Techmeme
April 29, 2021, 4:55 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it will reduce its cut for PC games in Windows store from 30% to 12% from August 1, in a bid to compete with Steam  —  Microsoft puts the pressure on Valve's Steam store  —  Microsoft is shaking up the world of PC gaming today with a big cut to the amount of revenue it takes from games on Windows.
Amazon - Investor Relations:
Amazon reports Q1 revenue of $108.5B, up 44% YoY, net income of $8.1B, up from $2.5B YoY, and says AWS has become a $54B annual sales run rate business  —  SEATTLE—(BUSINESS WIRE) April 29, 2021—Amazon.com, Inc. (NASDAQ: AMZN) today announced financial results for its first quarter ended March 31, 2021.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Amazon says AWS had Q1 revenue of $13.50B, 32% growth YoY and 28% growth QoQ, beating estimates and contributing $4.16B to operating income  —  - Amazon Web Services revenue growth accelerated in the first quarter even as the segment leads the cloud infrastructure market.
More: Insider
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple clarifies that the first-gen Magic Keyboard is “functionally compatible” with the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro but may not “precisely fit when closed”  —  In a new support document published today, Apple has clarified the situation around the Magic Keyboard's compatibility with the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
Nandita Bose / Reuters:
US Labor Secretary says most gig workers should be classified as employees deserving of related benefits; shares of Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash are down sharply  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Joe Biden's top labor official said most gig workers in the United States should be classified as …
Tonya Riley / Washington Post:
A task force of 60+ experts from industry, government, nonprofits, and academia calls on the US and allies to take steps to fight a surge in ransomware attacks  —  A task force of more than 60 experts from industry, government, nonprofits and academia is urging the U.S. government and global allies …
Canalys.com:
Global smartphone shipments in Q1 reached 347M, up 27% YoY; Samsung took first place, shipping 76.5M for a 22% share, while Apple shipped 52.4M for a 15% share  —  Shanghai (China), Bengaluru (India), Singapore, Reading (UK) and Portland (US) - Thursday, 29 April 2021
Reuters:
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
OpenSignal: 5G-capable devices access mmWave 5G less than 1% of the time across all US carriers; Verizon leads with just 0.8% availability  —  Phones capable of using mmWave 5G access it less than 1% of the time.  —  US mobile customers are almost never able to connect to millimeter-wave networks …
Arielle Pardes / Wired:
Founders and VCs are flocking to Miami for “Miami Tech Week”, an impromptu event kicked off by a tweet from Delian Asparouhov, a principal at Founders Fund  —  Founders and funders are flocking to the beach for an impromptu event that some are calling “South by Southeast.”
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Twitter reports Q1 revenue of $1.04B, up 28% YoY, vs $1.03B est., monetizable DAUs of 199M, up 7M QoQ, vs 200M est.; stock drops ~8%+  —  - The company reported revenue of $1.04 billion for the quarter, which was up 28% from $808 million a year prior.  — Twitter guided that it is expecting …
The Markup:
Financial services use Facebook's ad targeting to block people in certain age groups from seeing their ads, violating Facebook's anti-discrimination policies  —  Such ads, along with other age-targeted financial product ads, may violate civil rights laws, attorneys say
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Google finally gives users a way to search through Stadia's 172 games, 526 days after the service's launch  —  If only Google knew anyone with experience building search engines  —  Stadia is an online game streaming service from Google, a company that is practically synonymous with search engines …
Reuters:
Sources: US is investigating a recently discovered hack against federal agencies that used a vulnerability in Pulse Secure VPN, that began during Trump years  —  (Reuters) - For at least the third time since the beginning of this year, the U.S. government is investigating a hack …
Gilad Edelman / Wired:
Q&A: Evelyn Douek, a lecturer and Ph.D. student at Harvard studying online speech regulation, on why a “proportional” approach to online speech is a good thing  —  Major platforms' policies aren't actually inspired by the First Amendment.  This legal scholar says that's a good thing.

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Earlier Picks

Natalia Drozdiak / Bloomberg:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac: