Techmeme
May 15, 2021, 8:35 PM

Top News

José Adorno / 9to5Mac:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple has informed its US retail stores that a mask mandate and other COVID-19-related procedures remain, as it continues to evaluate health and safety measures  —  Apple Inc. has informed its U.S. retail stores that a mask mandate and other Covid-19-related procedures remain in place for now …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Amazon launches miniTV, an ad-supported free video streaming service that is available within the Amazon shopping app in India  —  Amazon has long maintained that its video streaming service, Prime Video, helps it drive more sales on the shopping app.  Now the e-commerce giant is testing …
Adriana Hamacher / Decrypt:
Q&A with Dogecoin developer Ross Nicoll about its coming upgrade, and working with Elon Musk, who Nicoll says has been in touch with Doge developers since 2019  —  They are working with him to make the cryptocurrency a cheaper, greener alternative to Bitcoin.  —  Dogecoin  —  In brief
Cecilia D'Anastasio / Wired:
Top gamers are quitting esports to become Twitch and YouTube influencers as esports organizations and game publishers reallocate resources to streamers  —  Top players have left pro leagues to pursue streaming full-time as the industry veers more toward content creators.
@antoniogm:
[Thread] Antonio García Martínez says he did not “part ways” with Apple, was fired in a snap decision, and Apple's statement on his exit is defamatory and false  —  I have thus far maintained my silence on the Apple situation as I've sought to settle things amicably with the company that I admired, and at which I hoped to build the future of ads privacy. As they however are not maintaining their silence on the matter, neither will I.
BBC:
The Irish health service shuts down its IT system after a “significant” ransomware attack that is having a severe impact on health and social care services  —  Ireland's health service has temporarily shut down its IT system after what it described as a “significant ransomware attack”.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Ad and content licensing company Veritone launches MARVEL.ai to let celebrities, influencers, and others clone their voices using AI and license them out  —  Deepfake voices could be a lucrative business for influencers  —  Recording advertisements and product endorsements can be lucrative work for celebrities and influencers.
Reuters:
Ireland's High Court rejects Facebook's bid to block Data Protection Commissioner's decision that may force the company to stop sending EU user data to the US  —  Ireland's High Court on Friday rejected a Facebook bid to block an inquiry by the Irish data regulator that could halt Facebook's data flows …
Will Oremus / The Atlantic:
About a dozen highly active Clubhouse users, all of them women, say its block feature creates opportunities for abuse, tactical silencing, and intimidation  —  To block someone on Facebook, Instagram, or Twitter is not, in the scheme of things, a big deal.  You'll no longer see them on the platform …
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
DarkSide, the gang behind Colonial attack, claims it lost control of web servers and funds, as researchers wonder whether a US takedown or exit scam is to blame  —  A day after US President Joe Biden said the US plans to disrupt the hackers behind the Colonial Pipeline cyberattack …
Dr. Tom Robinson / Elliptic Blog:
Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:
New Android beta APK for Apple Music describes two lossless audio options, “Lossless” and “High-Res Lossless”, at 24-bit/48 kHZ and 24-bit/192 kHz respectively  —  Earlier this month, our colleagues at 9to5Mac reported that Apple Music would be gaining “HiFi” streaming options, possibly with iOS 14.6.

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