Techmeme
September 25, 2021, 8:45 PM

Top News

Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Facebook's history of comparing itself to older, widely accepted tools like chairs and cars shows how its leaders deploy analogies to downplay criticism  —  The social media giant keeps comparing itself to other, less controversial technologies.  Historians aren't buying it.
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple says it is working to fix an issue that is preventing iPhone 13 Pro from running animations in third-party apps at 120Hz and limiting them to 60Hz  —  One of the biggest new features exclusive to the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max this year is the inclusion of high-refresh rate displays, or what Apple calls “ProMotion.”
Rafi Letzter / The Verge:
A viral TikTok video from July caused many young women to use Prolific, a survey website for scientists, skewing the demographic data for thousands of studies  —  Thousands of scientific studies had to toss out weeks of data because of a 56-second TikTok video by a teenager.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
China's central bank says all cryptocurrency-related activities are prohibited and overseas crypto exchanges providing services in mainland China are illegal  —  - The People's Bank of China said services offering trading, order matching, token issuance and derivatives for virtual currencies are strictly prohibited.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Production crew union says Apple claimed less than 20M TV+ subscribers in the US and Canada as of July 1, allowing Apple to pay workers lower rates  —  - A showbiz union representing behind-the-scenes workers says Apple claimed less than 20 million Apple TV+ subscriptions in the U.S. and Canada as of July 1.
Brian Contreras / Los Angeles Times:
How TikTok's auto-generation tools helped popularize subtitles in the app, as creators compete for the estimated 75% of users who leave their phones on mute  —  TikTok creator Alyssa McKay has perfected a persona people love to hate: a Regina George-esque rich girl whose bouncy raps are packed …
Ari Levy / CNBC:
How Toast, founded in Boston with a $500K investment from Endeca's Steve Papa after VCs shunned it, became a $30B business, in part by avoiding the Bay Area  —  - Toast's first backer, Steve Papa, invested in the company because no venture capital firm would write the initial check.
Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge:
Twitter is seeking feedback for two potential new features, “Filter” and “Limit”, both of which will hide offensive or harmful replies  —  It's not yet a real feature, but it is an interesting idea  —  Twitter is looking for input on two new potential features …
FinSMEs:
Shenzen-based Pudu Robotics, which makes commercial service robots for use in airports, restaurants, supermarkets, and hospitals, raises $155M Series C  —  Pudu Robotics, a Shenzen, China-based commercial service robots company, completed an approx. $78m C2-series financing.
Tweets: @quinnypig
Lucinda Shen / Fortune:
Jeremy Liew, Bijan Sabet, and Roger Ehrenberg stepping back from active roles at their firms reflects a broader generational shift in the VC industry  —  Over the course of the past week, three venture capitalists have announced plans to step back from their investing roles at their respective firms.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
A look at episodic story services like Amazon's Kindle Vella; Apptopia says combined IAP revenue of top 7 services grew 50% YoY to $12M/month in May and July  —  - Amazon's Kindle Vella spotlights the growing market for episodic stories, designed for mobile devices, unfolding as larger narratives over time.
Wall Street Journal:
US DOJ allows Huawei CFO Meng Wanzhou to return to China in a deferred prosecution agreement as part of which Wanzhou admitted to some wrongdoing  —  Deferred prosecution agreement offers company's finance chief an exit from Canada, where she has been fighting extradition to U.S.

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