|
October 21, 2021, 1:40 PM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Dieter Bohn / The Verge: |
Google lowers Play Store subscription fees to 15% and fees for ebooks and on-demand music streaming services to “as low as 10%” — Subscription fees are lowered to 15 percent, and music streaming services ‘as low as 10%’ — As regulatory pressure on the Play Store for Android increases … | Oversight Board: |
Facebook's Oversight Board releases a report demanding more transparency, including for the company's “cross-check” system, and says 524K appeals were submitted — Over the last several weeks, media reporting has drawn renewed attention to the seemingly inconsistent … | ABC News: |
Trump announces the Trump Media & Technology Group and TRUTH Social, a social network coming in Nov. to “stand up” to Big Tech, in the App Store for preorder — The former president has been banned from several platforms. — Silenced by many major platforms …
More:
TechCrunch, The Hill, The Verge, Washington Post, Axios, CNBC, PCMag, Axios, Wall Street Journal, TechCrunch, Techdirt, Washington Post, Bloomberg, Financial Times, Bloomberg, Raw Story, Salon, Insider, Newsweek, Mediaite, and The Hill
Tweets: @reallizusa, @mikaelthalen, @bradheath, @santucci, @jack, @drewharwell, @alexstamos, @danprimack, @drewharwell, @cd_hooks, @mmasnick, @willoremus, @acyn, @lachlan, @reckless, @bradheath, @noupside, @reckless, @benjamint0001, @killedbygoogle, @donie, @drewharwell, @samstein, @mikeelgan, @randirhodes, @bradheath, @pkafka, @pkafka, @drewharwell, @bradheath, @mikaelthalen, @drewharwell, @danprimack, @frankluntz, @williamturton, @noupside, @donie, @tomwatson, @danprimack, @reckless, @iansherr, @kim, and @danprimack
| Joseph Cox / VICE: |
Mastodon founder says Trump's TRUTH Social seems to be using a Mastodon fork, based on a screenshot of an error message featuring Mastodon's elephant mascot — ‘Truth Social’, which will launch officially later in the year, is seemingly using Mastodon's codebase without credit. — Joseph Cox| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Apple product orders, including iPad mini, MacBook Pro, and $19 cleaning cloth, are delayed into November and December due to chip shortages and other issues — - Store employees say supply situation is the bleakest in years — Latest iPhones, iPads, Macs and watches all see long delays
More:
Tom's Hardware, iThinkDifferent, Macworld, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechSpot, Laptop Mag, iPhone Hacks, and MacRumors
Tweets: @markgurman, @every_daydad, @ismh, @danielhipskind_, @stevekovach, @thestalwart, @gartenberg, and @alexdobie
| Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo: |
Nvidia's GeForce Now cloud gaming service adds a $100/month tier with RTX 3080 GPU, hosted inside a bespoke SuperPod server, offering 1440p games at 120fps — Thanks to new custom servers equipped with RTX 3080 GPUs, GeForce Now will support game streaming at up to 1440p at 120fps—but it'll cost you.
Source:
Nvidia. More:
The Official NVIDIA Blog, Windows Central, HotHardware.com News, Tom's Hardware, Game Developer, CNET, PCWorld, TechCrunch, ZDNet, 9to5Google, 9to5Google, MacRumors, Android Police, The Verge, Liliputing, and Dot Esports
| Ryan Browne / CNBC: |
Sam Altman's Worldcoin launches its cryptocurrency that it gives in exchange for users' eye scans, says it has 100K users globally and is valued at $1B — - Tech millionaire Sam Altman's new start-up Worldcoin uses orb-shaped devices to scan people's eyes in exchange for free cryptocurrency.| Casey Newton / Platformer: |
Sources: Mark Zuckerberg has not settled on a new name for Facebook, which could be announced as early as Monday — See you Monday! — Facebook is changing its name. Perhaps you heard. The news was broken by Alex Heath of The Verge on Tuesday night, and I've since confirmed it with sources of my own.
More:
CNBC, The Verge, Bloomberg, The Guardian, BuzzFeed News, Insider, WinBuzzer, iPhone in Canada Blog, Bloomberg, Mashable, Input, VICE, Fast Company, Common Dreams, Axios, Digital Trends, New York Times, and Insider
Tweets: @caseynewton, @matt_levine, @udiwertheimer, @jack, @bcmerchant, @inafried, @carlquintanilla, @stevekovach, @tallneil, @jjvincent, @amyklobuchar, @jacksondame, @caseynewton, @steveschmidtses, @levynews, @jason, @ryanlawler, @steveschmidtses, @steveschmidtses, @rohanv, @duty2warn, @amrith, @timsweeneyepic, @ron_miller, @kantrowitz, @duty2warn, @laurengoode, @calcsam, @quinnypig, @steveschmidtses, @jyarow, @steveschmidtses, @dcwomenkicknass, @donie, @jonstewart, @marshablackburn, @danyork, @wongmjane, @martinsfp, @nycsouthpaw, @aoc, @suhail, @jyarow, and @levie
| Wall Street Journal: |
US Consumer Financial Protection Bureau announces a broad investigation into consumer data practices at Amazon, Facebook, Apple, Google, and others — Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is expected to seek information on how those firms and others use consumers' financial information
Source:
Consumer Financial …. More:
The Verge, CoinDesk, AppleInsider, and Protocol
Tweets: @chopracfpb, @lauren_feiner, @slpng_giants, and @matthewstoller
| Danny Nelson / CoinDesk: |
Bahamas-based crypto exchange FTX raises a $420.69M Series B-1 at a $25B valuation from 69 investors, including BlackRock and Tiger Global — FTX has memed itself into another massive funding round. — Sam Bankman-Fried's Bahamas-based crypto exchange said Wednesday it had raised $420,690,000 in a Series B-1 funding round.| Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google: |
Google begins offering Stadia as a white label product, starting with letting AT&T customers play Batman: Arkham Knight for free in Chrome or Edge — AT&T is working with Warner Bros to offer a streaming version of Batman: Arkham Knight, powered by Stadia's streaming technology.| Wall Street Journal: |
Over 2,000 hourly workers at Amazon's Staten Island facilities sign union cards and plan to file with the NLRB by October 25; Amazon opposes the move — An effort said to involve more than 2,000 workers across four Amazon facilities in Staten Island faces obstacles
More:
VICE, The Verge, Bloomberg, and New York Times
Tweets: @jodikantor, @jodikantor, and @jodikantor
| Bloomberg: |
Sources: Intel's talks with chip designer SiFive ended without a deal and the startup instead plans to pursue outside investment and an IPO — - Arm rival SiFive plans to grow headcount, eyes eventual IPO — Intel had sought SiFive's underlying RISC-V chip technology| Connie Loizos / TechCrunch: |
Rippling, an employee data management company led by Parker Conrad, raises $250M at a $6.5B valuation, bringing its total raised to $450M — Founded by entrepreneur Parker Conrad in 2013, the HR company Zenefits was quickly anointed one of the fast-growing companies in Silicon Valley …
Tweets: @ktbenner
| Jabari Young / CNBC: |
Sports NFT service Candy Digital, owned by sports e-commerce company Fanatics, raises a $100M Series A at a $1.5B valuation from Vision Fund 2 and others — - Fanatics said it raised $100 million for its NFT company Candy Digital as it looks to pivot outside of sports merchandising.| Ben Sisario / New York Times: |
PleasrDAO, a group of digital asset collectors, says it created an NFT that will stand as an ownership deed for Wu-Tang Clan's one-of-a-kind physical album — The government sold “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin” to satisfy a judgment against its first owner, Martin Shkreli.
More:
Rolling Stone, VICE, Bankless Times, cryptonews.com, Cointelegraph, and Decrypt
Tweets: @sisario, @sheckygreen, @moonoverlord, @theophite, @nlw, @mmasnick, @mchax, @pleasrdao, and @carnage4life
| Annie Palmer / CNBC: |
Amazon rolls out Local Selling, an in-store pickup option for items from local businesses in the US — - Amazon said Thursday it will let third-party sellers offer in-store pickup to shoppers who live near the merchant's brick-and-mortar stores. — In-store pickup, or click-and-collect ordering … | Peter Rudegeair / Wall Street Journal: |
Plaid partners with Square, Stripe, and others to help consumers and businesses make payments funded by their bank accounts after its acquisition by Visa failed — The fintech is teaming up with Square, Stripe and dozens of others on a digital pay-by-bank offering| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
A first look at Android app support on Windows 11: the apps are nicely integrated, run well, and installing them is simple, only requiring Amazon's Appstore app — Android apps can now run on Windows 11 — Microsoft has released the first preview version of its Android apps support in Windows 11.
