Techmeme
February 23, 2021, 10:50 AM

Top News

Georgia Hitch / ABC:
Australia says Facebook agreed to reinstate news content in Australia in the coming days after the government promised amendments to its proposed media bill  —  We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
Alex Barker / Financial Times:
Gene Park / Washington Post:
Sony says it is developing a VR headset for the PlayStation 5 that will be much less cumbersome than its current PS VR setup and will not be launching in 2021  —  The PlayStation 5 will have its own virtual reality headset, however, consumers may face ongoing difficulties obtaining a PS5 console given a supply chain shortfall.
Tim Copeland / Decrypt:
Bitfinex and Tether agree to an $18.5M settlement with the New York AG and to stop operating in the state following a two-year probe  —  New York Attorney General Letitia James has required Bitfinex and Tether to stop trading in New York, according to a statement today.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Kuo: Apple plans to release two new MacBook Pro models with an HDMI port and an SD card reader in the second half of 2021  —  Apple plans to release two new MacBook Pro models equipped with an HDMI port and SD card reader in the second half of 2021, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo …
The Verge:
Epic will give Fortnite and Rocket League players who have bought loot boxes ~$8 worth of credits and set aside $26M+ for claims to settle a class action suit  —  The class action settlement also provides an additional $26 million in benefits  —  Epic Games will give Fortnite players 1,000 V-Bucks …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Spotify says it will launch a subscription later this year called HiFi that will offer “CD-quality, lossless audio”; Spotify currently tops out at 320kbps audio  —  Your turn, Apple Music  —  Spotify is going hi-fi.  Well, “HiFi.”  It's taken longer than competitors like Tidal …
Eugene Wei / Remains of the Day:
TikTok's networks effects, largely driven by remixability of content and features that interconnect, cannot be easily cloned by rivals to recreate the ecosystem  —  I promised one final piece on TikTok, focused primarily on the network effects of creativity.  And this is that, in part.
Mickey Rapkin / Esquire:
Profile of Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, who has made millions of dollars by selling and auctioning his digital art on marketplaces for non-fungible tokens  —  He's a dad from Wisconsin who drives a “piece of shit” Corolla.  And his brilliantly absurd artwork has made him the face of a crypto market you didn't know existed.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Researchers say China used NSA's EpMe exploit to attack Windows devices for years before the Shadow Brokers leaked the agency's zero-day toolkit online  —  The hackers used the agency's EpMe exploit to attack Windows devices years before the Shadow Brokers leaked the agency's zero-day arsenal online.
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Codecademy raises $40M Series D led by Owl Ventures and says it has $50M ARR; the startup plans to expand its business offerings, grow internationally, and more  —  After going over four years without raising any capital, coding class platform Codecademy has raised a new tranche of money …
More: EdSurge
Jimmy Jenkins / KJZZ:
Whistleblowers: Arizona's inmate management software has been unable to interpret sentencing laws since 2019, leaving hundreds eligible for release incarcerated  —  According to Arizona Department of Corrections whistleblowers, hundreds of incarcerated people who should be eligible for release …

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More News

Zachary Fryer-Biggs / Washington Post:
Malcolm Owen / AppleInsider:

Earlier Picks

Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
Bloomberg: