Techmeme
November 17, 2021, 5:30 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Activision CEO failed to inform the board about allegations an employee had been raped by her supervisor in 2016 and 2017, even after a settlement  —  Top executive didn't inform board of some reports, including alleged rapes; company faces multiple regulatory investigations
Shannon Liao / Washington Post:
Over 100 Activision Blizzard employees staged a walkout on Tuesday after a WSJ report, the second in four months, demanding CEO Bobby Kotick step down  —  This story has been updated from a previous version.  —  IRVINE, Calif. — Employees at beleaguered video game company Activision Blizzard walked …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Meta details a haptic glove prototype that uses air pockets to simulate touching objects in VR and has been in development for seven years  —  A new sci-fi interface for the metaverse  —  You cannot pet a dog in Meta's new, high-tech virtual reality gloves.  But researchers are getting closer.
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
Sean Endicott / Windows Central:
Microsoft shifts Windows 10 from two major updates per year to one, and announces that only Windows 11 will support emulating x64 apps on ARM devices  —  You'll have to upgrade your Windows on ARM PC to use x64 emulation.  —  What you need to know  — Microsoft discussed the status of x64 emulation for Windows on ARM today.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix expands its Top 10 lists to display the most-viewed shows and movies, for English and non-English titles, ranked by aggregate viewing hours  —  Netflix says it's heard the complaints about how it “cherry picks” the self-reported data it releases about content viewed on its platform.
Sam Dean / Los Angeles Times:
LA's iconic Staples Center to be renamed as Crypto.com Arena, sources say in a deal worth $700M+ for 20 years  —  Staples Center is getting a new name for Christmas: Crypto.com Arena.  —  The downtown Los Angeles venue — home of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks …
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Israeli spyware vendor Candiru, recently blacklisted by the US, waged “watering hole” attacks on UK and Middle East websites critical of Saudi Arabia and others  —  Cybersecurity researchers tracked a hacking campaign spanning more than a year that hit around 20 websites.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Qualcomm says its next-gen PC CPUs will be designed by its recently acquired Nuvia team, hopes they will ship in devices in 2023 and be “M-series competitive”  —  Developed by the Nuvia team  —  Qualcomm is looking to seriously beef up its PC processors, with the company announcing plans …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
Miramax sues Quentin Tarantino over copyright infringement for selling NFTs based on Pulp Fiction screenplay excerpts; Miramax says it owns screenplay rights  —  Miramax filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Quentin Tarantino of copyright infringement by selling NFTs based on the screenplay for “Pulp Fiction.”
Nicole Wetsman / The Verge:
The FDA authorizes AppliedVR's EaseVRx as a prescription VR treatment for chronic lower back pain in adults  —  It joins a handful of other digital therapeutics  —  The Food and Drug Administration authorized a virtual reality system as a prescription treatment for chronic back pain, the agency announced today.
Celestine Bohlen / New York Times:
As Moscow Metro introduces Face Pay, digital privacy activists express alarm at the implications of introducing city-wide facial recognition  —  The latest example is Face Pay, which replaces a Metro card with facial recognition.  It may be advanced, but activists are sounding the alarm on privacy issues.
Charles Daly / Bloomberg:
Microsoft launches a new datacenter region in Sweden that runs on only renewable energy, in partnership with state-owned utility Vattenfall AB  —  - Customers for the centers include Handelsbanken, PostNord  — Facilities to use green energy supplied by utility Vattenfall
Ashley Gold / Axios:
Microsoft and Uber leave the Internet Association; Microsoft says its decision was part of a periodic review to “ensure alignment with our policy agenda”  —  Microsoft and Uber are leaving the Internet Association, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of companies in the internet and tech industry, Axios has confirmed.
More: Protocol
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Brave now has a built-in cryptocurrency wallet, sidestepping the need for extension-based wallets like MetaMask  —  Why use an extension when it's a built-in tool?  —  Brave has announced that its web browser now includes a native cryptocurrency wallet, replacing the previous one that was based on the MetaMask wallet extension.
Axios:
Analysis: the top five most-followed accounts on TikTok do not rank in the top 50 on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram  —  The creator economy has produced thousands of social media entrepreneurs who have built mega-audiences in the millions — larger than many media companies.
Bloomberg:
Sources: China is empowering a quasi-government body to certify local suppliers in areas like cloud and semiconductors to reduce reliance on foreign tech  —  - Committee of 1,800 firms will certify trusted technologies  — U.S. blacklisting of Chinese giants adds urgency to effort

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Copilot to autopilot: Why no single safeguard is enough  —  Microsoft designed a layered model that lets an AI agent resolve network incidents on its own within defined boundaries.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Diwali 2026: Your festive planning checklist with Zoho Notebook  —  The Diwali countdown is on!  From lighting up every corner of the house to going a little overboard with the festive shopping …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Great Chat:
AI's Spooky Season
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Sources:
Sundar Pichai on Gemini 4 and the AI compute crunch
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Machine Gods:
Bots Behaving Badly + Is AI Regulation On The Right Track + Kevin's Sloppelganger
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Netflix in Turmoil + Derek Thompson on AI & The Antisocial Century
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Big Technology Podcast:
Google CEO Sundar Pichai: AI's Infinite Possibilities, Compute Scarcity Dilemmas, Future AI Products
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Cheeky Pint:
How Toto Wolff built the most valuable team in F1
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:30 AM ET, November 17, 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.

More News

Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer:

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Sam Shead / CNBC:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch: