Techmeme
January 21, 2021, 12:05 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple's first VR headset, planned for 2022 with a focus on gaming, video, and communication but with limited AR features, faces development hurdles  —  Apple Inc.'s first crack at a headset is designed to be a pricey, niche precursor to a more ambitious augmented reality product …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Google signs an agreement with French media to create a framework for payment for publisher content and has reached agreements with three major newspapers  —  Google has reached an agreement with an association of French publishers over how it will be pay for reuse of snippets of their content.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Hackers and hobbyists have deployed facial recognition on Parler videos taken at the Capitol on Jan. 6, showing the democratization of facial recognition tech  —  It demonstrates the democratization of facial recognition, but comes littered with ethical issues.  —  Joseph Cox
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Amazon says it wants to help the Biden administration's vaccination efforts, says non-WFH Amazon staff should be vaccinated “at the earliest appropriate time”  —  Amazon says it is ready to turn its facilities into COVID-19 vaccination sites and is offering other resources to the U.S. government.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Samsung Galaxy S21 Ultra review: beautiful screen with high refresh rate and a great camera system but let down by software with ads and subpar Bixby  —  Samsung's “Ultra” phones are meant to be the absolute pinnacle of the company's (non-folding) mobile technology.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Pebble founder launches Beeper, a $10/month universal chat app, promising to bring 15 chat service into a single UI, including iMessage on Android and Windows  —  Beeper brings 15 chat apps together into one interface  —  Beeper is a new universal chat app that's an attempt …
Monica Chin / The Verge:
A large number of laptop flagships in H1 2021 will ship with 16:10 or 3:2 displays, signalling an industry-wide shift toward laptops with taller aspect ratios  —  For lovers of tall screens, it's a great time to be alive  —  One of the biggest trends coming out of this year's CES …
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
The Biden administration updates WhiteHouse.gov with several new accessibility features, including dark mode, a large text mode, and more  —  From dark times to dark mode  —  The official website of the White House, WhiteHouse.gov, has been completely replaced with a new version …
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Georges, which develops software to automate accounting tasks for freelancers and small businesses, raises €35M and rebrands to Indy  —  French startup Georges — or Georges.tech — is raising a new round of funding of $42.4 million (€35 million).  The company is also getting a new name and will be called Indy going forward.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Curtsy, which makes an app allowing women to list their clothes, shoes, and accessories for resale, raises $11M Series A led by Index Ventures  —  Curtsy, a clothing resale app and competitor to recently IPO'd Poshmark, announced today it has raised $11 million in Series A funding for its startup focused on the Gen Z market.

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More News

Dan De Luce / NBC News:
Chainalysis Blog:
Drew FitzGerald / Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
Bloomberg:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Alexandra Alper / Reuters:
Zoë Bernard / The Information:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: