that both size and color availability will vary by market.

The new sizes bring the Galaxy Ring closer to competitor Oura, which already offers its smart ring in sizes four to 15. Samsung’s announcement didn’t include details about the ring’s weight or battery life, but the current lineup’s larger size 12 and 13 rings use bigger batteries and can last an extra day versus the others.

The bigger options will be nice for those at the upper end of its size range, particularly if they’re only a half-size up. As my colleague Victoria Song wrote in her smart ring sizing guide, even if you’re able to slide the ring on, it could be hard to take it off again as your fingers swell in response to things like the food you’ve eaten or the environment you’re in.

Samsung also announced it’s going to sell its smart ring in 16 more countries, including Japan, Taiwan, New Zealand, Greece, and South Africa, starting on February 7th, though the exact date for each release will vary, it writes.

Clearwater Analytics agreed to acquire Enfusion, a SaaS provider for hedge funds and investment managers, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $1.5B (Ryan Lawler/Axios)

Ryan Lawler / Axios:
Clearwater Analytics agreed to acquire Enfusion, a SaaS provider for hedge funds and investment managers, in a cash-and-stock deal valued at $1.5B  —  Exit Content Preview … - Clearwater expects to pay around $760 million in cash and issue between 23 million and 28 million new shares to Enfusion shareholders.

Jimmy Wales, Mark Ruffalo, others debut Free Our Feeds to raise $30M by 2028 to "billionaire-proof" AT Protocol, by making it easier for users to leave Bluesky (Richard Nieva/Forbes)

Richard Nieva / Forbes:
Jimmy Wales, Mark Ruffalo, others debut Free Our Feeds to raise $30M by 2028 to “billionaire-proof” AT Protocol, by making it easier for users to leave Bluesky  —  Free Our Feeds, which includes support from the Mozilla Foundation, is working with Bluesky to make sure …

Meta Is Blocking Links to Decentralized Instagram Competitor Pixelfed

Jason Koebler, 404 Media:

Meta is deleting links to Pixelfed, a decentralized Instagram competitor. On Facebook, the company is labeling links to Pixelfed.social as “spam” and deleting them immediately.

Pixelfed is an open-source, community-funded and decentralized image sharing platform that runs on Activity Pub, which is the same technology that supports Mastodon and other federated services. Pixelfed.social is the largest Pixelfed server, which was launched in 2018 but has gained renewed attention over the last week.

Bluesky user AJ Sadauskas originally posted that links to Pixelfed were being deleted by Meta; 404 Media then also tried to post a link to Pixelfed on Facebook. It was immediately deleted.

True free speech is the freedom to avoid seeing alternatives to Instagram.

Crypto payments platform MoonPay has acquired blockchain payment processor Helio, a source says for $175M (Eleanor Terrett/Fox Business)

Eleanor Terrett / Fox Business:
Crypto payments platform MoonPay has acquired blockchain payment processor Helio, a source says for $175M  —  The acquisition follows partnerships with PayPal and Venmo  —  Crypto payments platform MoonPay has acquired blockchain payment processor Helio for $175 million …