Techmeme
March 23, 2021, 1:15 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft is in talks to buy Discord for more than $10B; one source says Discord is more likely to go public than sell itself  —  Microsoft Corp. is in talks to acquire Discord Inc., a video-game chat community, for more than $10 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Nintendo will use new Nvidia graphics chip in its 2021 Switch upgrade, helping the console deliver 4K on TVs via Nvidia's DLSS  —  - The Nvidia system-on-chip will also add memory and CPU upgrade  — Nintendo's console refresh targeting year-end shopping season
Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
OnePlus unveils the $159 OnePlus Watch, available April 14, which has a circular 1.39" display, blood oxygen tracking, fast charging, and does not run Wear OS  —  But it doesn't run Wear OS  —  It's taken years, but OnePlus is finally getting in the smartwatch game with the newly announced OnePlus Watch, starting at $159.
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
The controversies around Substack miss the point that it is just a tool for sovereign writers, who are in control as they are paid directly by subscribers  —  Manage your Stratechery subscription.  —  There has been a bit of controversy around Substack over the last week …
João Carrasqueira / Neowin:
Microsoft, Google, and others partner to improve browser compatibility, focusing on five areas, including CSS Flexbox, CSS Grid, and CSS sticky positioning  —  Google and Microsoft have announced that they're joining forces with other companies such as Igalia, as well as the “broader web community” …
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Facebook docs show how it moderates users in repressive regimes, including a list of “recognized crimes” and allowing praise for mass killers in some contexts  —  Exclusive: users are allowed to praise mass killers and ‘violent non-state actors’ in certain situations
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft rebrands Xbox Live as Xbox network and says the change is to distinguish the online service from Xbox Live Gold membership  —  Xbox network is the future  —  Microsoft is rebranding Xbox Live to Xbox network.  Instances of the new branding started appearing in the Xbox dashboard recently …
Joe Light / Bloomberg:
Boston Fed officials and MIT researchers, who have been developing prototypes for a digital dollar platform, plan to unveil their research as soon as July  —  - Boston Fed, MIT researchers plan to unveil platform work soon  — Project could threaten banks, credit cards, cryptocurrencies
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Orca Security, which provides tools for protecting cloud-based assets, raises $210M Series C led by CapitalG and Redpoint Ventures at a $1.2B valuation  —  Orca Security, an Israeli cybersecurity startup that offers an agent-less security platform for protecting cloud-based assets …
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Lattice, which helps companies track, reward, and set goals in the workplace, raises $60M led by Tiger Global at a $1B valuation, up from $450M last year  —  - Human resources tech startup raises $60 million in new funds  — CEO says it helps fix the dreaded employee performance review
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Niantic announces a new partnership with Nintendo to develop mobile games built on Niantic's AR tech, starting with a game based on Nintendo's Pikmin franchise  —  Niantic and Nintendo announced a new partnership  —  Niantic, developer of the smash hit Pokémon Go, has announced a new partnership with Nintendo.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Biden announces his intent to nominate Lina Khan, a legal scholar and leading voice in the growing tech antitrust movement, to serve as an FTC commissioner  —  Khan brought Big Tech scrutiny mainstream  —  President Joe Biden has announced his intent to nominate Lina Khan …
Wall Street Journal:
Analysis of 3,100 sites shows that hospitals are using code to hide pages containing pricing data from being crawled by search engines, violating US federal law  —  Webpages for hundreds of hospitals require users to click through to find prices, undermining federal transparency rule, Journal analysis shows
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
AR pioneer Blippar is back with $5M in pre-Series A funding and a B2B model focused on its Blippbuilder service; it has trimmed its headcount from 340 to 30  —  Augmented Reality pioneer Blippar - which has had a tortuous history after early investors pulled out and the company had to scramble …

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Earlier Picks

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