Techmeme
February 26, 2021, 2:25 PM

Top News

Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
FCC approves a $50/month high-speed internet subsidy for low-income households and a one-time discount of up to $100 on a computer or tablet for eligible homes  —  The money, aimed at low-income households, is part of an effort to bridge the access gap to broadband connectivity amid the pandemic.
Vignesh Ramachandran / Stanford News:
Study finds video chats fatigue humans due to the intense up-close eye contact, constant self-view in real time, reduced mobility, and increased cognitive load  —  It's not just Zoom.  Popular video chat platforms have design flaws that exhaust the human mind and body.  But there are easy ways to mitigate their effects.
Jason Del Rey / Vox:
More than a dozen current and ex-Amazon corporate employees say its Black staff often face direct and insidious bias that harms their careers and personal lives  —  Interviews with diversity managers and internal data obtained by Recode indicate that Black Amazon employees are promoted less frequently …
Jan Stryjak / Counterpoint Research:
European smartphone market shrank by 14% YoY in 2020, with Xiaomi up 85% and Huawei down 62%; Apple hit record market share of 30% in Q4 helped by iPhone 12  —  Boston, Toronto, London, New Delhi, Beijing, Taipei, Seoul - February 26, 2021  —  2020 was a rollercoaster year for the European smartphone market.
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Apple begins showing a repair index for devices like the iPhone and Mac in France, due to local regulations set by the Minister of Ecological Transition  —  Apple surprisingly began to show a repair index for devices like the iPhone and Mac in the Apple Store app and the Apple Online Store in France this week.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Twitter's Super Follows represent a surge of interest in tools that let individuals create real economic value for themselves on social networks  —  Will Super Follows shake up the media industry?  —  16 hr ago  —  Today let's talk about Twitter's move into subscriptions …
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Tim Anderson / The Register:
Security researcher finds seven embedded trackers in the Android app for LastPass password manager; its maker says users can opt out if they want  —  Third-party code in security-critical apps is obviously suboptimal, but company says you can opt out  —  A security researcher has recommended …
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Facebook is rolling out an opt-in feature, allowing “Hey Facebook” to be used as a wake word for its Portal displays and Oculus Quest platform  —  Available on Portal smart displays and rolling out on Oculus Quest headsets  —  Facebook has introduced a new “Hey Facebook” …
Reuters:
ByteDance has agreed to a $92M class action settlement over data privacy claims from some US TikTok users, according to court documents  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - ByteDance has agreed to a $92 million class-action settlement to settle data privacy claims from some U.S. TikTok users …
Katie Deighton / Wall Street Journal:
Apple, Google, and Amazon are training their voice assistants to better understand people with speech disorders such as stutter  —  Voice assistants like Alexa and Siri often can't understand people with dysarthria or a stutter; their creators say that may change
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News:
Facebook's Andrew Bosworth told staff that Facebook is considering building facial recognition into future smart glasses products, weighing legal implications  —  Facebook is discussing building facial recognition into its upcoming smart glasses product and has been weighing the legal implications …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Stori, which offers credit cards in Mexico through its app, raises 32.5M Series B led by Lightspeed, bringing its total raised to $50M  —  While credit cards are commonplace in the United States, they are far less ubiquitous in many other countries, particularly those in Latin America.

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