Techmeme
May 28, 2021, 2:15 AM

Top News

Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Twitter Blue, Twitter's anticipated $2.99 monthly subscription tier, is now listed as an option in the iOS App Store, despite the feature not being live in-app  —  Twitter appears to have mistakenly confirmed its plans to launch a new subscription tier called “Twitter Blue,” with the new purchase option now listed in the iOS App Store.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Sources detail Citizen's efforts to cash in on vigilantism, including flooding users with notifications to make them anxious enough to buy its premium service  —  Internal documents, messages, and roadmaps show how crime app Citizen is pushing the boundary of what a private, app-enabled vigilante force may be capable of.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Nintendo plans to announce an upgraded Switch ahead of the June E3 conference and release it in September or October, for more than the original's $299  —  - Announcement of new Switch could be made ahead of June's E3  — Suppliers say Nintendo likely to price new model above $299
Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / ZDNet:
Acer unveils four new Chromebooks, including an industry-first 17.3-inch Chromebook, available in June, with prices starting at $380  —  There's also a big emphasis on enterprise Chromebooks., a whole raft of other new hardware, and a commitment to 100 percent renewable energy use.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
FBI says a foreign nation-state hacking group breached a US municipal government via an unpatched Fortinet VPN appliance  —  The Federal Bureau of Investigation said today that foreign hackers had breached the network of a local US municipal government after exploiting vulnerabilities in an unpatched Fortinet networking appliance.
Matthew Gault / VICE:
Amazon introduces AmaZen meditation booths in which warehouse employees can watch company videos about mindfulness to deal with stress  —  The AmaZen meditation booth is a small room where employees can watch company videos about mindfulness while a small fan moves the air around.  —  Matthew Gault
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
QuintoAndar, an online marketplace for property rentals and sales, raises $300M Series E led by Ribbit Capital at a $4B valuation  —  Fintech and proptech are two sectors that are seeing exploding growth in Latin America, as financial services and real estate are two categories in particular dire need of innovation in a region.
Sujeong Lim / Counterpoint Research:
Global smartwatch shipments rose 35% YoY in Q1 2021; market leader Apple grew 50% YoY to raise its market share by 3 percentage points and Samsung grew 27% YoY  —  - Apple registers a healthy 50% annual growth, capturing a third of the smartwatch market in terms of volumes.
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Sources: TTYL, the company that created Poparazzi, is raising a Series A led by Benchmark that could swell up to $20M, at an implied valuation of $135M  —  Days after reaching the top of Apple's App Store, Poparazzi and founders Alex and Austen Ma are set to raise funding from venture capitalist investors …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Instagram's test to hide Like counts highlights a lesson that social networks are reluctant to learn: one-size-fits-all policies are making users miserable  —  In April 2019, amid growing questions about the effects of social networks on mental health, Instagram announced it would test a feed without likes.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Industry groups representing Google, Facebook, and others sue Florida over its new social media law, calling it a “frontal assault on the First Amendment”  —  Yes, the one with the theme park exception  —  Two tech industry organizations have sued Florida over its newly passed rules for social networks.
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
Google announces new tools and partnerships with Shopify, Square, GoDaddy, and WooCommerce to help merchants sell more easily in Search, Maps, and YouTube  —  - Sellers on Square, GoDaddy will get access to Google features  — Marriage of Google and Shopify centers on two executives

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