Techmeme
March 17, 2021, 2:30 PM

Top News

Sohee Kim / Bloomberg:
Samsung says it is considering skipping launch of a new Note this year to streamline its lineup and warns of a “serious imbalance” in semiconductors globally  —  - It's seeing a ‘serious imbalance’ in global semiconductors  — The warning suggests shortages may spread beyond autos
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Samsung updates its mid-range Galaxy lineup: 6.5" A52 and A52 5G, from ~$415, and 6.7" A72, from ~$535, with 90Hz or 120Hz displays, better cameras, and more  —  The A-series phones will also include IP67 ratings, brighter screens, and expandable microSD storage
Bloomberg:
A profile of Clubhouse co-founder Paul Davison, who previously had built social apps like Highlight and Shorts that nudged people to share more by default  —  “He's got more momentum than force,” says a former colleague.  “Paul is just always moving forward.”
Shaan Puri / @shaanvp:
[Thread] Why Clubhouse will fail: most of the content is “meh” and users will struggle to find interesting live content, leading to low user retention  —  So... everyone seems to think clubhouse is the “next big thing” - but I think it's going to fail. Here's how I think it all goes down..
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Sensor Tower: if a 15% commission was in place in 2020, Apple would have missed out on app store fees of ~$595M, or 2.7% of the total, and Google ~$587M, or 5%  —  - Apple and Google have announced changes to app store fees that impact app makers making less than $1 million per year.
Substack Blog:
Substack shares details on its Pro program after criticism, saying 30+ writers with a “diverse set of viewpoints” have signed up, none of whom are anti-trans  —  In recent days, we've heard from some people who are concerned that we might have been using Substack Pro …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Facebook outlines multiple changes for Groups: probation for rule-breaking users, limiting civic and political groups' reach, and requiring more moderation  —  Ultimately culminating in a ban  —  Facebook is trying to clean up its Groups experience and limit the reach of potentially problematic users and communities.
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
France says Apple's upcoming IDFA ad privacy changes are not abusive but will investigate if Apple has stricter rules for third-party apps than for its own apps  —  French competition authority says Apple's changes 'don't appear to be abusive'  —  France's competition regulator rejected …
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
Apple says it has generated 1.2 GW of clean energy and removed an average of 921K metric tons of carbon emissions annually, as part of its $4.7B Green Bond  —  In a press release today, Apple touted the significant progress it has made as part of its $4.7 billion Green Bond.
Will Bedingfield / WIRED UK:
For the first time, Netflix details its carbon footprint using DIMPACT tool, claiming one hour of streaming equates to a 75W ceiling fan running for four hours  —  Streaming platforms finally have a tool to evaluate the size of their carbon footprint.  Now they need to take action and go green
More: Wired and Green Matters
Financial Times:
How Stripe became Silicon Valley's most valuable private company by being capital efficient at scale and having a self-sustaining core payments business  —  Underpinning $95bn valuation is investors' belief that payments digitisation still has some way to run
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Stripe's Patrick Collison, Microsoft's Brad Smith, Google's Thomas Kurian, and Cloudflare's Matthew Prince discuss moderation in internet infrastructure  —  Manage your Stratechery subscription.  —  It was Patrick Collison, Stripe's CEO, who pointed out to me that one of the animating principles …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Facebook's interest in newsletters stems from its shift in product development to focus on private messaging and Groups, not the News Feed  —  Hint: it's all about Groups.  PLUS: Substack fumbles  —  Today let's talk about platforms' growing interest in building newsletter tools …
Bloomberg:
FCC votes 4-0 to set rules for the sale of more 5G spectrum tracts, covering millions of people, in October; most recent 5G auction raised $81B  —  - Vote at FCC establishes conditions for October airwaves sale  — FCC votes on rules as carriers race to accumulate frequencies
CNBC:
SEC filing: Uber will reclassify its UK drivers as “workers”, granting them vacation pay, minimum wage, and pension plan access, but not full employee benefits  —  - Uber will reclassify all U.K.-based drivers as workers.  — Under the new designation, more than 70,000 drivers …
Dara Khosrowshahi / London Evening Standard:
Jonty Wareing / @jonty:
[Thread] Most NFTs' JSON metadata files point to normal URLs or IPFS gateway URLs run by an NFT startup; if the startups shutter, those NFTs will likely break  —  Out of curiosity I dug into how NFT's actually reference the media you're “buying” and my eyebrows are now orbiting the moon
Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:
France's data protection watchdog says it has opened a probe into Clubhouse to assess whether EU's GDPR applies to the app  —  - Probe aims to confirm whether GDPR applies to Clubhouse  — German regulator also looking at how app protects user privacy
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it will publish an annual report detailing its impact on human rights, and will establish a fund to support human rights activists and journalists  —  - Social media giant to give board formal updates on the issue  — Company has been criticized for role in Myanmar, Sri Lanka

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI that works  —  Tribe builds tech for top AI companies.  Get in touch to learn how our bench of 500+ engineers and researchers can accelerate your roadmap.
Kulkan Security:
Hire Kulkan as your penetration testing partner  —  Kulkan prioritizes deep-dive manual security reviews, dissecting your software and infrastructure to find issues that once remediated can truly reduce security risk.
Zoho:
Environmental impact of remote support: Reducing carbon footprints in IT  —  Information technology is essential for powering core business processes and facilitating communication.
Mastodon:
Donate to Mastodon  —  Mastodon gGmbH, the non-profit behind the open-source software powering the social web, relies entirely on support from users like you.  Donate directly with a credit card or through Patreon.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Magatte Wade, Unlocking Prosperity in Africa (#53)
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Wed. 04/17 - Copilots Or The Biggest Model Wins? The Competing AI Visions.
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:30 PM ET, March 17, 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

Todd Feathers / VICE:

Earlier Picks

Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Danny Palmer / ZDNet: