Techmeme
January 21, 2021, 5:10 PM

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 …
Nick Clegg / About Facebook:
Facebook is referring its decision to indefinitely suspend Trump's accounts to the Oversight Board and says the accounts will remain suspended in the meantime  —  Today, Facebook is referring its decision to indefinitely suspend former US President Donald Trump's access to his Facebook …
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Raspberry Pi Foundation launches $4 Pico, a tiny microcontroller for hardware projects that uses Raspberry Pi's own RP2040 chip  —  Meet the Raspberry Pi Pico, a tiny little microcontroller that lets you build hardware projects with some code running on the microcontroller.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Federal judge rejects Parler's demand to be reinstated on AWS  —  Ruling calls Parler's antitrust evidence ‘dwindlingly slight’  —  A Washington judge has denied social network Parler's demand to be reinstated on Amazon Web Services.  Following a hearing last week, Judge Barbara Rothstein declined …
April Glaser / NBC News:
Profile of Jessica Rosenworcel, the second woman to lead the FCC as acting chair and a big proponent of net neutrality and expanding broadband access  —  President Joe Biden has picked Jessica Rosenworcel to run the Federal Communications Commission in an interim position.
Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:
Biden designates Jessica Rosenworcel, currently a Democratic commissioner at the FCC, as acting chairwoman of the agency  —  President Biden has designated Jessica Rosenworcel as acting chairwoman of the Federal Communications Commission, according to an agency statement.
Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:
Instacart cuts 1,877 jobs, including its only union roles, as it shifts to new models, like selling its tech to retailers to have their staff prepare orders  —  Instacart Inc. plans to terminate about 1,900 employees' jobs, including the only unionized positions in the U.S., representing a fulsome embrace of the gig economy.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Google signs an agreement with French publishers to create a framework of payment for snippet reuse 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.
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.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Bluesky, Twitter's decentralized social networking project, releases a review of the existing decentralized web ecosystem, says it still seeks a project lead  —  Bluesky is still seeking a project lead  —  Bluesky, Twitter's decentralized social networking effort, has announced its first major update since 2019.
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 …
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
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Intel beats with Q4 revenue of $20B, down 1% YoY, vs $17.49B est., and Data Center Group revenue of $6.1B, down 16% YoY; stock up 6%+ after hours  —  - Intel's earnings report on Thursday is the last with Bob Swan in the CEO role.  — Former VMWare CEO Pat Gelsinger takes over as Intel CEO in February.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
IBM reports Q4 revenue of $20.37B, down 6% YoY, vs $20.67B est., Cloud and Cognitive Software revenue, which includes Red Hat, was $6.84B, down 5% YoY  —  - IBM's revenue fell more than analysts were expecting.  — The company's revenue has now declined for four consecutive quarters.
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Singapore-based iSTOX, a digital securities service that lets users make private equity investments as small as $75.50, raises $50M Series A  —  ISTOX, a digital securities platform that wants to make private equity investment more accessible, has added new investors from Japan to its Series A round, bringing its total to $50 million.
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
Omnipresent, which helps companies hire remote workers in 150 countries, raises $15.8M Series A, five months after raising a $2M seed round  —  Omnipresent, which helps companies employ remote-working local teams worldwide, has closed a $15.8 million Series A funding round.
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 …

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Earlier Picks

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
Ina Fried / Axios: