Techmeme
April 19, 2021, 6:50 PM

Top News

About Facebook:
Facebook says it will start testing Live Audio Rooms in Groups and expects to roll out the feature to everyone on the Facebook app by the summer  —  Storytelling helps people build meaningful bonds: we all have stories to share with our friends, our communities, and the world at large.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Zuckerberg says Facebook is planning a short-form audio product called Soundbites, a podcast discovery tool, and more audio products for the next 3 to 6 months  —  Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday said Facebook was launching a suite of new tools and features designed to help users better connect …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Brian Fung / CNN:
In a letter to Congress, Apple says it has approved Parler's return to the App Store, following moderation improvements by Parler  —  Washington (CNN Business)Apple has approved Parler's return to the iOS app store following improvements the social media company made to better detect …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says xCloud game streaming service will launch on iOS and PC Tuesday as an invite-only beta via browsers, available to Game Pass Ultimate subscribers  —  An invite-only beta begins for xCloud via the web  —  Microsoft's Xbox Cloud Gaming (xCloud) will officially arrive on iOS and PC tomorrow, April 20th.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Sony backtracks on removing PS3 and Vita digital stores, saying it was “the wrong decision”; PSP store will still shut down on July 2  —  The PSP store is still shutting down on July 2nd  —  Sony has announced that it'll be keeping its PS3 and PlayStation Vita digital storefront open “for the foreseeable future.”
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reddit shares a preview of Reddit Talk, a Clubhouse-like social audio feature for subreddits coming to iOS and Android; moderators can join a waitlist to try it  —  Sign up now to get on the waitlist  —  Reddit unveiled its take on a Clubhouse-like social audio product on Monday, called Reddit Talk.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Facebook expands a tool to let users export posts and notes to Blogger, Google Docs, and Wordpress and calls for new guidelines on data flows between services  —  - Facebook announced Monday it's expanding a tool that allows users to transfer their data to other services.
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
The Bank of England and the UK Treasury jointly create a taskforce to explore a potential central bank digital currency  —  Quick Take  — The Bank of England and HM Treasury have jointly created a CBDC taskforce.  — They will explore a potential digital currency in the U.K.
Reuters:
UK says it will intervene in SoftBank's sale of ARM to Nvidia on national security grounds  —  Britain said on Monday it would intervene in SoftBank's (9984.T) sale of chip designer ARM Holdings to U.S. group Nvidia (NVDA.O) on national security grounds, and had requested a report on the implications of the $40 billion deal.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Facebook details moderation steps around the trial of Derek Chauvin, accused of murdering George Floyd, including designating Minneapolis a “high-risk location”  —  It's designated Minneapolis a ‘high-risk location’  —  Facebook says it's taking extra moderation measures around …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Geico, the 2nd-largest US auto insurer, says hackers could steal customer driver's license numbers from its site from Jan. 21 through March 1; bug now patched  —  Geico, the second-largest auto insurer in the U.S., has fixed a security bug that let fraudsters steal customers' driver's license numbers from its website.
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Mastercard says it will buy digital identity verification company Ekata for $850M  —  The move will bolster Mastercard's digital identity and security platform and framework.  —  Mastercard said it will acquire Ekata for $850 million in a deal that will bolster its identity verification technology.
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Zoom announces a $100M investment fund, which will invest $250K to $2.5M each in promising startups that use Zoom's toolkits  —  When Zoom launched Zoom Apps and the Marketplace as a place to sell them last year, it was a big signal that the company wanted to be more than just a popular video conferencing application.
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Fitbit unveils Luxe, a $150 fashion-focused fitness tracker coming this spring with a wide range of bands, up to 5 days of battery life, and an OLED touchscreen  —  It features up to five days of battery life per charge  —  Fitbit has announced its new Luxe fitness tracker that looks like a more fashion-focused take on the Inspire 2.
Sean Burch / The Wrap:
Sensor Tower: Clubhouse was downloaded 2.7M times in March, a 72% decline from February's 9.5M+  —  After pulling in 9.5 million downloads in February, Clubhouse only had 2.7 million downloads in March, according to new data from Sensor Tower  —  Is the party on Clubhouse already dying out?
Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters:

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Paresh Dave / Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Jay Greene / Washington Post:
Laura Saunders / Wall Street Journal:
Juli Clover / MacRumors: