Techmeme
February 23, 2021, 1:00 PM

Top News

Georgia Hitch / ABC:
Australia says Facebook agreed to reinstate news content in Australia in the coming days after the government promised amendments to its proposed media bill  —  We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
Alex Barker / Financial Times:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google announces new features for Android, including a way to schedule texts and a Password Checkup tool to notify users of compromised credentials  —  Google today announced the next set of features coming to Android, including a new password checkup tool, a way to schedule your texts …
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Kuo: Apple plans to release two new MacBook Pro models with an HDMI port and an SD card reader in the second half of 2021  —  Apple plans to release two new MacBook Pro models equipped with an HDMI port and SD card reader in the second half of 2021, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Q&A with Spotify's Daniel Ek on growing the number of creators on the service and engaging with them, podcast success metrics, Clubhouse, and more  —  Spotify hosted an event on Monday to discuss its ambitions in audio, and one message came through loud and clear: the company wants to play …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Tim Copeland / Decrypt:
Bitfinex and Tether agree to an $18.5M settlement with the New York AG and will stop operating in the state following a two-year probe  —  Bitfinex and Tether have agreed to stop all trading activity in the state of New York as part of a settlement announced today by New York Attorney General Letitia James.
Eugene Wei / Remains of the Day:
TikTok's networks effects, largely driven by remixability of content and features that interconnect, cannot be easily cloned by rivals to recreate the ecosystem  —  I promised one final piece on TikTok, focused primarily on the network effects of creativity.  And this is that, in part.
The Verge:
Epic will give Fortnite and Rocket League players who have bought loot boxes ~$8 worth of credits and set aside $26M+ for claims to settle a class action suit  —  The class action settlement also provides an additional $26 million in benefits  —  Epic Games will give Fortnite players 1,000 V-Bucks …
Gene Park / Washington Post:
Sony says it's developing a VR headset for the PlayStation 5 that will be much less cumbersome than its current PS VR setup, but the device won't launch in 2021  —  The PlayStation 5 will have its own virtual reality headset, however, consumers may face ongoing difficulties obtaining a PS5 console given a supply chain shortfall.
Mickey Rapkin / Esquire:
Profile of Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, who has made millions of dollars by selling and auctioning his digital art on marketplaces for non-fungible tokens  —  He's a dad from Wisconsin who drives a “piece of shit” Corolla.  And his brilliantly absurd artwork has made him the face of a crypto market you didn't know existed.
Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
After delaying its plans, Roblox says it will go public via direct listing on March 10; in January, the company was valued at $29.5B after raising $500M+  —  Direct listing comes after videogame company delayed IPO late last year and recast financial reports in response to SEC
Hirsh Chitkara / Protocol:
Inside Chess.com's streaming success, with Twitch users watching 18.3M hours of chess content in January, nearly as much as they consumed throughout all of 2019  —  There's something inherently perverse in calling chess “open source.”  It's a bit like saying France “pivoted” …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Researchers say China used NSA's EpMe exploit to attack Windows devices for years before the Shadow Brokers leaked the agency's zero-day toolkit online  —  The hackers used the agency's EpMe exploit to attack Windows devices years before the Shadow Brokers leaked the agency's zero-day arsenal online.
Emma Pinedo / Reuters:
Sources: Google is negotiating individual licensing deals with media outlets in Spain that may allow Google News to resume there after shutting down in 2014  —  (This Feb. 22 story corrects to clarify Google's position, paragraph 5)  —  MADRID (Reuters) - Alphabet's Google …
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
Gartner: in Q4 2020, Apple sold 80M new iPhones globally, overtaking Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor, increasing its market share by ~15%  —  Apple overtook Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2020, a feat not achieved by Apple since 2016 …

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