Techmeme
July 28, 2021, 2:20 PM

Top News

Patrick Klepek / VICE:
Activision Blizzard staff are staging a walk out today, demanding fairer treatment for underrepresented staff and ending arbitration clauses in staff contracts  —  “This is the beginning of an enduring movement in favor of better labor conditions for all employees.”  —  Patrick Klepek
Tripp Mickle / Wall Street Journal:
Google says anyone coming to work at its campuses must be vaccinated, starting in the US, and will delay the return to offices from September until mid-October  —  Tech giant postpones planned return to offices until mid-October after earlier targeting late September
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Twitter says it is testing Shop Module, a new shopping section that brands can add to the top of their profiles, launching in the US today on iOS  —  Starting with a pilot of around a dozen brands  —  Twitter is piloting a new feature that allows businesses to add a shopping section …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify Q2: revenue of €2.3B, up 23% YoY, ad revenue up 110% YoY to €275M; paying subscribers reached 165M, up 20% YoY, total MAUs reached 365M; stock down 6%+  —  Spotify, citing ongoing headwinds from the COVID pandemic, fell short of its total monthly user growth goal in the second quarter of 2021.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sony says it has now sold over 10M PS5 consoles, up from the 7.8M announced in April, making it the fastest-selling PlayStation ever  —  PS5 is the fastest-selling PlayStation  —  Sony has now sold more than 10 million PS5 consoles.  That's up more than 2 million sales …
Apple:
Apple reports Q3 revenue of $81.4B, up 36% YoY, net income of $21.7B, up from $11.2B YoY, Services sales of $17.4B, up from $13.2B YoY, iPhone sales of $39.6B  —  Revenue up 36 percent to new June quarter record  —  Services revenue reaches new all-time high
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
Google says its upcoming Play Store safety listings, similar to Apple's app nutrition labels, will feature info on app data collection, encryption, and more  —  There's still half a year to go before you start seeing Google Play's new safety section, which will show you an Android app's privacy information …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Code and animation files in iOS 15 beta 4 show the process for validating ID cards in the Wallet app will likely include a verification system with selfies  —  Apple announced at WWDC 2021 that iOS 15 will add support for ID cards in the Wallet app, but details are unknown as this feature is not available in the beta version of iOS 15.
Jonathan Greig / ZDNet:
Google announces a new bug bounty program, called Bug Hunter University, and says the existing program found 11,055 bugs from 2,022 researchers, paying ~$30M  —  The platform includes a new “Bug Hunter University.”  —  Google announced a new bug bounty platform as it celebrated …
Gillian Tan / Bloomberg:
Lithic, previously Privacy.com, which offers APIs to help businesses issue virtual credit cards, raises $60M, sources say at an $800M valuation  —  - Bessemer, Index Ventures, Exor also part of fundraising round  — Firm's goal is to make issuing cards faster and easier
More: PYMNTS.com
Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge:
In the new iPadOS 15 beta, Apple makes its controversial Safari redesign optional, letting users choose a more conventional tab layout in settings  —  Enable the new (bad) tab experience in settings  —  Apple has started trickling out its fourth iOS and iPadOS 15 betas …
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Class, a virtual classroom that integrates exclusively with Zoom, raises $105M led by SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 at a $804M post-money valuation  —  Class, a virtual classroom that integrates exclusively with Zoom, announced today that it has raised $105 million in a financing led by SoftBank Vision Fund II.
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
QuotaPath, which offers tools to track commissions for sales and revenue teams, raises $21.3M Series A led by Insight Partners  —  QuotaPath, which has developed a commission-tracking solution for sales and revenue teams, has raised $21.3 million in a Series A funding round led by Insight Partners.

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