More:
BetaNews, Digit, Pocketnow, iPhone in Canada Blog, Gizchina, and Tom's Hardware
Tweets: @kevinctofel and @tomwarren
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Source:
Windows Blog. More:
Tom's Hardware, PCMag, PCWorld, The Register, XDA Developers, Thurrott, MSPoweruser, Windows Blog, WinBuzzer, Wccftech, OnMSFT.com, KnowTechie, MacRumors, and Pureinfotech
Tweets: @tomwarren, @migueldeicaza, @migueldeicaza, @migueldeicaza, @migueldeicaza, @migueldeicaza, @tekwendell, @migueldeicaza, and @rosyna
| Jason Nelson / Decrypt: |
The Associated Press partners with crypto company Chainlink to authenticate data about elections, sports, and more via its blockchain — The Associated Press, a collective of more than 1,300 newspapers and broadcasters, is moving further into decentralized news and publishing.| Dan Seifert / The Verge: |
Microsoft Surface Duo 2 review: futuristic design, excellent multitasking, and useful pen support, but buggy, lousy camera, expensive, and awkward form factor — Microsoft's second attempt at a folding phone rights a lot of the original's wrongs, but doesn't fix everything
More:
Windows Central, techadvisor.com, XDA Developers, PCWorld, CNET, Laptop Mag, MobileSyrup, PCMag, Engadget, Windows Central, ZDNet, Tom's Guide, Brad Sams, YouTube, Mashable, techadvisor.com, CNBC, and Digital Trends
Tweets: @backlon, @dcseifert, and @tomwarren
| Lucas Matney / TechCrunch: |
Parallel, which is making a sci-fi NFT card game based on the Ethereum blockchain, raises $50M from Paradigm at a $500M valuation — It's no secret that NFTs have been a hot space for crypto speculators in the Ethereum ecosystem to diversify their holdings, and while some see a golden opportunity … | Bloomberg: |
Sources: Susquehanna, which owns ~15% of ByteDance, is looking to sell a stake worth ~$500M; source says a shareholder recently sold at a $360B-$370B valuation — - Susquehanna had sought a valuation of more than $400 billion — China's crackdown brings uncertainty to TikTok owner's IPO
More:
Tech in Asia
| MK Manoylov / The Block: |
Mojito, which lets clients like Sotheby's sell NFTs from their own storefronts or websites, raises $20M at a $100M valuation — Mojito, the startup supporting Sotheby's Metaverse, announced Thursday that it raised $20 million in its first funding round, bringing its total valuation to $100 million.| Jinshan Hong / Bloomberg: |
Analysis: Chinese livestream salesman Li Jiaqi, known for trying on makeup on his show, sold $1.9B in goods on Alibaba's Taobao during its Singles' Day festival — - Record on first day of Alibaba's Singles' Day shopping binge — Signals China's consumer strength despite economic slowdown| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Twitter acquires London-based Sphere, which develops a group chat app and has raised $30M to date — Twitter has acquired London-based Sphere, which operates an eponymous groups chat app, the latest in a series of recent moves from the social network as it looks to aggressively broaden and improve its product offerings.
More:
CNBC, Sphere, Engadget, The Verge, and Silicon Republic
Tweets: @nickdaloisio, @investmenttalkk, @sam_l_shead, @sam_l_shead, @caseynewton, @richlightshed, @tsuvik, @elliotturn, @ruskin147, and @thekenyeung
| Mark Gurman / Bloomberg: |
Internal email: Apple will test unvaccinated corporate staff each time they enter offices starting Nov. 1, and asks US staff to report vaccine status by Oct. 24 — - The company is still stopping short of requiring the shots — Unvaccinated retail staff will be asked to test twice a week
More:
The Verge, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechCrunch, Barron's Online, TechSpot, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, and iThinkDifferent
Tweets: @markgurman and @markgurman
| Sylvia Varnham O'Regan / The Information: |
Internal memo: Facebook has quietly killed the “Hey Facebook” wake word for Portal, as customers were confused by the phrase and it was affecting usage — Facebook has quietly abandoned the phrase “Hey Facebook” as a way for customers of its Portal video-chat device to start …
Tweets: @amir and @grahamstarr
Sponsor Posts
Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Enhancements to Zoho Writer's automation flow designer: New PDF operations, password protection, and more — Once we rolled out the automation flow designer in Zoho Writer's merge templates …
Enhancements to Zoho Writer's automation flow designer: New PDF operations, password protection, and more — Once we rolled out the automation flow designer in Zoho Writer's merge templates …
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.
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
Big Technology Podcast:
2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions — With Reed Albergotti
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
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.
BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
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.
Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
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 1:40 PM ET, October 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.
From Mediagazer
Todd Spangler / Variety:Zachary Leeman / Mediaite:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Upcoming Tech Events
Earlier Picks
| Emily Birnbaum / Politico: |
More:
Omidyar Network and Insider
Tweets: @birnbaum_e, @alexeheath, @carolecadwalla, @yaeleisenstat, @timkarr, @jason_kint, @ksato_phillips, @aaronjmate, @cultexpert, @jamespoulos, @birnbaum_e, @karlbode, @yashalevine, @anabmap, @jason_kint, @moonalice, @jason_kint, @gerritd, @blackamazon, @stevekrak, @logandobson, @teddyschleifer, @kimzetter, @willoremus, @dylanbyers, and @rmac18
| Aisha Counts / Protocol: |
Source:
The Keyword. More:
The Verge, Wired, KnowTechie, ZDNet, TechRadar, The Hacker News, and BleepingComputer
Tweets: @campuscodi, @ashl3y_shen, @shanehuntley, @lanceulanoff, @t_gidwani, and @anttitikkanen