Techmeme
August 15, 2021, 12:00 AM

Top News

Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:
Interview with Niantic CEO John Hanke about Niantic's vision for the metaverse and how the metaverse could become a dystopian nightmare  —  The metaverse, the concept of an alternative, shared digital world that originated in sci-fi, has bubbled up to the surface of tech chatter during the later days of the pandemic.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it is changing the contrast of its new buttons, as users complain about headaches after its redesign that some experts say isn't very accessible  —  After teasing its new font in January, Twitter made some major changes to its website and app design this week.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple details its CSAM detection system, says it expects to set a match threshold of 30 known CSAM images before an iCloud account is flagged for manual review  —  Apple today shared a document that provides a more detailed overview of the child safety features that it first announced last week …
Wall Street Journal:
Craig Federighi says introducing two similar features at the same time, iMessage protections for children and CSAM scanning of iCloud photos, caused confusion  —  Facing criticism about eroding privacy on the iPhone, Apple's Craig Federighi says new tools aimed at best ensuring privacy while fighting illegal images
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Facebook rolls out end-to-end encrypted voice and video calls on Messenger, and says it will begin testing opt-in e2e encryption for Instagram DMs  —  rolling out a host of features for Messenger users who switch on  —  end-to-end encryption (E2EE).  You can now call Messenger contacts using voice or video
Bill Hathaway / YaleNews:
Study of 12.7M tweets shows social media amplifies expressions of moral outrage, as users learn that such language gets rewarded with more “likes” and “shares”  —  Social media platforms like Twitter amplify expressions of moral outrage over time because users learn …
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Twitter pauses rolling out access to apply for verification, after admitting that several fake accounts, reportedly part of a botnet, were wrongly verified  —  It wants to improve the application and review process  —  Twitter is halting the expansion of its verification program …
Josef Adalian / Vulture:
HBO Max plans to roll out a new app in the next four or five months for connected TVs, built from the ground up, after complaints of glitches in its current app  —  HBO Max execs have had plenty of reasons to celebrate this summer, from an impressive showing in the Emmy nominations …

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Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
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The Social Radars:
Blake Scholl, Founder & CEO of Boom Supersonic
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
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The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
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The 100-person AI lab that became Anthropic and Google's secret weapon | Edwin Chen (Surge AI)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
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Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
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Earlier Picks

Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Rachel Feintzeig / Wall Street Journal:
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Reuters: