Techmeme
May 9, 2025, 5:30 PM

Top News

Tripp Mickle / New York Times:
How Apple's extraordinary measures to keep its App Store commissions after the Epic v. Apple trial led to a civil contempt ruling and weakened its credibility  —  Court documents show the company commissioned a sham report and lied on the stand to justify its actions, which will cast a shadow over future lawsuits.
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Epic Games says it has submitted Fortnite to the US App Store for review  —  Update: Epic Games says it has submitted Fortnite to the U.S. App Store for review.  The ball is now in Apple's court to approve the app submission.  —  If Fortnite does return to the U.S. App Store this week, it won't be before Friday.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Whoop sparks a backlash after asking its subscribers to pay to upgrade to 5.0, despite earlier promises of free hardware upgrades after six months of membership  —  Whoop promised members who'd been around at least six months would get free next-gen hardware.  Now, you'll have to pay.
Victoria Song / The Verge:
Whoop launches Whoop 5.0, its latest screenless wearable, including a medical grade version with Healthspan, showing users how they are aging physiologically  —  It's appealing to non-athletes with more affordable subscriptions and more advanced health features like EKGs.
Charles Rollet / TechCrunch:
Source: US DOL ended its probe into Scale AI's Fair Labor Standards Act compliance, after announcing a friendlier approach to classifying workers as contractors  —  The U.S. Department of Labor has dropped its investigation into Scale AI's compliance with the Fair Labor Standards Act …
More: Reuters
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Rippling raised a $450M Series G at a $16.8B valuation, up from $13.4B during its $200M Series F in 2024; it is also conducting a $200M tender offer  —  HR tech startup Rippling has raised a $450 million Series G round at a $16.8 billion valuation, the company confirmed to TechCrunch.
MK Manoylov / The Block:
Coinbase Derivatives, the company's CFTC-regulated derivatives arm, launches 24/7 Bitcoin and Ethereum futures trading for retail and institutional users  —  - Coinbase Derivatives, the firm's CFTC-regulated derivatives arm, will provide round-the-clock futures contracts trading for retail and institutional users starting today.
David K. Li / NBC News:
A US judged sentenced an Arizona man to the maximum 10.5 years in prison after his deceased victim gave the court an impact statement via an AI-generated video  —  The defendant got the maximum of 10½ years for the 2021 murder.  His attorney called the presentation “inflammatory,” providing grounds for appeal.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Appfigures estimates Apple made $10.1B in revenue from US App Store commissions in 2024, up from $4.8B in 2020, $6.7B in 2021, $7.4B in 2022, and $8.8B in 2023  —  Over $10 billion — that's how much revenue Apple's U.S. App Store raked in last year, according to a new analysis by app intelligence provider Appfigures.
Emily Birnbaum / Bloomberg:
Tech companies warn they may pull back from US investment pledges if Congress doesn't fully reinstate the R&D tax deduction pared back in Trump's 2017 tax bill  —  Major tech companies lobbying to salvage a tax deduction for research and development are warning they may pull …
Forums: Slashdot
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Brian Armstrong says Coinbase considered allocating 80% of its balance sheet into bitcoin but decided against the scheme as it was too risky  —  “There were definitely moments over the last 12 years where we thought, man, should we put 80% of our balance sheet into crypto — into Bitcoin specifically …
More: PYMNTS.com
Sri Muppidi / The Information:
Sources: Snowflake challenger ClickHouse is in talks to raise hundreds of millions led by Khosla Ventures at a $6B valuation, triple its valuation from 2021  —  Investors have reaped billions of dollars in gains from backing database software firms Snowflake and Databricks.

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More News

Danai Nesta Kupemba / BBC:
Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:
Scharon Harding / Ars Technica:
Karissa Bell / Engadget:

Earlier Picks

Michael Nuñez / VentureBeat:
More: The Decoder, WinBuzzer, arXiv.org, and The Drum
Bluesky: @soodokuMastodon: @koen_hufkens@mastodon.socialX: @_akhaliqLinkedIn: Derrick MwitiForums: r/baba and Slashdot
Chris Cameron / New York Times:
Reinhardt Krause / Investor's Business Daily:
Steven T. Dennis / Bloomberg:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Victoria Kennedy / Eurogamer.net: