Techmeme
April 7, 2022, 11:00 AM

Top News

Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Paul Vigna / Wall Street Journal:
One-click checkout service Bolt acquires crypto payments startup Wyre, sources say for around $1.5B  —  Deal extends crypto's hot M&A market following record deal activity in 2021  —  Bolt Financial Inc., a payments-focused financial technology company, is acquiring crypto-services startup …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Coinbase adds support for the popular UPI payment method in India, making the cryptocurrency exchange functional in the country for the first time  —  Coinbase is adding support for the popular UPI payment instrument in India, making its eponymous cryptocurrency exchange functional …
Andrew Hayward / Decrypt:
OpenSea adds Solana NFT trading support in beta; a marketplace search shows 865K NFTs minted on Solana  —  At long last, Solana support is finally live on OpenSea—in beta mode.  —  In brief  — Solana NFTs have been added to OpenSea, the largest overall NFT marketplace.
Alyse Stanley / Washington Post:
Epic Games and Lego form a long-term partnership to “shape the future of the metaverse” by building a safe place for children to play but offer few details  —  Epic Games has already outlined ambitious plans for the metaverse and Thursday the “Fortnite” maker announced it intends to build part of it with Legos.
Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post:
How Gwyneth Paltrow, Mila Kunis, and others are pushing women to invest in NFTs, which critics see as a form of self-serving feminism centered on white women  —  Gwyneth Paltrow and Mila Kunis joined a Zoom in January to encourage 5,000 women in the audience to break into the male-dominated world of crypto.
Song Jung-a / Financial Times:
Samsung expects Q1 operating profit to rise 50% YoY to $11.6B, the highest since 2018, and revenue to rise 18% YoY to $63B on strong smartphone and chip sales  —  South Korean group's strong sales undercut by performance concerns against rivals Apple and TSMC
Naomi Nix / Washington Post:
Meta disrupts several covert influence operations against Ukraine by Belarus- and Russia-linked actors, including attempts to hack Ukrainian military personnel  —  Facebook said Thursday it disrupted several covert influence operations targeting Ukrainians, as the company has intensified …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google announces “multisearch” for Lens, letting users ask questions about photos and screenshots, available in beta in the US on iOS and Android  —  One of the most interesting announcements at Google's Search-focused keynote in September was a big upgrade to Lens that lets you take a photo and ask questions about it.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google plans to hide and block Play Store apps that don't target an Android API within two years of the latest major Android release, starting on November 1  —  Google is preparing to clear its Play Store of outdated apps.  The company warned Android app developers that starting on November 1 …
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Berkshire Hathaway discloses that it has purchased ~121M shares of HP Inc, worth ~$4.2B, for an 11.4% stake; HP's stock rises 11%+  —  Berkshire Hathaway Inc (BRKa.N) disclosed on Wednesday that it has purchased nearly 121 million shares of HP Inc (HPQ.N), the latest in a series of large investments …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the SEC is investigating how Amazon disclosed its use of third-party seller data for its business; source: the probe has been under way for over a year  —  Tech giant's use of third-party sellers' data is a focus of regulator's probe, a person familiar with the matter says
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: online fast fashion retailer Shein raised between $1B and $2B in a round closed last week, valuing it at $100B; Shein was valued at ~$15B in 2020  —  China-based fast-fashion seller now worth more than H&M and Zara combined  —  Fast-fashion retailer Shein was valued at $100 billion …
New York Times:
Biden appears to show support for Amazon workers who unionized in Staten Island, saying in a speech: “By the way, Amazon, here we come. Watch”  —  “By the way, Amazon, here we come.  Watch,” the president said.  But the White House quickly said his remarks did not mean the government would get formally involved.
Audrey An / The Keyword:
Google will roll out Privacy Guide, a guided tour of privacy and security settings in Chrome, to all desktop users on version 100 or above in the coming weeks  —  Product Manager, Chrome at Google Safety Engineering Center Munich  —  Your browser plays a big role in your online experience — including protecting your privacy.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
In a court-authorized March operation, the FBI cut off the servers of the Cyclops Blink botnet, tied to Russia's Sandworm, from Asus and WatchGuard routers  —  The Federal Bureau of Investigation has disclosed it carried out an operation in March to target a massive botnet controlled by Russian intelligence.
Washington Post:
Apple restores the “Smart Voting” app run by Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny's supporters in Russia; Apple removed the app after the Kremlin threatened its execs  —  Apple has resumed allowing Russians to download an app run by supporters of jailed Kremlin critic Alexei Navalny …
Matt Burgess / Wired:
New data-sharing proposals in Europe push for the expansion of facial recognition and to allow police forces across the EU to link their photo databases  —  Lawmakers advance proposals to let police forces across the EU link their photo databases—which include millions of pictures of people's faces.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
OpenPhone, which provides SMBs with a business phone line through its mobile app, raises a $40M Series B led by Tiger Global, bringing its total funding to $56M  —  Pam answering the phone at Dunder Mifflin become one of the most iconic refrains of life at The Office, and it's really no wonder that it did …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI that works  —  Tribe builds tech for top AI companies.  Get in touch to learn how our bench of 500+ engineers and researchers can accelerate your roadmap.
Kulkan Security:
Hire Kulkan as your penetration testing partner  —  Kulkan prioritizes deep-dive manual security reviews, dissecting your software and infrastructure to find issues that once remediated can truly reduce security risk.
Zoho:
Environmental impact of remote support: Reducing carbon footprints in IT  —  Information technology is essential for powering core business processes and facilitating communication.
Mastodon:
Donate to Mastodon  —  Mastodon gGmbH, the non-profit behind the open-source software powering the social web, relies entirely on support from users like you.  Donate directly with a credit card or through Patreon.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Magatte Wade, Unlocking Prosperity in Africa (#53)
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 04/19 - All The News About Llama 3
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:00 AM ET, April 7, 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

Foreign Affairs:

Earlier Picks

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Casey Newton / Platformer: