Techmeme
April 15, 2021, 7:40 PM

Top News

NBC News:
US sanctions Russia for 2020 election interference and SolarWinds hack, blacklisting six tech companies that provide support to Russian intelligence services  —  The United States is hitting Russia with fresh sanctions for interference in the 2020 presidential election …
Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
A look at Positive Technologies, a Russian cybersecurity firm sanctioned by the US, which sources say provides hacking tools and ops support for Russian spies  —  Washington has sanctioned Russian cybersecurity firm Positive Technologies.  US intelligence reports claim it provides hacking tools and runs operations for the Kremlin.
David Priest / CNET:
Jeff Bezos says Amazon Prime now has 200M+ subscribers, up 50M from the beginning of 2020, and Amazon's net profit in 2020 was $21.3B  —  A new letter to shareholders from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos revealed that the tech giant's Prime service now has over 200 million subscribers.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:
Executives from Intel, Nvidia, and TSMC say the global chip shortage will likely continue at least into 2022 and maybe into 2023  —  Companies reeling from natural disasters and massive demand from OEMs, consumers.  —  How many years will the ongoing chip shortage affect technology firms across the world?
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google updates Earth with historical 3D time lapses that show the devastating effects of climate change, using satellite photos from the last 37 years  —  The new feature will be available Thursday  —  Google Earth is getting a new 3D time-lapse feature that lets you observe how Earth …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Facebook's own ads that display the number of Facebook Dating users in a specific region show the service may have far fewer users than competitors like Tinder  —  Dawn Hallson has tried nearly every dating app you can think of — Tinder, Bumble, eHarmony, Plenty of Fish, and Match, just to name a few.
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Oculus says developers can now sell recurring subscriptions to their Quest apps, and each subscription will have a free trial period  —  Each subscription will have a free trial period  —  Developers who have apps or games on the Oculus Store can now sell recurring subscriptions to their titles …
Megan Graham / CNBC:
KKR-backed mobile gaming company AppLovin closes down 18.5% on its first day of trading, after raising $2B in its IPO at a valuation of $28.6B  —  - Nine-year-old AppLovin, which has a portfolio of mobile games and also sells marketing services to game companies, began trading Thursday.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Google's Project Zero updates its vulnerability disclosure policy to include a 30-day cushion before publishing bug details to give users time to apply patches  —  The Google Project Zero security team has updated its vulnerability disclosure guidelines today to add a cushion of 30 days …
Vjeran Pavic / The Verge:
Review of DJI's new $999 Mavic Air 2S: great for beginners with a big one-inch camera sensor but is expensive and there's a significant crop in 4K 60fps  —  The Mavic Air 2S's camera sensor is the same size as what you get in the higher-end Mavic 2 Pro.  It's much larger than the half-inch sensor used in last year's Air 2.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft launches a Kids Mode for Edge, with two age range options of between 5 to 8 years or 9 to 12 years  —  A free and simple tool for parents  —  Microsoft is launching a new Kids Mode for its Edge browser today.  It's built directly into Microsoft Edge on Windows and macOS …
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
International coalition of 35 children's and consumer groups calls on Mark Zuckerberg to scrap plans for an Instagram for children  —  An international coalition of 35 children's and consumer groups called on Instagram on Thursday to scrap its plans to develop a version of the popular photo-sharing app for users under age 13.
Matthew Boyle / Bloomberg:
Walmart says it is investing in GM's self-driving unit Cruise, bringing its latest round to $2.75B, up from $2B in January when Microsoft invested  —  - Deal brings Cruise's latest funding round to $2.75 billion  — Walmart joins fellow Cruise investors Microsoft and Honda
Diane Bartz / Reuters:
House Judiciary Committee formally approves a 450-page report accusing Big Tech of buying and crushing smaller rivals, a potential blueprint for legislation  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The U.S. House of Representatives Judiciary Committee has formally approved a report accusing Big Tech companies …
Politico:
Reuters:
Massachusetts seeks revocation of Robinhood's broker-dealer license, charging that it encourages inexperienced investors to place risky trades without limits  —  Massachusetts regulators on Thursday sought the revocation of Robinhood's broker-dealer licenseafter charging …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Routable, which enables B2B payments by automating bill payment and invoicing processes, raises $30M Series B led by Sam Altman, and Lattice CEO Jack Altman  —  Several prominent tech founders also put money in the round  —  We all know the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated digital adoption …
Aparna Narayanan / Investor's Business Daily:
TuSimple, which is developing autonomous trucks, closes flat in its trading debut, after raising $1.35B in its IPO, giving it a market cap of ~$8.5B  —  TuSimple stock closed unchanged on the Nasdaq Thursday after the self-driving vehicle startup raised more than $1 billion through an initial public offering.
Anton Shilov / AnandTech:
Chip fab equipment sales hit $71.19B in 2020, up 19% YoY, with Chinese firms spending $18.72B, up 39% YoY, according to semiconductor industry association SEMI  —  SEMI, an organization representing chipmakers and producers of semiconductor production tools, published this week that sales …

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Earlier Picks

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Ryan Mac / @rmac18: