Techmeme
November 18, 2020, 11:55 PM

Top News

Nick Statt / The Verge:
Apple will reduce its App Store cut to 15% from any developer who earns less than $1M in revenue per year from all their apps, starting January 1  —  Any developer that earns less than $1 million in revenue per year is eligible  —  Apple on Wednesday announced a reduction …
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Sensor Tower: Apple's move will affect ~98% of developers that pay the company a commission, but they accounted for less than 5% of App Store revenue last year  —  App makers bridled at the 30 percent commission, which has drawn scrutiny from regulators looking into antitrust claims.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google unveils major redesign for Google Pay for iOS and Android and partners with 11 banks to launch a mobile-first bank accounts service called Plex in 2021  —  Google is launching a major redesign of its Google Pay app on both Android and iOS today.  Like similar phone-based contactless …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Apple agrees to pay $113M to settle an investigation into iPhone throttling brought by 34 states and District of Columbia  —  Apple will pay $113 million to settle an investigation by nearly three dozen states into the tech giant's past practice of slowing customers' old iPhones in an attempt to preserve their batteries.
Adam Satariano / New York Times:
Over 200 Facebook contract moderators sign an open letter criticizing Facebook, Accenture, and CPL for ending WFH policies and call for better protections  —  Here's what you need to know:  —  Facebook moderators forced back to the office raise alarms about Covid-19 protections.
Eric Geller / Politico:
CISA is now being led by 15-year DHS veteran Brandon Wales; source says Wales wants to keep operating CISA's Rumor Control site, which debunked election misinfo  —  Five months before President Donald Trump fired him, federal cybersecurity chief Chris Krebs made a key addition to his leadership team …
Amanda Macias / CNBC:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Apple debuts a forked version of TensorFlow optimized for macOS, says it trains up to 7x faster on 13" MacBook Pro with M1 than 2020 Macbook Pro 13" with Intel  —  Google today released a new version of TensorFlow, its AI and machine learning development environment, optimized for Intel Macs and Macs powered by Apple's new M1 chip.
Mary Ann Azevedo / FinLedger:
Affirm files its draft S-1 for an IPO; in its fiscal year ending June 30, 2020, Affirm's revenue was $509.5M, up ~93% YoY, while net losses fell to $112.6M  —  Buy now, pay later innovator has over 6.2 million consumers on its network  —  Alternative payments provider Affirm Holdings …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple's iOS 14.3 beta 2 lets users run shortcuts from the home screen without launching the Shortcuts app, making custom app icons more seamless  —  Apple introduced the second developer beta of iOS 14.3 yesterday, and it includes a major change to Shortcuts.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Nvidia beats with record Q3 revenue of $4.73B, up 57% YoY, gaming revenue of $2.27B, up 37% YoY, and data center revenue of $1.9B, up 162% YoY  —  - Nvidia reported earnings for its third fiscal quarter of 2021 on Wednesday.  — Nvidia beat analyst expectations on both earnings and revenue …
Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
Marissa Mayer's Lumi Labs, now called Sunshine, unveils Sunshine Contacts, an AI-powered contact organizer app for iOS  —  Marissa Mayer shoves her iPhone toward her MacBook's webcam until it overwhelms the screen on the Google Meet video call we are sharing.  —  “I admire Apple,” she declares.
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
YouTube says channels of all sizes may now see ads on them, though only creators big enough to qualify for its Partner Program will be paid any ad revenue  —  The company is rolling it out on a ‘limited number of videos’  —  Starting today, YouTube will begin running ads on some creators' videos …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google rolls out update to Chrome, with pages now loading up to 7% faster, CPU usage reduced by up to 5x by throttling background tabs, and reduced usage of RAM  —  The last Chrome update for 2020 is all about efficiency  —  Google is wrapping up 2020 with what it claims …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Tourlane, a multi-day travel booking service that coordinates between suppliers, adds $20M to $47M Series C from 2019, sources say at a ~$242M valuation  —  The tourism and travel industry has been one of the hardest hit by the global Covid-19 health pandemic, and today a promising startup …
More: Reuters
Bloomberg:
Online learning marketplace Udemy says it raised $50M at a $3.25B pre-money valuation; sources say Tencent led the round  —  - Venture firm Learn Capital participates in $50 million round  — Investors told online education firm could pursue IPO in 2021
Aimee Chanthadavong / ZDNet:
The Office of Management and Budget issues guidance that federal agencies should regulate AI applications without hampering AI innovation and growth  —  Elsewhere, US Congress has passed an IoT security Bill.  —  US federal agencies have now been issued a guidance by the White House …

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