Techmeme
April 7, 2022, 9:00 PM

Top News

Jay Peters / The Verge:
Activision Blizzard will convert all its 1,100 temporary and contingent QA workers to full-time employees on July 1 and raise the minimum hourly rate to $20  —  Nearly 1,100 temp game testers are getting full-time jobs with benefits  —  Activision Blizzard has just announced that all temporary …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple releases a report it commissioned from Analysis Group, showing that the company's iOS apps “are rarely the most popular app of a particular type”  —  Apple today shared a new App Store study that it commissioned from economists at Analysis Group, with the report highlighting …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google releases “multisearch” for Lens, letting users ask questions about photos and screenshots, in beta for US users in English on Android and iOS  —  One of the most interesting announcements at Google's Search-focused keynote in September was a big upgrade to Lens that lets you take a photo and ask questions about it.
Paul Vigna / Wall Street Journal:
One-click checkout service Bolt acquires crypto payments startup Wyre, sources say for around $1.5B, which would make it the largest non-SPAC crypto merger yet  —  Deal extends crypto's hot M&A market following record deal activity in 2021  —  Bolt Financial Inc., a payments-focused financial …
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Twitter tests Unmentioning with some users on the web, a feature that lets users select “leave this conversation” on a tweet to avoid notifications  —  Twitter might not have an edit button just yet, but it's still delivering at least one useful feature this week.
CoinDesk:
US Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen gives her first speech on digital assets, saying a CBDC “would require years of development, not months”, and more  —  The U.S. official addressed CBDCs, stablecoins and regulations.  —  A digital dollar could become a “trusted money comparable …
Alyse Stanley / Washington Post:
Epic Games and Lego partner to “shape the future of the metaverse” by building a digital experience where children can play safely online, but offer few details  —  Epic Games has already outlined ambitious plans for the metaverse and Thursday the “Fortnite” maker announced it intends to build part of it with Legos.
TechCrunch:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Coinbase adds support for the popular UPI payment method in India, making the cryptocurrency exchange functional in the world's second-largest internet market  —  Coinbase is adding support for the popular UPI payment instrument in India, making its eponymous cryptocurrency exchange functional …
Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post:
Gwyneth Paltrow, Mila Kunis, and other celebrities are pushing women to invest in NFTs, which critics say is a self-serving feminism centered on white women  —  Gwyneth Paltrow and Mila Kunis joined a Zoom in January to encourage 5,000 women in the audience to break into the male-dominated world of crypto.
Naomi Nix / Washington Post:
Meta disrupts covert influence operations by Belarus- and Russia-linked actors targeting Ukrainians, like hacking Ukrainian military staff's Facebook accounts  —  Facebook said Thursday it disrupted several covert influence operations targeting Ukrainians, as the company has intensified …
Jacquelyn Melinek / TechCrunch:
Blockchain audit service CertiK raises an $88M Series B3 led by Insight, Tiger Global, and Advent at a $2B valuation, bringing its total funding to $230M  —  CertiK, a Web3 and blockchain security company, has raised $88 million in its latest round, bringing its valuation to $2 billion.
Bloomberg:
Toucan, a crypto platform offering carbon offset credits, a market estimated to reach $190B in sales by 2030, is backfiring by incentivizing zombie projects  —  Users of a little-known crypto platform called Toucan now account for purchases of more than a quarter of all carbon credits by the world's largest verifier of offsets.
Xinmei Shen / South China Morning Post:
Sensor Tower: Tencent's Honor of Kings and PUBG Mobile are the world's most lucrative mobile games, respectively earning $735.4M and $643M in revenue in Q1 2022  —  Honour of Kings, PUBG Mobile and Genshin Impact remained the most lucrative mobile games in the world in the first quarter …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Lilt, which offers business translation using both human translators and AI, raises a $55M Series C led by Four Rivers, bringing its total funding to $92.5M  —  Lilt, a provider of AI-powered business translation software, today announced that it raised $55 million in a Series C round led by Four Rivers …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
OpenPhone, which provides SMBs with a business phone line through its mobile app, raises a $40M Series B led by Tiger Global, bringing its total funding to $56M  —  Pam answering the phone at Dunder Mifflin become one of the most iconic refrains of life at The Office, and it's really no wonder that it did …
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Earlier Picks

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