Techmeme
December 9, 2021, 12:30 PM

Top News

WABetaInfo:
WhatsApp begins a limited test of Meta's Novi digital wallet in the US, letting users send and receive crypto within a chat, after launching a pilot in October  —  Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry  —  Today, WhatsApp is finally announcing a small pilot program to some people in the US …
C-SPAN.org:
Video of Adam Mosseri's testimony before a Senate Commerce subcommittee examining Instagram's negative effects on teen mental health  —  Instagram CEO testifies on impact of platform on young users before a Senate Commerce subcommittee.
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
MacRumors:
Kuo: Apple's AR headset will include four sets of 3D sensors to offer hand gesture controls and object detection  —  Apple's long rumored AR headset is predicted to include multiple highly sensitive 3D sensing modules in order to offer an innovative hand gesture and object detecting user interface …
Politico:
Italy's competition authority fines Amazon €1.13B for allegedly abusing its market position and harming competitors in e-commerce logistics  —  Italy's competition authority announced Thursday it was slapping a €1.13 billion fine on Amazon for abusing its dominant position in the market …
Kollen Post / The Block:
At a congressional hearing with six crypto executives, committee members voiced concerns about stablecoins and exchanges but showed a warming up to crypto  —  Quick Take  — Today's hearing before the House Financial Services Committee confirmed: Congress is warming up to crypto.
New York Times:
EU Commission proposes rules turning gig workers into employees, affecting up to 4.1M workers; EU estimates 28M work through digital labor platforms in the bloc  —  A proposal with widespread political support would entitle drivers and couriers for companies like Uber to a minimum wage and legal protections.
Mayank Parmar / BleepingComputer:
Amazon says it will shut down its global website ranking system Alexa.com on May 1, 2022, after 26 years of operation  —  Amazon announced on Wednesday plans to shut down its global website ranking system and competitor analysis tool “Alexa.com”, which has been available for 25 years.
Elizabeth M. Renieris / CIGI:
A look at Cardano, a controversial blockchain-based project led by Ethereum cofounder Charles Hoskinson that aims to build a national ID system for Ethiopia  —  There are countless examples of the dangers posed by national ID schemes, including from Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan, India and elsewhere.
Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
DeepMind claims its language model RETRO matches the performance of neural networks 25 times its size, cutting the time and cost to train large language models  —  RETRO uses an external memory to look up passages of text on the fly, avoiding some of the costs of training a vast neural network
Ivan Levingston / Bloomberg:
SellerX, which buys and grows businesses on Amazon's marketplace, raises $500M in debt and equity at a $1B valuation, bringing its total funding to $750M  —  - Debt, equity financing of $500 million co-led by Victory Park  — Company will use funds to buy up e-commerce brands on Amazon
More: PR NewswireThanks:@ivanlevingston
South China Morning Post:
China orders another 106 smartphone apps, including popular social network Douban and karaoke app Changba, to be removed from app stores, citing data practices  —  Authorities say more than a hundred apps, including Douban, have failed to rectify data privacy and security violations Douban …
More: Protocol
Matthew Martin / Bloomberg:
Saudi food delivery service Jahez aims to raise up to $2.4B in its IPO, pricing shares at $200-$226, on the Nomu exchange; Jahez raised a $36M Series A in 2020  —  Saudi food delivery firm Jahez, which competes with companies like Delivery Hero's Hungerstation, is targeting a valuation as high …
More: Arab News
Rebecca Bellan / TechCrunch:
Robotic Research, which makes on and off-road autonomous vehicles for the US DoD, raises a $228M Series A led by SoftBank Vision 2 and Enlightenment Capital  —  Robotic Research, a self-driving technology company that has spent the last two decades developing on and off-road autonomous vehicles …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
A US appeals court grants a stay in the Epic v. Apple ruling, letting Apple keep its IAP system as the sole source of iOS in-app payments as the case proceeds  —  Apple can maintain its App Store payment monopoly while the case proceeds  —  An appeals court has paused one of the most consequential parts …

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