Techmeme: Tel Aviv-based startup Hour One is paying people to use their likenesses to create AI-voiced characters for marketing and educational videos for its clients (Will Douglas Heaven/MIT Technology Review)

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August 29, 2021, 3:04 AM

Top News

E&T Magazine:

New research suggests the internet is not making people who engage in political discussions online more aggressive, but makes their behavior more visible — New research suggests that the internet is not responsible for making people become more aggressive when engaging in political discussions online …

Source: PsyArXiv Preprints. More: Gizmodo and HotHardware

Tweets: @helenreflects, @rubi_, @jperlow, @roslyntalusan, @mattgrossmann, @m_b_petersen, and @lilithsaintcrow

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:

Apple's “clarifications” as part of its settlement will not make much of a difference in the long run for developers or to how the App Store actually works — Apple isn't changing how the App Store works because Apple doesn't want it to change — Apple made waves this week …

More: TechCrunch and Apple

Tweets: @rjonesy, @jacknicas, @macton93, @ilicco, @reckless, @reckless, @macton93, @danielpunkass, @marcoarment, @martinsfp, @nytimesbusiness, and @rjonesy

See also Mediagazer

Samantha John / @samj0hn:

[Thread] Hopscotch CEO details the rejection of a minor app update in the App Store and says this was “not even her worst run-in” with Apple's App Review team — A story about Hopscotch going through App Store review. 🧵

More: New York Times, 500ish, AppleInsider, world.hey.com, Michael Tsai, Pixel Envy, Bloomberg, Loup, GamesIndustry.biz, Protocol, Vox, hbsslaw.com, Washington Post, CNET, Thurrott, Digital Trends, Silicon Valley Business …, Ars Technica, Associated Press, BGR India, Wccftech, and Barron's Online

Paresh Dave / Reuters:

Filing in AGs' lawsuit against Google: the Play Store hit revenues of $11.2B in 2019, with $8.5B in gross profit and an operating margin of over 62% — Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google generated $11.2 billion in revenue from its mobile app store in 2019, according to a court filing unsealed on Saturday …

More: The Verge, phonearena.com, Engadget, AppleInsider, and Reuters. Tweets: @jasonlk. Thanks:@peard33

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

The City of Chicago sues DoorDash and Grubhub for allegedly deceiving customers and using unfair business practices — - The City of Chicago filed two sweeping lawsuits against DoorDash and Grubhub for allegedly deceiving customers and using unfair business practices.

More: The Verge, City of Chicago, Eater Chicago, PCMag, Mashable, Chicago Tribune, Chicago Business, Chicago Sun Times, CNET, The Hill, Gizmodo, Fortune, and Engadget

Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:

CryptoSlam: CryptoPunks, an NFT platform with 10K pixel portraits, crossed $1B in transaction volume, with the cheapest artwork available for sale costing $450K — Hello friends, and welcome back to Week in Review! Last week we dove into Bezos's Blue Origin suing NASA.

More: Decrypt. Tweets: @gmoneynft, @joshconstine, and @j__liang

Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:

EU's data protection supervisor recommends that personal data such as search queries and browsing history should not be used for the assessment of credit scores — The European Union's lead data protection supervisor has recommended on Thursday that personal data such as search queries …

Tweets: @hypervisible, @carnage4life, @cubicleapril, and @campuscodi

Gené Teare / Crunchbase News:

Analysis: a record 19 fintech startups in Europe have become unicorns in 2021 so far, bringing the total number of fintech unicorns on the continent to 39 — At the start of 2021, Europe had just one decacorn—a startup valued at $10 billion or more—in the fintech sector to speak of …

Tweets: @chris_skinner and @nicholaskatz

Joseph Menn / Reuters:

Microsoft warns thousands of cloud customers that a now-fixed Azure Cosmos vulnerability might have exposed databases, but it saw no evidence it was exploited — Microsoft (MSFT.O) on Thursday warned thousands of its cloud computing customers, including some of the world's largest companies …

Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:

Tel Aviv-based startup Hour One is paying people to use their likenesses to create AI-voiced characters for marketing and educational videos for its clients — AI-powered characters based on real people can star in thousands of videos and say anything, in any language.

Tweets: @strwbilly, @timsowula, @pomeranian99, @carolhtucker, @giano, @funnymonkey, @combsthepoet, @iwillleavenow, @hackermaderas, @farahshoucair, @i_m_shweta, @mat, @domwitczak, and @hypervisible

Kate Rooney / CNBC:

Amazon partners with Affirm to roll out monthly installments for purchases over $50 to some US customers; Affirm stock is up ~30% after hours — - Affirm's buy now, pay later checkout option will be available to certain Amazon customers in the U.S. starting Friday with a broader rollout in the coming months.

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft won't block users from getting Windows 11 on most old PCs if they install using ISO files, but they won't get Windows Updates, including security ones — Windows 11 will run on older CPUs — Microsoft is announcing today that it won't block people from installing Windows 11 on most older PCs.

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:04 AM ET, August 29, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

From Mediagazer

Edward Helmore / The Guardian:

AG Todd Blanche defends the White House ban on CNN, MS NOW, and Politico, saying access is “a privilege” and Trump is “sick and tired” of inaccurate reporting

Dominic Ponsford / Press Gazette:

The BBC plans to cut ~90 jobs from BBC Local, aiming to save ~£9.1M, as part of a plan to eliminate ~250 full-time jobs in its Nations division by 2027/28

Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:

E.W. Scripps promotes veteran news executive Sean McGarvy to head of news, overseeing Scripps News and the editorial output of local Scripps-owned TV stations

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More News

Anna Kramer / Protocol:

Interview with Apple engineer Cher Scarlett, who has become the face of the #AppleToo movement, a group that wants to shed light on workplace issues at Apple

More: The Information, The Verge, The Verge, Protocol, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, MacRumors, iPhone Hacks, PCMag, AppleInsider, AppleInsider, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, Engadget, Wccftech, and Insider

Tweets: @applelaborers, @amir, @pkafka, @code_cwa, @protocol, @meganmorrone, @izmcm, @anna_c_kramer, @lorenzofb, @shiringhaffary, @evacide, @gartenberg, and @tpoholmes

New York Times:

Didi, which grew by moving in regulatory gray zones before the US IPO, became a bellwether for how far China is ready to go in Big Tech crackdowns

Tweets: @zhonggg and @liyuan6

Rest of World:

BlueCity, owner of China's biggest gay dating app Blued, is navigating a precarious environment for LGBTQI orgs by positioning itself as a sexual health service

Tweets: @decka227, @anupkaphle, @aurorachaang, @williamyang120, @lmatsakis, @lmatsakis, and @lmatsakis

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Unity acquires OTO, an AI voice chat analysis company, and releases a report that found ~70% of players have experienced toxic behavior while gaming online

Source: Business Wire and Unity Technologies. More: Game World Observer, GamesIndustry.biz, PC Games Insider, and Protocol. Tweets: @sri_intl

Bloomberg:

Customer-relations management software provider Freshworks files for an IPO, looking to raise $100M; Freshworks was last valued at $3.5B in 2019

More: The Economic Times. Tweets: @avlesh, @varunkrish, @sang1983, and @dhruvilsanghvi

Joe Guszkowski / Restaurant Business:

Toast, a cloud management software provider for restaurants, files its S-1, reports it had $494M ARR at the end of June, up 118% YoY, and $38B in GPV

More: Securities and Exchange Commission, Restaurant Dive, Boston Business Journal, TheStreet, MarketWatch, Reuters, The Boston Globe, Barron's Online, and Bloomberg

Earlier Picks

Chad Bray / South China Morning Post:

Chinese AI startup SenseTime files for IPO in Hong Kong two years after being blacklisted by Trump; sources say it is looking to raise at least $2B

More: HKEX, Financial Times, Bloomberg, and South China Morning Post

Nikkei Asia:

China says it has surpassed 1B internet users for the first time, up 8% from 2020; internet penetration rose to 71.6% and delivery services rose to 468M users

More: Gizchina, CHINAdaily, and Global Times. Tweets: @zhugeex

Casey Newton / Platformer:

About 15 of top 20 posts in Facebook's Q2 content report were effectively plagiarized, showing the best path to virality on Facebook is to copy someone's idea

More: Slashdot. Tweets: @manifestive, @jenmercieca, @corintxt, @mikeelgan, @caseynewton, @caseynewton, @annehelen, @jslez, and @natematias

Kevin Breuninger / CNBC:

The House select committee investigating the January 6 riot demands records from Facebook, Twitter, Google, Reddit, TikTok, and other tech companies

More: Select Committee …, Engadget, Bloomberg, CNN, CNET, Reuters, The Daily Dot, CBS News, Axios, Insider, and USA Today

Tweets: @pinboard, @alexstamos, @donie, @donie, @donie, @fboversight, @queeniema52, @repjimbanks, @justinhendrix, @justinhendrix, @ricksmithshow, @jason_kint, @pinboard, @pinboard, @pinboard, @pinboard, and @axios

Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:

Interview with a16z General Partner Martin Casado as the company rolls out a new $400M fund focused on seed investments

More: Andreessen Horowitz, pitchbook.com, SiliconANGLE, Blockworks, and Protocol

Tweets: @a16z, @trengriffin, @tocelot, @jorgecondebio, @b_nicks11, @kateclarktweets, @vinod_shankar, @benedictevans, @martin_casado, @almostmedia, @ericnewcomer, @dhaber, @seema_amble, and @davidu

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:

China plans to implement rules to control the recommendation algorithms tech companies use, forbidding practices that “encourage addiction or high consumption”

More: Bloomberg, Reuters, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, CNBC, Reuters, Bloomberg, and Tech in Asia

Tweets: @kendraschaefer, @silvermanjacob, @silvermanjacob, @jchengwsj, @hosseeb, @tante, @el33th4xor, @justinhendrix, and @lisaabramowicz1