Techmeme
January 5, 2022, 12:40 PM

Top News

Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:
Sony details PlayStation VR2 for PS5: a 4K HDR OLED display, 2000×2040 pixels per eye, 110° FoV, eye tracking, haptic feedback, inside-out cameras, and more  —  Sexy specs include dedicated eye tracking, over 4 million pixels per eye.  —  Sony's trickle of information about its future …
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
NFT marketplace OpenSea raises a $300M Series C led by Paradigm and Coatue at a $13.3B post-money valuation  —  OpenSea, one of the most talked about blockchain start-ups in Silicon Valley, said on Tuesday that had it raised $300 million in new venture capital, making it the latest company …
Sylvia Varnham O'Regan / The Information:
Sources: Meta has stopped developing a new OS for its VR devices and upcoming AR glasses; the multiyear project involved hundreds of employees  —  Facebook parent company Meta Platforms has stopped development of a new software operating system to power its virtual reality devices …
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Intel claims its 12th-gen 14-core Core i9 outperforms Apple's M1 Max and is the fastest CPU ever, although the i9 uses significantly more power than the M1 Max  —  Intel today unveiled new 12th-generation Core processors suitable for laptops, and as part of the announcement …
Monica Chin / The Verge:
Asus unveils the Zenbook 17 Fold OLED with a 17.3" foldable screen, Intel's 12th-gen CPUs, up to 16GB of RAM and 1TB SSD, and more, coming in Q2 for a TBD price  —  There's a more traditional 14-inch OLED Zenbook coming as well  —  Each year, it seems that more companies are trying out devices with foldable screens.
Scott Stein / CNET:
Microsoft and Qualcomm partner to develop custom chips for AR glasses and integrate their software, such as Microsoft Mesh and Snapdragon Spaces  —  The news points to Microsoft looking to shrink the HoloLens 2 down to new products that could connect with phones.
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Samsung unveils Home Hub, a SmartThings controller with a docked tablet, launching in South Korea in H1 2022, and says it joined the Home Connectivity Alliance  —  The new smart home controller from Samsung looks like something Apple or Google should make  —  Samsung introduced …
Will Knight / Wired:
In the fall, John Deere will start selling its fully autonomous 8R tractor, which can gather data about the soil to improve its algorithms as it operates  —  The automation, and control of the resulting data, raise questions about the role of human farmers. … SOURCE DATA  —  TECHNOLOGY
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Amazon says it has sold over 150M Fire TV devices worldwide  —  Amazon is touting a major milestone for Fire TV, claiming it has sold more than 150 million of the streaming devices worldwide.  And it announced deals with Ford Motor Co. and Stellantis to bring Fire TV to the automakers' in-car entertainment systems.
Gené Teare / Crunchbase News:
Global VC funding reached $643B in 2021, up from $335B in 2020 and ~$300B in 2019, with $29.4B in seed funding, $201B in early stage, and $413B in late stage  —  Venture funding in 2021 broke records across the board, Crunchbase data shows, with investment last year up more than 10x what it was a decade earlier.
More: Tech.eu
Ben Winslow / KSTU:
Property management software company Entrata cuts ties with its co-founder and former CEO after he sent an anti-Semitic email to Utah tech and political leaders  —  SALT LAKE CITY — The founder and chair of Entrata, a Silcon Slopes tech firm, has resigned his position after sending an email …
Anna Wiener / New Yorker:
If the metaverse takes off, it will take cues from today's privatized, centralized, financialized tech ecosystem and echo the development of play-to-earn games  —  In a virtual world full of virtual goods, finance could get weird.  —  Years ago, while on vacation in the Northwest …
Jabari Young / CNBC:
Fanatics acquires trading card company Topps' name and its sports and entertainment divisions, sources say for ~$500M, as Fanatics builds out its NFT offerings  —  - Sports e-commerce company Fanatics has acquired sports trading card company Topps, sources confirmed to CNBC on Monday night.
Richard Waters / Financial Times:
As companies race to find practical applications for quantum computers, the short term focus is on boosting machine learning  —  Companies are jostling to be the first to find a practical application for quantum computers  —  The race is on to find the first practical use for quantum computing.

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