Techmeme
January 24, 2021, 12:35 AM

Top News

Sam Byford / The Verge:
Microsoft backtracks on price hike for Xbox Live Gold subscriptions announced Friday and says free-to-play games will also no longer require a Gold subscription  —  Free-to-play games will also no longer require a Gold subscription  —  Microsoft has reversed its controversial Xbox Live price increase.
Crispian Balmer / Reuters:
Italy tells TikTok to block all unverified user accounts after a 10-year-old girl dies while allegedly participating in the “blackout challenge” on the app  —  ROME (Reuters) - The Italian data privacy watchdog ordered video app TikTok on Friday to block the accounts of any users …
Will Oremus / OneZero :
Despite the influx of tech veterans into Biden's administration, the latest appointments and developments show Biden will be tougher on tech than predecessors  —  Two schools of thought on the new administration  —  For all of Donald Trump's railing against Amazon's “monopoly,” social media …
Dana Hull / Bloomberg:
As Starlink builds out its satellite constellation, it is enjoying a very warm reception from the early adopters of its internet service in remote areas  —  - SpaceX's satellite-based service wins over some early adopters  — Coverage so far includes rural areas in U.S., Canada and U.K.
The Information:
Sources: VCs have approached Clubhouse about investing in its next round at ~$1B valuation, a 10X increase from the previous round; a16z is expected to lead  —  The race to invest in social audio app Clubhouse is on again.  Venture capital firms have approached the startup's founders …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Conor Hale / FierceBiotech:
Philips acquired Capsule Technologies, a provider of data platforms to connect all medical devices and record systems within a hospital, for $635M in cash  —  Philips has moved to acquire Capsule Technologies—a provider of data platforms that aim to connect all of the medical devices …
USA Today:
Facebook said a “configuration change” caused some users to be logged out of their apps on Saturday morning; issue is now fixed  —  “Why am I logged out of Facebook?”  The question ricocheted around the internet as an untold number of people across the nation found themselves logged out of their apps Friday night.

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More News

William Boston / Wall Street Journal:
Todd Spangler / Variety:

Earlier Picks

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Dara Kerr / CNET:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: