Techmeme
September 30, 2021, 12:25 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
WSJ publishes six internal Facebook documents it used for its report about Instagram's negative impact on teen girls, after Facebook published two of the docs  —  The Senate holds a hearing Thursday about the social network's impact, prompted by The Wall Street Journal's coverage
The Verge:
Facebook shares two annotated internal research docs about Instagram's impact on teen mental health, after being notified of WSJ's plans to publish the docs  —  The company shared the PDFs Wednesday night  —  Facebook has shared the internal research about the impact of Instagram …
Reuters:
BBC:
Researchers: a flaw in Apple Pay lets attackers make a Visa payment with a locked iPhone in Express Transit mode; Apple calls it “a concern with a Visa system”  —  Large unauthorised contactless payments can be made on locked iPhones by exploiting how an Apple Pay feature designed …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Visually impaired users say that iOS 15 appears to have removed call, email, and voicemail Siri features they relied on  —  With the recent release of iOS 15, Apple appears to have made some changes to Siri functionality that have removed features relied on by low vision and blind iPhone users.
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple has quietly begun allowing users to rate and review its built-in iPhone and iPad apps in the App Store with iOS 15  —  For the longest time, the App Store did not allow users to rate or review Apple's built-in iPhone and iPad apps, like Mail, Music, News, Stocks and Calculator.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Chinese AR company Nreal unveils Nreal Air, consumer glasses with micro OLED displays and iOS compatibility, shipping in Dec. in Japan, China, and South Korea  —  They'll ship later this year in Asia  —  Augmented reality company Nreal is launching a cheaper, iOS-compatible, more compact version of its smart glasses.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Intel unveils Loihi 2, a second-generation neuromorphic computing chip, and Lava, an open-source framework for developing “neuro-inspired” applications  —  Intel today announced a major update to its neuromorphic computing program, including a second-generation chip called Loihi 2 and Lava …
Ana Diaz / Polygon:
Twitch rolls out the option for streamers to require phone and email-verified accounts in chat, as part of the company's effort to reduce targeted harassment  —  Curbing harassment continues to be a “top priority” for Twitch  —  After an upswell in targeted harassment on the streaming platform Twitch …
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Google Maps adds a wildfire info layer, rolling out to Android this week and iOS and desktop in October, expands its Tree Canopy tool to 100 cities worldwide  —  “Fire” will be a top-level layer just like traffic, satellite, and transit maps.  —  Google Maps is getting a few new features …
Sam Bourgi / Cointelegraph:
Chainalysis: crypto transaction volume for Central, Northern, and Western Europe reached $1T+ from July 2020-June 2021, comprising 25% of global crypto activity  —  DeFi has become a major catalyst for Europe's crypto economy.  Large institutions have also upped their share of transactions significantly.
Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk:
Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith pleads guilty to violating US sanctions law following a crypto and blockchain presentation at a 2019 North Korean conference  —  Griffith was charged with violating sanctions law by giving a cryptocurrency and blockchain presentation at a North Korean conference in 2019.
Andrés Engler / CoinDesk:
Research: startups in Latin America raised a record ~$6.5B in VC funding in H1 2021, up from $4B in all of 2020; cryptocurrency related startups raised $517M  —  Latin America is experiencing a boom in venture capital (VC) investments.  —  In the first six months of 2021 …
More: Benzinga
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Indian social commerce startup Meesho raises $570M Series F co-led by Fidelity and B Capital Group, more than doubling its valuation in under 6 months to $4.9B  —  Meesho has more than doubled its valuation in less than six months, to $4.9 billion, as a growing number of high-profile investors …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Modular phone maker Fairphone, which uses ethically sourced materials, announces Fairphone 4 with a 6.3-inch display, 5G, and up to 256GB, starting at €579  —  The Fairphone 4's software support should stretch until 2025  —  Fairphone, the manufacturer focused on making easy …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Mexico City-based Higo, which offers a B2B payments service for SMBs in Latin America, raises $23M Series A led by Accel  —  Just six months after raising $3.3 million in seed funding, Mexico City-based Higo announced today it has raised $23 million in a Series A round led by Accel.
Isabel Contreras / Forbes:
AlphaSense, an enterprise search engine for market intelligence, raises $180M Series C led by Goldman Sachs and Viking Global, bringing total funding to $263M  —  When AlphaSense CEO Jack Kokko worked as an analyst at Morgan Stanley MS , he found that uncovering key data and trends was incredibly …

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
Zoho RPA named a Leader in the 2026 RPA Technology Value Matrix by Nucleus Research  —  Zoho RPA has been named a Leader in the 2026 RPA Technology Value Matrix, published by Nucleus Research …
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

Lenny's Podcast:
The hidden pattern behind successful products | Mark Pincus (founder of Zynga)
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:
SpaceX's IPO Triumph, Anthropic's Fable Fumble, OpenAI's Price War
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.
Access:
A top iPhone app developer reacts to Apple's new Siri
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Hard Fork:
'Hard Fork' Live, Part 1: Satya Nadella and Cindy Cohn
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.
The Upstarts Podcast:
TBC's Alex Ksendzovsky: The Neurosurgeon Using Brain Cells To Build Better AI
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:25 PM ET, September 30, 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

Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

Karen Weise / New York Times:
Benjamin Wallace / New York Magazine:
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg: