Techmeme
November 9, 2021, 11:05 PM

Top News

Greg Kumparak / TechCrunch:
Unity to acquire Peter Jackson's visual effects company Weta Digital, including 275+ engineers, for $1.625B; Weta Digital's FTX artists will form a new entity  —  Unity has just announced its intent to acquire Weta Digital, the legendary visual effects company co-founded by Peter Jackson, for a massive $1.625 billion.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Twitter Blue rolls out to the US for $2.99/month with Scroll's ad-free articles across 300+ pubs, an undo button, Nuzzel-like “top articles” roundup, and more  —  And in Australia, Canada, and New Zealand, as part of Twitter Blue  —  Twitter Blue, the company's subscription service …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Judge in Epic v. Apple trial says Apple must comply with an order letting developers link to external payment options, denying Apple's stay request  —  Apple said the change would be ‘exceedingly complicated’  —  Epic v. Apple judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers says Apple must comply with an order …
New York Times:
By January 19, Meta aims to remove ad targeting options based on user interactions with content about health, race, political affiliation, religion, and more  —  Meta, the social media company formerly known as Facebook, said on Tuesday that it planned to eliminate advertisers' ability …
Ashley Gold / Axios:
Bipartisan House bill would force tech platforms to offer an “input-transparent algorithm” that doesn't require user data to generate recommendations  —  A bipartisan group of House lawmakers has introduced a companion to a Senate bill that would let people use algorithm-free versions …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
Meta shares bullying and harassment numbers for the first time, claims the category represents ~0.14% of Facebook content and ~0.05% of Instagram content  —  The social media giant published several transparency reports on Tuesday.  —  Facebook published a series of reports on Tuesday …
Zac Bowden / Windows Central:
Microsoft announces a $249 11.6" Surface Laptop SE, exclusively for schools and students, running Windows 11 SE, and starting with 4GB RAM and 64GB of storage  —  Microsoft's low-end education PC is official!  —  What you need to know  — Microsoft is adding a new laptop to its Surface hardware portfolio.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
iOS 15.2 beta includes the Communication Safety in Messages feature that Apple announced this summer, as an opt-in feature parents can enable  —  Apple over the summer announced new Child Safety features that are aimed at keeping children safer online.  Apple has confirmed that one of those features …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Alex Gorsky, chairman and departing CEO of Johnson & Johnson, joins Apple's board of directors; Tim Cook calls him a “visionary in healthcare”  —  Apple today announced that Alex Gorsky, the chairman and CEO of Johnson & Johnson, has joined its board of directors.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Netflix games arrive on Apple's App Store and users will start being able to access them through Netflix's iOS app tomorrow  —  Last week, Netflix launched its debut lineup of mobile games to Android users globally.  Today, the games are expanding to users on iOS.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
You.com, an AI-powered open source search engine, launches in beta with $20M in funding led by Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff  —  You.com, which bills itself as the world's first open source search engine, today announced its public beta launch along with $20 million in funding led …
Tage Kene-Okafor / TechCrunch:
Jumo, a fintech helping entrepreneurs of SMBs in emerging markets gain access to loans, raises $120M led by Fidelity, report says at a $400M valuation  —  JUMO, a South Africa- and London-based company that offers financial services to entrepreneurs and businesses in emerging markets …
More: The Times

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Sara Fischer / Axios:

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