Techmeme
May 13, 2021, 7:25 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Colonial paid ~$5M ransom in cryptocurrency within hours of the attack, but the hackers' decrypting tool was so slow that it had to use its own backups  —  - Payment came shortly after attack got underway last week  — FBI discourages organizations from paying ransom to hackers
Tom Schoenberg / Bloomberg:
Sources: Binance is under investigation by DOJ and IRS; officials involved include those who probe money laundering and tax offenses  —  - Justice Department, IRS seek information about crypto exchange  — The federal agencies haven't accused Binance of wrongdoing
Sean O'Kane / The Verge:
Elon Musk says Tesla no longer accepts bitcoin for vehicle purchases due to its environmental cost, will look at more environmentally friendly cryptocurrencies  —  Tesla has stopped accepting bitcoin as payment for its cars out of concern that it will contribute to greater consumption of fossil fuels …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
The Block:
Vitalik Buterin sells large amounts of SHIB, AKITA, and ELON tokens, sent to him by coin creators, for ~$60M worth of ETH, and donates the proceeds to charities  —  Quick Take  — Ethereum creator Vitalik Buterin has offloaded a range of dog-themed meme tokens.
Joey Roulette / The Verge:
SpaceX signs a satellite connectivity deal with Google Cloud, as part of which SpaceX will install Starlink terminals at Google's data centers around the world  —  Under a new agreement, SpaceX will plant Starlink terminals at Google Cloud's data centers  —  Google said on Thursday …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Google has been fined €100M+ by Italy's antitrust watchdog for abusing its dominant market position by restricting third party access to the Android Auto app  —  Google has been fined just over €100 million (~$123M) by Italy's antitrust watchdog for abuse of a dominant market position.
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Tether, which claimed at launch that each tether was backed 1:1 with USD, releases a breakdown of its reserves, revealing that only 3.87% are in actual cash  —  Quick Take  — Stablecoin issuer Tether has revealed a breakdown of its reserves.  — As of March 31, 2021 …
Richard Nieva / CNET:
YouTube has banned almost 40 QAnon channels that were evading YouTube's policies and escaping violations by self-deleting their own videos after a few days  —  YouTube banned almost 40 channels that used the tactic.  Disinformation experts say they haven't seen the ploy used before.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Apple says it parted ways with recent hire Antonio García Martínez, an ex-Facebook staffer and author, after employee petition citing “misogynistic statements”  —  Apple has severed ties with recent hire Antonio Garcia-Martinez, a former Facebook employee and author …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Pinterest says it will test livestreaming events this month through a three-day virtual event featuring sessions with around 21 top creators  —  Pinterest is expanding into live events.  The company is planning to host a three-day virtual event that will feature live-streamed sessions from top creators …
Strategy Analytics:
Global notebook PC shipments grew 81% YoY in Q1; both Apple, with 5.7M shipments, and Acer, with 4.9M shipments, grew 94% as HP grew 91% with 15.4M shipments  —  Gaming, Chromebooks, commercial and consumer demand stay hot as the return to work and school is slow and pointing to a hybrid approach long-term
Sebastian Herrera / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon says it is hiring 75,000 workers, representing 8% of its US workforce, and offering an average of $17/hour, above its typical $15/hour starting wage  —  The retail and tech giant said the new roles—representing nearly 8% of its U.S. workforce—are offering average pay of $17 an hour
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Discord announces Stage Discovery, a tool to help people find communities through live audio events, and says it will soon test paid, ticketed audio events  —  If you're new to Discord, you might be thrown off by the lack of an endless feed peppered with ads.
Benjamin Wallace / New York Magazine:
Behind the online battle between notable tech figures including a16z partners and Balaji Srinivasan, and the journalists who report, and tweet, on the industry  —  Late last fall, the New York Times was preparing a bombshell article about Coinbase, a financial exchange that had become …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Roku announces launch of its original programming, including the Quibi content it acquired, on the Roku Channel, starting May 20  —  Roku today announced the launch of its own original programming, which will initially become available to viewers in the U.S., U.K., and Canada through …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Ford says it will start rolling out OTA updates to its vehicles at scale, including adding Alexa later this year to 700K eligible vehicles  —  The automaker aims to have 33 million OTA-capable vehicles by 2028  —  Ford is finally ready to start rolling out over-the-air (OTA) software updates to its vehicles at scale.

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Earlier Picks

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Ellen Nakashima / Washington Post: