Techmeme
October 12, 2021, 10:15 AM

Top News

Ivana Saric / Axios:
Bruce Haring / Deadline:
New York Times:
Katrina Manson / Financial Times:
Ex-Pentagon software chief Nicolas Chaillan, who recently resigned, says China is headed for global dominance due to advances in AI, ML, and cyber capabilities  —  Nicolas Chaillan speaks of ‘good reason to be angry’ as Beijing heads for ‘global dominance’ through technological innovation
Kris Holt / Engadget:
Twitter now lets web users remove followers without having to block them, after testing the option for over a month  —  All Twitter users can now remove a follower without having to block them.  The company started testing this option last month, and starting today, everyone will have access to it.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft makes a preview version of Windows Subsystem for Linux for Windows 11 available in the Microsoft Store, decoupling the app from the Windows image  —  Microsoft is taking the first step toward making WSL available as a decoupled app available via the Microsoft Store via a first preview release.
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Instagram says it is testing Activity Feed notifications in the US that will alert users of service outages and technical issues  —  One week after a massive Facebook outage that took all of the social network's apps offline for more than six hours, Instagram says it's testing notifications …
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Microsoft says it mitigated a 2.4Tbps DDoS attack on an Azure customer at the end of August, breaking AWS' record of mitigating a 2.3Tbps attack in Feb. 2020  —  Microsoft said its Azure cloud service mitigated a 2.4 terabytes per second (Tbps) distributed denial of service attack this year …
Victoria Song / Gizmodo:
Tile revamps its lineup with IP67 water resistance, longer ranges, and safety features to avoid unwanted tracking, and announces Tile Ultra with UWB support  —  Tile adds a new lost and found feature, safety from unwanted tracking, and a new ultra-wideband tracker.  Sound familiar?  —  Alerts
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Magic Leap raises another $500M and says its second-gen AR headset will arrive in 2022 with a slimmer form factor and twice the field of view  —  Augmented reality startup Magic Leap has raised a new $500 million round of funding at a $2 billion valuation, CEO Peggy Johnson told CNBC on Monday.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Fairphone 4 review: water and dust resistant, five-year warranty, and years of software support, but camera is so-so and performance can be sluggish  —  It's been hard to fault Fairphone's sustainable credentials over the years, whether it's the company's lengthy support periods, easy repairability, or ethically sourced materials.
More: YouTube
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Canva announces Canva Video, a suite of video editing tools available as part of its free tier  —  Canva, the $40 billion software startup looking to make design accessible to everyone, has today announced a video editing suite.  —  Launched in 2013, Canva emerged during the design rennaissance …
More: ZDNet and Business Wire
Megan Graham / Wall Street Journal:
DoorDash introduces an ad platform, letting restaurants buy ads atop search results through a bidding system  —  Food-delivery apps are making deeper plays in advertising as they battle for revenue  —  DoorDash Inc. has started selling restaurant ads that appear atop the search results in its app …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
In an email to employees, Andy Jassy says Amazon will leave remote work decisions to team leaders, instead of having everyone return by January  —  [Updated below with additional details from internal FAQ.]  —  Amazon no longer plans to bring corporate employees back to the office en masse …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control  —  Picture this: It's Monday morning.  You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
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

Grit:
How Evan Spiegel Is Building the Future of Computing
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Acquired:
10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)
Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.
Subscribe to Acquired.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead)
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:
OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
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.
Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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 10:15 AM ET, October 12, 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

Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Renée DiResta / The Atlantic:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: