Techmeme
January 6, 2021, 5:35 PM

Top News

Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News:
As a mob of Trump supporters stormed the US Capitol building, Facebook and Twitter let Trump cheer them on using their platforms, only adding ineffective labels  —  As rioters stormed the US Capitol on Wednesday, President Donald Trump clung to his last vestiges of power: his social media accounts.
Queenie Wong / CNET:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple says App Store users spent $1.8B on goods and services between December 24 and New Year's Eve and $540M on New Year's Day alone; Books has 90M MAUs  —  Apple has announced today that App Store customers spent a record amount throughout the holiday season.
Pranob Mehrotra / XDA Developers:
WhatsApp updates its Terms and Privacy Policy to mandate data sharing with Facebook, including transaction data, mobile device information, IP address, and more  —  WhatsApp users are receiving an in-app notice today regarding the service's new terms and privacy policy.
Bloomberg:
Facebook's Andrew Bosworth says its smart glasses, built in partnership with Ray-Ban, will arrive “sooner than later” in 2021 without AR features  —  - Company has more than 6,000 staff on AR, VR and hardware tasks  — Zuckerberg seeking the next computer platform after smartphone
Emily Birnbaum / Protocol:
As Democrats are poised to win Georgia's Senate seats, a look at potential tech legislation under a unified government, including a federal privacy bill  —  Democrats gave won both Senate races in Georgia, taking back control of the Senate after five years of Republican leadership.
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
An oral history from 24 people describing how Microsoft developed the original Xbox, initially an over-budget ungainly product, and reshaped the gaming industry  —  The original product was ungainly, over-budget and nearly canceled.  Here's how it became a hit and reshaped an industry.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
DOJ says SolarWinds hackers accessed about 3% of its email accounts, but there's no indication that the breach impacted classified systems  —  - Hackers who tapped into government networks through SolarWinds software potentially accessed about 3% of the Justice Department's email accounts, a spokesperson said Wednesday.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Will Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
OpenAI introduces two new GPT-3 models: CLIP, which classifies images into categories from arbitrary text, and DALL·E, which can generate images from text  —  With GPT-3, OpenAI showed that a single deep-learning model could be trained to use language in a variety of ways simply by throwing it vast amounts of text.
Jesse Pound / CNBC:
In a reversal, NYSE says it will go ahead with its plan to delist China Mobile, China Telecom, and China Unicom, following Mnuchin criticism  —  The New York Stock Exchange will delist three Chinese telecommunication giants after all.  —  The stock exchange will remove U.S.-traded shares of China Telecom …
Alexandra Alper / Reuters:
Nicole Friedman / Wall Street Journal:
Amazon commits $2B+ over five years to create and preserve affordable housing in three of its employment hubs: Seattle, WA; Arlington, VA; and Nashville, TN  —  Tech giant to make investments over next five years in and around Seattle, Arlington, Va., and Nashville, Tenn.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it will shut down Minecraft Earth, which let users play Minecraft in real life through AR, on June 30, due to the pandemic  —  The ambitious project to cover the world in blocks is over  —  Microsoft is closing down its Minecraft Earth mobile game in June, due to the ongoing pandemic.
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
UK's competition authority launches an investigation into Nvidia's $40B acquisition of Arm, after rivals raised concerns  —  CMA probe comes after rivals raised concerns over acquisition  —  The UK's competition regulator is preparing to launch a probe of Nvidia's $40bn acquisition of UK chip designer Arm …
Hunter Walk / Medium:
To help creators avoid burnout, platforms like Instagram, YouTube, and TikTok need to explore new ideas like rate limiting of posts and paid time-offs  —  Creator Wellness Will Be A Key Goal of New Products  —  Being a modern creator is, for many, exhausting.

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
Celebrate and collaborate this holiday season with Zoho Cliq  —  The holiday season is a time for celebration, relaxation, and reflection.  While some people are busy wrapping presents for their loved ones …
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 12/23 - The Revenge Of Google Glass?
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 5:35 PM ET, January 6, 2021.

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

Earlier Picks

Matt Grossman / Wall Street Journal:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: