Techmeme
April 20, 2021, 6:10 AM

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.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Zuckerberg says Facebook is working with Spotify on a music integration project codenamed Project Boombox  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday announced that the company is building audio features where users can engage in real-time conversations with others.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
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:
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 …
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.”
Kat Tenbarge / Insider:
YouTube says it has temporarily demonetized James Charles' channel, which has 25.5M+ subscribers, after 15+ sexual misconduct accusations from men and boys  —  - James Charles' channel has been demonetized, YouTube confirmed.  — YouTube told Insider Charles had been “temporarily removed” from the Partner Program.
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.
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.
Liz Lee / Reuters:
Microsoft to establish its first data center region in Malaysia as part of its Bersama Malaysia initiative, which aims to skill 1M Malaysians by the end of 2023  —  KUALA LUMPUR (Reuters) - Microsoft Corporation will invest $1 billion over the next five years in Malaysia as part …
Rachel Levin / Outside Online:
As a disproportionate number of people who purchased homes in Tahoe in 2020 were tech employees from the Bay Area, locals worry about “Aspenification of Tahoe”  —  Rachel Levin is a San Francisco-based journalist who has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
PayPal to launch a local wallet in China focused on cross-border payments; PayPal is the first foreign firm with 100% ownership of a payments platform in China  —  - PayPal plans to set up a local wallet in China focused on cross-border payments.  — In January, the U.S. fintech became …
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.
Kit Gillet / Sifted:
Bucharest-based FintechOS, which helps digitize legacy banks and insurers, raises €51M Series B led by Draper Esprit  —  FintechOS, founded in Bucharest in 2017, is considered one of the rising stars of the eastern Europe fintech scene.  —  Its main selling point is its ability …
More: TechCrunch
Reuters:
UK says it will intervene in SoftBank's sale of ARM to Nvidia on national security grounds  —  The UK government will look into the national security implications of U.S. group Nvidia's (NVDA.O) purchase of British chip designer ARM Holdings, it said on Monday, raising a question mark over the $40 billion deal.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
Warp:
The #1 Coding Agent  —  #1 on Terminal-Bench.  71% on SWE-bench Verified.  Trusted by 600K+ devs.  Try the top agentic dev tool for $1 for 1st month with code TECHMEME.
Zoho:
Tuning response time psychology with an integrated solution  —  This is a guest post by Sharath Joji, Content Marketing Lead at Office24by7.Indecision and delays are often considered the parents of failure, and nowhere is this more true than in sales.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Tech Brew Ride Home:
Now Meta Has Frozen AI Hiring
Tech news headlines every day. 15 minutes and you're up to date. From Tech Brew, Morning Brew's tech hub.
Subscribe to Tech Brew Ride Home.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Amazon is betting on agents to win the AI race
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
How Intercom rose from the ashes by betting everything on AI | Eoghan McCabe (founder and CEO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Great Chat:
Is AI a job killer or job creator?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Spotlight On:
Figma IPO, GPT-5, and a Q+A with Kerry Wang
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Big Technology Podcast:
Inside Google's Generative AI Reinvention -- With Nick Fox and Liz Reid
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:10 AM ET, April 20, 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

Amy Lewin / Sifted:
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Paresh Dave / Reuters:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:

Earlier Picks