Techmeme
April 12, 2022, 2:55 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple has delayed adding a blood pressure monitor to Watch until 2024, possibly 2025, after difficulties with accuracy during testing  —  Apple Inc.'s plan to add a highly anticipated blood-pressure monitor to its smartwatch has hit some snags and the technology isn't expected …
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
A profile of a16z VC Chris Dixon, who made early bets on crypto startups like Coinbase; sources: a16z plans to fold its crypto funds back into its central funds  —  The Andreessen Horowitz partner is the new no. 1 on Forbes' 21st annual Midas List of top venture investors, thanks to savvy bets on tokens …
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Matt Burgess / Wired:
DuckDuckGo launches its privacy-focused browser on macOS in beta through a private waiting list  —  DuckDuckGo started out as a private search engine.  Now its web browser is debuting on Macs to rival Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Brave.  —  When Google launched Chrome back in 2008, it changed the web overnight.
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Apple updates iMovie for iOS and iPadOS with Magic Movie, for automatic movie creation from clips and photos, and storyboards for a template-guided approach  —  Apple is releasing an iMovie update today for iOS and iPadOS. iMovie 3.0 introduces two new major features — storyboards and Magic Movie.
Zack Seward / CoinDesk:
Circle, which maintains the USDC stablecoin, raises $400M from BlackRock, Fidelity, and others, after raising $440M in May 2021  —  BlackRock and Fidelity headlined the stablecoin issuer's latest funding round, which follows a $440 million raise from last May.
Ionut Ilascu / BleepingComputer:
RaidForums, used by Lapsus$, Babuk, and other extortion gangs, is seized in a US-led international operation; Europol says the hacking forum had 500K+ users  —  The RaidForums hacker forum, used mainly for trading and selling stolen databases, has been shut down and its domain seized …
Akshat Rathi / Bloomberg:
A look at Stripe's $925M Frontier initiative, which funds carbon-removal startups and has received funding from Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and others  —  Some of the world's largest companies will spend $925 million buying offsets from startups that remove carbon dioxide from the air.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok is rolling out Effect House, which lets creators make AR effects that others can use in videos, to all users after a closed beta test last fall  —  Last August, TechCrunch noted TikTok was working to build its own augmented reality (AR) development platform called Effect House …
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Ethereum developers launch the so-called mainnet shadow fork, a key stress test ahead of the proof-of-stake Merge upgrade, expected to reduce energy use by ~99%  —  Ethereum's network is inching closer toward its much-anticipated software upgrade known as the Merge, having just entered a key testing step.
Jill R Shah / Bloomberg:
Filing: Meta spent $26.8M on Mark Zuckerberg's security in 2021, up 6% from 2020, far above other execs, such as Sundar Pichai ($4.3M) and Jeff Bezos ($1.6M)  —  The cost of keeping Mark Zuckerberg safe keeps going up for Meta Platforms Inc., far outstripping what similar technology companies with high-profile executives are spending.
Andi Ortiz / The Wrap:
Last Week Tonight's John Oliver weighed in on data brokers, showing how easy it was to target members of Congress with ads after obtaining their personal info  —  John Oliver escalated his typical shenanigans on Sunday night's episode of “Last Week Tonight,” going from poking fun at politicians to outright blackmailing them.
Eric Migicovsky:
On the 10th anniversary of smart watch maker Pebble's Kickstarter launch, its founder says Pebble failed as it tried to expand beyond a hacker user base  —  I've been giving a talk on the importance of learning from failure to every YC batch for last few years.  I wrote this post in 2017 but never published it.
Nikkei Asia:
Major iPhone manufacturer Pegatron, Mac manufacturer Quanta, and iPad maker Compal suspend factory operations near Shanghai amid strict COVID-19 measures  —  TAIPEI — Three key Apple suppliers have suspended production in and near Shanghai as strict COVID-19 lockdown measures show signs …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify rebrands companion app Spotify Greenroom as Spotify Live and integrates its live audio capabilities in the main app minus the interactive features  —  As an earlier report had suggested, Spotify today announced it will integrate the live audio capabilities from its companion app …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Singapore-based fashion marketplace Zilingo suspends CEO Ankiti Bose, after attempts to raise $150M-$200M led to an investigation over its accounting  —  Zilingo Pte, one of Singapore's highest-profile startups, has suspended Chief Executive Officer Ankiti Bose after an effort …
The Verge:
Meta rolls out a test for some creators to sell virtual items and effects in Horizon Worlds, which will take a 25% cut of any sale after app store fees  —  Horizon Worlds will take a 25 percent cut of any sale after app store fees  —  Meta is testing new features to let creators …
Bhanvi Satija / Reuters:
Research: TikTok's ad revenue is projected to triple in 2022 to $11B+, surpassing Twitter and Snapchat combined, which are expected to make $5.58B and $4.86B  —  Video-sharing app TikTok's advertisement revenue is likely to triple in 2022 to more than $11 billion, exceeding the combined sales …
Eli Tan / CoinDesk:
Coinbase will produce a movie trilogy based on the Bored Ape Yacht Club, set to premier at NFT.NYC in June; BAYC owners can submit their apes for consideration  —  The trio of films will tie into the launch of Coinbase's long-awaited NFT marketplace.  —  The Bored Ape Yacht Club is getting …
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Some business customers say Microsoft's licensing rules make it harder and costlier to run Windows and Office on rival cloud platforms like AWS and Google Cloud  —  The current tide of antitrust scrutiny and regulations focused on big technology companies has conspicuously omitted one company …
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Kubit, which helps track and analyze user engagement data, raises an $18M Series A led by Insight Partners, bringing its total capital raised to $24M  —  Showing that the product analytics industry is alive and well, Kubit today announced that it raised $18 million in a series A funding round led …
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