Techmeme
October 20, 2021, 6:15 AM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Source: Facebook is planning to change its company name to reflect its focus on the metaverse as soon as next week at Connect, its annual AR/VR conference  —  Mark Zuckerberg wants to be known for building the metaverse  —  Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect …
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Google launches $599 Pixel 6, with 90Hz 6.4" display, and $899 Pixel 6 Pro, with 120Hz 6.7" display, both featuring an upgraded 50MP rear camera, coming Oct. 28  —  Google claims to finally be ready to take on Apple and Samsung  —  After many leaks, official teases, and months of waiting …
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
A look at Pixel 6 and 6 Pro's cameras: main sensor takes in 150% more light, Real Tone can more accurately capture skin tones, Face Unblur, Magic Eraser, more  —  New cameras and sensors aim to put the Pixels back on top of mobile photography  —  Today at its Pixel Fall Launch event …
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Activision Blizzard says 20+ employees, including developers and supervisors, “exited” the company and 20+ faced disciplinary action after misconduct complaints  —  It reprimanded more than 20 others  —  Activision Blizzard says more than 20 employees have “exited” the company …
Michael Wursthorn / Wall Street Journal:
ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF gained nearly 5% in its NYSE debut, with ~$981M in trading volume, making it the second most traded ETF debut ever per FactSet  —  ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF advances nearly 5% following its closely watched launch  —  The first bitcoin-focused exchange-traded fund rose …
Paul Thurrott / Thurrott:
Brave replaces Google with its own privacy-centric Brave Search as the default search engine in its browser  —  As part of its ongoing push to eliminate Google as much as possible from our daily web experiences, Brave is removing Google Search as its default search engine.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Apple botched the notch on the MacBook Pros by leaving out Face ID; the bezels are smaller but not ultrathin like on Dell and HP rivals  —  All the downsides of the notch, without the Face ID benefits  —  The day that many have been dreading has finally arrived.  Apple has added a notch to its new MacBook Pros.
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q3 revenue of $7.48B, up 16% YoY, operating income of $1.76B, up 33% YoY, and 214M paid subs, adding 4.4M YoY and beating estimates of 3.84M  —  - Netflix is set to report earnings after the bell Tuesday.  —  Netflix shares were up more than 2% after-the-bell Tuesday after the company posted third quarter results.
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
UK's CMA fines Facebook £50.5M for breaching an order imposed during its ongoing Giphy acquisition investigation, saying Facebook refused to report information  —  Social media giant Facebook has been fined £50.5 million ($69.1 million) for breaching an order imposed …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
HR Acuity, which develops employee relations and investigations management software, raises $47M from K1 Investment Management  —  HR Acuity, a platform built for employee relations and investigations management, today announced that it raised $47 million in a minority investment from K1 Investment Management.
More: WEAU-TV
Bloomberg:
Draft EU document: finalization of the Digital Markets Act and Digital Services Act has been pushed back further into next year from an initial spring 2022 goal  —  European Union countries will delay a key target of finalizing new rules hitting tech platforms by the spring of next year …

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Earlier Picks

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
AJ Vicens / CyberScoop: