Techmeme
November 17, 2021, 7:20 PM

Top News

Ian Sherr / CNET:
Apple announces Self Service Repair, a program starting next year that will publish repair manuals, let customers buy parts and tools, and more  —  The tech giant says it will publish repair manuals and allow everyday customers to buy the same parts and tools certified technicians and repair shops use.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Instagram says it is shutting down its standalone mobile messaging app Threads by December 31  —  Instagram's standalone messaging app Threads is shutting down.  The app will no longer be supported by the end of December 2021, the company confirmed to TechCrunch after reports began circulating …
Sam Dean / Los Angeles Times:
LA's iconic Staples Center to be renamed as Crypto.com Arena, sources say in a deal worth $700M+ for 20 years  —  Staples Center is getting a new name for Christmas: Crypto.com Arena.  —  The downtown Los Angeles venue — home of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks …
Bloomberg:
Amazon tells UK customers it won't accept Visa credit cards issued in the UK from January 19, 2022, citing high transaction fees  —  - Customers told the change will come into effect in Jan. 2022  — Amazon cites high fees charged by Visa as reason for change
Shannon Liao / Washington Post:
A group of shareholders owning less than 1% of Activision Blizzard calls for CEO Bobby Kotick and two of its longest serving board members to resign  —  A day after Activision Blizzard employees staged a walkout and called for the resignation of CEO Bobby Kotick and several other executives …
Shannon Liao / Washington Post:
Wall Street Journal:
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google releases a Pixel 6 and 6 Pro update slightly improving the fingerprint scanner, which some have called slow to unlock and unreliable  —  The 15MB update brings unspecified adjustments to the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro  —  Google quietly rolled out a Pixel 6 update that addresses …
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
Miramax sues Quentin Tarantino over copyright infringement for selling NFTs based on Pulp Fiction screenplay excerpts; Miramax says it owns screenplay rights  —  Miramax filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Quentin Tarantino of copyright infringement by selling NFTs based on the screenplay for “Pulp Fiction.”
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Netlify, which offers a cloud service for automating web development projects, raises a $105M Series D at a $2B valuation, bringing its total funding to $200M+  —  Sign up here.  —  Netlify, a platform as a service that builds, deploys, and hosts websites and apps, today announced …
Axios:
Analysis: the top five most-followed accounts on TikTok do not rank in the top 50 on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram  —  The creator economy has produced thousands of social media entrepreneurs who have built mega-audiences in the millions — larger than many media companies.
Reuters:
Profile of Vignesh Sundaresan, aka MetaKovan, who bought the $69M Beeple NFT, as customers and investors in his companies say they have lost millions of dollars  —  Vignesh Sundaresan, aka MetaKovan, has amassed a digital art collection worth tens of millions of dollars.  His path to riches was sometimes rocky.
Brandy Betz / CoinDesk:
Anoma Foundation, which offers a blockchain for exchanging cryptocurrencies at the best market rate, raises $26M led by Polychain Capital at a $260M valuation  —  Polychain Capital led the round, which valued Anoma at $260 million.  —  The Anoma Foundation, a blockchain technology company …
More: Decrypt
Nina Bambysheva / Forbes:
Nym Technologies, which provides network-level privacy through its blockchain-based “mixnet”, raises a $13M Series A led by a16z at a $270M valuation  —  I cover cryptocurrencies and other applications of blockchain  —  Working to make the internet more private …
More: The Block
Joe Woelfel / Barron's Online:
Baidu beats in Q3 with revenue of $4.95B, up 13% YoY, Core revenue of $3.83B, up 15% YoY, and losses of $2.6B  —  Baidu, the Chinese search-engine giant, reported a third-quarter loss of 16.6 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) after recording significant charges, but revenue jumped 13% and beat analysts' estimates.
More: Baidu

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Reimagine your photos with a prompt  —  Our new native image generation and editing is state-of-the-art, and ranked #1 in the world.  Try it for free in the Gemini app.
F5:
Securing AI models and agents in the enterprise  —  The new AI stack creates a highly dynamic attack surface, and traditional controls aren't keeping up.  F5's recent acquisition will bring advanced AI guardrails to enterprise apps.
Zoho:
The next big growth move is building a marketplace  —  This is a guest post by Webkul.If you're running a business on Zoho Commerce, you already have a powerful platform.  It's perfect for managing your products …
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

Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Balaji Srinivasan
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How chatbots — and their makers — are enabling AI psychosis
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why experts writing AI evals is creating the fastest-growing companies in history | Brendan Foody (CEO of Mercor)
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
I tried Zuckerberg's $800 Ray-Bans. Are they the future? With Alex Heath
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Are 95% of Businesses Really Getting No Return on AI Investment? — With Aaron Levie
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.
[trading places]:
sim desai hiive🐝 • emily zheng pitchbook⚾️📓 • vlad voroninski helm.ai 🤖🚙 • bytedance 🫦🕺🏻
a very bad podcast about broken unicorns & busted carry hosted by dave mcclure and aman verjee
Subscribe to [trading places].
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:20 PM ET, November 17, 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

Peter Guest / Rest of World:

Earlier Picks

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Todd Spangler / Variety: