Techmeme
January 21, 2021, 3:55 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 …
Nick Clegg / About Facebook:
Facebook is referring its decision to indefinitely suspend Trump's accounts to the Oversight Board and says the accounts will remain suspended in the meantime  —  Today, Facebook is referring its decision to indefinitely suspend former US President Donald Trump's access to his Facebook …
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Raspberry Pi Foundation launches $4 Pico, a tiny microcontroller for hardware projects that uses Raspberry Pi's own RP2040 chip  —  Meet the Raspberry Pi Pico, a tiny little microcontroller that lets you build hardware projects with some code running on the microcontroller.
Josh Eidelson / Bloomberg:
Instacart cuts 1,877 jobs, including its only union roles, as it shifts to new models, like selling its tech to retailers to have their staff prepare orders  —  Instacart Inc. plans to terminate about 1,900 employees' jobs, including the only unionized positions in the U.S., representing a fulsome embrace of the gig economy.
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.
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 …
April Glaser / NBC News:
Profile of Jessica Rosenworcel, the second woman to lead the FCC as acting chair and a big proponent of net neutrality and expanding broadband access  —  President Joe Biden has picked Jessica Rosenworcel to run the Federal Communications Commission in an interim position.
Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:
Drew FitzGerald / Wall Street Journal:
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
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Federal judge rejects Parler's demand to be reinstated on AWS  —  Ruling calls Parler's antitrust evidence ‘dwindlingly slight’  —  A Washington judge has denied social network Parler's demand to be reinstated on Amazon Web Services.  Following a hearing last week, Judge Barbara Rothstein declined …
The Information:
Sources: Patreon is considering an IPO as soon as this year and has recently passed $100M in annualized revenue  —  Patreon, the online service that allows podcasters, musicians and other artists to receive direct financial support from fans, is considering a public listing as soon as this year …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Amazon says it wants to help the Biden administration's vaccination efforts and 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.
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Singapore-based iSTOX, a digital securities service that lets users make private equity investments as small as $75.50, raises $50M Series A  —  ISTOX, a digital securities platform that wants to make private equity investment more accessible, has added new investors from Japan to its Series A round, bringing its total to $50 million.
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.

Sponsor Posts

Brightspot:
Is your CMS solving your content problems, or creating new ones?  —  In a commissioned study written and conducted by Forrester, we revealed that 72% plan to change their CMS platform, is your organization one of them?
Prelay:
How Public Tech Companies De-risk Millions in Revenue Loss  —  Complex products and hybrid teams are today's major growth challenges.  With 50-70% of revenue driven by internal teams beyond sales, how is your org adapting?
Zoho:
The ultimate guide to choosing the right rewards and recognition platform  —  According to a Deloitte survey, employee productivity, performance, and engagement are 14% higher in organizations that prioritize employee recognition programs.
Vesto:
The treasury management platform built for startups  —  Put your idle cash to work, earn higher yields, and extend your runway with Vesto.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 03/27 - SVB Finds A New Home
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 3:55 PM ET, January 21, 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

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Zoë Bernard / The Information: