Techmeme
February 8, 2022, 1:25 PM

Top News

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple unveils Tap to Pay on iPhone, letting US merchants accept contactless payments via partner-enabled apps later in 2022; partners include Stripe and Shopify  —  Apple has officially announced a new Tap to Pay feature for iPhone.  This feature, coming later this year …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Nvidia and SoftBank call off Nvidia's Arm acquisition, following regulatory scrutiny; Arm CEO Simon Segars resigns, replaced by Arm IP group president Rene Haas  —  Nvidia's deal to acquire Arm is off, the two companies and Arm's owner SoftBank announced (PDF) tonight.
Cara Lombardo / Wall Street Journal:
Peloton CEO John Foley will step down and ex-Spotify and Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy will take over; Peloton will cut ~2,800 jobs and cancel its Ohio factory  —  Exercise-equipment maker to name former Spotify CFO Barry McCarthy as successor, overhaul board and cut costs
Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
The US DOJ arrests two people in New York and seizes ~$3.6B worth of bitcoin allegedly stolen in a 2016 Bitfinex hack, its “largest financial seizure ever”  —  The Justice Department announced Tuesday it had seized more than $3.6 billion in bitcoin allegedly stolen as part …
Shiona McCallum / BBC:
The UK's Online Safety Bill will mandate porn websites verify users' age or face fines; similar proposals were quietly dropped in 2019 after criticism  —  Porn websites in the UK will be legally required to verify the age of their users under new internet safety laws.
John Markoff / New York Times:
As data centers grow, engineers at Meta, Google, and other companies worry about the reliability of ever-smaller chips and hardware failures with unclear causes  —  As the largest computer networks continue to grow, some engineers fear that their smallest components could prove to be an Achilles' heel.
New York Times:
Meta announces that Peter Thiel, one of Facebook's first institutional investors and longest-serving directors, will step down from Meta's board this year  —  The tech billionaire, who has been on the board of the company formerly known as Facebook since 2005, is backing numerous politicians in the midterm elections.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
An in-depth look at Apple's IAP changes in the Netherlands: Apple's proposal seemingly isn't compliant, reducing the commission by 3% is spiteful, and more  —  The continuing saga of Apple's conflict with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) — the Dutch equivalent …
Wall Street Journal:
The EU details the Chips Act, a plan to make €43B in funding available for R&D and chip production, seeking to compete with the US and Asia  —  Legislation could mobilize about $49 billion in government and private cash, though critics fear a subsidy race
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok updates its policies to improve safety for LGBTQ users, including banning misgendering, adds tools for age appropriate content, and more  —  Months after TikTok was hauled into its first-ever major congressional hearing over platform safety, the company is today announcing a series …
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Oscar nominations for Netflix and Amazon fell; half of the Best Picture nominees had little to no time in theaters and all major studios relied on hybrid models  —  This morning's Oscar nominations suggest a rethink — or at least a collective hitting of the pause button — on the status of streaming in the awards conversation.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Source: Apple acquires London-based AI Music, which uses AI and royalty-free music to create dynamic soundtracks that change based on user interactions or moods  —  Apple Inc. acquired a startup called AI Music that uses artificial intelligence to generate tailor-made music …
Blockworks:
Blockchain game studio Gala Games plans to allocate $5B within the next year to expand NFTs: $2B for gaming, $1B for music, $1B for movies, $1B for a theme park  —  Gala Games is seeking to ramp up its presence in the NFT sector and will allocate billions of dollars to further its efforts in the coming year
More: CoinGape
Nikhil Subramaniam / Inc42 Media:
BharatPe, an Indian fintech unicorn backed by VCs such as Sequoia and Coatue, is facing allegations of embezzlement, impropriety in merchant dealings, and more  —  Calling CEO Suhail Sameer “a puppet of investors”, Grover has alleged a conspiracy behind sending him away and instituting a probe
Mario Gabriele / The Generalist:
A deep dive into the rise of “solo capitalists”, who are increasingly competing to lead seed, Series A, and later stage rounds against traditional VC firms  —  Solitary general partners now manage more than many multi-person venture funds.  What are the limits of a one-man band?

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Alan Rappeport / New York Times:
Sam Reynolds / CoinDesk: