Techmeme
October 18, 2021, 11:20 AM

Top News

Emily Glazer / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: two Microsoft execs, including Brad Smith, told Bill Gates in 2008 that emails with a midlevel female employee were inappropriate; Gates agreed to stop  —  Top lawyer, HR chief informed some Microsoft directors they told billionaire co-founder that his emails with female employee were inappropriate
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
What to expect from Apple's Unleashed event on Monday: 14-inch and 16-inch MacBook Pros with mini-LED, AirPods 3, redesigned Mac mini, and macOS Monterey launch  —  Apple's first fall event of 2021 focused on the iPhone and the Apple Watch, but the second, set to be held on Monday, October 18, is expected to be Mac-centric.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Wall Street Journal:
Internal documents: Facebook's AI has minimal success enforcing its rules against problematic content, including removing an estimated 3%-5% of hate speech  —  AI has only minimal success in removing hate speech, violent images and other problem content, according to internal company reports
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Florence Ion / Gizmodo:
What to expect from Google's Pixel event on Tuesday: Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro with Tensor custom SOC, improved cameras, bigger batteries, and more colors  —  Will there be any surprises at Google's event next week?  Here's what we know so far.  —  Alerts  —  If you've been holding …
New York Times:
NYSE says ProShares will launch an exchange-traded fund (ETF) linked to Bitcoin futures, giving investors exposure without having to hold bitcoin directly  —  An exchange-traded fund tied to the cryptocurrency is set to begin trading on the New York Stock Exchange, a milestone for the industry.
Reuters:
Five US House Judiciary committee members write to Amazon accusing executives of either misleading Congress or lying about promoting its brands above rivals  —  Five members of the U.S. House Judiciary committee wrote to Amazon.com Inc's chief executive Sunday, and accused the company's top executives …
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
In an SEC filing, Sinclair confirms it suffered a ransomware attack that disrupted its channels on Sunday; Sinclair initially blamed technical issues  —  Sinclair formally confirmed the ransomware attack a day after this initial report in SEC documents.  Original reporting below.
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Berlin-based mobile banking startup N26 raises a $900M Series E at a $9B valuation and says it has 7M clients in 25 countries  —  Fintech startup N26 has raised a $900 million Series E round at a $9 billion valuation.  That represents a big jump from the company's Series D valuation of $3.5 billion.

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Featured Podcasts

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Hard Fork:
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Chapter's Cobi Blumenfeld-Gantz: From Palantir To $3B Medicare Disruptor
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How Anthropic's product team moves faster than anyone else | Cat Wu (Head of Product, Claude Code)
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Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
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Earlier Picks

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
Cynthia O'Murchu / Financial Times:
Patrick McGee / Financial Times: