Techmeme
February 15, 2021, 10:25 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sources: Microsoft is testing a browser-based version of its xCloud game streaming service, currently for Chromium browsers like Chrome and Microsoft Edge  —  This is what Xbox looks like in a browser  —  Microsoft has started testing its xCloud game streaming through a web browser.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Clubhouse, which centralizes creation and consumption into a feedback loop, will do for audio what Twitter, Stories, and TikTok did for text, images, and video  —  To what extent are new companies, particularly those in new spaces, pushed versus pulled into existence?  Last week I wrote about how Tesla is a Meme Company:
Damien Wilde / 9to5Google:
UK filing: OnePlus co-founder Carl Pei's new venture Nothing has acquired Essential, Andy Rubin's now-defunct smartphone brand  —  After a series of launch teasers and little information on upcoming product lines, Carl Pei's flegling technology brand Nothing is now the sole owner of the one-time smartphone brand Essential.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Parler says it is now accessible for existing users and will accept new signups starting next week, announces Tea Party activist Mark Meckler as interim CEO  —  An Amazon suspension shut it down in January  —  The alternative social network Parler has reopened after a month offline.
@pwnallthethings:
[Thread] A breakdown of significant issues with Bloomberg's recent Supermicro story, which may have relied on misunderstandings of an FBI briefing by a source  —  tl;dr is a source misunderstood an FBI defensive briefing on China's supply chain activities, leaked it to the press, and bloomberg has *again* failed to do the work necessary to verify the sensational claims, because they mistake impressive credentials with domain expertise.
Financial Times:
France is pushing for changes to EU's upcoming tech regulations so that member states will have expanded powers to punish bad behavior and police more content  —  Paris wants member states to have more power to act against illegal content  —  France is pushing for the EU's upcoming regulations …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
France says Russia-linked Sandworm hacking group breached several French entities running the Centreon IT monitoring software in a three year operation  —  New ANSSI report exposes new Sandworm APT attacks targeting IT companies using Centreon servers.  —  France's cyber-security agency …
Nicole Perlroth / Wired:
Early 0-day exploit brokers, some active in the late 90s, share stories about a nascent industry that became key to espionage, organized crime, and war planning  —  The lucrative business of dealing in code vulnerabilities is central to espionage and war planning, which is why brokers never spoke about it—until now.
Chainalysis Blog:
Research: $1.3B or 55% of all money laundering in cryptocurrency in 2020 was driven by just 270 deposit addresses owned by five illicit fund receiving services  —  This blog is an excerpt from the Chainalysis 2021 Crypto Crime Report.  Click here and sign up to get the full document emailed …
Noah Smith / Noahpinion:
The NYT overstated the influence of both Slate Star Codex and the Rationalist community on Silicon Valley, and falsely portrayed the tech industry as right-wing  —  Stereotyping the tech industry as a bunch of secretive right-wingers isn't correct, and it isn't helpful.  —  11 hr ago
Cade Metz / New York Times:

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