Techmeme
April 8, 2021, 7:20 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Twitter discussed acquiring Clubhouse for around $4B but the talks fell apart; Clubhouse is now looking to raise funding at a $4B valuation  —  - Talks no longer active between Twitter, social media startup  — Clubhouse is seeking to raise funding at a similar valuation
Max Chafkin / Bloomberg:
Peter Thiel says he is a pro-Bitcoin maximalist, but Bitcoin threatens fiat money and might be used by China to undercut the US dollar's reserve currency status  —  Peter Thiel, the venture capitalist and conservative political donor, urged the U.S. government to consider tighter regulations …
Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters:
Facebook says it did not notify users about the 2019 data leak affecting 533M accounts at the time and doesn't plan to do so now  —  (Reuters) - Facebook Inc did not notify the more than 530 million users whose details were obtained through the misuse of a feature before 2019 and recently …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple unveils a revamped Find My program with support for third-party devices and says devices from Belkin, Chipolo, and VanMoof will be first to work with it  —  Apple today announced the launch of its Find My network accessory program, which is designed to allow third-party Bluetooth devices …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook's NPE team launches a public beta for Hotline, a web-based app letting creators stream live video or audio-only Q&As; events are recorded automatically  —  Facebook's internal R&D group, NPE Team, has today launched its latest experiment, Hotline, into public beta testing.
Emi Nietfeld / New York Times:
An ex-Google engineer says she endured harassment for over a year and that Google's positive external image led her to delay reporting it  —  I learned the hard way that no publicly traded company is a family.  —  Ms. Nietfeld is a software engineer.  She worked at Google from 2015 to 2019.
Nikkei Asia:
Sources: production of some MacBooks and iPads has been postponed due to the global component shortage, a sign that the chip shortage is growing more serious  —  US tech giant's headaches suggest even worse chip shortages lie ahead  —  TAIPEI — Production of some MacBooks and iPads …
Melissa Repko / CNBC:
Best Buy is piloting Best Buy Beta, a new membership program with perks including unlimited tech support and free shipping for $200/yr, starting in IA, OK, PA  —  - Best Buy is piloting an annual membership program in select stores in Iowa, Oklahoma and eastern Pennsylvania.
Quint Forgey / Politico:
Twitter says it won't let the US National Archives make @realDonaldTrump's old tweets available publicly via Twitter's platform, citing his permanent suspension  —  Twitter will not allow the National Archives to make former President Donald Trump's past tweets from his @realDonaldTrump account available …
Dave Lee / Financial Times:
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Twitch expands its misconduct policy to ban users who harass members of its community, even when that harassment takes place off Twitch  —  It's a major expansion of the platform's misconduct policy  —  Twitch will now ban users who harass members of its community — even when that harassment takes place off Twitch.
Tate Ryan-Mosley / MIT Technology Review:
An in-depth look at the impact, often negative and not fully understood, of AR beauty filters on social media, especially on girls and young women  —  Veronica started using filters to edit pictures of herself on social media when she was 14 years old.  She remembers everyone in her middle school …
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Indian social media startup ShareChat raises $502M from investors including Tiger Global, Snap, and Twitter, at a valuation of $2.1B, and says it has 160M MAUs  —  Indian social media company raised $500m for short-video app Moj  —  Indian social media firm ShareChat has raised more than half …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Pew: YouTube usage grew from 73% of US adults in 2019 to 81% in 2021, with 95% of 18- to 29-year-olds using the service; 69% use Facebook and 21% use TikTok  —  - YouTube saw the most significant growth of any social media app among American users during the pandemic, according to the Pew Research Center.
Cromwell Schubarth / Silicon Valley Business Journal:
Mobile ad tech company AppLovin aims to raise up to $2.13B via its IPO, pricing shares at $75-$85 for a $30B+ valuation; S-1 showed a net loss of $126M in 2020  —  Mobile app and gaming company AppLovin Corp. set targets Wednesday for an initial public offering that could value it at more than $30 billion.
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
T-Mobile launches its 5G home internet service, costing $60-$65/month with no data caps, hardware rental fees, or annual contracts  —  Once again putting Sprint's mid-band spectrum to work  —  After a long pilot period, T-Mobile is making its 5G home internet service a reality.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple details two ad measurements technologies that advertisers can use without tracking users, ahead of imminent rollout of App Tracking Transparency feature  —  Starting with iOS 14.5, iPadOS 14.5, and tvOS 14.5, Apple will be requiring apps to receive a user's permission to track …

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Earlier Picks

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch: