Techmeme
September 9, 2021, 8:25 PM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Facebook launches $299 Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses in six countries including the US; users can capture photo and video, listen to music, or take phone calls  —  Hands-on with Facebook and Ray-Ban's first pair of smart glasses  —  Starting Thursday, the first pair of smart glasses …
Source: Facebook TechnologyMore: BuzzFeed News, Wired, Big Technology, The Verge, Axios, TechCrunch, Android Police, About Facebook, App Store, Ray-Ban, CNN, Insider, CNET, Platformer, TechCrunch, Mashable, VICE, International Business Times, Gizmodo, iTnews, Washington Post, Barron's Online, San Francisco Business Journal, iThinkDifferent, Associated Press, CNBC, Pixel Envy, ZDNet, EssilorLuxottica, Engadget, YouTube, Cult of Mac, TNW, Bloomberg, USA Today, TechCrunch, XDA Developers, Social Media Today, Android Central, Pocketables, LarrysWorld.com, Sydney Morning Herald, Liliputing, BBC, inews.co.uk, 9to5Mac, Engadget, British GQ, UploadVR, Vogue Business, Road to VR, Pocket-lint, Silicon Republic, Livemint, TalkAndroid.com, BGR India, MobileSyrup, iDownloadBlog.com, and TechRadar
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft indefinitely postpones the return to its offices in the US, saying it has “decided against attempting to forecast a new date for a full reopening”  —  The pandemic keeps pushing back Microsoft's plans  —  Microsoft is shelving its plans to fully reopen its US offices next month.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple has appointed longtime Apple Watch and Health software chief Kevin Lynch as the new head of its Apple Car project after Doug Field's departure  —  - Kevin Lynch replaces Doug Field as head of Apple's car efforts  — Field left Apple's project after three years to work at Ford
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Amazon launches the Fire TV Omni Series, its first smart TVs, starting at $410 and shipping in October  —  Amazon is officially in the TV set business.  —  After years of selling Fire TV devices that plug into third-party HDTVs and teaming with TV makers for Fire TV-based products …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Epic to shut down Houseparty, the video chat app it acquired in 2019, in October, along with Fortnite Mode, which uses Houseparty for video chats  —  Houseparty, the social video chat app acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games for a reported $35 million back in 2019, is shutting down.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Hackers leak a list of ~500K Fortinet VPN login names and passwords; a source in the IT security industry says at least some of the leaked credentials are valid  —  A threat actor has leaked a list of almost 500,000 Fortinet VPN login names and passwords that were allegedly scraped from exploitable devices last summer.
Reed Albergotti / Washington Post:
Security researchers say Apple's bug bounty program is undermined by Apple's insular culture, confusion about payments, and long delays in fixing bugs  —  Lack of communication, confusion about payments and long delays have security researchers fed up with Apple's bug bounty program
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Epic asks Apple to reinstate its Fortnite developer account in S. Korea, after passage of a Korean bill forcing app stores to allow alternative payment systems  —  Following the passing of a bill allowing alternative payment systems on the App Store  —  Epic Games has asked Apple to reinstate …
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro temporarily bans social media companies from removing accounts and content that violate their rules, ahead of a presidential election  —  The new rules in Brazil appear to be the first national policy that restricts how tech companies can control their sites, analysts say.
Stephen Graves / Decrypt:
Mastercard acquires CipherTrace, which offers a crypto-focused analytics service that specializes in anti-money laundering and forensics  —  Mastercard has announced that it has acquired cryptocurrency tracking firm CipherTrace with a view to providing “additional transparency and support” for the emerging ecosystem of digital assets.
Wall Street Journal:
JPMorgan Chase acquires The Infatuation, a restaurant discovery service that bought Zagat from Google in 2018  —  Deal is the bank's latest effort to cater to big spenders who like to travel and dine out  —  America's biggest bank is buying the company behind the Zagat brand.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon says it will offer to cover 100% of college tuition for its 750,000 hourly employees in the US after 90 days of employment, starting in January 2022  —  - Amazon is offering to pay the full cost of college tuition, including books and fees, for its 750,000 hourly U.S. employees.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
A number of playlist curators say Spotify is not addressing playlist abuse, letting bad actors report rivals to gain better visibility for their own playlists  —  A number of Spotify playlist curators are complaining that the streaming music company is not addressing the ongoing issue of playlist abuse …
Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE:
Report: since 2004, Microsoft, Amazon, Google, Facebook and Twitter have earned $43.8B in contracts with the Pentagon, mostly in relation to the War on Terror  —  A team of researchers have published a new report detailing how Amazon, Microsoft, Google, Facebook, and Twitter have profited from the global campaign of violence.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
Warp:
The #1 Coding Agent  —  #1 on Terminal-Bench.  71% on SWE-bench Verified.  Trusted by 600K+ devs.  Try the top agentic dev tool for $1 for 1st month with code TECHMEME.
Zoho:
Boost technician productivity on the go with the Zoho FSM mobile app  —  Life on the move: Inside a technician's daily workflowIn field service, unpredictability is part of the job.  One moment, a technician is on schedule.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
Why ChatGPT will be the next big growth channel (and how to capitalize on it) | Brian Balfour (Reforge)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
Can The Web Survive Generative AI? -- With Matthew Prince
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Tech Brew Ride Home:
AI Business Bigger Than The Smartphone Business?
Tech news headlines every day. 15 minutes and you're up to date. From Tech Brew, Morning Brew's tech hub.
Subscribe to Tech Brew Ride Home.
Hard Fork:
GPT-5 Backlash + Perplexity C.E.O. Aravind Srinivas on the Browser Wars + Hot Mess Express
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
The head of ChatGPT on AI attachment, ads, and what's next
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Great Chat:
Warm intros and hot takes: It's time to get ready for fundraising season
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:25 PM ET, September 9, 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.

More News

Earlier Picks

Josh Ye / South China Morning Post:
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch: