Techmeme
August 24, 2021, 2:25 PM

Top News

The Citizen Lab:
Investigation details ForcedEntry, an iMessage “zero-click” attack used by NSO Group that circumvents iOS 14's BlastDoor, likely used by the Bahraini government  —  Summary & Key Findings  — We identified nine Bahraini activists whose iPhones were successfully hacked …
Erin Woo / New York Times:
TikTok partners with Shopify to launch a pilot program letting merchants add a shopping tab to their profiles and link to products in their posts  —  TikTok and Shopify, the e-commerce platform, said on Tuesday that they were working together to add the ability for consumers to shop directly in the TikTok app for the first time.
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify says all US-based podcasters using Anchor can sell subscriptions to episodes available on RSS and Spotify, expanding internationally later  —  Plus new price tiers and email addresses  —  Spotify is broadening the number of people who can offer subscription podcasts and have their shows play on its service.
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Ramp, which provides corporate cards and spend management software, raises $300M Series C at a $3.9B valuation, up from $1.6B after raising $115M in April  —  Less than five months after raising $115 million, spend management startup Ramp announced today it has raised $300 million …
New York Times:
Apple and Google call on the White House to oppose a South Korean bill, set to face a vote this week, that would mandate multiple payment systems for IAPs  —  A proposal in the South Korean legislature is an early test of how forcefully the Biden administration will defend the companies abroad while trying to trim their power at home.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, and Andy Jassy plan to attend a meeting with Joe Biden on Wednesday to discuss efforts to improve cybersecurity  —  Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella plan to attend a White House meeting with President Joe Biden …
Sascha Segan / PCMag:
Testing of carriers across the US shows T-Mobile with a commanding lead in 5G, winning speed tests in 24 cities and rural regions to AT&T's eight, Verizon's two  —  For our 12th annual test, we drove more than 10,000 miles, speed-testing AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon 4G and 5G in cities, towns, and rural regions all over the US.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 review: water resistant with an improved screen feel and multitasking, but terrible under-screen camera, expensive, and heavy  —  As good as foldables get, but is that good enough?  —  The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the best possible case Samsung can make for a phone that unfolds into a small tablet.
Charles Riley / CNN:
Brian Chesky says Airbnb will provide free housing for 20,000 Afghan refugees without specifying for how long  —  London (CNN Business)Airbnb has pledged to provide free housing for 20,000 Afghan refugees.  —  CEO Brian Chesky said Tuesday that the program would begin immediately, and that Airbnb would pay for the stays.
Source: @bcheskyMore: CNBC, The Guardian, Insider, BBC, and Washington Post
Tweets: @bchesky, @bchesky, and @bchesky
Patricia Nilsson / Financial Times:
OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely blames banks, including BNY Mellon, Metro Bank, JPMorgan, for its porn ban, but says Mastercard's rules had no bearing on the ban  —  Tim Stokely says Bank of New York Mellon ‘flagged and rejected’ all interbank wires linked to website
Matt Phillips / New York Times:
Profile of Cathie Wood, the CEO of Ark Invest, which manages $85B, whose aggressive bets on Tesla and others have earned her admiration from Reddit traders  —  Ms. Wood says the Holy Spirit moved her to strike out on her own after an up-and-down career in money management.
Gillian Tan / Bloomberg:
Bungalow, a marketplace for residential real estate that offers tools for landlords, raises $75M at a $600M+ valuation led by Deer Park Road Management  —  - Coatue, Khosla, Founders Fund bet on residential marketplace  — Initially a roommate-finder, firm expanded into family rentals
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Instagram says it is retiring the swipe-up link feature, which lets users visit external links by swiping up, in favor of tappable stickers, starting August 30  —  The swipe-up will be no more.  Instagram is planning to retire the feature, which allows people to visit external webpages by swiping up …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook is testing bringing voice and video calling back to the main Facebook app in the US, reducing the need to jump between Facebook and Messenger  —  - New test will bring Messenger technology back into Facebook  —  Facebook Inc. is bringing voice and video calling …
Josh Scott / BetaKit:
Blockstream, which offers Bitcoin infrastructure and apps, raises $210M Series B at a $3.2B valuation and will acquire Israeli mining manufacturer Spondoolies  —  With years invested in building its sidechain-based settlement network, Blockstream has raised significant funding to continue …
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Poly Network says it has now recovered all of $610M in cryptocurrencies it lost to a hacker, and is in the process of returning them to their rightful owners  —  One of the most unusual cryptocurrency heists in recent memory has come to a close.  On Monday, Poly Network …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Microsoft says that Xbox Cloud Gaming will expand beyond PC and mobile to its Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and older Xbox One consoles this holiday  —  - Microsoft said its Xbox Cloud Gaming service will arrive on console this holiday.  — Cloud gaming lets people stream games over the internet rather than install them locally.
Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
Aria Alamalhodaei / TechCrunch:
SpaceX says it has now shipped 100K Starlink terminals to customers, and has launched more than 1,700 satellites since its first in November 2019  —  Elon Musk's Starlink project, which aims to provide global broadband connectivity via a constellation of satellites, has shipped 100,000 terminals to customers.
Varsha Bansal / Rest of World:
A look at the decade long struggle to bring the script of Tulu, an Indian language, into Unicode, and the problem of keeping languages alive in the digital age  —  For 10 years, experts have tried to bring Tulu to smartphones.  But they can't agree on how.  —  • BENGALURU, INDIA
Tiyashi Datta / Reuters:
Baidu says its AI voice assistant Xiaodu has raised a Series B round at a $5.1B valuation, up from $2.9B in November 2020  —  Chinese tech giant Baidu Inc (9888.HK) said on Tuesday its artificial intelligence (AI) voice assistant Xiaodu Technology has closed Series B financing at a $5.1 billion valuation.

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