Techmeme
March 16, 2021, 8:20 AM

Top News

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Chinese state broadcaster says Xi Jinping ordered regulators to increase oversight on internet companies, crack down on monopolies, and promote fair competition  —  - Comments from top leader follows fintech, antitrust actions  — Regulators are said to set their sights on Tencent after Ant
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Hacker paid a company called Sakari $16 to reroute a reporter's texts and used SMS 2FA to break into his accounts, showing the need for regulation of SMS tools  —  A gaping flaw in SMS lets hackers take over phone numbers in minutes,by simply paying a company to reroute text messages.  —  Joseph Cox
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
iOS 14.5 beta code suggests Apple is working on a method for delivering standalone iOS security updates  —  Among all the new features introduced with iOS 14.5, which had its fourth beta released today to developers, there are also some changes hidden in the operating system's internal codes.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Microsoft releases one-click Exchange On-Premises Mitigation Tool to help businesses that don't have expertise easily patch recently disclosed vulnerabilities  —  Microsoft has released a one-click Exchange On-premises Mitigation Tool (EOMT) tool to allow small business owners to easily mitigate …
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Report: iPhone 12 lineup lags behind 25 Android phones in 5G download speeds; Samsung accounts for 60% of top 25 5G performers with Galaxy S21 5G at the top  —  A new report from Opensignal paints a rough picture for how 5G performance on the iPhone 12 lineup stacks up against Android smartphones in the US.
Financial Times:
Sources: Tencent and ByteDance are testing a new tool called CAID, developed by the China Advertising Association, to bypass Apple's IDFA ad privacy changes  —  ByteDance and Tencent see if they can keep tracking iPhone users with solution created by state-backed group
Rita Liao / TechCrunch:
Signal app and website are unavailable in China but the app is still available in the App Store; Greatfire says Signal's website was banned on March 15  —  Chinese users of the instant messenger Signal knew that the good times wouldn't last long.  The app, which is used for encrypted conversations …
News Corp:
News Corp says it has reached a three-year deal with Facebook to provide news to Facebook users in Australia through the Facebook News product  —  Expands News Corp-Facebook Connection, Which Began With Deal In US  —  New York, NY (March 15, 2021) - News Corp announced today that it has reached …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Nvidia confirms that a now-removed driver for developers to test the Windows Subsystem for Linux could unlock RTX 3060's Ethereum cryptomining performance  —  Nvidia probably didn't mean to do this  —  Nvidia implemented a special system to reduce the hash rate of Ethereum mining on its new RTX 3060 graphics card last month.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:
Report: UK tech startups raised a record $15B in 2020, higher than any country besides US ($144B) and China ($44.6B), and $8B in the first three months of 2021  —  Tech sector pulls away from France and Germany despite pandemic and Brexit challenges  —  The UK tech sector attracted record investment …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
London-based SumUp, which helps companies manage card payments, raises ~$895M from Goldman Sachs and others and says it has 3M customers  —  SumUp, a London-based startup that helps businesses power revenues through card payments — by way of physical readers, online payments …
More: Tech.eu
Yonhap News Agency:
Sources: Google will lower its commission on all in-app purchases from 30% to 15% in South Korea for developers with less than $1M annual sales, starting July 1  —  Global tech giant Google pushs to lower its planned commission rate for app developers, parliamentary and industry sources said Monday …
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
ByteDance has posted at least 12 job listings related to semiconductors, including hardware and software engineers in Shanghai and Beijing  —  The standout Chinese startup ByteDance Ltd. has begun hiring employees for a possible push into semiconductors, exploring an expansion well beyond …
More: Reuters

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More News

Micah Lee / The Intercept:
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Tyler Sonnemaker / Business Insider Australia:

Earlier Picks

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Queenie Wong / CNET:
Financial Times: