Techmeme
November 4, 2021, 1:40 PM

Top News

Vlad Savov / Bloomberg:
Google says it will let Android app developers use alternative billing systems in the Google Play store in South Korea, complying with a new law  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google said it will add the option for developers to offer alternative billing systems on its Android app store in South Korea …
Wall Street Journal:
AT&T and Verizon postpone the December 5 launch of C-band 5G spectrum to address the FAA's concerns of potential interference with cockpit safety systems  —  Wireless carriers postpone planned Dec. 5 launch of new spectrum to address concerns about potential interference with cockpit safety systems
Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:
Nintendo president says he doesn't “see a sign of the component shortages recovering” as the company cuts Switch sales target for FY 2021 from 25.5M to 24M  —  - Company upgrades operating profit outlook citing FX rates  — Sustaining sales momentum will depend heavily on OLED model
AnandTech:
Review of Intel's ~$650 flagship i9-12900K Alder Lake CPU, which performs close to AMD's 5950X and 5900X depending on workloads, while adding DDR5 support  —  Today marks the official retail availability of Intel's 12th Generation Core processors, starting with the overclockable versions this side of the New Year, and the rest in 2022.
Biz Carson / Protocol:
PitchBook: female-founded startups raised a record $40.4B across 2,661 VC deals in the first three quarters of 2021 with a $59 billion all-time high in exits  —  The pandemic took a toll on female founders in 2020: Funding to their companies fell 3% even in a bullish startup climate that saw overall venture funding rise by 16%.
James Batchelor / GamesIndustry.biz:
US-based game publisher Devolver Digital raises around $261M in a London IPO, at a valuation of about $950M  —  Fall Guys publisher is biggest US firm to trade on AIM, Sony Interactive Entertainment makes 5% investment in Devolver  —  Devolver Digital has begun trading on AIM …
Michael Kan / PCMag:
FCC approves Boeing's application to deploy and operate satellites providing broadband internet to US consumers and business; application was filed in 2017  —  According to the FCC, Boeing plans on using the satellite internet system to supply broadband to residential, commercial, and government customers.
Kolawole Samuel Adebayo / VentureBeat:
Treasure Data, which offers an enterprise customer data platform, raises $234M led by SoftBank  —  Mountain View-based enterprise customer data platform (CDP) Treasure Data has just received a $234 million funding in what the company calls the largest-ever single round for a CDP.
Rebecca Heilweil / Vox:
Meta will retain some of its facial recognition systems, including its DeepFace model, and plans to incorporate biometrics into its metaverse products  —  The social network is scaling back facial recognition, but similar technology could show up in the metaverse.
Nicole Wetsman / The Verge:
Alphabet launches Isomorphic Laboratories, a company that uses AI for drug discovery; DeepMind CEO Demis Hassabis will also serve as Isomorphic CEO  —  It builds on DeepMind's work on protein folding  —  A new Alphabet company will use artificial intelligence methods for drug discovery, Google's parent company announced Thursday.
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
Internal documents shed light on Facebook's “holdout” experiments, where it withholds certain protections from a subset of users to see how they will react  —  In her testimony before Congress last month, whistleblower Frances Haugen told lawmakers Facebook has conducted experiments …
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Instagram brings back support for Twitter Card previews after removing the feature in 2012  —  Instagram is bringing back support for Twitter Card previews starting today.  Now when users share an Instagram link on Twitter, a preview of the post will be shown in the tweet.
Alexander Osipovich / Wall Street Journal:
Google strikes a cloud deal with CME and invests $1B in the futures exchange  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google has invested $1 billion in futures-exchange giant CME Group Inc. and struck a deal to move the company's core trading systems to the cloud.  —  Under the deal, the technology giant's Google Cloud unit …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is stepping down on November 15; Thomas Dohmke, who became chief product officer in August, will take over as CEO  —  GitHub CEO Nat Friedman is stepping down from his role on November 15 to become the Chairman Emeritus of the Microsoft-owned service.
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Cloudbeds, which makes hospitality management software, raises a $150M Series D led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2, bringing its total funding to $253M  —  As U.S. hotel occupancy hit pre-pandemic levels this summer, the hospitality industry is bracing for what is expected to be a rush of activity as people resume travel.
More: Skift and FinSMEs.  Tweets: @rafat
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
US sanctions four companies, including NSO Group, that sell spyware or hacking tools, adding them to a list of entities engaging in “malicious cyber activities”  —  The US government has sanctioned today four companies that develop and sell spyware and other hacking tools, the US Department of Commerce announced today.
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Fountain, which provides an applicant tracking system for hourly workers, raises a $85M Series C led by Vision Fund 2, bringing its total funding to $119M  —  You may have visited some quick-service restaurants or other retailers in the past few months and noticed signs posted with shortened hours or not being open on a certain day.

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More News

Patrick Howell O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:

Earlier Picks

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
New York Times:
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Campbell Kwan / ZDNet: