Techmeme
April 29, 2021, 4:15 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it will reduce its cut for PC games in Windows store from 30% to 12% from August 1, in a bid to compete with Steam  —  Microsoft puts the pressure on Valve's Steam store  —  Microsoft is shaking up the world of PC gaming today with a big cut to the amount of revenue it takes from games on Windows.
Nandita Bose / Reuters:
US Labor Secretary says most gig workers should be classified as employees deserving of related benefits; shares of Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash are down sharply  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's top labor official said most gig workers in the United States should be classified as …
Tonya Riley / Washington Post:
A task force of 60+ experts from industry, government, nonprofits, and academia calls on the US and allies to take steps to fight a surge in ransomware attacks  —  A task force of more than 60 experts from industry, government, nonprofits and academia is urging the U.S. government and global allies …
Canalys.com:
Global smartphone shipments in Q1 reached 347M, up 27% YoY; Samsung took first place, shipping 76.5M for a 22% share, while Apple shipped 52.4M for a 15% share  —  Shanghai (China), Bengaluru (India), Singapore, Reading (UK) and Portland (US) - Thursday, 29 April 2021
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
OpenSignal: 5G-capable devices access mmWave 5G less than 1% of the time across all US carriers; Verizon leads with just 0.8% availability  —  Phones capable of using mmWave 5G access it less than 1% of the time.  —  US mobile customers are almost never able to connect to millimeter-wave networks …
Reuters:
Arielle Pardes / Wired:
Founders and VCs are flocking to Miami for “Miami Tech Week”, an impromptu event kicked off by a tweet from Delian Asparouhov, a principal at Founders Fund  —  Founders and funders are flocking to the beach for an impromptu event that some are calling “South by Southeast.”
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Google finally gives users a way to search through Stadia's 172 games, 526 days after the service's launch  —  If only Google knew anyone with experience building search engines  —  Stadia is an online game streaming service from Google, a company that is practically synonymous with search engines …
The Markup:
Financial services use Facebook's ad targeting to block people in certain age groups from seeing their ads, violating Facebook's anti-discrimination policies  —  Such ads, along with other age-targeted financial product ads, may violate civil rights laws, attorneys say
Gilad Edelman / Wired:
Q&A: Evelyn Douek, a lecturer and Ph.D. student at Harvard studying online speech regulation, on why a “proportional” approach to online speech is a good thing  —  Major platforms' policies aren't actually inspired by the First Amendment.  This legal scholar says that's a good thing.
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Facebook says Q1 ad revenue was $25.4B, up 46% YoY, expects continued growth in Q2, with headwinds in H2 due to regulatory changes and Apple's iOS 14.5 update  —  The average price per ad in Q1 increased by 30 percent year-over-year, driving up Facebook ad revenue growth.
Investor Relations:
Business Wire:
Amazon reports Q1 revenue of $108.5B, up 44% YoY, net income of $8.1B, up from $2.5B YoY, and says AWS has become a $54B annual sales run rate business  —  SEATTLE—(BUSINESS WIRE)—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2021.
More: CNBC
James Vincent / The Verge:
EU adopts controversial law forcing internet companies to remove flagged terrorist content within one hour after being notified by national authorities  —  Critics say the legislation could hinder free speech  —  The European Parliament has formally adopted a law requiring internet companies to …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Twitter reports Q1 revenue of $1.04B, up 28% YoY, vs $1.3B est., monetizable DAUs of 199M, up 7M QoQ, vs 200M est.; stock drops ~8%+  —  - The company reported revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, which was up 28% from $808 million a year prior.  — Twitter guided that it is expecting …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
All new Zoho Workerly 2024  —  Staffing businesses around the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing their temporary workforce.  With a constantly shifting job market and changing staffing needs …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Henry Shukman, Lessons from an Authentic Zen Master
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Wed. 03/27 - Hulu Comes To Disney+; WWDC Gets A Date
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 4:15 PM ET, April 29, 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

Sheila Dang / Reuters:
Natalia Drozdiak / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Josef Adalian / Vulture: