Techmeme
December 14, 2021, 4:10 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Tim Starks / CyberScoop:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Oppo unveils Air Glass, a 30g “assisted reality” wearable that projects 2D info into the user's FoV with a claimed three-hours usage, coming to China in Q1 2022  —  Coming to China early next year  —  Oppo has announced the Air Glass, an AR device that'll go on sale early next year.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Sources: Instagram passed 2B monthly active users this fall, up from 1B in June 2018, the last time it publicly disclosed the metric  —  - Instagram now has more than 2 billion monthly active users worldwide, according to employees with knowledge of the key metric.
Bloomberg:
Sources: the NSO Group is considering shuttering its Pegasus unit and selling the company, amid US restrictions and the danger of defaulting on $450M in debt  —  - Moelis tapped to advise on talks with investment funds  — One plan would repurpose product for strictly defensive use
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
US OSHA is investigating the collapse of an Amazon warehouse in Illinois caused by a tornado, where six workers died, one was injured, and 45 were rescued  —  - OSHA is investigating a collapse at an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois.  — The facility collapsed Friday as a tornado rolled through, killing six employees.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Nike acquires RTFKT, an NFT studio founded in 2020, for an undisclosed sum; RTFKT raised an $8M seed in May led by a16z at a $33.3M valuation  —  Nike is taking a plunge deeper into the world of crypto collectibles, announcing that they're acquiring the NFT studio RTFKT (pronounced “artifact").
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
A look back at tech's three eras, from Bell Labs to Facebook, and why the metaverse is the fourth, defined by its bifurcation with the physical world  —  For the first several years of Stratechery I would write a year end article about “The State of Consumer Technology”; the last one I wrote …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
The UK's CMA issues an interim report voicing concerns over Apple and Google's “vice-like grip” on the mobile ecosystem, hinting at future antitrust action  —  The UK's antitrust watchdog has given the clearest signal yet that interventions under an upcoming reform …
CoinDesk:
Institutional bitcoin broker and custody services provider NYDIG raises $1B led by WestCap, valuing the startup at $7B+  —  NYDIG said Tuesday it raised a stunning $1 billion in a funding round that will value the firm at over $7 billion - and potentially expand bitcoin's reach into …
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
Apple delays macOS Monterey's Universal Control until spring 2022, after already delaying it to “later this fall”  —  Apple has officially delayed Universal Control, a hallmark feature of macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15 announced in June, until Spring 2022.
Eva Dou / Washington Post:
Internal Huawei marketing slides show a broader role in surveilling China's population than it has admitted to, including using voice ID and tracking shoppers  —  The Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies has long brushed off questions about its role in China's state surveillance, saying it just sells general-purpose networking gear.
Daniel Rubino / Windows Central:
Microsoft and iFixit partner to let approved independent repairers buy official Microsoft service tools for Surface devices from iFixit.com  —  Authorized and independent technicians can new repair select Surface devices thanks to iFixit and Microsoft  —  What you need to know
Charmaine D'Silva / The Keyword:
Google details Android 12 Go edition, coming to low-end phones in 2022 with faster app launches, longer battery life, better sharing, and more privacy controls  —  Android (Go edition) launched in 2017 with the goal to help more people access the best of Android and Google through affordable, entry-level phones.
Louise Matsakis / The Atlantic:
Investors have poured $1B+ into startups looking to turn mom-and-pop stores into digital retailers and mini-tech hubs, especially in South and Southeast Asia  —  Corner stores don't look like much.  Maybe the one nearest to you has dusty shelves lined with bags of chips and cookies …
BBC:
UK MPs propose changes to the UK's Online Safety Bill, including adding more offenses and fines, mandating tech firms appoint a “safety controller”, and more  —  New criminal offences and major changes have been proposed in the UK's landmark Online Safety Bill, which seeks to regulate social media and tech giants.
Hannah Miller / The Information:
A look at Solana's early backers including 500 Startups, Slow Ventures, Multicoin Capital, and angels David Quiec and Chris McCann, who have $1B+ stakes  —  When Solana Labs CEO Anatoly Yakovenko tried to raise money in 2018 to develop his idea for a faster blockchain for financial transactions …
Tweets: @bob_wins
Financial Times:
Letter: the US Department of Labor is investigating Apple over Ashley Gjøvik's claims that she was fired under a false pretext after retaliation complaints  —  US labour department inquiry follows claims by ex-senior engineering program manager  —  The US Department of Labor …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
The 90-day recognition cliff: Why praise programs fade, and what keeps them alive  —  Recognition programs often start with enthusiasm.  Employees participate, managers share shoutouts, and teams have a new way to celebrate achievements.
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

Uncapped with Jack Altman:
David George from a16z
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Big Technology Podcast:
SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next
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.
Sources:
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:10 PM ET, December 14, 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

Earlier Picks

Victoria Kim / Los Angeles Times:
Vikas Sn / Moneycontrol:
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol: