Techmeme: Substack touts itself as an alternative to toxic, ad-driven social media, but many of its top earners are polarizing figures who were deplatformed elsewhere (Chris Stokel-Walker/Wired UK)

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Tweets: @spamhaus, @gossithedog, @briankrebs, @spamhaus, @briankrebs, @c7five, @rayredacted, @pgl, @gossithedog, @malwarejake, @o2bnobx, @vinnytroia, @bleepincomputer, @dinodaizovi, @gossithedog, and @gossithedog

Chris Stokel-Walker / Wired UK:

Substack touts itself as an alternative to toxic, ad-driven social media, but many of its top earners are polarizing figures who were deplatformed elsewhere — The company's CEO says the old way of social media is broken—but is his alternative much different?

Tweets: @counternotions, @aishagani, @wired, @kantrowitz, @wired, @carnage4life, @glennf, @rasmus_kleis, @jessesingal, and @ggreenwald

See also Mediagazer

Zaheer Merchant / The Economic Times:

App Annie: India saw 4.8B mobile game downloads in H1 2021, or one in every five downloads globally, making it the world's top market for mobile games — A new report by App Annie, an app market analytics firm, puts numbers to something we've all known for 19 months now …

Source: App Annie. More: Business Today and Livemint. Tweets: @appannie

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:

How US cities are deploying drones, robots, and AI to more affordably inspect, diagnose, and repair the country's aging sewer infrastructure — Cash-strapped U.S. cities are turning to drones, artificial intelligence and other innovations to help inspect and fix the country's aging underground arteries of waste

Tweets: @neorsd

Hartley Charlton / MacRumors:

The latest iOS 15.2 beta adds a manual Macro mode toggle to the Camera app on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max — The second beta of iOS 15.2 adds a toggle for Macro mode on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max when Auto Macro is disabled in Settings, enabling users …

More: 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, Tom's Guide, Redmond Pie, AppleInsider, CNET, iThinkDifferent, XDA Developers, Ubergizmo, iMore, Gizmodo, The Verge, iPhone Hacks, iMore, iDownloadBlog.com, techadvisor.com, and iClarified

Tweets: @dylanmcd8, @imore, and @halidecamera

Helen Partz / Cointelegraph:

AMC Theatres now accepts bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, and litecoin for online payments; CEO Adam Aron says dogecoin will be accepted next — AMC Theaters now accepts online payments in Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, with Dogecoin coming next. — 279 Total views — 4 Total shares

More: Engadget, Techaeris, The Verge, Gizmodo, SlashGear, The Information, The Daily Hodl, Crowdfund Insider, Bitcoin Magazine, and CoinDesk

Tweets: @ceoadam, @susanlitv, @reckless, and @litecoinmag

Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:

Presto, which provides restaurants with food ordering hardware and analytics, is going public via a SPAC merger at a ~$1B valuation — Presto is known for its pay-at-table kiosks, tablets and artificial-intelligence tools — Restaurant-technology startup Presto is combining …

Source: Presto. More: Benzinga, Dow Jones Newswires, Restaurant Business, Silicon Valley Business …, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @ycombinator and @wsjmarkets

Bloomberg:

Sources: Intel scrapped plans to make silicon wafers at a Chinese factory to ease US chip shortages, after the Biden admin strongly discouraged the proposal — - Chipmaker had pitched China investment as way to ease shortage — Administration seeks to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers

More: PCMag, AppleInsider, and Engadget

Tweets: @jendeben, @byron_wan, @stevenrodgersgc, and @hancocktom

New York Times:

Telegram could become a powerful vector for lies and vitriol before the 2022 presidential elections in Brazil, where it is installed on 53% of smartphones — In a social media ecosystem facing mounting pressure to combat fake news and polarization, Telegram is the most permissive disseminator of content — and disinformation.

Taylor Locke / CNBC:

An overview of Bitcoin's first major upgrade since 2017, Taproot, which makes transactions more private, less expensive, and is expected to go live this weekend — Taproot, a highly anticipated upgrade to bitcoin, is expected to go into effect in the coming days at block 709,632 — some sources say it'll go live as soon as Saturday.

More: Neowin, ZyCrypto, CoinDesk, Bitcoin Magazine, CoinGeek, Crypto Briefing, and Cointelegraph. Tweets: @onrampinvest

Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:

Gett, which helps companies organize their ride-hailing, taxi, and limousine booking options, is going public via a SPAC merger at a ~$1.1B valuation — Company joins with ride-hailing operators to organize transportation options into one platform for corporate customers

Source: Gett. More: Dow Jones Newswires, Reuters, and PYMNTS.com

Louise Matsakis / Wired:

Some TikTok users say the app is encouraging them to follow people they know in real life, raising privacy concerns over TikTok's tactics to connect users — The social network got huge by ignoring who you know. That's increasingly no longer the case. — Unlike other social apps …

More: Pixel Envy. Tweets: @carnage4life

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