Techmeme
January 14, 2021, 2:55 PM

Top News

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Samsung unveils $799 Galaxy S21, $999 Galaxy S21 Plus, and $1,199 Galaxy S21 Ultra, available to preorder on January 14 and launching on January 29  —  Samsung's latest flagships are here: the Galaxy S21, Galaxy S21 Plus, and the Galaxy S21 Ultra.  The first two — which start at $799 and $999 …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Samsung announces Galaxy SmartTag, a $29.99 Tile competitor that works only with Samsung Galaxy devices, available on January 29  —  It uses Bluetooth Low Energy and will arrive on January 29th  —  Alongside the new Galaxy S21 phones and Galaxy Buds Pro, Samsung is announcing …
David Carnoy / CNET:
Cherlynn Low / Engadget:
Rick Osterloh / The Keyword:
Google completes Fitbit acquisition, vows to protect users' privacy, says “deal has always been about devices, not data”  —  Google has completed its acquisition of Fitbit.  Together, we can make health and wellness more accessible to more people.
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Jack Dorsey says Trump ban was the right decision for Twitter but reflects a “failure” to promote healthy conversation and sets a dangerous precedent  —  Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey explained in a tweetstorm that the company faced an ‘extraordinary and untenable circumstance’
New York Times:
Review of public posts of dozens of Facebook users sharing extreme right-wing views shows how Facebook rewards their lies and helped incubate the insurrection  —  Right-wing influencers embraced extremist views, and Facebook rewarded them.  —  Mr. Thompson is a writer and editor in Opinion.
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Sandberg deflected blame for Capitol riot, but fliers and hashtags promoting the pro-Trump rally circulated on Facebook and Instagram weeks beforehand  —  Fliers and hashtags promoting the pro-Trump rally circulated on Facebook and Instagram in the days and weeks beforehand
Wall Street Journal:
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
Axios says it will launch AxiosHQ, which lets companies write internal memos styled like Axios newsletters, next month, starting at $10K a year  —  AxiosHQ communications platform to launch with Delta Air Lines and AT&T among early customers  —  Punchy news startup Axios is betting …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
A leak of a near-final version of Windows 10X shows a strong similarity to Chrome OS, with the Start button centered on the taskbar, lack of Live Tiles, more  —  A new lightweight version of Windows to take on Chromebooks  —  After years of waiting, it looks like Microsoft now has a true answer to Chrome OS.
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
New research details iOS and Android issues that may allow third parties and law enforcement to access user data and suggests mitigation techniques  —  New research has dug into the openings that iOS and Android security provide for anyone with the right tools.
Sam Shead / CNBC:
A group of health and tech companies, including Microsoft, Salesforce, and Oracle, says it is developing a digital COVID-19 vaccination “passport”  —  - A digital Covid vaccination passport is being jointly developed by a group of health and technology companies who anticipate that governments …
Sarah Emerson / OneZero :
The far-right is flocking to MeWe, a privacy-focused Facebook alternative that has Tim Berners-Lee on its board, with membership growing to 15M in recent months  —  ‘Have you tried to moderate 15 million people?’  MeWe founder Mark Weinstein told OneZero  —  'm an American who is sick …
Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters:
In an interview, Parler CEO John Matze says he is not sure whether the social network will ever return after being cut off by service providers  —  (Reuters) - Social media platform Parler, which has gone dark after being cut off by major service providers that accused the app of failing …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Ring says it has fixed a security flaw in its Neighbors app that was exposing the precise locations and home addresses of users who had posted to the app  —  A security flaw in Ring's Neighbors app was exposing the precise locations and home addresses of users who had posted to the app.
Shaun Walker / The Guardian:
After denouncing Trump's social media bans, Poland says it plans to make it illegal for tech companies to take similar actions in the country  —  Following Trump's Twitter ban, Polish government wants to protect posts that do not break nation's laws  —  Polish government officials …
Axios:
Silicon Valley's leading lobby, the Internet Association, is struggling to manage the competing interests of member companies like Facebook, Google, and Amazon  —  Silicon Valley's leading lobby, the Internet Association, is struggling to manage the competing interests of the companies …
Tweets: @eproThanks:@ashleyrgold
The Guardian:
Audio and chat logs of walkie-talkie app Zello reveal some Capitol rioters communicated via the app; Zello says it has now deleted 2K+ militia-related channels  —  Audio and chat logs show insurrectionists communicated via the app, which has avoided proactive content moderation
Chris Sanders / Reuters:
DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim to resign effective Jan 19, a day before the Biden administration takes over  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The top antitrust official in the U.S. Justice Department, Assistant Attorney General Makan Delrahim, told the White House he will resign effective January 19 …
Wall Street Journal:
TSMC says it will raise capital expenditures to between $25B and $28B in 2021, an increase of at least 47% YoY  —  The world's biggest contract chip maker plans to boost capex by at least 47% in 2021  —  Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. , a key chip supplier to Apple Inc. …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Israeli startup Carbyne, which is developing a cloud-based service to improve emergency response times, raises $25M Series B1  —  Emergency services continue to be a major force when it comes to coping with the COVID-19 health pandemic, and today a company that is building technology to help …
More: SiliconANGLE and CTech

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI that works  —  Tribe builds tech for top AI companies.  Get in touch to learn how our bench of 500+ engineers and researchers can accelerate your roadmap.
Kulkan Security:
Hire Kulkan as your penetration testing partner  —  Kulkan prioritizes deep-dive manual security reviews, dissecting your software and infrastructure to find issues that once remediated can truly reduce security risk.
Zoho:
Cultivating creativity and innovation in the modern workspace  —  In the realm of modern business, success depends on more than just delivering products or services—it requires an environment where creativity thrives and new ideas are welcomed.
Mastodon:
Donate to Mastodon  —  Mastodon gGmbH, the non-profit behind the open-source software powering the social web, relies entirely on support from users like you.  Donate directly with a credit card or through Patreon.
The Kevin Rose Show:
How to Cultivate Everyday Dharma, Suneel Gupta (#54)
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Tue. 04/23 - Microsoft's Own LLMs and Perplexity's Big Raise
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:55 PM ET, January 14, 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

Jeff John Roberts / Fortune: