Techmeme
March 17, 2021, 1:00 PM

Top News

Sohee Kim / Bloomberg:
Samsung says it is considering skipping launch of a new Note this year to streamline its lineup and warns of a “serious imbalance” in semiconductors globally  —  - It's seeing a ‘serious imbalance’ in global semiconductors  — The warning suggests shortages may spread beyond autos
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Samsung updates its mid-range Galaxy lineup: 6.5" A52 and A52 5G, from ~$415, and 6.7" A72, from ~$535, with 90Hz or 120Hz displays, better cameras, and more  —  The A-series phones will also include IP67 ratings, brighter screens, and expandable microSD storage
Bloomberg:
A profile of Clubhouse co-founder Paul Davison, who previously had built social apps like Highlight and Shorts that nudged people to share more by default  —  “He's got more momentum than force,” says a former colleague.  “Paul is just always moving forward.”
Shaan Puri / @shaanvp:
[Thread] Why Clubhouse will fail: most of the content is “meh” and users will struggle to find interesting live content, leading to low user retention  —  So... everyone seems to think clubhouse is the “next big thing” - but I think it's going to fail. Here's how I think it all goes down..
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Sensor Tower: if a 15% commission was in place in 2020, Apple would have missed out on an estimated $595M, or 2.7%, and Google $587M, or 5%, in app store fees  —  - Apple and Google have announced changes to app store fees that impact app makers making less than $1 million per year.
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Facebook outlines multiple changes for Groups: probation for rule-breaking users, limiting civic and political groups' reach, and requiring more moderation  —  Ultimately culminating in a ban  —  Facebook is trying to clean up its Groups experience and limit the reach of potentially problematic users and communities.
CNBC:
SEC filing: Uber will reclassify its UK drivers as “workers”, granting them vacation pay, minimum wage, and pension plan access, but not full employee benefits  —  - Uber will reclassify all U.K.-based drivers as workers.  — Under the new designation, more than 70,000 drivers …
Dara Khosrowshahi / London Evening Standard:
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
France says Apple's upcoming IDFA ad privacy changes are not abusive but will investigate if Apple has stricter rules for third-party apps than for its own apps  —  French competition authority says Apple's changes 'don't appear to be abusive'  —  France's competition regulator rejected …
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
Apple says it has generated 1.2 GW of clean energy and removed an average of 921K metric tons of carbon emissions annually, as part of its $4.7B Green Bond  —  In a press release today, Apple touted the significant progress it has made as part of its $4.7 billion Green Bond.
Will Bedingfield / WIRED UK:
For the first time, Netflix details its carbon footprint using DIMPACT tool, claiming one hour of streaming equates to a 75W ceiling fan running for four hours  —  Streaming platforms finally have a tool to evaluate the size of their carbon footprint.  Now they need to take action and go green
More: Green Matters and Wired
Financial Times:
How Stripe became Silicon Valley's most valuable private company by being capital efficient at scale and having a self-sustaining core payments business  —  Underpinning $95bn valuation is investors' belief that payments digitisation still has some way to run
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Stripe's Patrick Collison, Microsoft's Brad Smith, Google's Thomas Kurian, and Cloudflare's Matthew Prince discuss moderation in internet infrastructure  —  Manage your Stratechery subscription.  —  It was Patrick Collison, Stripe's CEO, who pointed out to me that one of the animating principles …
Danny Palmer / ZDNet:
McAfee researchers detail a Chinese cyberespionage campaign targeting at least 23 telcos in the US, Europe, and SE Asia to steal data, including for 5G tech  —  Cybersecurity researchers at McAfee detail an ongoing cyber espionage campaign which is targeting telecoms companies around the world.
Dan Sullivan / Tampa Bay Times:
A Florida teen who hacked well-known Twitter accounts last summer and used them to ask for BTC, netting $100K+, was sentenced to three years in a plea deal  —  Graham Ivan Clark, 18, agreed to plea guilty to fraud charges for a hack of several Twitter accounts last summer.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it will publish an annual report detailing its impact on human rights, and will establish a fund to support human rights activists and journalists  —  - Social media giant to give board formal updates on the issue  — Company has been criticized for role in Myanmar, Sri Lanka
Bloomberg:
FCC votes 4-0 to set rules for the sale of more 5G spectrum tracts, covering millions of people, in October; most recent 5G auction raised $81B  —  - Vote at FCC establishes conditions for October airwaves sale  — FCC votes on rules as carriers race to accumulate frequencies
Stephanie Bodoni / Bloomberg:
France's data protection watchdog says it has opened a probe into Clubhouse to assess whether EU's GDPR applies to the app  —  - Probe aims to confirm whether GDPR applies to Clubhouse  — German regulator also looking at how app protects user privacy
More: France 24
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Facebook's interest in newsletters stems from its shift in product development to focus on private messaging and Groups, not the News Feed  —  Hint: it's all about Groups.  PLUS: Substack fumbles  —  Today let's talk about platforms' growing interest in building newsletter tools …

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Earlier Picks

Ari Levy / CNBC:
Billy Tallis / AnandTech:
The Verge: