Techmeme
January 14, 2021, 6:30 PM

Top News

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Samsung unveils $799 Galaxy S21, $999 Galaxy S21 Plus, and $1,199 Galaxy S21 Ultra, available to preorder on January 14 and launching on January 29  —  Samsung's latest flagships are here: the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra.  The first two — which start at $799 and $999 …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Samsung announces Galaxy SmartTag, a $29.99 Tile competitor that works only with Samsung Galaxy devices, available on January 29  —  It uses Bluetooth Low Energy and will arrive on January 29th  —  Alongside the new Galaxy S21 phones and Galaxy Buds Pro, Samsung is announcing …
David Carnoy / CNET:
Cherlynn Low / Engadget:
Rick Osterloh / The Keyword:
Google completes Fitbit acquisition, vows to protect users' privacy, says “deal has always been about devices, not data”  —  Google has completed its acquisition of Fitbit.  Together, we can make health and wellness more accessible to more people.
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Axios says it will launch AxiosHQ, which lets companies write internal memos styled like Axios newsletters, next month, starting at $10K a year  —  AxiosHQ communications platform to launch with Delta Air Lines and AT&T among early customers  —  Punchy news startup Axios is betting …
New York Times:
Review of public posts of dozens of Facebook users sharing extreme right-wing views shows how Facebook rewards their lies and helped incubate the insurrection  —  Right-wing influencers embraced extremist views, and Facebook rewarded them.  —  Mr. Thompson is a writer and editor in Opinion.
Wall Street Journal:
Sam Shead / CNBC:
A group of health and tech companies, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle, says it is developing a digital COVID-19 vaccination “passport”  —  - A digital Covid vaccination passport is being jointly developed by a group of health and technology companies who anticipate that governments …
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Jack Dorsey says Trump ban was the right decision for Twitter but reflects a “failure” to promote healthy conversation and sets a dangerous precedent  —  Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explained in a tweetstorm that the company faced an ‘extraordinary and untenable circumstance’
Tom Warren / The Verge:
A leak of a near-final version of Windows 10X shows a strong similarity to Chrome OS, with the Start button centered on the taskbar, lack of Live Tiles, more  —  A new lightweight version of Windows to take on Chromebooks  —  After years of waiting, it looks like Microsoft now has a true answer to Chrome OS.
Sarah Emerson / OneZero :
The far-right is flocking to MeWe, a privacy-focused Facebook alternative that has Tim Berners-Lee on its board, with membership growing to 15M in recent months  —  ‘Have you tried to moderate 15 million people?’  MeWe founder Mark Weinstein told OneZero  —  'm an American who is sick …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Apple has removed a controversial feature in macOS 11.2 beta 2 that allowed its own apps to bypass third-party firewalls, security tools, and VPNs  —  The ContentFilterExclusionList has been removed in macOS 11.2 beta 2.  —  Apple has removed a controversial feature from the macOS operating system …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
New research details iOS and Android issues that may allow third parties and law enforcement to access user data and suggests mitigation techniques  —  New research has dug into the openings that iOS and Android security provide for anyone with the right tools.
Kerry Flynn / CNN:
Bloomberg:
Norway's consumer protection agency details how Amazon riddles the process of canceling Prime with “dark patterns,” calls on regulators to investigate  —  - Public Citizen, others ask regulators to probe Prime rules  — Report says manipulative techniques make it hard to opt out
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Ring says it has fixed a security flaw in its Neighbors app that was exposing the precise locations and home addresses of users who had posted to the app  —  A security flaw in Ring's Neighbors app was exposing the precise locations and home addresses of users who had posted to the app.
Shaun Walker / The Guardian:
After denouncing Trump's social media bans, Poland says it plans to make it illegal for tech companies to take similar actions in the country  —  Following Trump's Twitter ban, Polish government wants to protect posts that do not break nation's laws  —  Polish government officials …
Jared Council / Wall Street Journal:
IBM say it will acquire Taos, an IT firm that helps companies migrate from in-house servers to remote cloud infrastructure; terms of the deal were not disclosed  —  Deal marks latest step in IBM's mission to bring customers into cloud era, in which software and data are accessed online

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