Techmeme: Curtsy, which makes an app allowing women to list their clothes, shoes, and accessories for resale, raises $11M Series A led by Index Ventures (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sources: Apple's first VR headset, planned for 2022 with a focus on gaming, video, and communication but with limited AR features, faces development hurdles — Apple Inc.'s first crack at a headset is designed to be a pricey, niche precursor to a more ambitious augmented reality product …

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Google signs an agreement with French media to create a framework for payment for publisher content and has reached agreements with three major newspapers — Google has reached an agreement with an association of French publishers over how it will be pay for reuse of snippets of their content.

More: Le blog officiel de …, CNN, CNBC, International Business Times, Associated Press, EURACTIV.com, Bloomberg, Engadget, and The Keyword. Tweets: @jason_kint

See also Mediagazer

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

Amazon says it wants to help the Biden administration's vaccination efforts, says non-WFH Amazon staff should be vaccinated “at the earliest appropriate time” — Amazon says it is ready to turn its facilities into COVID-19 vaccination sites and is offering other resources to the U.S. government.

More: Reuters, NBC News, The Verge, CNN, Bloomberg, CNBC, TechCrunch, PCMag, Protocol, Associated Press, Engadget, coinspeaker.com, Axios, The Hill, SiliconANGLE, and The Economic Times

Tweets: @dylanbyers, @robbwolf, @itshilarybuff, @davidharsanyi, @hassankhan, @ryanqdavis, @dylanbyers, @ashk4n, @andrewhclark, @kantrowitz, @sspencer_smb, @redsteeze, @gillianhturner, @jennifer__brett, @annierpalmer, @jordanzakarin, and @ryanqualtrics. Thanks:@kslosh

Joseph Cox / VICE:

Hackers and hobbyists have deployed facial recognition on Parler videos taken at the Capitol on Jan. 6, showing the democratization of facial recognition tech — It demonstrates the democratization of facial recognition, but comes littered with ethical issues. — Joseph Cox

More: Wired. Tweets: @jason_koebler, @weinbergersa, @vicenews, and @vice

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

TripActions, a booking and management service with insights into business travel and expenses, raises $155M Series E co-led by a16z — TripActions, a booking and management platform that offers enterprises real-time data, automated reporting, and insights into business travel and expenses …

More: TechCrunch, FinSMEs, CTech, Tech.eu, Lightspeed Venture Partners, and CNBC

Jon Porter / The Verge:

Pebble founder launches Beeper, a $10/month universal chat app, promising to bring 15 chat service into a single UI, including iMessage on Android and Windows — Beeper brings 15 chat apps together into one interface — Beeper is a new universal chat app that's an attempt …

More: 9to5Google, HotHardware.com News, BetaNews, Android Authority, MacRumors, Windows Central, Chrome Unboxed, Apple Terminal, iPhone Hacks, Tom's Guide, Cult of Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, Neowin, Android Central, and The Mac Observer

Tweets: @tsuvik, @iansherr, and @tomwarren

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Curtsy, which makes an app allowing women to list their clothes, shoes, and accessories for resale, raises $11M Series A led by Index Ventures — Curtsy, a clothing resale app and competitor to recently IPO'd Poshmark, announced today it has raised $11 million in Series A funding for its startup focused on the Gen Z market.

Monica Chin / The Verge:

A large number of laptop flagships in H1 2021 will ship with 16:10 or 3:2 displays, signalling an industry-wide shift toward laptops with taller aspect ratios — For lovers of tall screens, it's a great time to be alive — One of the biggest trends coming out of this year's CES …

More: ExtremeTech. Tweets: @raywongy, @stevesi, @stanhoraczek, and @dcseifert

Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:

Analysts suggest the recent surge in GameStop's stock price, up 1,500% in nine months, is mostly the result of a short squeeze bubble that will pop eventually — New board members and a massive short squeeze cause stratospheric short-term growth. — Nine months ago, GameStop stock bottomed …

Tweets: @kyleorl

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: beautiful screen with high refresh rate and a great camera system but let down by software with ads and subpar Bixby — Samsung's “Ultra” phones are meant to be the absolute pinnacle of the company's (non-folding) mobile technology.

More: CNET, Engadget, TechCrunch, IGN, Wired, Tom's Guide, and Input

Tweets: @mattrosoff, @backlon, @backlon, and @backlon

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:

The Biden administration updates WhiteHouse.gov with several new accessibility features, including dark mode, a large text mode, and more — From dark times to dark mode — The official website of the White House, WhiteHouse.gov, has been completely replaced with a new version …

More: Reuters, Protocol, NPR, Gizmodo, Business Insider, TechRadar, TechCrunch, and GeekWire

Tweets: @sarajchipps, @poisonedhoney_, @chillmage, @courtneyknorris, @mkbhd, @ericmichaud, and @tomwarren

Manasa Gogineni / VentureBeat:

OpenDrives, which provides network-attached storage for enterprise clients, raises almost $20M in Series B led funding by IAG Capital Partners — OpenDrives, which provides network-attached storage solutions for enterprise clients, has raised a series B funding round.

More: CRN, dot.LA, and GlobeNewswire

The Information:

Sources: Patreon is considering an IPO as soon as this year and has recently passed $100M in annualized revenue — Patreon, the online service that allows podcasters, musicians and other artists to receive direct financial support from fans, is considering a public listing as soon as this year …

Tweets: @apollozac and @alexeheath

Chris Metinko / Crunchbase News:

Valtix, which helps companies secure application environments in AWS, Azure, and GCP, raises $12.5M from Cisco Investments, Northgate Capital, and others — Valtix has closed a $12.5 million strategic funding round from Cisco Investments, Northgate Capital and The Syndicate Group (TSG) …

More: VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, PR Newswire, and SecurityWeek

Catherine Stupp / Wall Street Journal:

EU regulators are scrutinizing how employers monitor workers, including via video surveillance or key logger tech, and whether such actions violate GDPR — Remote work adds surveillance risks, privacy experts say — European privacy regulators are scrutinizing how employers collect workers' personal data …

Richard Lawler / Engadget:

Donald Trump pardons ex-Waymo and Uber engineer Anthony Levandowski; Peter Thiel and Palmer Luckey were among those supporting a pardon for Levandowski — Last year Anthony Levandowski pleaded guilty to one count of stealing materials from Google, where he was an engineer for its self-driving car efforts …

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.

Zoho:

Get your favorite apps talking to Zoho Sign with Zapier — Your business didn't come together overnight. It's something you've built, refined, and fine-tuned over time. Every tool you use has a purpose …

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Grit:

How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

Lenny's Podcast:

The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Access:

Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:20 AM ET, January 21, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.