Techmeme: Q&A with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev about the meme-stock craze, launching in the UK and EU, becoming customers' primary financial institution, and more (Liz Hoffman/Semafor)

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February 25, 2024, 10:20 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sources: Apple has considered a fitness ring, smart glasses, and adding cameras and more advanced AI to AirPods, but is not actively developing these devices — Apple has explored the idea of developing new wearable devices — including a fitness ring, smart glasses and even AirPods with cameras …

More: 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Appleosophy, Business Insider, PhoneArena, MacRumors, The Verge, Wccftech, Supercharged, Benzinga, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, TechRadar, AppleInsider, Tom's Guide, Forbes, iThinkDifferent, SlashGear, iDownloadBlog.com, iMore, and Cult of Mac

X: @markgurman, @newsynick, @markgurman, and @tina__nigro

Forums: r/hardware, r/VisionPro, r/apple, and MacRumors Forums

Kif Leswing / CNBC:

Omdia estimates that the bill of materials for Apple Vision Pro is $1,542, with both of the 1.25-inch Micro OLED displays from Sony costing about $228 each — - Apple's Vision Pro headset starts at $3,499. — The Vision Pro includes lots of pricey state-of-the-art parts.

More: Benzinga, Hankyung, PhoneArena, PCMag, AppleInsider, Wccftech, and 9to5Mac

Mastodon: @Techaltar@mas.to. X: @benbajarin and @rustybrick. Forums: r/apple

Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:

Many redditors say they are not enthusiastic about Reddit's IPO and expect CEO Steve Huffman to run the site into the ground while trying to make it profitable — There's the mention of r/WallStreetBets. (Five mentions in total, actually.) There's the stockpile it's amassed of Bitcoin and Ethereum.

More: The Verge, Cryptopolitan, Matt Mullenweg, and Wired

Threads: @alexheath, @alexheath, @moskov, @trevorcroker, @aeromunch, @barbarosozturk, and @mike_isaac

Mastodon: @Cefr@beige.party, @stefan@stefanbohacek.online, and @dangillmor@mastodon.social

X: @buccocapital, @eshear, @eshear, @eshear, @levie, @eshear, @jonahlupton, @therealdavey2, @sdw, and @carnage4life

Forums: r/technology and Beehaw

Dave Lee / Bloomberg:

Reddit's S-1 shows how dependent the site is on the unpaid labor of 60K active daily moderators and the whims of its users and subreddits like r/WallStreetBets

Threads: @nixcraft and @daveleebbg. X: @eshear

Paresh Dave / Wired:

In Reddit's S-1, Steve Huffman offers a look at the site's beginnings without naming co-founder Alexis Ohanian, reflecting their schism during the BLM protests

More: The Daily Beast, Fortune, and San Francisco Business Times. X: @alexisohanian

Jon Porter / The Verge:

Honor announces global availability of Magic 6 Pro with a 6.8" 120Hz OLED display, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and 5,600mAh battery, set to retail for €1,299 in Europe — A month and a half after debuting the Magic 6 Pro in China, Honor is announcing global availability of its latest flagship at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain.

More: Android Authority, PCMag, Wccftech, CNET, TalkAndroid.com, BGR, Pocketnow, PhoneArena, Digital Trends, Tech Advisor, Phandroid, TechRadar, T3, 9to5Google, Reuters, Android Police, nextpit, Nikkei Asia, Android Central, and Gizmochina

Alex Seitz-Wald / NBC News:

A consultant working for Rep. Dean Phillips, who challenged Biden in NH's primary, admits to producing the deepfake robocalls, saying anyone can do it for $500 — Steve Kramer acknowledged Sunday that he created the fake Joe Biden robocall at the center of a multistate investigation after NBC News reported about his involvement.

More: The Hill, Axios, and Associated Press. Forums: r/politics

Clothilde Goujard / Politico:

A year after EU governments moved to restrict TikTok over security concerns, politicians are flocking to the app to attract the youth vote in upcoming elections — A year after banning the Chinese-owned app, Europe's politicians are popping up on TikTok to fight for re-election.

More: Egypt Independent. X: @gateklons

Liz Hoffman / Semafor:

Q&A with Robinhood CEO Vlad Tenev about the meme-stock craze, launching in the UK and EU, becoming customers' primary financial institution, and more — On The Record — Three years ago, an army of bored, stimulus-rich day traders upended the stock market.

Allison Johnson / The Verge:

Xiaomi launches Xiaomi 14 Ultra with a 6.73" LTPO 120Hz display, Snapdragon 8 Gen 3, and 50MP camera with a 1-inch-type Sony LYT-900 sensor, starting at €1,499 — Xiaomi is using MWC to launch two of its flagships for a global audience — though not including the US, as usual.

More: Android Central, CNET, BetaNews, PetaPixel, PhoneArena, Tech Advisor, Notebookcheck, GSMArena.com, and HotHardware

X: @maxwinebach, @maxwinebach, @xiaomi, @maxwinebach, and @maxwinebach

David Jeans / Forbes:

In a letter to Elon Musk, Rep. Mike Gallagher says SpaceX may be in breach of DOD contracts after sources say Starshield is inactive around Taiwan for US troops — Rep. Mike Gallagher, who led a delegation to Taiwan this week, said in a letter to Musk that SpaceX could possibly be in breach of its …

More: Wall Street Journal, CNBC, and Interesting Engineering

Threads: @kazweida, @lorakolodny, and @alexrkonrad

X: @phelimkine, @alexrkonrad, and @davidjeans2

Forums: Hacker News, r/technology, and r/EnoughMuskSpam

Jon Porter / The Verge:

What to expect at MWC 2024: smartphone launches from Xiaomi and others, OnePlus Watch 2, Brain.ai's “app-less phone” and other experimental concepts, and more — Without looking up any leaks or rumors, I'd bet that you could probably sketch most of the phones rumored to be launching at Mobile World Congress next week.

More: Samsung Newsroom, Livemint, Tech Advisor, ZDNet, SlashGear, MarketWatch, McKinsey & Company, Bloomberg, Cryptopolitan, TalkAndroid.com, Android Authority, and Android Police

X: @florian4gamers. LinkedIn: Rickard Damm

Milana Vinn / Reuters:

Sources: Broadcom is nearing a $3.8B deal to sell its end-user computing unit to private equity firm KKR — Chipmaker Broadcom (AVGO.O) is nearing a $3.8 billion deal to sell its business that allows users to access desktops and applications from any device to private equity firm KKR (KKR.N) …

More: The Register, SiliconANGLE, Bloomberg, and CRN

LinkedIn: Kyle Davies, Jason Ruby, and Pramod Gosavi

Jordan Novet / CNBC:

Filing: Google said Microsoft offered to sell Bing to Apple in 2018, but Eddy Cue said Microsoft had search quality issues and was investing less than Google — - In 2018, Microsoft offered to sell Apple its Bing search engine or start a Bing joint venture, Google said in a newly unsealed filing.

More: TechCrunch, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, TweakTown, PhoneArena, Forbes, Neowin, United States District Court, and NewsBytes

Mastodon: @nixCraft@mastodon.social. Bluesky: @justinpalmer.bsky.social. X: @rustybrick and @rogoswami

Forums: r/apple and r/technology

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:20 PM ET, February 25, 2024.

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.

From Mediagazer

Jennifer Maas / Variety:

David Ellison says Paramount plans to combine Paramount+ and HBO Max into one streamer with 200M+ subscribers, but will let HBO “operate with independence”

Peter Kafka / Business Insider:

Paramount says the Ellisons and RedBird pledged $47B in the WBD deal but won't say if Saudi Arabia, Abu Dhabi, and Qatar are funding $24B announced in December

Ashley Carman / Bloomberg:

Inside the Podcast Business Summit and interviews with Kara Swisher, Adam Friedland, and others about how video podcasts won over audio, paywalls, ads, and more

More News

Lauren Feiner / The Verge:

A preview of the NetChoice cases to be argued at SCOTUS on February 26, about the constitutionality of Texas and Florida laws regulating social media content

More: CNN, Washington Post, USA Today, Politico, Balls and Strikes, Chamber of Progress, Tech Policy Press, New York Times, Wall Street Journal, and SCOTUSblog

Threads: @renee.diresta. X: @lauren_feiner. LinkedIn: Kirk T. Schroder. Forums: r/technews

Earlier Picks

Dietrich Knauth / Reuters:

FTX agrees to sell FTX Europe back to its founders for $32.7M, drops a lawsuit seeking back $323M it had spent to acquire the startup originally called DA AG

More: Bitcoinist.com, Coinpedia Fintech News, Cryptopolitan, Cointelegraph, Wall Street Journal, and Bitcoin Insider

X: @aosipovich, @kateclarktweets, @jdan, and @ivanlevingston

New York Times:

How some news accounts on Instagram, including Mo News and Jessica Yellin, are gaining popularity even as the platform tries de-emphasizing political content

X: @katie_robertson, @davidsirota, @baekdal, @sapna, @crbustamante, @nbj914, @anndesbiondi, and @pressgazette. LinkedIn: Lewis Wiltshire

Counterpoint Research:

Global cumulative shipments of 5G smartphones crossed 2B in less than five years, a faster adoption rate than 3G or 4G; Apple and Samsung together shipped 1B

X: @karn_chauhan

Reuters:

The US DOE says it will suspend its mandatory survey of energy use by crypto miners, following a lawsuit by bitcoin miner Riot Platforms and an industry group

More: Bitcoin News, Forbes, Semafor, CoinGape, Crowdfund Insider, and CryptoSlate

Mastodon: @egallager@social …. X: @eiagov, @cynthiamlummis, @eiagov, @dsbatten, and @senlummis

Forums: r/Buttcoin and Slashdot