Techmeme
May 20, 2021, 12:50 AM

Top News

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple announces accessibility features, including background sounds to help maintain focus and calm, AssistiveTouch for Apple Watch, and iPad eye-tracking  —  Apple today announced the upcoming launch of several new accessibility features that are being added to its various products and services.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it is finally retiring Internet Explorer on June 15, 2022, after more than 25 years, in favor of Edge  —  Internet Explorer will no longer be supported in June 2022  —  Microsoft is finally retiring Internet Explorer next year, after more than 25 years.
CNBC:
Bitcoin fell 30% to just over $30K on Wednesday, recovering partially to $38K; Ether, Dogecoin, and others also plunged  —  Galaxy Digital's Novogratz on bitcoin's plunge: These are setbacks for investor base  —  Bitcoin plunged to near $30,000 at one point on Wednesday morning …
Echo Wang / Reuters:
In an internal memo, Zhang Yiming, the co-founder of ByteDance, says he is stepping down as CEO and will be succeeded by co-founder Rubo Liang  —  (Reuters) -Zhang Yiming, co-founder of TikTok owner ByteDance, told employees of the Chinese technology giant in a memo that he will step …
Rumman Chowdhury / Twitter:
Twitter shares the results from an investigation into bias within the image cropping algorithm it used to employ, finding it favored white people and women  —  In October 2020, we heard feedback from people on Twitter that our image cropping algorithm didn't serve all people equitably.
Ian Sherr / CNET:
During the Epic trial, Craig Federighi says malware on macOS has reached an “unacceptable” level and the problem is “significantly larger” than iOS  —  Apple's head of software engineering, Craig Federighi, said malware on Macs have hit “unacceptable” levels.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google is testing a “Follow” button in Chrome for sites that support RSS, with content appearing in the New Tab page, initially with Chrome Canary users  —  Web browsers used to feature feed aggregators, but those built-in capabilities have since been phased out.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
iPad Pro (2021) review: amazing mini-LED screen on 12.9", fast M1 CPU, Center Stage works well for video calls, but camera still misplaced and no multi-user  —  Mini LED, major improvement  —  How much do you care about having a great screen?  —  That, really, is the only question that matters with the new 12.9-inch iPad Pro.
Rebecca Klar / The Hill:
FTC and six state AGs sue internet service provider Frontier for allegedly providing slower internet speeds than promised to 1.3M DSL customers across 25 states  —  Frontier Communications is accused of misrepresenting internet speeds it advertised and charged for, according to a lawsuit filed Wednesday …
David Cohen / Adweek:
Facebook launches a new Transparency Center, a site for info on its policies to tackle hate speech, says it now removes 97% of hate speech before it's reported  —  Facebook introduced its new Transparency Center Wednesday, billing it as a single destination for information on its integrity and transparency efforts.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
An App Store exec testified that Apple made $100M+ from Fortnite commissions between 2018 and its removal in 2020; Sensor Tower says Apple made closer to $354M  —  Apple Inc. generated more than $100 million in revenue from commissions collected from offering Fortnite on the App Store …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
WarnerMedia says HBO Max's cheaper, ad-supported tier will cost $10 per month and launch in the first week of June  —  HBO Max's cheaper, ad-supported tier will cost $10 a month and launch in the first week of June, WarnerMedia said Wednesday.  It'll come the week after — possibly just days after …
Collin Eaton / Wall Street Journal:
Colonial Pipeline CEO Joseph Blount says the company paid a $4.4M ransom because executives were unsure how bad the attack was  —  Joseph Blount says he needed to quickly restore service after cyberattack threatened East Coast supply  —  The operator of the Colonial Pipeline learned …
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Cisco reports Q3 revenue of $12.8B, up 7% YoY, with Security revenue up 13% YoY to $876M and Infrastructure Platforms revenue up 6% YoY to $6.8B; stock down 5%+  —  The company's third quarter results were slightly ahead of market estimates, with growth across categories.
Bloomberg:
Squarespace stock closed down ~9% at $43.65, after opening at $48 per share, valuing the company at ~$5.9B, well below its $10B valuation in March  —  - Firm is first major direct listing to close below guide price  — Listing comes on third day of losses on U.S. exchanges
Keach Hagey / Wall Street Journal:
Right-wing video platform Rumble says it has raised an undisclosed amount from Peter Thiel, J.D. Vance, and others; sources say Rumble is valued at ~$500M  —  Backing from conservative venture capitalists comes amid push for alternative social-media channels with looser rules on speech
New York Times:
After its WarnerMedia spinoff, AT&T is back to primarily being a wireless company, facing myriad issues, including ~$170B debt and an expensive 5G build-out  —  Following its spinoff of WarnerMedia, AT&T is back to primarily being a wireless company, with all of the challenges that entails.
Jeff Stone / CyberScoop:
Federal judge sentences a Russian citizen, extradited to the US in March 2019, to five years in prison for stealing $1.5M in targeted hacks of US tax preparers  —  A U.S. federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a Russian man to five years in prison for his role in a scheme to use malicious software …

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