Techmeme
December 31, 2021, 6:45 PM

Top News

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Indian antitrust watchdog orders an investigation into Apple's practice of mandating use of its payments system for iPhone apps in the App Store  —  Indian antitrust watchdog on Friday ordered an investigation into Apple's business practices — in particular, the mandatory use …
New York Times:
Several women who believe they were tracked with AirTags say Apple's safeguards against stalking are insufficient  —  Privacy groups sounded alarms about the coin-sized location-tracking devices when they were introduced.  Now people are concerned those fears are being realized.
New York Times:
Investigation: how China identifies, tracks, and pressures its critics on Facebook and Twitter, including Chinese living abroad and citizens of other nations  —  Authorities in China have turned to sophisticated investigative software to track and silence obscure critics on overseas social media.
Tom Parsons / What Hi-Fi?:
Interview with Apple's VP of Acoustics and head of AirPods marketing about designing AirPods 3, Spatial Audio, Bluetooth's limitations, and more  —  First, a qualification: Gary Geaves isn't quite “the man who made the AirPods”, and I'm sure he'd never describe himself as such.
Brad Linder / Liliputing:
Devices running BlackBerry 10 or OS 7.1 and earlier will lose key services like calling, texting, data usage, and 911 access starting January 4  —  BlackBerry stopped shipping phones and tablets with its own software years ago, switching to Android in 2015 before shifting from a hardware company …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
OpenSea bans PHAYC and Phunky Ape Yacht Club, two NFT projects dueling over which is the authentic Bored Ape Yacht Club ripoff  —  And dodging NFT marketplace bans while doing it  —  A pair of non-fungible token projects are testing the boundary between plagiarism and parody.
Tim / Droid Life:
Google pauses the rollout of its December update for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro until late January after reports of calls dropping and disconnecting  —  In a bit of frustrating news, Google has confirmed that it has paused the December update for the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro, aka the first Feature Drop update for the two devices.
Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
CES will end a day earlier, on January 7, as an “additional” COVID-19 safety measure, after Google, Microsoft, and other big companies canceled in-person plans  —  The show now ends on January 7th  —  CES has dropped the last day of its 2022 tech conference in Las Vegas …
Brian Quarmby / Cointelegraph:
Ethereum scaling project Polygon says it quietly fixed a bug that put $23.6B in MATIC tokens at risk, but not before $2.04M in tokens was stolen  —  “Considering how much was at stake, I believe our team has made the best decisions possible given the circumstances,” said Polygon's co-founder Jaynti Kanani.
Rebecca Elliott / Wall Street Journal:
Tesla's software engineering expertise let it navigate the global chip shortage by rewriting software to use alternative chips in its cars  —  Electric-vehicle maker is expected to manufacture roughly 80% more vehicles this year than it did in 2020  —  Tesla Inc. has emerged …

Sponsor Posts

Clay:
Turn any GTM idea into reality  —  Clay helps GTM teams combine AI agents, enrichment, and intent data to move faster and turn insights into action.
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
Your website, your brand: A website building guide for tech partners  —  In a competitive market, trust is what makes businesses choose you and stay with you.  As a tech partner, you can take steps to build …
IDrive:
Geometric Grand Unification — Solving the Hubble Tension & Proton Mass  —  Physics solved?  AI verifies model unifying gravity & particles by deriving constants from vacuum geometry.  Identifies void-driven topology.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Software In Shambles, OpenAI vs. Anthropic Super Brawl, Amazon's Struggles
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.
Hard Fork:
Elon Musk's Mega-Merger + We Test Google's Project Genie + What's Next for Moltbook Creator
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Jeff Bezos Used To Be In Love with The Washington Post. What Happened?
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.
Cheeky Pint:
Elon Musk on Space GPUs, AI, Optimus, and his manufacturing method
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Great Chat:
Is building in public over?
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
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 6:45 PM ET, December 31, 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

Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch:
Will Oremus / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Todd Bishop / GeekWire: