Techmeme
January 12, 2022, 7:40 PM

Top News

Martine Paris / Bloomberg:
Apple confirms it removed several Wordle clones from the App Store, after reports surfaced about many clones capitalizing on the guessing game's popularity  —  Apple Inc. removed several Wordle games from its App Store after users confused them with another word-play title popularized by Jimmy Fallon and other celebrities.
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Canalys: worldwide PC shipments grew 15% YoY in 2021 to 341M, the highest annual shipments since 2012; Apple's market share grew by 28.3%, Acer's by 21.8%  —  It would be easy to think PC sales dropped worldwide last year amid chip shortages, but that conventional thinking would be wrong.
Bloomberg:
Sony confirms PlayStation 4 production will continue in 2022, which sources claim will help the company offset some PlayStation 5 production pressure  —  Sony Group Corp. will continue producing PlayStation 4 consoles throughout 2022 as it navigates disruptions to the global supply chain …
Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk:
Jack Dorsey and others propose a legal defense fund for Bitcoin developers, citing “multi-front litigation” and “threats”  —  The main purpose of the fund will be to defend developers from from lawsuits regarding their activities in the Bitcoin ecosystem …
Poynter:
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft has hired a veteran semiconductor designer from Apple, as it seeks to develop its own chips for Azure servers  —  Microsoft Corp. lured away a veteran semiconductor designer from Apple Inc. as it looks to expand its own server-chips efforts, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
App Annie: consumers spent $170B on mobile apps globally in 2021, up 19% YoY, downloading 230B apps; the average American spent 4.1 hours in apps per day  —  Consumer spending on mobile apps reached $170 billion in 2021, according to App Annie's newly released “State of Mobile 2022″ report …
Justin Hendrix / Tech Policy Press:
Over 260 health professionals tell Spotify to implement a misinformation policy, after a Joe Rogan Experience episode featured a discredited scientist  —  More than 260 doctors, nurses, scientists, health professionals and others have signed an open letter calling on the streaming media platform Spotify to …
Peter Rudegeair / Wall Street Journal:
London-based Checkout.com, which offers payment processing tools, raises $1B in a share sale at a $40B valuation  —  The $1 billion deal vaults the digital-payments processor past all but a handful of other startups  —  Checkout.com didn't raise money from outside investors until 2019.
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
FCC proposes stricter data breach reporting rules, including a mandate to notify customers of “inadvertent” breaches, scrapping a one-week wait period, and more  —  The Federal Communications Commission is the next US regulator hoping to hold companies more accountable for data breaches.
Martin Matishak / The Record:
US Cyber Command says malware group MuddyWater is tied to Iranian intelligence, the first time the US government has publicly linked the group to Iranian regime  —  U.S. Cyber Command on Wednesday revealed that a hacking group reputed for its cyberespionage campaigns is actually part of Iran's intelligence apparatus.
Lucy Harley-Mckeown / The Block:
Coinbase says “nearly the entire company will shut down” across four separate “recharge weeks” for employees in 2022  —  Quick Take  — Coinbase is giving employees four ‘recharge weeks’ off in 2022 in order to counteract what it called an intense working environment.
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Samsung, after announcing a Jan. 11 event for the Exynos 2200, didn't show up to the product's launch and says it will unveil the new chip with a new smartphone  —  The Exynos 2200 was supposed to launch on January 11.  It didn't.  —  So here's a crazy story.
Bloomberg:
Alphabet Workers Union complains that contract workers receive COVID-19 testing that is inferior to the $949 Cue Health devices given to full-time WFH employees  —  - Full-time employees at home get instant results from Cue  — Contractors in office are offered cheaper mail-in tests
Casey Newton / Platformer:
The FTC's suit against Meta comes too late to really matter, but its scrutiny of Meta's VR acquisitions shows it's determined not to make the same mistake twice  —  Why an FTC inquiry into the company's VR ambitions matters more than today's lawsuit ruling  —  Just over 13 months ago …
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:

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Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Talal Ansari / Wall Street Journal:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: