Techmeme
January 6, 2021, 7:25 PM

Top News

Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News:
As a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building, Facebook and Twitter allowed Trump to cheer them on using their platforms  —  As rioters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, President Donald Trump clung to his last vestiges of power: his social media accounts.
@twittersafety:
[Thread] Twitter says Trump's account will be locked for 12 hours following removal of recent tweets, and further violations will result in permanent suspension  —  As a result of the unprecedented and ongoing violent situation in Washington, D.C., we have required the removal of three @realDonaldTrump Tweets that were posted earlier today for repeated and severe violations of our Civic Integrity policy. https://help.twitter.com/...
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple says App Store users spent $1.8B on goods and services between December 24 and New Year's Eve and $540M on New Year's Day alone; Books has 90M MAUs  —  Apple has announced today that App Store customers spent a record amount throughout the holiday season.
Queenie Wong / CNET:
Pranob Mehrotra / XDA Developers:
WhatsApp updates its Terms and Privacy Policy to mandate data sharing with Facebook, including transaction data, mobile device information, IP address, and more  —  WhatsApp users are receiving an in-app notice today regarding the service's new terms and privacy policy.
Bloomberg:
Facebook's Andrew Bosworth says its smart glasses, built in partnership with Ray-Ban, will arrive “sooner than later” in 2021 without AR features  —  - Company has more than 6,000 staff on AR, VR and hardware tasks  — Zuckerberg seeking the next computer platform after smartphone
Emily Birnbaum / Protocol:
After Democrats won both of Georgia's Senate seats, a look at potential tech legislation under a unified government, including a federal privacy bill  —  Democrats have won both Senate races in Georgia, taking back control of the Senate after five years of Republican leadership.
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
An oral history from 24 people describing how Microsoft developed the original Xbox, initially an over-budget ungainly product, and reshaped the gaming industry  —  The original product was ungainly, over-budget and nearly canceled.  Here's how it became a hit and reshaped an industry.
Alexandra Alper / Reuters:
Trump signs an executive order banning transactions with Ant Group's Alipay, Tencent's WeChat Pay and QQ, and five other Chinese payment apps  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed an executive order banning transactions with eight Chinese software applications, including Ant Group's Alipay.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it will shut down Minecraft Earth, which let users play Minecraft in real life through AR, on June 30, due to the pandemic  —  The ambitious project to cover the world in blocks is over  —  Microsoft is closing down its Minecraft Earth mobile game in June, due to the ongoing pandemic.
Nicole Friedman / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon commits $2B+ over five years to create and preserve affordable housing in three of its employment hubs: Seattle, WA; Arlington, VA; and Nashville, TN  —  Tech giant to make investments over next five years in and around Seattle, Arlington, Va., and Nashville, Tenn.
Will Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
OpenAI introduces two new GPT-3 models: CLIP, which classifies images into categories from arbitrary text, and DALL·E, which can generate images from text  —  With GPT-3, OpenAI showed that a single deep-learning model could be trained to use language in a variety of ways simply by throwing it vast amounts of text.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
DOJ says SolarWinds hackers accessed about 3% of its email accounts, but there's no indication that the breach impacted classified systems  —  - Hackers who tapped into government networks through SolarWinds software potentially accessed about 3% of the Justice Department's email accounts, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
UK's competition authority launches an investigation into Nvidia's $40B acquisition of Arm, after rivals raised concerns  —  CMA probe comes after rivals raised concerns over acquisition  —  The UK's competition regulator is preparing to launch a probe of Nvidia's $40bn acquisition of UK chip designer Arm …

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
The power of WhatsApp marketing for ecommerce businesses  —  More than a decade ago, WhatApp arrived on the scene as a free messaging app for smartphones, featuring groups and never-ending conversations.
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.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
The Google Antitrust Snowball
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Hard Fork:
Meta on Trial + Is A.I. a 'Normal' Technology? + HatGPT
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.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How Trump's tariffs actually work on the ground
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Great Chat:
Imposter syndrome is due for a rebrand
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.
Spotlight On:
*RSA Preview* 1Password's Jeff Shiner on balancing B2B and B2C customers in a rapidly evolving tech landscape
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Neil Mehta - Finding Future S&P 500 Companies
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:25 PM ET, January 6, 2021.

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.

More News

Earlier Picks