Techmeme
September 1, 2021, 11:50 AM

Top News

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Apple says Arizona and Georgia will be first to support adding IDs to Wallet in iOS 15, with six states, including Utah, Maryland, and Iowa, expected to follow  —  Apple's plan to digitize your wallet is slowly taking shape.  What started with boarding passes and venue tickets later became credit cards …
Bloomberg:
Source: Apple's upcoming Watch is suffering production snags as manufacturers adjust to a new design, likely leading to supply constraints or shipment delays  —  - Revamped device has a larger screen and other new features  — Wearables category has been one of fastest-growing for Apple
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Google is developing Arm-based chips for laptops and tablets that run on Chrome OS, set to launch around 2023  —  US software giant ramps up hiring blitz for semiconductor and hardware ambitions  —  TAIPEI — Google is developing its own central processors for its notebook and tablet computers …
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple is planning to add health features, including a blood pressure monitor and thermometer to track fertility, to Watch as soon as 2022  —  Tech giant seeks to push past obstacles in adding health features on your wrist  —  Apple Inc. is working on new health-related features for its smartwatch …
James Vincent / The Verge:
Analysis: governments intentionally blocked internet access nearly 850 times in the past decade, including 213 shutdowns in 2019, 155 in 2020, and 50 in 2021  —  A favorite tactic for stifling dissent in the 21st century  —  The number of government-led internet shutdowns has exploded …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft announces an online-only Surface hardware event for September 22, where an updated Surface Duo and Laptop are expected  —  New Surface hardware is on the way  —  Microsoft is holding a special Surface hardware event on September 22nd.  The software maker has started sending media invites …
Financial Times:
Garett Sloane / Ad Age:
LinkedIn is abandoning its Stories format at the end of September and has told advertisers to adjust their ad campaigns accordingly  —  Brands will have to adjust ad campaigns when video format leaves the platform after September  —  LinkedIn is telling advertisers to prepare for the end …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
More than 135 subreddits have gone private in protest of Reddit's refusal to ban communities that spread misinformation about the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccines  —  PokemonGo, Futurology among big subreddits going private until Reddit takes action.  —  Over 135 subreddits have gone dark …
Mark Scott / Politico:
Facebook says it accidentally removed thousands of posts around the Jan. 6 riots from CrowdTangle, blaming a now-fixed error that has existed since at least May  —  The social media company said it was a technical error, and has been fixed, but tens of thousands of posts are still missing.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
A look at the implications of South Korea's alternative app store payment law: confusion for non-technical users, difficulty managing subscriptions, and more  —  Apple defines in-app purchases as “App Store purchases”, which I disagree with.  I see a clear difference between purchasing …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Humane, a hardware and software startup run by two ex-Apple executives that is currently in stealth, raises $100M Series B led by Tiger Global  —  A stealthy startup co-founded by a former senior designer from Apple and one of its ex-senior software engineers has picked up a significant round funding to build out its business.
Matthew Monks / Bloomberg:
Samsara, a cloud-based fleet vehicle management service, says it has confidentially filed for an IPO; Samsara raised $400M at a $5.4B valuation last year  —  Samsara Inc., a software company valued at $5.4 billion last year, has filed confidentially for an initial public offering.
More: Reuters
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Code Climate, which offers software engineering project management tools, raises $50M Series C from PSG, USV, and others  —  The Transform Technology Summits start October 13th with Low-Code/No Code: Enabling Enterprise Agility.  Register now!  —  Code Climate, a platform …
Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Sundar Pichai informs Google employees that plans to return to offices are being pushed back again, from October to January 10  —  Google is pushing back its return-to-office date by three months, to Jan. 10, in a decision that reflects the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Telegram releases an update that removes the cap on live stream viewers, from 1,000 to unlimited, introduces more options for forwarding messages, and more  —  Along with more forwarding options  —  Telegram, the messaging app that's becoming more and more like a fully-fledged social media network …
The Tutanota Blog:
Australia passes bill that lets police hack user devices to modify, collect, or delete data and take over social media accounts without a judge's warrant  —  The Microsoft database hack shows that data stored in the cloud must always be encrypted end-to-end.
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Apple bars staff from making a Slack channel about pay equity; Apple says it is because the channel is not work related, despite others on pets and jokes  —  The company's rules around Slack usage are not being evenly enforced  —  Apple has barred employees from creating a Slack channel to discuss pay equity.

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Earlier Picks

Ash Parrish / The Verge:
New York Times: