Techmeme: Brydge, an iPad, Mac, and Surface accessory maker, is shutting down; sources: Brydge has neither paid its staff salaries nor fulfilled orders since January 2023 (Chance Miller/9to5Mac)

Top News

Chris Strohm / Bloomberg:

Sources: the US DOJ is investigating if Binance was used to let Russians skirt US sanctions, alongside a probe into its alleged use to evade sanctions on Iran — The Justice Department is investigating whether Binance Holdings Ltd. was used illegally to let Russians skirt US sanctions …

More: The Information, The Block, Reuters, Bitcoinist.com, Cryptonews, and CryptoSlate

Matt Binder / Mashable:

Out of the ~150K early Twitter Blue subscribers in November 2022, just ~68,157 were still subscribed on April 30, meaning Blue has an abnormally high churn rate — The early birds cancel their subscriptions. — Twitter Blue's struggles since its launch nearly six months ago are more severe …

More: The Verge. Tweets: @malooski_vt, @jamesrbuk, @a_fuckinggenius, @mattbinder, and @mattnavarra

Mengqi Sun / Wall Street Journal:

New York's AG proposes the Crypto Regulation, Protection, Transparency and Oversight Act, or CRPTO, seeking broader enforcement authority over crypto companies — Proposed legislation would require crypto exchanges to have independent public audits of financial statements, among other new requirements

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:

Brydge, an iPad, Mac, and Surface accessory maker, is shutting down; sources: Brydge has neither paid its staff salaries nor fulfilled orders since January 2023 — Brydge, a once thriving startup making popular keyboard accessories for iPad, Mac, and Microsoft Surface products, is ceasing operations.

More: Ars Technica, MacStories, AppleInsider, Daring Fireball, The Verge, Six Colors, and Mastodon

Mastodon: @dcseifert@mastodon.social. Tweets: @nexusben, @heymarkl, @vadimyuryev, @harrymccracken, and @chancehmiller

Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:

Amazon expands Inspire, its TikTok-like video and photo feed in the Shopping app that lets users buy from influencer and brand content, to all US customers — Amazon's in-app TikTok-like shopping feed is now available to all customers in the United States, according to the company's website.

More: dot.LA, iPhone in Canada Blog, Tubefilter, and Insider Intelligence

Theo Wayt / The Information:

Amazon is working on AI tools to generate photos and videos for merchants' ad campaigns on its platform, as the company seeks to build a broader ad business — Amazon is building a team to work on artificial intelligence tools that will generate photos and videos for merchants to use …

Tweets: @theo_wayt

Dave Michaels / Wall Street Journal:

Coinbase plans to try a novel defense against a potential US SEC enforcement action by arguing the regulator bears some responsibility for approving its IPO — Crypto exchange says regulators' lawsuit threat is undermined by clearance of IPO — With the Securities and Exchange Commission preparing …

More: CryptoPotato, Coinspeaker, Bitcoinist.com, Cryptonews, CoinDesk, crypto.news, Inside Bitcoins, Blockworks, Ethereum World News, and Bloomberg. Tweets: @brianmcc

Harmeet Singh Walia / Counterpoint Research:

Smartphone shipments declined 14% YoY and 7% QoQ globally to 280.2M units in Q1 2023; Samsung declined 19%, Apple 2%, Xiaomi 22%, Oppo 10%, and Vivo 18% — - The global smartphone market declined by 14% YoY and 7% QoQ to record 280.2 million unit shipments in Q1 2023.

More: TechCrunch, IDC, Light Reading, Cult of Mac, Neowin, Wccftech, SamMobile, and Android Authority. Tweets: @neiltwitz

Chris Welch / The Verge:

A review of the $250 JBL Tour Pro 2 wireless earbuds, whose case has a touchscreen for accessing earbud settings, along with extras like timers and a flashlight — The touchscreen offers quick access to earbud settings along with extras like timers and even a flashlight.

More: SlashGear, Digital Trends, Engadget, USA Today, CNET, and NBC News

Tweets: @ericrennerbrown, @chriswelch, and @lukew

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Ant's restructuring has been held up for over a year by China reshuffling its regulatory system; the final step is a financial-holding-company license — Powerful new regulator will have to approve the fintech giant's application to become a financial-holding company

More: Bloomberg, PYMNTS.com, Reuters, and ChinaTechNews.com

Tweets: @byron_wan and @luluyilun

Alex Konrad / Forbes:

A look at the ByteDance investors who have billions in paper profits blocked by the US regulatory standoff over TikTok; source: Sequoia China holds a 10%+ stake — The world's most valuable startup does more than any other investment to put VCs on the Forbes Midas List, including its No. 1.

More: Pandaily. Tweets: @pstasiatech, @alexrkonrad, @jacobhelberg, @chrisfralic, @alexrkonrad, @alexrkonrad, and @alexrkonrad. Thanks:@alexrkonrad

Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:

Jakarta-based Praktis, which sells end-to-end supply chain software to direct-to-consumer brands and suppliers, raised a $20M Series A led by East Ventures — Small to medium-sized enterprises contribute 60% of Indonesia's gross domestic product. But companies in the D2C space still struggle to compete against bigger brands.

More: Tech in Asia

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26 — Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.

Zoho:

Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control — Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble

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.

Hard Fork:

Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped

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:

Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Great Chat:

So what happens after AGI?

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.

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.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:25 PM ET, May 5, 2023.

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.