Techmeme
March 18, 2021, 4:05 PM

Top News

Katie Notopoulos / BuzzFeed News:
Facebook is working on a neural wristband that reads signals from brain to hands, to go along with its AR glasses; Bosworth insists it can't “read your brain”  —  Facebook is working on a new neural wristband that can read the electrical signals sent to your hands and send them to an augmented reality interface.
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
A look at the origins of Clearview AI, which far-right activist Charles Johnson says he co-founded, as it is besieged by lawsuits and investigations  —  In May 2019, an agent at the Department of Homeland Security received a trove of unsettling images.  Found by Yahoo in a Syrian user's account …
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Facebook, which supported security keys on desktop since 2017, expands support to iOS and Android users  —  Facebook has supported security keys on desktop since 2017 and will now enable iOS and Android users to log in to their account via the physical key.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it is testing a way for its iOS users to watch YouTube videos in their timelines, in the US, Japan, Canada, and Saudi Arabia  —  Shortly after Twitter announced it would begin testing a better way to display images on its app, it's now doing the same for YouTube videos.
Sundar Pichai / The Keyword:
Google says it will invest $7B+ in offices and data centers across the US and create at least 10K new full-time Google jobs in the US this year  —  One of the best parts of my job is getting the opportunity to visit the communities that Google is a part of across the U.S. Whether it's meeting …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Kuo: MiniLED displays will be used in the MacBook Air by 2022 and the 2022 iPad Air will feature an OLED display  —  Rumors have been suggesting that Apple will soon release a new iPad Pro with a Mini-LED display, but the company also plans to bring this technology to other devices in the future.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Robert Hackett / Fortune:
OpenSea, a marketplace for NFTs, raises $23M Series A led by a16z crypto, says $95M in digital merchandise was sold on the service in Feb., up from $8M in Jan.  —  Subscribe to The Ledger for expert weekly analysis on fintech's big stories, delivered free to your inbox.
Reed Albergotti / Washington Post:
Developer of Watch app FlickType, who previously called out Apple for allowing scam and copycat apps, sues Apple claiming fraud and unfair competition  —  The developer behind FlickType, an Apple Watch keyboard, alleges the company used its power over the App Store to stymie its progress
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researchers detail XcodeSpy, a custom version of open source back door EggShell that aims to spy on the Macs of iOS developers  —  XcodeSpy uses malicious Xcode project to install the EggShell backdoor.  —  Researchers said they've found a trojanized code library in the wild that attempts …
Austen Goslin / Polygon:
Nvidia is doubling the price of GeForce Now cloud gaming memberships to $10 a month for new users; its almost 10M “Founder” members will keep the same price  —  Nvidia will keep the price the same for Founders subscribers  —  Nvidia is effectively doubling the price of GeForce Now, its cloud streaming service.
Eddie Makuch / GameSpot:
Sony unveils PS5 VR controllers with haptic feedback, adaptive triggers, and finger touch detection  —  Sony has begun to share more details on its vision for next-gen virtual reality, today announcing and showing off the new controllers that will come with PSVR 2.0 for PS5.
Annalee Newitz / The Hypothesis:
Substack's decision to pay certain writers to write on the platform is an editorial one as leaders decide what kind of writing they want to support  —  They paid a secret group of writers to make newsletter authorship seem lucrative  —  I think of myself as having decent critical faculties …
Reuters:
Sources: DOJ investigators are asking ad executives whether Google's plan to ban third-party cookies will hobble its smaller rivals  —  (Reuters) - Google's plan to block a popular web tracking tool called “cookies” is a source of concern for U.S. Justice Department investigators …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
YouTube is rolling out its TikTok rival YouTube Shorts in the US, but the beta is missing features and feels half-baked  —  Rolling out to everyone in the US ‘over the next several weeks’  —  YouTube Shorts, the company's short-form answer to TikTok, is launching in beta in the United States starting today.
John Cook / GeekWire:
Real estate tech startup OfferPad, a Zillow rival, says it is going public via SPAC, valuing the company at $3B and raising $650M  —  Former Zillow Group CEO Spencer Rascoff is jumping back into the real estate game in a big way.  —  Rascoff, who left the CEO post at the Seattle real estate juggernaut …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Apple's concession to Russia to prompt users to install state-approved apps sets a precedent that other authoritarian countries may seek to follow  —  Russian iPhone buyers will soon be prompted to install software developed in that country, setting a precedent that other authoritarian governments may follow.
Kishan Vyas / XDA Developers:
Google Chrome adds Live Caption as an accessibility feature in Chrome 89, to transcribe speech in videos  —  Google first showcased its amazing Live Caption accessibility feature at Google I/0 2019.  The feature was first rolled out to the Pixel phones with Android 10 update and subsequently arrived …
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
OpenReel, which is building tools to simplifying remote video production, raises $19M Series A and says Dell, ViacomCBS, and Verizon Media are clients  —  OpenReel, a startup that makes it easier for teams to record videos remotely, has raised $19 million in Series A funding.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Kuda, which offers mobile-first banking services in Nigeria, raises $25M Series A led by Valar Ventures, following a $10M seed round four months ago  —  Challenger banks continue to make significant advances in attracting customers away from the big incumbents by providing more modern, user-friendly tools to manage their money.
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