Techmeme
January 21, 2022, 6:35 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 …
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 …
New York Times:
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
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.
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.

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More News

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Washington Post:
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Earlier Picks

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