Techmeme
September 21, 2021, 11:10 AM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
iPhone 13 review: excellent cameras and battery life and more base storage but front camera is unchanged, has a standard refresh rate, and 12 cases don't fit  —  So are bigger cameras  —  What, really, do you want out of a new phone?  —  Assuming you're starting with a good foundation …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple iPhone 13 Pro review: incredible cameras, improved battery, and high refresh display but front camera is average, no USB-C, and Cinematic Mode is limited  —  The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max are phones designed for people who care about the details.  The improvements over last year's iPhones …
Konrad Putzier / Wall Street Journal:
Google says it will buy St. John's Terminal, a 1.3M square foot office building it is leasing on Manhattan's West Side, for $2.1B in Q1 2022  —  Manhattan deal is priciest sale of a U.S. office building since pandemic began  —  Google said it is buying a Manhattan office building for $2.1 billion …
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple is working with UCLA and Biogen to identify depression, cognitive decline, and other issues using sensor data, such as typing behavior and sleep  —  Company is working with UCLA, Biogen to see if sensitive data like facial expressions, typing metrics could signal mental-health concerns
Ryan Weeks / The Block:
Paris-based Sorare, a soccer-focused NFT trading platform, raises $680M Series B led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a $4.3B valuation  —  Quick Take  — The fundraise values the Paris-based NFT startup at $4.3 billion.  — It comes off a period of rapid growth for Sorare, which now boasts 600,000 registered users.
Pew Research Center:
Survey: 47% of US Facebook users regularly get news on the platform, down from 54% in 2020; 29% of US TikTok users regularly get news from the app, up from 22%  —  More than half of Twitter user get news on the site regularly  —  To better examine the ways Americans get news in a digital age …
Todd Haselton / CNBC:
Amazon introduces three Kindle Paperwhite updates: $140 Paperwhite with 6.8" display and USB-C, $190 Signature Edition with 32GB storage, and $160 Kids Edition  —  - Amazon on Tuesday announced three new versions of its Kindle Paperwhite e-reader, including the Paperwhite, Paperwhite Kids Edition and Paperwhite Signature Edition.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Review of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, which are now available: focus modes are great, Safari update is an acquired taste, and iOS' Dark Sky-style Weather is excellent  —  Apple's latest updates lay good groundwork, but don't add many big new features  —  iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are strange updates.
Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
HP announces refreshed consumer devices, including Spectre x360 16" 2-in-1 for $1,639+, Envy 34" 5K all-in-one desktop for $2,000+, and $599 11-inch Tablet PC  —  The consumer PC refresh accounts for Windows 11 and a heavy dose of hybrid work features.  —  HP is revamping its consumer lineup …
Pádraig Belton / The Guardian:
As TSMC pledges to reach net zero emissions by 2050, a look at how the semiconductor industry is tackling its huge carbon footprint and resource consumption  —  As demand for chips surges, the semicondutor industry is trying to grapple with its huge carbon foot print  —  he semiconductor industry has a problem.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Slack announces Clips, short video voicemail messages for channels, rolling out today for paid accounts, changes to Connect, GovSlack, and more  —  Slack is getting video voicemails  —  Slack is launching its new clips feature today, allowing coworkers to record video messages that exist in Slack channels.
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
BitClout creator raises $200M for “Decentralized Social”, a blockchain project with social tools such as profiles, from a16z, Sequoia, Coinbase, and others  —  Quick Take  — BitClout's creator has revealed his identity today.  He is Nader Al-Naji, the founder of the stablecoin startup Basis that shut down in 2018.
Corin Faife / The Markup:
Analysis: Facebook appears to be adding code to interfere with automated data collection of News Feed posts by researchers, such as NYU's Ad Observatory  —  The tweak, which targets the code in accessibility features for visually impaired users, drew ire from researchers and those who monitor the platform
Lisa Richwine / Reuters:
Netflix launches a free plan in Kenya with a quarter of the content from its paid plans, available only on Android phones  —  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Netflix Inc on Monday began offering a free mobile plan with about one-quarter of its TV shows and movies in Kenya, a strategy aimed …
Freedom House:
Report finds global internet freedom has declined for the 11th consecutive year including in the US, tech giants clashed with governments over data, and more  —  In the high-stakes battle between states and technology companies, the rights of internet users have become the main casualties.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
What will the next generation of developers do when AI writes the code?  —  Microsoft and Carnegie Mellon are betting that the junior devs we train today will be the senior engineers of tomorrow.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
UK tax compliance with Zoho Books  —  The evolving tax landscape in the UK has added an additional responsibility to business owners, accountants, and bookkeepers to ensure their choice of accounting software supports compliance …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Anthropic IPO Panic, A Spy At OpenAI?, The Great Food Slop Debate
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.
Great Chat:
What happened to tech's backbone?
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.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The $7B Startup Mapping Your Health In Just One Hour | Neko's Hjalmar Nilsonne
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Cheeky Pint:
The company building underwater drones for $50,000
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
BG2 Pod:
Jensen Huang | Does AI Revenue Justify Capex, '27 AI Bottlenecks, Singularity, Open vs Closed & more
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
How to Run a Political Campaign in the TikTok Era (And How Not To)
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.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:10 AM ET, September 21, 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

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Benjamin Bain / Bloomberg:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Yogita Khatri / The Block: