Techmeme: Substack touts itself as an alternative to toxic, ad-driven social media, but many of its top earners are polarizing figures who were deplatformed elsewhere (Chris Stokel-Walker/Wired UK)

Top News

FBI email servers were hacked to send spam warning of a “sophisticated chain attack”, with a likely goal to discredit security researcher Vinny Troia — The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) email servers were hacked to distribute spam email impersonating FBI warnings …

More: Newsweek and HotHardware.com News

Tweets: @spamhaus, @gossithedog, @briankrebs, @spamhaus, @briankrebs, @c7five, @rayredacted, @pgl, @gossithedog, @malwarejake, @o2bnobx, @vinnytroia, @bleepincomputer, @dinodaizovi, @gossithedog, and @gossithedog

Chris Stokel-Walker / Wired UK:

Substack touts itself as an alternative to toxic, ad-driven social media, but many of its top earners are polarizing figures who were deplatformed elsewhere — The company's CEO says the old way of social media is broken—but is his alternative much different?

Tweets: @counternotions, @aishagani, @wired, @kantrowitz, @wired, @carnage4life, @glennf, @rasmus_kleis, @jessesingal, and @ggreenwald

See also Mediagazer

Zaheer Merchant / The Economic Times:

App Annie: India saw 4.8B mobile game downloads in H1 2021, or one in every five downloads globally, making it the world's top market for mobile games — A new report by App Annie, an app market analytics firm, puts numbers to something we've all known for 19 months now …

Source: App Annie. More: Business Today and Livemint. Tweets: @appannie

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:

How US cities are deploying drones, robots, and AI to more affordably inspect, diagnose, and repair the country's aging sewer infrastructure — Cash-strapped U.S. cities are turning to drones, artificial intelligence and other innovations to help inspect and fix the country's aging underground arteries of waste

Tweets: @neorsd

Hartley Charlton / MacRumors:

The latest iOS 15.2 beta adds a manual Macro mode toggle to the Camera app on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max — The second beta of iOS 15.2 adds a toggle for Macro mode on the iPhone 13 Pro and iPhone 13 Pro Max when Auto Macro is disabled in Settings, enabling users …

More: 9to5Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, Tom's Guide, Redmond Pie, AppleInsider, CNET, iThinkDifferent, XDA Developers, Ubergizmo, iMore, Gizmodo, The Verge, iPhone Hacks, iMore, iDownloadBlog.com, techadvisor.com, and iClarified

Tweets: @dylanmcd8, @imore, and @halidecamera

Helen Partz / Cointelegraph:

AMC Theatres now accepts bitcoin, ether, bitcoin cash, and litecoin for online payments; CEO Adam Aron says dogecoin will be accepted next — AMC Theaters now accepts online payments in Bitcoin, Ether, Bitcoin Cash and Litecoin, with Dogecoin coming next. — 279 Total views — 4 Total shares

More: Engadget, Techaeris, The Verge, Gizmodo, SlashGear, The Information, The Daily Hodl, Crowdfund Insider, Bitcoin Magazine, and CoinDesk

Tweets: @ceoadam, @susanlitv, @reckless, and @litecoinmag

Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:

Presto, which provides restaurants with food ordering hardware and analytics, is going public via a SPAC merger at a ~$1B valuation — Presto is known for its pay-at-table kiosks, tablets and artificial-intelligence tools — Restaurant-technology startup Presto is combining …

Source: Presto. More: Benzinga, Dow Jones Newswires, Restaurant Business, Silicon Valley Business …, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @ycombinator and @wsjmarkets

Bloomberg:

Sources: Intel scrapped plans to make silicon wafers at a Chinese factory to ease US chip shortages, after the Biden admin strongly discouraged the proposal — - Chipmaker had pitched China investment as way to ease shortage — Administration seeks to reduce dependence on foreign suppliers

More: PCMag, AppleInsider, and Engadget

Tweets: @jendeben, @byron_wan, @stevenrodgersgc, and @hancocktom

New York Times:

Telegram could become a powerful vector for lies and vitriol before the 2022 presidential elections in Brazil, where it is installed on 53% of smartphones — In a social media ecosystem facing mounting pressure to combat fake news and polarization, Telegram is the most permissive disseminator of content — and disinformation.

Taylor Locke / CNBC:

An overview of Bitcoin's first major upgrade since 2017, Taproot, which makes transactions more private, less expensive, and is expected to go live this weekend — Taproot, a highly anticipated upgrade to bitcoin, is expected to go into effect in the coming days at block 709,632 — some sources say it'll go live as soon as Saturday.

More: Neowin, ZyCrypto, CoinDesk, Bitcoin Magazine, CoinGeek, Crypto Briefing, and Cointelegraph. Tweets: @onrampinvest

Amrith Ramkumar / Wall Street Journal:

Gett, which helps companies organize their ride-hailing, taxi, and limousine booking options, is going public via a SPAC merger at a ~$1.1B valuation — Company joins with ride-hailing operators to organize transportation options into one platform for corporate customers

Source: Gett. More: Dow Jones Newswires, Reuters, and PYMNTS.com

Louise Matsakis / Wired:

Some TikTok users say the app is encouraging them to follow people they know in real life, raising privacy concerns over TikTok's tactics to connect users — The social network got huge by ignoring who you know. That's increasingly no longer the case. — Unlike other social apps …

More: Pixel Envy. Tweets: @carnage4life

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.

Zoho:

Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control — Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Uncapped with Jack Altman:

Saam Motamedi from Greylock Partners

Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.

Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.

Invest Like the Best:

Henry Ellenbogen - Man Versus Machine

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

Grit:

How Evan Spiegel Is Building the Future of Computing

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

Acquired:

10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)

Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.

Subscribe to Acquired.

Lenny's Podcast:

Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead)

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.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling

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.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:15 PM ET, November 13, 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.