Techmeme
February 19, 2021, 11:00 AM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft announces new standalone versions of Office: Office 2021, available for Windows and macOS later this year, and Office LTSC for commercial customers  —  Microsoft Office LTSC is also arriving for businesses  —  Microsoft is announcing two new versions of Office today …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working on a magnetically attached battery pack for iPhone 12 that would wirelessly charge the handset  —  - Accessory has faced development issues related to software  — Wireless charging unit may be popular with frequent users  —  Apple Inc. is working …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google releases Android 12 developer preview, available for Pixel devices, with under-the-hood changes adding security, support for more media formats, and more  —  The big, consumer-facing changes will come later this year  —  Google is releasing a developer preview for the next version of Android …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
UK Supreme Court rules that Uber drivers should be classified as workers not independent contractors, concluding an almost five-year legal battle  —  - The U.K.'s Supreme Court upheld a ruling that Uber's drivers should be classified as workers rather than independent contractors.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Facebook's refusal to pay a misguided media tax, pushed by Rupert Murdoch, is a defense of the open web and criticizing it for rejecting a link tax is bizarre  —  None of this should have been a surprise.  Back in September we wrote about Facebook publicly saying that if Australia went forward …
Damien Cave / New York Times:
William Easton / About Facebook:
Nicholas McElroy / ABC:
Benedict Evans:
Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge:
WhatsApp says it will offer users the ability to review its new privacy policy through a banner inside its app, ahead of the update's May 15 launch  —  The company is trying to set the record straight on private messages and what's changing  —  WhatsApp has a new plan to explain …
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Huawei notifies suppliers that it plans to order components for 70M to 80M smartphones this year, down over 60% from the 189M it shipped last year  —  China's largest handset maker suffers from US sanctions Biden appears to back  —  TOKYO — Huawei Technologies has notified …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Microsoft completes its probe into its SolarWinds-related breach, finds hackers stole some source code but no evidence that they abused its internal systems  —  Microsoft says it has completed its investigation into its SolarWinds-related breach.  —  Microsoft's security team said today …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Mark Zuckerberg, Sundar Pichai, and Jack Dorsey are scheduled to testify at a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing on platform misinformation on March 25  —  The hostility toward Big Tech that had taken hold in Washington has intensified after the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
House Republicans introduce the CONNECT Act, which aims to expand broadband connectivity and competition, but would limit government-run municipal networks  —  GOP claims ban would “promote competition by limiting government-run networks.”  —  House Republicans have unveiled their plan for …
Usman Pirzada / Wccftech:
Nvidia announces dedicated crypto mining GPUs and says RTX 3060 GPU will detect the Ethereum cryptocurrency mining algorithm and limit the hash rate by 50%  —  NVIDIA has finally conceded to the overwhelming mining demand facing the GPU market right now and launched a lineup …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Torii, which helps businesses automate the management of third-party SaaS tools, raises $10M Series A led by Wing Venture Capital  —  Today, that software is offered as a cloud service should be pretty much considered a given.  Certainly any modern tooling is going to be SaaS …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Step into smarter meetings: Zoho Cliq Rooms is now available on Neat devices  —  The meeting landscape has completely transformed over the last few years, moving from conference rooms to people joining across locations and time zones.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Acquired:
Home Depot
Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.
Subscribe to Acquired.
Big Technology Podcast:
Special Report: Will AI Wipe Out Humanity? (And Who Profits)
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
The Atlantic's CEO on AI, Billionaire Owners, and Moonlighting as a Creator
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Mark Zuckerberg on Muse, Meta's biggest AI bet yet
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Lenny's Podcast:
How we built Grok Bot in a month | Roman Ugarte (SpaceXAI)
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Walter Russell Mead - How America Keeps Winning
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:00 AM ET, February 19, 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.

More News

Rest of World:
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Todd Spangler / Variety:

Earlier Picks

Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Bloomberg: