Techmeme
April 7, 2021, 8:25 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Twitter discussed acquiring Clubhouse for around $4B but the talks fell apart; Clubhouse is now looking to raise funding at a $4B valuation  —  - Talks no longer active between Twitter, social media startup  — Clubhouse is seeking to raise funding at a similar valuation
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple unveils a revamped Find My program with support for third-party devices and says devices from Belkin, Chipolo, and VanMoof will be first to work with it  —  Apple today announced the launch of its Find My network accessory program, which is designed to allow third-party Bluetooth devices …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google announces a virtual I/O from May 18 to May 20, with registration opening soon; the date was hidden behind a puzzle  —  After canceling entirely last year, Google today announced that I/O 2021 will be virtual and free to attend.  The conference is historically held …
Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters:
Facebook says it did not notify users about the 2019 data leak affecting 533M accounts at the time and doesn't plan to do so now  —  (Reuters) - Facebook Inc did not notify the more than 530 million users whose details were obtained through the misuse of a feature before 2019 and recently …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Politico:
Max Chafkin / Bloomberg:
Peter Thiel says he is a pro-Bitcoin maximalist, but Bitcoin threatens fiat money and might be used by China to undercut the US dollar's reserve currency status  —  Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and conservative political donor, urged the U.S. government to consider tighter regulations …
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
T-Mobile launches its 5G home internet service, costing $60-$65/month with no data caps, hardware rental fees, or annual contracts  —  Once again putting Sprint's mid-band spectrum to work  —  After a long pilot period, T-Mobile is making its 5G home internet service a reality.
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Twitch expands its misconduct policy to ban users who harass members of its community, even when that harassment takes place off Twitch  —  It's a major expansion of the platform's misconduct policy  —  Twitch will now ban users who harass members of its community — even when that harassment takes place off Twitch.
Dave Lee / Financial Times:
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple details two ad measurements technologies that advertisers can use without tracking users, ahead of imminent rollout of App Tracking Transparency feature  —  Starting with iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, Apple will be requiring apps to receive a user's permission to track …
Tate Ryan-Mosley / MIT Technology Review:
An in-depth look at the impact, often negative and not fully understood, of AR beauty filters on social media, especially on girls and young women  —  Veronica started using filters to edit pictures of herself on social media when she was 14 years old.  She remembers everyone in her middle school …
Quint Forgey / Politico:
Twitter says it won't let the US National Archives make @realDonaldTrump's old tweets available publicly via Twitter's platform, citing his permanent suspension  —  Twitter will not allow the National Archives to make former President Donald Trump's past tweets from his @realDonaldTrump account available …
David Meyer / Fortune:
Max Schrems' non-profit Noyb files a complaint with the French privacy watchdog, claims Google's Android Advertising Identifier violates EU's ePrivacy Directive  —  Our mission to make business better is fueled by readers like you.  To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today.
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Plaid, which helps connect users' bank accounts with fintech apps, raises $425M Series D led by Altimeter Capital, sources say at a valuation of ~$13.4B  —  Plaid, a unicorn that helps connect consumers' bank accounts to financial applications, has raised a $425 million Series D, it announced this morning.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Pew: YouTube usage grew from 73% of US adults in 2019 to 81% in 2021, with 95% of 18- to 29-year-olds using the service; 69% use Facebook and 21% use TikTok  —  - YouTube saw the most significant growth of any social media app among American users during the pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center.
Cromwell Schubarth / Silicon Valley Business Journal:
Mobile ad tech company AppLovin aims to raise up to $2.13B via its IPO, pricing shares at $75-$85 for a $30B+ valuation; S-1 showed a net loss of $126M in 2020  —  Mobile app and gaming company AppLovin Corp. set targets Wednesday for an initial public offering that could value it at more than $30 billion.
Lauren Goode / Wired:
A first person narrative on the persistence of digital memories and how social media and photo apps that surface old photos make painful memories hard to forget  —  In 2019, I made a painful decision.  But to the algorithms that drive Facebook, Pinterest, and a million other apps, I'm forever getting married.
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Alienware announces M15 R5, starting at $2,230, with AMD Ryzen 5000 H-series CPUs, the first Alienware laptop since 2007 to use AMD processors  —  Expect big performance boosts  —  Alienware has announced the latest revision to its flagship gaming laptop lineup, the 15-inch Alienware M15 R5.
Bloomberg:
How Intel's missteps let competitors surpass it in key areas, driven by cultural complacency, a manufacturing shift to Asia, and missed mobile opportunities  —  The statement, conveyed as the third bullet point of a quarterly earnings release, was both mind-numbingly technical and inscrutably terse …
Ellery Roberts Biddle / Tech Policy Press:
Facebook and Google's commitment to protecting human rights and the public interest is hamstrung by their ad-based profit models and absolute focus on growth  —  Facebook and Google have made broad-based commitments to protect human rights and the public interest, but only to the extent …
Gené Teare / Crunchbase News:
Crunchbase data: global venture funding reached $125B in Q1, up 94% YoY, with an average of nearly two unicorns created every working day  —  In the first quarter of 2021, global venture investments reached $125 billion, a 50 percent increase quarter over quarter and a whopping 94 percent increase year over year, Crunchbase data shows.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook's NPE team launches a public beta for Hotline, a web-based app letting creators stream live video or audio-only Q&As; events are recorded automatically  —  Facebook's internal R&D group, NPE Team, has today launched its latest experiment, Hotline, into public beta testing.
Melissa Repko / CNBC:
Best Buy is piloting Best Buy Beta, a new membership program with perks including unlimited tech support and free shipping for $200/yr, starting in IA, OK, PA  —  - Best Buy is piloting an annual membership program in select stores in Iowa, Oklahoma and eastern Pennsylvania.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sonos Roam review: portable and rugged design, sound quality is good but bass is limited by form factor, charges wirelessly but battery life is not great  —  The tiny, lightweight speaker has a ton of functionality, but don't expect sound quality miracles  —  The Sonos Roam is the most focused, calculated product from Sonos yet.
Marcella McCarthy / TechCrunch:
Mexican used car marketplace Kavak raises $485M Series D at a $4B valuation, up from $1.15B in October 2020, bringing its total raised to $900M+  —  Kavak, the Mexican startup that's disrupted the used car market in Mexico and Argentina, today announced its Series D of $485 million, which now values the company at $4 billion.
More: Reuters and Bloomberg

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Annie Palmer / CNBC: