Techmeme
February 2, 2022, 6:25 PM

Top News

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Meta beats with Q4 revenue of $33.67B vs. $33.4B est., up 20% YoY, 2.91B MAUs, but misses with EPS $3.67 vs. $3.84; stock down 15%+ on a weak forecast  —  - Facebook earnings came in below expectations for the fourth quarter, and the company said numerous challenges are ahead in the first quarter.
Meta:
Meta reports Family of Apps revenue of $32.8B and will change its ticker symbol from FB to META in H1 2022; Reality Labs lost $10.2B in 2021 on $877M revenue  —  Meta Platforms, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) today reported financial results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2021.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
A profile of US hacker P4x, who says he is responsible for ongoing North Korean internet outages and frustrated by the US' lack of response to DPRK attacks  —  Disappointed with the lack of US response to the Hermit Kingdom's attacks against US security researchers, one hacker took matters into his own hands.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Elon Musk announces $500/month Starlink Premium, claiming 150Mbps-500Mbps download speeds, up from 50Mbps-250Mbps, and doubling upload speeds to 20Mbps-40Mbps  —  The new antenna carries an upfront cost of $2500  —  SpaceX's satellite internet service Starlink is getting a pricey new high-performance tier called Starlink Premium.
Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:
Belgium's data watchdog fines IAB Europe €250K after finding its ad-targeting tool violates GDPR, and orders a “series of remedies” within two months  —  IAB Europe, an association for online advertising companies, was fined 250,000 euros ($282,690) and handed an ultimatum …
Nathan Grayson / Washington Post:
Sharon Pruitt-Young / NPR:
The FBI warns athletes attending the 2022 Winter Olympics and Paralympics in China to take burner phones and says the official MY2022 app poses a security risk  —  Athletes on their way to the 2022 Winter Olympics have a new item to add to their packing list: a burner phone.
James Vincent / The Verge:
DeepMind details AlphaCode, a new AI coding engine that it says “writes computer programs at a competitive level”  —  AlphaCode is good, but not great — not yet  —  DeepMind has created an AI system named AlphaCode that it says “writes computer programs at a competitive level.”
J. Clara Chan / The Hollywood Reporter:
Spotify reports Q4 revenue of $3.04B, up 24% YoY , MAUs of 406M, up 18% YoY, and Ad-Supported revenue of $445M, a record 15% of total revenue  —  The audio giant reported earnings as a growing list of musicians and podcasters leave the platform over its handling of misinformation on Joe Rogan's podcast.
Wall Street Journal:
A look at the injuries users sustain while gaming with their VR headsets, which commonly come with safety tips like clearing out furniture and staying seated  —  Tally includes broken vases, dislocated shoulders, injured girlfriends; 'Why don't you go to the gym like a normal person?'
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
Dune Analytics, which makes crypto data charts and dashboards, raises a $69.420M Series B at a $1B valuation led by Coatue, bringing its total funding to $80M  —  Quick Take  — Dune Analytics has hit a valuation of $1 billion with its Series B round.  — Dune has big plans in place …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Alphabet says its board has approved a 20-for-1 stock split, slated for July 15 with shareholder approval on July 1; Google last split its stock in April 2014  —  - Before the Alphabet rebrand in 2015, Google effectively split its stock with the introduction of a third class of shares.
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Sony reports Q3 gaming revenue fell 8% YoY to ~$7.09B, operating profit rose 12.1% YoY to ~$810M; Sony shipped 3.9M PS5 consoles, bringing the total to 17.3M  —  The PS4 had sold more at this point  —  Sony shipped just 3.9 million PlayStation 5 consoles in its all-important holiday quarter …
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Startups have begun selling and renting out AR spaces tied to real-world addresses, raising questions about who should have the rights to a property's AR layer  —  It's the stuff of nightmares: The other day, I found my property occupied by a stranger, who was renting it out, Airbnb style.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Qualcomm beats with Q1 revenue of $10.7B vs $10.42B est., up 30% YoY, net income of $3.7B, up 47% YoY, and chip segment revenue of $8.8B, up 35% YoY  —  - Qualcomm reported first-quarter earnings Wednesday after the bell.  — Qualcomm's chip business grew 35% driven by handset chip sales.
More: ZDNet and Thurrott
Tom Krisher / Associated Press:
NHTSA: Tesla will issue an OTA update for 53,822 cars and SUVs to remove an FSD feature that let vehicles roll through stop signs without coming to a halt  —  DETROIT (AP) — Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their “Full Self-Driving” software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt.
Aditya Kalra / Reuters:
Sources: Indian officials have held tense and heated discussions with Meta, Google, Twitter, ShareChat, and Koo over proactively removing “fake news”  —  Indian officials have held heated discussions with Google, Twitter and Facebook for not proactively removing what they described …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
All new Zoho Workerly 2024  —  Staffing businesses around the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing their temporary workforce.  With a constantly shifting job market and changing staffing needs …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Henry Shukman, Lessons from an Authentic Zen Master
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Wed. 03/27 - Hulu Comes To Disney+; WWDC Gets A Date
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:25 PM ET, February 2, 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

Earlier Picks

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch: