Techmeme
November 15, 2022, 7:55 PM

Top News

Casey Newton / @caseynewton:
[Thread] Sources: last night, Twitter fired ~20 employees who criticized Elon Musk in Slack channels, saying their “recent behavior has violated company policy”  —  NEW: Employees who have criticized Elon Musk in Twitter's Slack channels were fired overnight over email. “We regret to inform you that your employment is terminated immediately,” they're being told over email. “Your recent behavior has violated company policy.”
Hartley Charlton / MacRumors:
Apple plans to expand Emergency SOS via Satellite to France, Germany, Ireland, and the UK in December 2022, expanding the service beyond the US and Canada  —  The iPhone 14 lineup's Emergency SOS via satellite and Find My via satellite features will launch in four additional countries next month, Apple today announced.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Hands-on with Apple's Emergency SOS via Satellite, rolling out now: the feature works well, texting takes 15-30 seconds with clear skies, and demo mode is handy  —  You don't have to hold your arm up to get a signal, though there is a lot of turning around and waiting when trying to connect to satellites.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Internal meeting: Tim Cook told German engineering and retail staff that Apple plans to start sourcing chips from a plant under construction in Arizona in 2024  —  Apple Inc. is preparing to begin sourcing chips for its devices from a plant under construction in Arizona …
Oliver Darcy / CNN:
Sources: tech news website Protocol, launched by former Politico owner Robert Allbritton in February 2020, will close later this week and lay off its ~60 staff  —  New York CNN Business —  Protocol, the upstart technology news website launched by former Politico owner …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Elon Musk says the new Twitter Blue will relaunch on November 29 “to make sure that it is rock solid”, after pausing signups due to many fake verified accounts  —  Elon Musk says the new Twitter Blue, which lets you pay $7.99 per month for a blue verification check mark next to your name, will relaunch on November 29th.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Matt Novak / Gizmodo:
The New York Times' bizarre SBF profile presents the founder through a gauzy lens, doesn't contextualize his assertions, and gives him the benefit of the doubt  —  FTX filed for bankruptcy on Friday, leaving reasonable people to wonder how a cryptocurrency platform founded in 2019 …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Sam Bankman-Fried continued to attempt to raise funds for FTX's up to $8B shortfall, despite resigning as CEO and his company filing for bankruptcy  —  Alongside a few remaining employees, Mr. Bankman-Fried spent the weekend calling around in search of new commitments from investors
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Lauren Forristal / TechCrunch:
Netflix launches Manage Access and Devices, which lets account owners identify and remotely log out of devices they do not recognize or no longer want signed in  —  Want to kick your ex off your Netflix account without having to change your password?  A new Netflix feature will make that possible.
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
Andrew Mason's Descript, which built an AI-powered media editing app, raised a $50M Series C led by the OpenAI Startup Fund, bringing its total funding to $100M  —  Descript, the audio and video editing platform founded in 2017 by former Groupon CEO Andrew Mason, has raised $50 million …
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Microsoft Gaming CEO Phil Spencer on running the division, how decisions are made, delaying big games, Xbox, Keystone, exclusives, rivals, and more  —  The CEO of Microsoft Gaming thinks King is the crown jewel of the Activision empire. … Phil Spencer, CEO of Microsoft Gaming …
Bloomberg:
Microsoft plans to publish an annual review of internal harassment claims, heeding recommendations from a law firm hired after reports of Bill Gates' misconduct  —  Microsoft Corp. will adopt a series of new sexual harassment policies, following recommendations made by a law firm the company hired …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Amazon opens telehealth marketplace Amazon Clinic for third-party virtual consultants in 32 US states, after saying Amazon Care will close at the end of 2022  —  The ink is not yet dry on Amazon's $4 billion acquisition of OneMedical, but in the meantime, the online services giant is making …
Varsha Bansal / Rest of World:
Some Indian gig workers, tired of algorithms dictating their lives and work, are using Telegram to share cheap hacks for gaming the platforms to their advantage  —  Tired of the obscurity around black box algorithms that dictate their lives, India's gig workers are coming up with jugaads to game the system.
More: Engadget and TechCrunch
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Epic Games claims 50%+ of all announced games for the PS5 and Xbox Series X and S use Unreal Engine, up from the 48% figure that CEO Tim Sweeney shared in April  —  Over half of all announced games for next-gen game consoles are being developed using Epic Games' Unreal Engine suite of developer tools …
More: Epic Games
Kiyoshi Takenaka / Reuters:
Tokyo-based digital payments company Opn says it plans to acquire US payment processing provider MerchantE, sources say for approximately $400M  —  Digital payments processor Opn, a rare Japanese unicorn, or startup worth more than $1 billion, said on Tuesday it had acquired MerchantE …
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, claiming 35% faster CPU performance, 25% Adreno GPU performance, Wi-Fi 7 support, and up to 4.35x faster AI performance  —  Qualcomm has announced all the details of its next flagship chipset, the Snapdragon 8 Gen 2, with a focus on better and more efficient performance for AI-related tasks.

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Tom Warren / The Verge:
Vikas SN / Moneycontrol:

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