Techmeme
July 21, 2021, 12:40 PM

Top News

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Researchers detail two new local privilege escalation vulnerabilities, one in recent builds of Windows 10 and the preview of Windows 11, and the other in Linux  —  Both OSes have flaws that allow attackers with a toehold to elevate access.  —  The world woke up on Tuesday to two new vulnerabilities …
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Epic Games acquires Sketchfab, which operates a repository with 4M+ 3D assets, for an undisclosed sum; Sketchfab reduces its store commission from 30% to 12%  —  New York-based startup Sketchfab has been acquired by Epic Games, the company behind Fortnite and Unreal Engine.
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q2 revenue of $7.34B vs. $7.32B est., up 19% YoY, global paid net additions of 1.54M vs. 1.19M expected; US and Canada region lost 433K subs QoQ  —  - Netflix reported earnings that missed on the bottom line.  — The company's revenue and global paid net subscriber additions beat estimates.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Matthew Green / A Few Thoughts …:
Apple and Google can do more to screw up the economics of NSO-style mass exploitation, and should be pressured to do so  —  This week a group of global newspapers is running a series of articles detailing abuses of NSO Group's Pegasus spyware.  If you haven't seen any of these articles …
Mehul Srivastava / Financial Times:
CTech:
Washington Post:
Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Tumblr starts testing Post+, which allows users to charge their followers a monthly fee in exchange for access to exclusive content, with Tumblr taking a 5% cut  —  Social platform is the latest to let users earn money from posting  —  Microblogging stalwart Tumblr on Wednesday began …
BBC:
EU Commission proposes a new law that would force companies that transfer Bitcoin or other crypto-assets to collect details of recipients and senders  —  Proposed changes to EU law would force companies that transfer Bitcoin or other crypto-assets to collect details on the recipient and sender.
Washington Post:
Top US Catholic Church official resigns after a Catholic media site obtained his alleged Grindr app and phone location data from an undisclosed data broker  —  The top administrator of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops resigned after a Catholic media site told the conference it had access …
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Google is shutting down Google Bookmarks on September 30, 2021, and clarifies Starred locations in Google Maps will not be deleted after Bookmarks shuts down  —  After 16 years of service, Google is about to shut down a service that isn't very well known.  On September 30, 2021 “Google Bookmarks” will be closed off for all users.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Byju's acquires Epic, a reading service for kids with a presence across 90% of elementary schools in the US, for $500M  —  Byju's said on Wednesday it has acquired California-headquartered reading platform Epic for $500 million, the latest in a series of moves from India's most valuable startup …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Chrome 92 for iOS enables Face ID and Touch ID protection of Incognito tabs, “Full Page” screenshot support, and more  —  Google is rolling out Chrome 92 for iOS today with a number of new user-facing features and tweaks.  — Chrome 92 rolling out: Android Toolbar shortcut …
MacKenzie Sigalos / CNBC:
Core Scientific, which says it is the biggest bitcoin mining company in the US, says it will go public via SPAC at a valuation of around $4.3B  —  - Cryptocurrency mining operator Core Scientific is listing on the Nasdaq through a merger with Power & Digital Infrastructure Acquisition Corp.
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
Crypto derivatives exchange FTX raises $900M from SoftBank, Sequoia, and others, valuing it at $18B; CryptoCompare: FTX handles $10B+/day in trades on average  —  Investors include SoftBank, Sequoia Capital and Daniel Loeb's Third Point hedge fund  —  Cryptocurrency exchange FTX has raised money …
Geoff Mayfield / Variety:
TikTok touts two studies that show around 75% of its users discover artists on the service and around 67% seek out songs from TikTok on music streaming services  —  Unless you've been sleeping as long as Rip Van Winkle, you know TikTok has become the new big man on music's campus and a catalyst for pop culture.
Kris Holt / Engadget:
The Information:
Sources: Bolt, which offers a one-click checkout service, is raising a $333M Series D at a post-money valuation of $4B, nearly five times its December valuation  —  Bolt, a San Francisco-based startup that offers software for online shopping, is raising $333 million in Series D funding …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Twitter begins rolling out a preview of a revamped TweetDeck in the US, Canada, and Australia, featuring an option for wider columns, an Explore column, more  —  Twitter is beginning to test a completely redesigned version of TweetDeck, the company announced today.
Packy McCormick / Not Boring:
A look at Axie Infinity, a Pokémon-like blockchain-based game in which people buy digital pets as NFTs; the game generated $12.2M revenue in June, $79M+ in July  —  Welcome to the 1,267 newly Not Boring people who have joined us since last Monday!  Join 61,505 smart, curious folks by subscribing here:

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