Sources: Spotify to announce an Apple Podcasts Subscriptions competitor next week that will let podcasters set prices without charging them or taking a cut  —  Podcasts exploded in popularity during the lockdown and are on track to bring in more than $1 billion in U.S. ad revenue this year

Interview with Apple's marketing head Greg Joswiak and hardware chief John Ternus on why the company has no plans to merge iPad and Mac product lines  —  In an exclusive interview, the company's marketing and hardware chiefs explain the creation of the tablet - and why they don't want you to call it that

Researchers: an AirDrop user's phone number and email address can be learned via nearby Wi-Fi-capable devices when the user opens an iOS or macOS sharing pane  —  TU-Researchers discover significant privacy leak in Apple's file-sharing service  —  Apple users can share files with each other using AirDrop.

After decades of legal battles, 39 former UK postmasters who were convicted of fraud due to faulty accounting software from Fujitsu have their names cleared  —  Judges have quashed the convictions of 39 former postmasters after the UK's most widespread miscarriage of justice.

Sources: the new 12.9" iPad Pro, which is 0.5mm thicker than its predecessor, is incompatible with the original $349 Magic Keyboard folio case for older models  —  Looking to upgrade?  You'll have to shell out an extra $349 for a new keyboard  —  Apple's new 12.9-inch iPad Pro has a big catch …

A digital coins sell-off, including bitcoin's plunge below $50K, wipes $200B+ in value from crypto markets, on reports Biden will seek a capital gains tax hike  —  - Bitcoin and other digital coins plunged on Friday wiping over $260 billion of the value of the cryptocurrency market.

Turkish crypto exchange Thodex halts operations amid local media reports that its CEO has fled the country and its losses may be as high as ~$2B  —  - Government blocks bank accounts of crypto exchange Thodex  — Whereabouts of 27-year-old CEO Faruk Fatih Ozer unknown

Federal judge rejects motion to dismiss a lawsuit against Apple that alleges the “Buy” option in iTunes is deceptive as Apple can still terminate access  —  Rejecting a motion to dismiss, a federal judge says it is plausible that consumers don't know that access to purchased content can be revoked.

Facebook launches a series of global News Feed ranking tests to solicit user feedback on posts they're seeing and what posts users find valuable  —  Facebook may be reconfiguring its News Feed algorithms.  After being grilled by lawmakers about the role that Facebook played in the attack …

Clubhouse lacks opportunities for virality and monetization that Twitch, Snapchat, and Discord have, and its product is one feature that has been copied easily  —  Clubhouse, an app which allows you to join audio conversations with other people (a function unavailable in any other app or device), is now worth $4 billion.

Amazon began piloting a tool last week that lets brands in its Brand Registry program in the US email marketing materials to customers who “follow” the brand  —  - Amazon recently began piloting a tool for some companies to communicate with customers who opt to follow them.