Techmeme
April 20, 2021, 2:55 AM

Top News

About Facebook:
Facebook says it will start testing Live Audio Rooms in Groups and expects to roll out the feature to everyone on the Facebook app by the summer  —  Storytelling helps people build meaningful bonds: we all have stories to share with our friends, our communities, and the world at large.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Zuckerberg says Facebook is working with Spotify on a music integration project codenamed Project Boombox  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Monday announced that the company is building audio features where users can engage in real-time conversations with others.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Brian Fung / CNN:
In a letter to Congress, Apple says it has approved Parler's return to the App Store, following moderation improvements by Parler  —  Washington (CNN Business)Apple has approved Parler's return to the iOS app store following improvements the social media company made to better detect …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Sony backtracks on removing PS3 and Vita digital stores, saying it was “the wrong decision”; PSP store will still shut down on July 2  —  The PSP store is still shutting down on July 2nd  —  Sony has announced that it'll be keeping its PS3 and PlayStation Vita digital storefront open “for the foreseeable future.”
Sean Burch / The Wrap:
Sensor Tower: Clubhouse was downloaded 2.7M times in March, a 72% decline from February's 9.5M+  —  After pulling in 9.5 million downloads in February, Clubhouse only had 2.7 million downloads in March, according to new data from Sensor Tower  —  Is the party on Clubhouse already dying out?
Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters:
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Fitbit unveils Luxe, a $150 fashion-focused fitness tracker coming this spring with a wide range of bands, up to 5 days of battery life, and an OLED touchscreen  —  It features up to five days of battery life per charge  —  Fitbit has announced its new Luxe fitness tracker that looks like a more fashion-focused take on the Inspire 2.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Reddit shares a preview of Reddit Talk, a Clubhouse-like social audio feature for subreddits coming to iOS and Android; moderators can join a waitlist to try it  —  Sign up now to get on the waitlist  —  Reddit unveiled its take on a Clubhouse-like social audio product on Monday, called Reddit Talk.
Kat Tenbarge / Insider:
YouTube says it has temporarily demonetized James Charles' channel, which has 25.5M+ subscribers, after 15+ sexual misconduct accusations from men and boys  —  - James Charles' channel has been demonetized, YouTube confirmed.  — YouTube told Insider Charles had been “temporarily removed” from the Partner Program.
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
The Bank of England and the UK Treasury jointly create a taskforce to explore a potential central bank digital currency  —  Quick Take  — The Bank of England and HM Treasury have jointly created a CBDC taskforce.  — They will explore a potential digital currency in the U.K.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Facebook expands a tool to let users export posts and notes to Blogger, Google Docs, and Wordpress and calls for new guidelines on data flows between services  —  - Facebook announced Monday it's expanding a tool that allows users to transfer their data to other services.
Rachel Levin / Outside Online:
As a disproportionate number of people who purchased homes in Tahoe in 2020 were tech employees from the Bay Area, locals worry about “Aspenification of Tahoe”  —  Rachel Levin is a San Francisco-based journalist who has written for The New York Times, The New Yorker …
Reuters:
UK says it will intervene in SoftBank's sale of ARM to Nvidia on national security grounds  —  The UK government will look into the national security implications of U.S. group Nvidia's (NVDA.O) purchase of British chip designer ARM Holdings, it said on Monday, raising a question mark over the $40 billion deal.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
What to expect from Apple's April 20 event: refreshed iPads, including Pro model with mini-LED display, 3rd-gen Pencil, AirTags, iMacs in different colors, more  —  Apple is planning to hold its first event of 2021 on Tuesday, April 20, and it's looking like it will be an iPad-centric event.
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
PayPal to launch a local wallet in China focused on cross-border payments; PayPal is the first foreign firm with 100% ownership of a payments platform in China  —  - PayPal plans to set up a local wallet in China focused on cross-border payments.  — In January, the U.S. fintech became …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Facebook details moderation steps around the trial of Derek Chauvin, accused of murdering George Floyd, including designating Minneapolis a “high-risk location”  —  It's designated Minneapolis a ‘high-risk location’  —  Facebook says it's taking extra moderation measures around …

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Meet Airtable ProductCentral  —  The unified solution for managing your entire product development process in the AI era.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Zoho Forms for successful Black Friday sales  —  Black Friday is a retail frenzy that can significantly impact your bottom line.  To make the most of this shopping bonanza, you need a strategy that not only attracts customers …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 11/04 - Apple Buying And Investing In Things
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:55 AM ET, April 20, 2021.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Paresh Dave / Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Tom Warren / The Verge: