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June 16, 2021, 11:00 AM
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| New York Times: |
Biden names Lina Khan, an antitrust expert who wrote the “Amazon Antitrust Paradox”, as FTC chair, after the Senate voted 69-28 to confirm her as commissioner — Ms. Khan, who first attracted notice as a critic of Amazon, was confirmed by the Senate as a commissioner on the agency on Tuesday.
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Axios, Federal Trade Commission, Washington Post, NPR, Axios, CyberScoop, Protocol, ZDNet, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, AppleInsider, CNBC, CNBC, UPI, cityam.com, SiliconANGLE, PYMNTS.com, The Register, The Information, Axios, The Economic Times, iFixit News, Neowin, Deadline, GeekWire, EnterpriseAI, The Hill, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, NBC News, Tech Policy Press, Gizmodo, Slashdot, Politico, Engadget, Reuters, The Hill, TechCrunch, Vox, Mashable, Politico, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Protocol, MSPoweruser, Insider, and The Verge
Tweets: @linamkhan, @ceciliakang, @benedictevans, @dmccabe, @demandprogress, @cgasparino, @tomsherwood, @hughhewitt, @jason_kint, @rafat, @senblumenthal, @rashadrobinson, @dmccabe, @stacyfmitchell, @daveyseligman, @senwarren, @dlauer, @rafaelshimunov, @colorofchange, @hoofnagle, @wbm312, @ceciliakang, @digiphile, @rabois, @janschakowsky, @wolfejosh, @senwarren, @alecmacgillis, @deepakguptalaw, @glennf, @glennf, @gregbensinger, @mh4oh, @senblumenthal, @dmccabe, @juliaangwin, @jason_kint, @digiphile, and @russellbrandom
| Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal: |
Sources: some of Apple's healthcare efforts, including a pilot primary healthcare service with Apple-employed doctors, have stalled due to internal concerns — Tech giant has envisioned hiring doctors to offer primary care, now focused on Watch — Apple Inc. Chief Executive Tim Cook …
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Computerworld, mobilesyrup.com, Gizmodo, Engadget, Input, MacRumors, Insider, iMore, Patently Apple, AppleInsider, Mashable, iPhone Hacks, 9to5Mac, phonearena.com, and Ubergizmo
Tweets: @trippmickle, @rolfewinkler, @julespolonetsky, @johnwilson, @counternotions, @anthony, @tonyromm, and @dseetharaman
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Spotify launches Spotify Greenroom, a new app that allows Spotify users worldwide to join or host live audio rooms, and turn those conversations into podcasts — In March, Spotify announced it was acquiring the company behind the sports-focused audio app Locker Room to help speed its entry into the live audio market.
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The Verge, 9to5Mac, TNW, Engadget, KnowTechie, Spotify, The Economic Times, TechCrunch, and Social Media Today
Tweets: @trungtphan, @grousark, @mrgoontronics, @jasuja, @colinbrauns, and @jowyang
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Ahead of Microsoft's event to unveil the next gen of Windows, a Windows 11 build leaks, showing a revamped UI, like a new taskbar with centered app icons, more — Screenshots have leaked online — Screenshots of Microsoft's upcoming Windows 11 operating system have appeared online today.
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CNET, PCWorld, Windows Central, USA Today, Windows Central, PCWorld, XDA Developers, Forbes, Boing Boing, Engadget, XDA Developers, BGR India, cloudpro.co.uk, Tom's Guide, Pocketnow, Neowin, Pocket-lint, Huawei Central, gHacks Technology News, Silicon Republic, Ubergizmo, SiliconANGLE, Thurrott, CNX Software, PC Gamer, BetaNews, The Register, Rock, Paper, Shotgun, PCMag, Gizmodo, ZDNet, SlashGear, Softpedia News, mobilesyrup.com, Laptop Mag, OSnews, Trusted Reviews, Ars Technica, Pureinfotech, Digital Trends, WinCentral, AppleInsider, OnMSFT.com, HotHardware.com News, Petri, Tom's Hardware, and Dot Esports
Tweets: @tomwarren, @tomwarren, @tomwarren, @mattgemmell, @leaksapplepro, @deliciousbees, @thetacticalbrit, @zeealeid, @_troilface, @dm4uz3, @snazzyq, @soywife, @smilingnodding, @nickheer, @omegacreeper, @nathanblawrence, @cassidyjames, @jorilallo, @stroughtonsmith, @yabhishekhd, @tomwarren, and @tomwarren
| Lauren Feiner / CNBC: |
Waymo raises $2.5B from Alphabet, a16z, Tiger Global, and others, to advance its autonomous driving tech and grow its team — - Google sibling company Waymo announced a $2.5 billion investment round Wednesday, which will go toward advancing its autonomous driving technology and growing its team.
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Waypoint, TechCrunch, Bloomberg, Reuters, and Automotive News
Tweets: @techtekedra, @leokelion, and @stevekovach
| Ben Thompson / Stratechery: |
Overview of House lawmakers' recent antitrust-focused bills, which target consumer tech giants, vary in radicalness, and at times conflict with each other — From the Wall Street Journal: — These bills are the ultimate outcome of the House Subcommittee on Antitrust's investigation …
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9to5Mac, Benedict Evans, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, The Overspill, Techdirt, CNET, Tech Xplore, and TNW
| Anna Edgerton / Bloomberg: |
At a Senate antitrust hearing, Amazon and Google defended their smart home device businesses from criticism by Democrats and Republicans — Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Amazon.com Inc. defended their smart-speaker businesses as U.S. senators warned the grip the companies have over the market could harm competition and consumer privacy.
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9to5Mac, MacRumors, AppleInsider, Protocol, Competition Policy …, and United States Senator Mike Lee. Tweets: @fredericg
| Bloomberg: |
Japan Display, which sold its smartphone screen factory last year, is pivoting to VR; LCDs are projected to dominate the VR headset market over the next 5 years — - Superseded on mobile, LCDs can better compete with OLED in VR — JDI believes headset business could grow into a linchpin
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The Verge, CNET, UploadVR, GameSpot, SlashGear, VRFocus, Gamasutra, IGN, TechRadar, Tom's Guide, iPhone in Canada Blog, Pocket-lint, Trusted Reviews, Wccftech, XDA Developers, thegamer.com, MUO, Kotaku, Video Games Chronicle, and Dot Esports
Tweets: @business, @6d6f636869, and @wario64
| David Cohen / Adweek: |
The Oversight Board accepts its first policy advisory opinion request from Facebook, on the sharing of private residential info, issues call for public comments — It involves how it should handle private residential information
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About Facebook. More:
Oversight Board, Oversight Board, Medium, Social Media Today, Engadget, and LatestLY
Tweets: @elisugarman, @sylviavarnham, @willoremus, @benyt, @shanegoldmacher, @diakayyali, @viacristiano, and @evelyndouek
| Mitchell Clark / The Verge: |
Mark Zuckerberg says the original Oculus Quest will receive Air Link support in a post about the upcoming v30 update for Quest — He also showed off multitasking in VR — Owners of the original Oculus Quest will get the ability to stream from their PCs to their headsets wirelessly … | Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
Novo, a neobank targeting small businesses, raises $40.7M Series A led by Valar Ventures — Small businesses have traditionally been underserved when it comes to IT — they are too big and have too many requirements that can't be met by consumer products, yet are much too small to afford …
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FinSMEs
| Wall Street Journal: |
Alibaba's Taobao was clandestinely scraped by a web crawler for 8 months, leading to a leak of 1.1B pieces of user data, including user IDs and phone numbers — Software developer scrapes 1.1 billion pieces of user data, including IDs and phone numbers, over eight months
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The Register, PYMNTS.com, Yahoo Finance, Softpedia News, and MediaNama
Tweets: @wsj and @jchengwsj
| Daphne Leprince-Ringuet / ZDNet: |
IBM unveils the Quantum System One, its first quantum computer physically built outside of the US, in Germany in partnership with research institute Fraunhofer — Big Blue has, for the first time, built a quantum computer that is not physically located in its US data centers.
More:
DW.COM, HPCwire, Associated Press, Politico, and WRAL TechWire
Tweets: @dw_politics, @akbarth3great, and @j__liang
| Sarah Frier / Bloomberg: |
Mark Zuckerberg drops off Glassdoor's Top 100 CEOs list for the first time since 2013, as worker sentiment declines, especially during last months of 2020 — - Co-founder fails to make Top 100 for first time since 2013 — Glassdoor ranks company leaders based on employee surveys| Alex Hern / The Guardian: |
Amazon blames social media companies for its failure to remove fake reviews, saying they are slow to act when warned about such reviews — Firm says sites are slow to act when warned that fake reviews are being solicited on their platforms — Amazon has blamed social media companies …
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About Amazon and TechSpot
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Introhive, which offers SaaS tools to automate CRM, raises $100M Series C led by equity firm PSG, bringing its total raised to $140M+ — Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021. — Introhive, a software-as-a-service (SaaS) customer relationship management …
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TechCrunch
| Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: |
BrowserStack, a cross-browser website testing service for DevOps, raises $200M Series B led by BOND, at a $4B valuation — Elevate your enterprise data technology and strategy at Transform 2021. — BrowserStack, a website testing platform for developer operations (DevOps) teams …
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TechCrunch and The Economic Times
| Hayden Field / Morning Brew: |
Sources detail Airbnb's failures to prioritize anti-discrimination outside of talking points, including its Smart Pricing algorithm, which widened inequalities — Sources say the company prioritizes anti-discrimination in its talking points, but not in its spending.
Tweets: @haydenfield, @haydenfield, @haydenfield, @haydenfield, @peterslattery3, and @haydenfield. Thanks:@joshsternberg
| Dieter Bohn / The Verge: |
After years of pop-up experiments, Google says its first retail store, located in the Chelsea neighborhood of NYC, will open on June 17 — Pixel, Nest, Fitbit, and third-party accessories will be on sale — After years of pop-up experiments, Google is finally dipping its toes …
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9to5Google, Bloomberg, YouTube, CNET, Engadget, The Keyword, and CNBC
| Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch: |
DuckDuckGo says it raised $100M+ in “mainly secondary investment” in late 2020 from WhatsApp founder Brian Acton, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, and others — Privacy tech continues cooking on gas. To wit: Non-tracking search engine DuckDuckGo has just revealed that it beefed …
More:
Spread Privacy and Wired
| Jon Porter / The Verge: |
Honor says Google apps will return to its phones, starting with the 50 series, announced in China today, after Huawei sold off the brand at the end of last year — Officially announced today in China — The Honor 50 series will be able to ship with Google's apps and services …
More:
Trusted Reviews and SlashGear
| Bloomberg: |
Amazon's planned new African HQ, located in Cape Town, has met with fierce resistance and protests by indigenous people, with 50,000 objections — - Khoisan group trying to stop building of $291 million project — City of Cape Town says venture will add jobs, boost economy
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iAfrikan.com
| Eduardo Thomson / Bloomberg: |
Chile-based Betterfly, which lets companies offer digital benefits to reward healthy habits, raises $60M from SoftBank and others at a $300M valuation — - Health insurance tech start-up raises $60 million, CEO says — Other investors include QED, Valor Capital and Endeavor| Sohee Kim / Bloomberg: |
Krafton, the company behind popular game PUBG and backed by Tencent, files for an IPO in South Korea, seeking to raise as much as $5B — - Krafton is selling shares between 458,000 won and 557,000 won — Company will have to prove it's more than a one-hit wonder
More:
The Economic Times, Coinspeaker, PC Games Insider, Gamasutra, and Pocket Gamer.biz. Tweets: @honam
| Ryan Browne / CNBC: |
Analysis: total NFT sales reached $2B in Q1 2021, with a seven-day peak of $176M on May 9, but have fallen in recent weeks, with sales of $8.7M on June 15 — - Sales of digital collectibles known as non-fungible tokens have fallen dramatically in recent weeks.
More:
The Record, The Hollywood Reporter, Coinspeaker, Adweek, The Daily Hodl, CoinDesk, TNW, and KrASIA
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