Techmeme
August 19, 2021, 12:20 PM

Top News

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
FTC files a new antitrust complaint against Facebook, after a judge dismissed the first complaint in June; Facebook has until October 4 to respond  —  - The Federal Trade Commission filed a new antitrust complaint against Facebook on Thursday.  — A federal judge dismissed …
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Facebook announces Horizon Workrooms, a virtual meeting space with avatars, spatial audio, a whiteboard, and more, in beta on Oculus Quest 2  —  It wasn't long into a recent press briefing I attended in virtual reality when Mark Zuckerberg showed up to talk about the metaverse.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon plans to open several large physical stores across the US, starting in Ohio and California, to extend its reach in clothing and other areas  —  Online shopping pioneer wants a larger retail presence to sell clothing and household items and facilitate exchanges
Ethan Zuckerman:
Facebook's new report reinforces its narrative that most content on the News Feed is not news, but doesn't provide enough data to make meaningful conclusions  —  What content is popular on Facebook?  —  This is a surprisingly difficult - and very important - question to answer.
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
Facebook, for the first time, shares a report on the most widely viewed domains, links, posts, and Pages on Facebook in the US during Q2  —  A video of two cats walking, tails intertwined, looking like the best of friends.  A resource site for Green Bay Packers alumni.
Nick Statt / Protocol:
Epic says its Game Store has 58M MAUs, up from 56M at the end of 2020 and 32M in 2019; Steam's Valve had 120M MAUs in 2020  —  The Epic Game Store now has 58 million monthly active users, which is just below half of Valve's Steam.  —  Epic's Game Store now has 58 million monthly active users …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Intel details its Alder Lake lineup, coming this fall, which uses a 10nm process and offers hybrid performance and efficiency x86 cores  —  Coming this fall  —  Intel has spent much of 2021 announcing plans for its future: a new IDM 2.0 strategy, new naming schemes for its process nodes, and new desktop GPUs.
Dan Primack / Axios:
Sources: OnlyFans is struggling to find investors, possibly due to hosting adult content; Pitch Deck shows it predicts $5.9B GMV in 2021 and $1.2B net revenue  —  OnlyFans, the online creator platform known for its adult content, is struggling to find outside investors, according to multiple sources.
Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Robinhood reports Q2 revenue of $565M, up 131% YoY, net loss of $502M, down from $58M net income in Q2 2020, and crypto revenue of $233M; stock down 5%+  —  Robinhood's revenue more than doubled in the second quarter to $565 million, bolstered by a massive surge in crypto trading …
Matt Robinson / Bloomberg:
SEC sues three ex-Netflix software engineers and two others for allegedly using confidential subscriber growth numbers to trade ahead of earnings announcements  —  - Group allegedly made $3 million in profits from illicit tips  — Scheme involved illegal trades on subscriber data, SEC says
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook says it is testing Reels in the News Feed and Groups in the US, after launching the feature in India, Mexico, and Canada earlier this year  —  Reels are coming to Facebook in the U.S. The company this morning announced it will begin testing a new feature, Facebook Reels …
More: The Verge and 9to5Mac
David Jeans / Forbes:
How Big Tech companies use shell corporations to get massive tax breaks from US cities for data centers that create few jobs and consume a lot of power  —  Local governments are dangling hundreds of millions of dollars in tax breaks to persuade companies like Facebook, Google and Microsoft to build server farms in their backyards.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Apple says NeuralHash flaw found by researchers in CSAM detection system was in a generic version of the software and not in the final version it plans to use  —  Apple said the version of NeuralHash analyzed by researchers is not the final version that will be used for iCloud Photos CSAM detection.
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip3 review: good inside screen and water resistant but long-term durability is unknown, cover screen is too small, and hard to use one-handed  —  Third time is maybe the charm  —  The story of folding phones thus far has been one of compromise.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Netflix says it is now rolling out support for Spatial Audio on iPhones and iPads  —  Netflix has confirmed that it is now rolling out Spatial Audio support to its iPhone and iPad applications.  This enables an immersive experience using directional audio filters, and it has been a long time coming to Netflix users.
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Facebook says it took action against 12 COVID vaccine misinfo “superspreaders” but disputes claims that those 12 were responsible for 73% of misinfo on Facebook  —  Back in March, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) published  —  a report linking more than two-thirds …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Great Chat:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:20 PM ET, August 19, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Pew Research Center:

Earlier Picks