Techmeme
July 16, 2021, 6:30 PM

Top News

Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Automattic, owner of Tumblr, buys podcast app Pocket Casts from a public radio collective that includes NPR, which reportedly lost $800K on it last year  —  A new home for the popular podcast app  —  Pocket Casts has a new owner.  Automattic, which runs WordPress.com and recently purchased Tumblr …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Report: Apple tapped VP of technology Kevin Lynch to help lead its car project; Lynch had a major role in development of Watch and associated health features  —  As Apple continues its work on self-driving car technology, it is shifting one of its most well-known executives to the Project Titan team.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Biden says platforms like Facebook are “killing people” with the way they are handling COVID-19 vaccine misinfo, as White House calls on Facebook to do more  —  - President Joe Biden on Friday said platforms like Facebook are killing people by allowing Covid-19 vaccine misinformation on their services.
Ted Johnson / Deadline:
CNN:
More: Fortune and Vox
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Apple removed Fakespot, which claims to detect bad sellers and fake reviews, from the App Store after Amazon complained that the app provided misleading info  —  Did Fakespot need permission to call out fake reviews as you shop?  —  Fakespot, known for its web browser extensions that try …
Kait Sanchez / The Verge:
Unicode releases a draft list of new emoji to be finalized in September; contenders include multiracial handshake, melting smiley face, a pregnant man, and more  —  Looking forward to beans and more  —  The draft list for the next round of new emoji was announced today, two days ahead of World Emoji Day on July 17th.
Maureen Dowd / New York Times:
Interview with Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi about Prop 22, capitalism, Travis Kalanick, getting nearly killed while delivering for UberEats on a bike in SF, more  —  The Uber CEO dreams of “pushing a button and getting a piano delivered to your home in an hour and a half.”  Uh ... let's start with dinner?
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Google Cloud VP Amr Awadallah leaves the company, after staff complain about his manifesto called We Are One that he posted online about his past antisemitism  —  - Google Cloud has abruptly parted with developer relations vice president Amr Awadallah, according to an internal email seen by CNBC.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Twitter rolls out auto-captions for voice tweets in 11 languages including English, Japanese, and Hindi, more than a year after launching voice tweets on iOS  —  Twitter was criticized for launching voice tweets without captions  —  Twitter is now rolling out captions for voice tweets, the company announced Thursday.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Paytm files for an IPO in India, looking to raise $2.2B  —  Digital payments giant Paytm, one of India's most valuable startups, plans to raise up to $2.2 billion in an initial public offering, it said in draft papers submitted to the country's market regulator on Friday.
Liam J. Kelly / Decrypt:
Binance halts operations for its stock tokens offering, which launched in April and let users buy and sell tokenized stocks of popular stocks like Facebook  —  Editor's note: This article has been updated to include an announcement from Hong Kong's financial regulator.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Microsoft and Citizen Lab say government hackers from several countries have used spyware from Israeli vendor Candiru that uses two 0-day exploits in Windows  —  Microsoft and Citizen Lab found a new kind of spyware made by the mysterious Israeli vendor Candiru, and targeting someone in Europe based on their political beliefs.
Brad Bergan / Interesting Engineering:
Engineers in Japan say they achieved a data transmission rate of 319 Tb/s on a fiber line over 3,000 kilometers long, shattering the previous record of 178 Tb/s  —  This could change everything.  —  We're in for an information revolution.  —  Engineers in Japan just shattered the world record …
More: Tom's Hardware and VICE
Canalys:
Global smartphone shipments grew 12% YoY in Q2, with Xiaomi up 83% to take a 17% share and pushing past Apple to reach the second place for the first time ever  —  In Q2 2021, global smartphone shipments increased 12%, as vaccines rolled out around the world, and the new normal for economies and citizens started to take shape.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
OpenAI disbands its robotics team that researched machines that learn tasks like solving a Rubik's Cube, to focus on domains that are more data-rich  —  Join live for the final day of Transform 2021, including the AI Innovation & Women in AI Awards.  Watch now.
Wendy Lee / Los Angeles Times:
How movie studios are using Cameo, Twitter Spaces, and TikTok to create personalized ads and experiences to attract audiences  —  Enrique García wasn't planning to see Universal Pictures' “F9: The Fast Saga” at a theater.  After the COVID-19 pandemic put the kibosh on large gatherings …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Dorsey says Square is creating a new business line with the aim of helping devs build decentralized financial services products, primarily focused on Bitcoin  —  Square Inc. is creating a new business line to help developers build financial services products focused on Bitcoin …

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Wall Street Journal:
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
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