Techmeme
February 25, 2021, 7:50 PM

Top News

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Twitter announces Super Follow feature to let users charge for tweets, and a Communities feature to let users create and join groups based on specific interests  —  It's also planning a groups feature  —  Twitter announced a pair of big upcoming features today: the ability for users to charge …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Twitter says it is planning a safety mode that would let users automatically block and mute accounts that “might be acting abusive or spammy”  —  The company is also working on a new ‘safety mode’  —  Twitter plans to introduce a way for you to automatically block and mute abusive accounts …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
As part of Epic lawsuit, judge orders Valve to tell Apple how much money 436 Steam games made but narrows the amount of info Valve has to provide overall  —  Apple subpoenaed Valve for the data  —  Valve has been compelled by a California court to provide sales data on more than 400 Steam games …
Jeff John Roberts / Decrypt:
Coinbase files its S-1, reveals profit of $322M in 2020 on $1.2B in revenue, up from a loss of $30M in 2019 on $533M in revenue  —  The recent Bitcoin bull run helped Coinbase pull in a profit of $322 million on revenues of over $1.2 billion in 2020, putting the cryptocurrency giant …
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News:
Facebook's Andrew Bosworth told staff that Facebook is considering building facial recognition into future smart glasses products, weighing legal implications  —  Facebook is discussing building facial recognition into its upcoming smart glasses product and has been weighing the legal implications …
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Facebook responds to the Oversight Board's 17 recommendations and commits to action on 11 of them, most of which focus on increasing transparency  —  has agreed to tweak some of its policies in response to recommendations from the Oversight Board.  The board issued its
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Airbnb posts a $3.9B loss in Q4 in first quarterly report since IPO, with revenues of $859M, down 22% YoY, blames much of the loss on charges related to the IPO  —  - Airbnb reported a loss of $3.89 billion in its first earnings report since its IPO late last year.  — However, the company beat expectations for revenue.
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Salesforce reports Q4 revenue of $5.82B, beating estimates of $5.68B, subscription and support revenues of $5.48B, up 20% YoY, and 14K net new paid customers  —  In spite of the solid performance for the quarter, Salesforce shares were down slightly in after-hours trading.
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Facebook is rolling out an opt-in feature, allowing “Hey Facebook” to be used as a wake word for its Portal displays and Oculus Quest platform  —  Available on Portal smart displays and rolling out on Oculus Quest headsets  —  Facebook has introduced a new “Hey Facebook” …
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Eleven current and ex-Mailchimp employees say company executives knew about allegations of racism and sexism at the company, some as early as 2014  —  Alejandra Luaces had only worked at Mailchimp for four months when she got a surprising anonymous email.  “Oliver* is in an open marriage …
Megan Graham / CNBC:
Facebook launches a TV, radio, and digital ad campaign in support of personalized ads called Good Ideas Deserve to be Found, ahead of Apple's IDFA changes  —  - Facebook is launching a new ad campaign called “Good Ideas Deserve to be Found,” which makes a case for personalized advertising.
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Smart TVs running Google TV will come with a Basic mode that strips smart features from the TV  —  Google TV is the company's next effort to rule the living room, picking up on the progress that Android TV made over half a decade.  The first smart TVs running on top of Google TV have yet to hit the market …
Matthew Gault / VICE:
Amazon-owned Twitch bans Amazon's anti-union ads, saying they should never have been allowed to run on the service  —  “These ads should never have been allowed to run on our service,” Twitch said.  —  Matthew Gault  —  Amazon warehouse workers in Bessemer, Alabama are voting on unionization …
Robinhood:
Robinhood says it has added 6M new crypto customers so far in 2021; Robinhood averaged ~200K new crypto customers a month in 2020  —  Since we launched nearly three years ago, Robinhood Crypto has been central to our efforts to expand access to financial services and democratize finance for all.
Cynthia Littleton / Variety:
AT&T and PE firm TPG reach a deal to make DirecTV a standalone company with TPG owning 30%; the deal is valued at $16.25B, includes DirecTV, AT&T TV, U-verse  —  The sides have been in talks for months as AT&T has sought to find a solution to the problem of DirecTV's subscriber losses dragging …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India issues tougher rules for tech firms and streaming services like Facebook, Twitter, WhatsApp, and Netflix over resolving user complaints and more  —  India announced sweeping rules to regulate social media firms, streaming services, and digital news outlets, joining a handful of other nations …
Emily Birnbaum / Protocol:
First House antitrust hearing of the new Congress saw bipartisan agreement on antitrust reforms, including on reforming burden of proof in merger cases  —  During the first House antitrust hearing of the new Congress, Democratic chairman David Cicilline and Republican ranking member Ken Buck …

Sponsor Posts

Niantic Spatial:
World models need real-world data  —  Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics.  Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
Zoho:
Meet Zoho Books MCP: Bring AI-powered accounting to your business  —  Isn't change the only constant?  And that holds true for accounting too.  For years, accounting software has helped businesses manage their finances …
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.
Anuma:
The Private AI That Remembers  —  Anuma is the all-in-one AI platform with private, portable memory.  Chat, text, create, build, and solve across every model.

Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
Runway's Cris Valenzuela: Building The Hollywood-Friendly Video AI That OpenAI Couldn't
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI's Big Reset + A.I. in the Doctor's Office + Talkie, a pre-1930s LLM
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.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Food and Beverage Director', With MG Siegler
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Access:
What happens when AI runs a store
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Why Blockbuster Failed
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:50 PM ET, February 25, 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

Katie Roof / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Rafael Frankel / About Facebook:
Alex Leary / Wall Street Journal:
Daniel Van Boom / CNET: