Techmeme
May 22, 2021, 7:05 AM

Top News

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
In his Epic v. Apple trial testimony, Tim Cook offered a carefully tended ignorance that left many of the lawsuit's key questions unanswered, or unanswerable  —  Apple CEO Tim Cook took his first turn in the witness chair this morning in what is probably the most anticipated testimony of the Epic v. Apple antitrust case.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Snap CEO Evan Spiegel says the company is happy to pay Apple's 30% IAP commission as “Snapchat wouldn't exist without the iPhone”  —  - Snap CEO Evan Spiegel on Friday said the social media company is happy to pay Apple's 30% commission rate on in-app transactions.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Leaked emails show that Citizen app is testing an on-demand private security service that will respond to “incidents” as requested by app users  —  Citizen would deploy private security forces at the request of app users, according to documents and sources.  —  Joseph Cox
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Spotify adds offline playback for playlists, albums, and podcasts on Apple Watch for Premium subscribers; available on Watch Series 3 running WatchOS 6 and up  —  The announcement comes a few days after a similar feature was announced for Wear devices  —  Spotify is adding the ability …
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Snap has agreed to acquire WaveOptics, the supplier of the AR displays used in its new Spectacles glasses, for more than $500M  —  WaveOptics made the display in Snap's new Spectacles glasses  —  Snap has agreed to acquire WaveOptics, the supplier of the augmented reality displays that power …
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
RSA executives recount the hack of its SecurID seeds in 2011, which affected millions of users around the world and redefined the cybersecurity landscape  —  In 2011, Chinese spies stole the crown jewels of cybersecurity—stripping protections from firms and government agencies worldwide.
Engadget:
Facebook's wav2vec Unsupervised, a way to build speech recognition systems that require no transcribed data, may bring automatic translations to more countries  —  Big Tech's AI machinery.  The tech powers the digital assistants on our  —  phones, in  —  cars and in the  —  smart speakers in our homes.
Wall Street Journal:
A look at a fossil fuel power plant in NY that has been restarted to mine crypto, as NY considers a bill for placing a three-year moratorium on crypto mining  —  The lofty prices of cryptocurrencies have investors sinking money into electricity generation, risking a backlash
New York Times:
Biden administration says it will partner with popular dating apps including Tinder, OkCupid, Hinge, BLK, and Chispa to promote vaccinations against COVID-19  —  With a non-zero amount of awkwardness, the Biden administration on Friday highlighted a new plan to encourage more people to get vaccinated …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Found, which wants to create a one-stop shop for business banking, bookkeeping, and taxes for self-employed, raises $12.75M led by Sequoia  —  If you've ever been self-employed you know what a pain it is to keep up with the hassles of running a business.  From bookkeeping to invoicing to paying taxes — it's one big headache.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
Automate recurring activities with Zoho One's RPA addition  —  Robotic Process Automation (RPA) automates manual and routine tasks for businesses by using digital robots that replicate human behaviour.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Lenny's Podcast:
Inside Devin: The world's first autonomous AI engineer that's set to write 50% of its company's code by end of year | Scott Wu (CEO and co-founder of Cognition)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Omnibus Week Of 04/28
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Hard Fork:
The Dangers of A.I. Flattery + Kevin Meets the Orb + Group Chat Chat
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
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The Logan Bartlett Show:
Ben Lamm (Founder & CEO, Colossal Biosciences) On The Breakthroughs Making De-Extinction Actually Possible
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
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Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Josh Kopelman from First Round Capital
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
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More News

Bloomberg:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

The Information:
Parmy Olson / Wall Street Journal:
The Verge: