Techmeme
February 16, 2022, 10:30 PM

Top News

Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Google plans to bring Privacy Sandbox to Android, preserving its Ad ID system for two years, and says it'll be less disruptive than ATT for advertisers and devs  —  It says it will give other companies plenty of time to adapt to changes to its Android software.  Similar changes made by Apple affected big internet companies.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Windows 11 Preview build includes a customizable Start menu, five new touch gestures, Snap Layouts improvements, Live Captions, Task Manager redesign, and more  —  Microsoft is also bringing drag and drop back to the taskbar  —  Microsoft is bringing new touch gestures, Start menu folders …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Mark Zuckerberg names Nick Clegg as President of Global Affairs, which would mean less involvement in future policy decisions for Zuckerberg and Sandberg  —  Meta Platforms Inc. Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg has promoted his top policy executive, Nick Clegg, to an even greater role inside …
Corin Faife / The Verge:
CISA, FBI, and NSA say Russian state-sponsored hackers targeted US defense contractors for at least two years, acquiring export-controlled technology and more  —  The state-sponsored actors acquired information on weapons, aircraft design, and combat communications systems over a period of years
CoinDesk:
Canadian authorities have ordered regulated financial firms to cease transactions from 34 crypto wallets, worth over $870K, tied to funding the “Freedom Convoy”  —  Bitcoin, Ethereum, Litecoin, Monero and Cardano addresses are all on the list.  —  The Ontario Provincial Police …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify is acquiring Chartable and Podsights, two podcast analytics companies that let podcasters and networks include tags in shows to track listeners  —  Chartable and Podsights are being bought  —  Spotify is making more podcast acquisitions.  The company announced today it's acquiring …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft details changes to AltspaceVR to improve safety and moderation, including removing social spaces and making users sign in with a Microsoft account  —  You'll also need a Microsoft Account for AltspaceVR soon  —  Microsoft is removing all social hubs hosted in AltspaceVR …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Q&A with longtime Wikipedia contributor Molly White about her website “Web3 is going just great”, why Web3 won't create new Wikipedia-style projects, and more  —  Q&A with Molly White of Web 3 Is Going Just Great … Whenever a fresh disaster happens on the blockchain …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Denver-based Nomad, a startup that offers financial services for small-time landlords, renters, and potential home buyers, raises a $20M Series A  —  Nomad, a marketplace that aims to provide small-time rental property owners with “guaranteed rent,” has raised $20 million in a Series A funding round led by Silicon Valley Bank Capital.
DKB:
Google search quality is declining because of too many ads, SEO, and “smart” AI, prompting people to append “reddit” to queries to get more authentic results  —  Reddit is currently the most popular search engine.  The only people who don't know that are the team at Reddit …
Will Oremus / Washington Post:
Twitter says CEO Parag Agrawal will take “a few weeks” of parental leave, less than three months after taking the job, a rare move for a Silicon Valley CEO  —  Parag Agrawal, 37, is just getting started in one of the technology industry's highest-profile jobs …
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Senators Blumenthal (D) and Blackburn (R) unveil the Kids Online Safety Act, requiring platforms offer extra safety and privacy tools for users under 16  —  A bipartisan pair of senators on Wednesday unveiled a sweeping bill that aims to give parents more control over their children's time online …
Financial Times:
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Uber will let riders see a breakdown of their average ratings starting today and publishes data on US cities with the highest and lowest ratings  —  Also available: five-star ratings  —  For the first time, Uber is allowing its customers to see how many five-star ratings they've received from drivers …

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.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
Zoho Mail Admin Console: A complete overview  —  You just got added as an admin for your company's Zoho Mail account.  Someone from IT sends you a link, you log in, and there it is, a full console with everything …
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

Grit:
Ex-Twitter CEO on Why AI Needs a New Internet | Parag Agrawal
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
Anthropic's first technical PM on token maxing, the jagged edge, and living in the future | Dianne Penn
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
What Happens If AI Fails?, Subprime Data Center Crisis, How Bad Can SpaceX Get?
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.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Models Go Rogue + Kimi K3 Freakout + A.I. Superforecasting
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Scam Held Together With Patriotism and Golden Paint', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:30 PM ET, February 16, 2022.

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

Ilena Peng / Bloomberg:
Aislinn Keely / The Block:
Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

IEEE Spectrum:
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post: