Techmeme
August 3, 2021, 9:30 AM

Top News

Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo:
Google's Rick Osterloh demos Pixel 6's Tensor SoC, which enables real-time object detection and HDR in videos as well as real-time translation and live captions  —  We sat down with Google's phone chief, Rick Osterloh, to see what the Pixel 6 has in store.  —  Alerts
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google unveils Pixel 6, with 6.4" 90Hz display, and Pixel 6 Pro, with 6.7" 120Hz display and 4x optical zoom, with a Google-designed Tensor SoC, coming in fall  —  Google's new Tensor SoC is the heart of its next phone  —  Google is announcing the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro today …
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Activision Blizzard says president J. Allen Brack is leaving the company, replaced by Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra, as the fallout from CA lawsuit continues  —  Jen Oneal and Mike Ybarra will take over as co-leaders  —  In the last week or so, we've learned about the state of California filing …
Chong Koh Ping / Wall Street Journal:
After Chinese state media criticized online gaming as “opium for the mind” in a now-deleted article, Tencent announces stricter rules for young users  —  Shares of NetEase and Bilibili also suffer steep falls  —  Shares of Tencent Holdings Ltd. and rivals plummeted Tuesday …
Bloomberg:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Spotify says it is testing a $0.99/month tier, called Spotify Plus, which includes ads but no limits on skipping tracks or picking songs  —  Spotify Plus is being piloted with a ‘limited number’ of users  —  Spotify Plus is a new $.99 subscription tier being piloted by the streaming service …
Bloomberg:
Q&A with SEC chair Gary Gensler on protecting cryptocurrency investors from fraud, regulating the industry, Bitcoin ETFs, and other SEC priorities like GameStop  —  It's become a parlor game in Washington, on Wall Street, and in Silicon Valley to figure out where U.S. Securities …
Andrew Kersley / Wired UK:
Sources: well over 100 UK-based employees at Amazon's Prime Air drone delivery unit have lost their jobs since 2019, as the company scales back its ambitions  —  Amazon has triggered mass redundancies and transfers as it winds down a huge part of its UK drone delivery business
Rainey Reitman / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
The confusing language in the infrastructure bill's crypto provision suggests that nearly any entity in crypto is a broker and must collect their users' data  —  The forthcoming Senate draft of Biden's infrastructure bill—a 2,000+ page bill designed to update the United States' roads …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter partners with Reuters and the AP, who will provide context and highlight links from trusted sources for Trends, Moments, Search, and more  —  Twitter announced today it's partnering with news organizations The Associated Press (AP) and Reuters to expand its efforts focused …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft's desktop-as-a-service Windows 365 Cloud PC is generally available and costs between $20 to $162 per user per month, based on cores, RAM, and storage  —  Microsoft's Windows 365 Cloud PC service is now generally available, and pricing is public.  The service will cost users anywhere between $20 …
Tracy Qu / South China Morning Post:
China's top state propaganda outlets jointly call for limits on the role of algorithms in content distribution to help improve “culture and art reviews”  —  The policy guidelines mark the latest effort by Beijing to align online content with the state's agenda and to rein in the role …
More: Forkast
Kim Willsher / The Guardian:
The French government found proof of Pegasus malware on three French journalists' phones and has referred its findings to the Paris public prosecutor's office  —  Announcement is first time an independent and official authority has corroborated Pegasus project findings
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
Titan, which offers email tools for SMBs, raises $30M Series A from Automattic at a $300M valuation  —  Titan, which provides a suite of professional email services for small and medium businesses, announced a $30 million investment from Automattic Inc. to grow its product.
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
A look at Fuck You Pay Me, a Glassdoor-like service where creators can review brands they have worked with and share ad rates  —  Fed up with the imbalance between online influencers and brands, Lindsey Lee Lugrin and Isha Mehra created a platform to change that.

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Earlier Picks

Simon Sharwood / The Register:
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
New Statesman: