Techmeme
February 9, 2021, 10:55 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Amazon is developing a wall-mounted Echo device with a large touchscreen that serves as a smart home control panel, video chat device, and media player  —  - Lab126 unit developing new device with touchscreen and Alexa  — Product to be thinner than Echo Show, come with video chat
Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal:
Reddit raises $250M+ Series E led by Vy Capital at a $6B valuation, doubling in value since its last funding round in February 2019  —  Its WallStreetBets community played a prominent role in recent stock-trading frenzy  —  Reddit Inc. doubled its valuation to $6 billion in a new round …
Mishaal Rahman / XDA Developers:
Leaked images purportedly show mockups of Android 12, including major UI changes, a privacy indicator, conversation widget, new themes, and more  —  Google is set to release its next major version of Android — Android 12 — later this year, following a series of Developer Previews and Betas …
Jason Koebler / VICE:
Police say a computer in a water treatment plant in FL, set up for remote access, was breached; the intruder tried raising sodium hydroxide levels in the water  —  The hacker tried to drastically increase sodium hydroxide levels in the water, Pinellas County, Florida, officials said on Monday.
Shara Tibken / CNET:
Qualcomm unveils next-gen X65 5G modem, likely to appear in phones in 2022, and says it can download data at 10Gpbs speeds and has a better battery life  —  Qualcomm's new modem is here, it's blazing fast and it's not just for phones .  The Snapdragon X65 5G Modem-RF System can download data …
Financial Times:
EU lawmakers are considering regulations that would force Facebook and Google to pay for news content on their platforms, echoing a similar move in Australia  —  Move by MEPs would strengthen hand of publishers against Google and Facebook  —  EU lawmakers overseeing new digital regulation …
Financial Times:
Researchers estimate that the NHS contact tracing app has prevented the transmissions of ~600K coronavirus infections in England and Wales  —  Study finds link in areas of England and Wales between high app usage and lower case numbers  —  The NHS contact-tracing app has prevented …
Liam Tung / ZDNet:
Programming language Rust is now backed by the Rust Foundation, a new independent organization that will make it easier to accept financing beyond Mozilla  —  The Rust programming language now has its own foundation that's independent from Mozilla.  —  Programming language Rust now has the backing …
Bloomberg:
Industry executives warn of severe chip shortages to make phones and game consoles, amid excessive stockpiling of chips by companies like Huawei and Apple  —  - The dearth of supply is deepening as Apple, China hoard chips  — Worsening crunch could impact sectors well beyond automaking
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Sources: Mark Cuban is co-founding Fireside, a podcast app where hosts can talk to fans live and monetize their conversations, with plans to launch this year  —  Fireside is launching this year  —  Mark Cuban is getting in on the audio and podcasting hype.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Fabric, which offers a “headless” e-commerce platform for enterprises, raises $43M Series A led by Norwest Venture Partners  —  Fabric, a startup powering e-commerce for companies like GNC and ABC Carpet and Home, has raised $43 million in Series A funding.
Foeke Postma / bellingcat:
Investigation reveals how Instagram influencers are enabling animal abuse for clicks by using services that promote Dubai's underground animal trade  —  The monkey squirms while a woman holds it up with one hand and records it without speaking.  The TikTok video is brief and has no description …
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Facebook expands policies to take down more posts with vaccine-related misinformation, including assertions that vaccines cause autism  —  Facebook said on Monday that it plans to remove posts with erroneous claims about vaccines from across its platform, including taking down assertions …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
SentinelOne, which analyzes security data using AI, acquires Scalyr, a high-speed logging startup, for $155M in stock and cash  —  SentinelOne, a late-stage security startup that helps customers make sense of security data using AI and machine learning, announced today that it is acquiring Scalyr,
More: ZDNet
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
A developer is exposing scam lookalike apps that are flourishing on the App Store, fueled by lax enforcement and fake reviews, after his own app was targeted  —  Over the last several weeks, developer Kosta Eleftheriou has been highlighting many apparent scam applications on the App Store.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
RapidSOS, which builds tools to help emergency response teams, raises $85M Series C led by Insight Partners, bringing its total raised to $200M  —  Emergency response services have been one of the unsung heroes of the last chaotic year, providing essential and urgent medical and other assistance during …

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