Techmeme
January 21, 2022, 5:50 AM

Top News

Salvador Rodriguez / Wall Street Journal:
Twitter will let iOS users of its Blue subscription service use NFTs as hexagon-shaped profile pictures  —  Service will be available to some users of the company's Blue subscriber service  —  Twitter Inc. will start allowing some users to use nonfungible tokens as their profile pictures …
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Sources: Google's AR headset could launch in 2024, powered by a custom processor, resembling ski goggles, and no need for an external power connection  —  Meta may be the loudest company building AR and VR hardware.  Microsoft has HoloLens.  Apple is working on something, too.  But don't count out Google.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix reports Q4 revenue of $7.71B, up 16% YoY, net income of $607M, 222M paid subscribers, and $30B in 2021 revenue, up 19%; stock down ~20% on weak guidance  —  Netflix ended 2021 with a slightly lower-than-expected subscriber gain in the fourth quarter, and its stock took a dive with a weak Q1 outlook.
Alana Semuels / TIME:
Intel commits $20B to build at least two semiconductor fabrication plants on a 1,000-acre site by 2025, employing at least 3,000 people in New Albany, Ohio  —  The announcement comes amidst a push to increase domestic manufacturing of semiconductors.  Partly because of enormous incentives offered …
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
OpenSea suffered a database outage affecting some services that rely on its APIs to display NFTs, including Twitter and MetaMask; the issue has been fixed  —  A Thursday outage interfered with the ability of MetaMask, which depends on OpenSea, to automatically display new NFTs.  —  Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
John Paczkowski / BuzzFeed News:
Apple names longtime company spokesperson Kristin Huguet as VP of worldwide communications, replacing Stella Low, who is leaving after joining Apple in May 2021  —  Apple has tapped a new head of PR: longtime company spokesperson Kristin Huguet.  She'll replace Stella Low …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
The Senate Judiciary votes 16-6 to advance the American Innovation and Choice Online Act, which would stop platforms from favoring their products over rivals'  —  The Senate Judiciary Committee voted 16-6 Thursday to advance a major tech competition bill, which some experts consider lawmakers' best shot …
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
The US Federal Reserve releases its long-awaited report on a digital dollar but doesn't take a position on issuing one, and seeks public feedback for 120 days  —  - The Federal Reserve on Thursday released its long-awaited exploration of a digital dollar but took no position on the issuance of a central bank digital currency.
Lydia Moynihan / New York Post:
Sources: TikTok ousted its marketing chief Nick Tran for “going rogue” with plans like TikTok Kitchen, NFTs by Lil Nas X and others, and TikTok Resumes  —  TikTok's marketing chief has been ousted after blindsiding top management with a series of increasingly bizarre campaigns, The Post has learned.
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Apple releases iOS 15.3 RC and macOS Monterey 12.2 RC with a fix for Safari 15's IndexedDB API that leaked users' browser history and Google ID to other sites  —  We recently reported that Apple was working on a fix for a Safari bug that led to the leaking of users' browsing history and Google ID.
Andrew Asmakov / Decrypt:
Crypto.com says its breach affected 483 users, resulting in unauthorized cryptocurrencies withdrawals worth ~$33.84M, and all users were reimbursed the same day  —  Cryptocurrency exchange Crypto.com has lost roughly $34 million in a recent security incident, according to a post-mortem released on Thursday.
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
Amazon Style, the company's first physical fashion store, will launch in LA later this year, with an app that lets shoppers send items to the fitting room  —  Move over books and groceries, Amazon's latest foray into physical retail is focused on fashion.  —  The e-commerce giant announced Thursday …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
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

Grit:
The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The 100-person AI lab that became Anthropic and Google's secret weapon | Edwin Chen (Surge AI)
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw
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.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
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.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:50 AM ET, January 21, 2022.

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

Nesrine Malik / The Guardian:
Washington Post:
Nico Grant / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Eric Newcomer / Newcomer:
Mark Mulligan / MIDiA Research:
Financial Times:
Mack DeGeurin / Gizmodo: