Techmeme
August 31, 2021, 8:01 AM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Source: Apple's planned satellite capabilities for the iPhone are focused on emergencies, enabling texts and crisis reports in areas without cellular coverage  —  - Apple plans an emergency-reporting tool for future iPhones  —  Apple Inc.'s push to bring satellite capabilities to the iPhone …
Jiyoung Sohn / Wall Street Journal:
South Korea's National Assembly passes a bill that forces Apple and Google to allow alternative payment systems in their app stores  —  Seoul requires the companies to allow competing payment systems, threatening their 30% cut of most in-app digital sales  —  SEOUL—Google and Apple Inc …
Micah Singleton / Billboard:
Apple acquires classical music streaming service Primephonic, giving users six free months of Apple Music, and will launch its own classical music app in 2022  —  Apple has acquired Primephonic, the classical music streaming service, for an undisclosed amount, the company tells Billboard.
Dave Nyczepir / FedScoop:
White House announces the US Digital Corps, a two-year fellowship aiming to recruit early-career software engineers and other technologists to federal agencies  —  The White House launched a two-year fellowship Monday designed to place early-career software engineers, data scientists and other technologists at federal agencies.
Danny Nelson / CoinDesk:
The Central Bank of Nigeria says it will work with blockchain and payments startup Bitt Inc. to launch Nigeria's eNaira digital currency later this year  —  The Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) said Monday it will work with Bitt Inc., a blockchain and payments startup, to launch …
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Some Apple employees say their privacy is not well protected by Apple, as they decry norms and rules that encourage personal iCloud accounts be used at work  —  Jacob Preston was sitting down with his manager during his first week at Apple when he was told, with little fanfare …
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
State media says China is restricting online gaming for minors to three hours most weeks of the year, from 8pm to 9pm on Fridays, weekends, and public holidays  —  - The country is imposing its strictest limits yet on play time  — Beijing is waging a campaign to groom productive youths
MIT Technology Review:
Sources and experts say US-funded Afghan government databases containing sensitive personal data could be used by the Taliban to identify millions of Afghans  —  By capturing 40 pieces of data per person—from iris scans and family links to their favorite fruit—a system meant to cut fraud …
IDC:
Global smartphone shipments are expected to grow by 7.4% in 2021, reaching 1.37B units, with iPhone shipments growing 13.8% and Android shipments growing 6.2%  —  While the supply chain situation hasn't drastically improved, the smartphone market has shown positive results in recent quarters.
Sebastian Sinclair / CoinDesk:
Singapore-based digital asset exchange Zipmex raises $41M Series B with participation from Krungsri Finnovate, the VC arm of one of Thailand's largest banks  —  Singapore-headquartered digital asset exchange Zipmex has completed its $41 million Series B funding round with participation coming from one of Thailand's largest banks.
Suvashree Ghosh / Bloomberg:
Facebook, Google, and Xiaomi are eyeing India's digital loan market, which Boston Consulting Group estimates to triple to $350B by 2023 and reach $1T by 2025  —  India's digital loan market is becoming a battleground for companies from Facebook Inc. to Xiaomi Corp., seeking a foothold in what's set to be a $1 trillion industry.
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
Getting a water-damaged MacBook Pro fixed shows how independent repair shops can make repairs more affordable to consumers if Apple allows them access to parts  —  New legislation aims to provide more options for fixing our broken gadgets.  A journey to fix two MacBooks illustrates …
Ryan Vlastelica / Bloomberg:
As ad revenue surges, Alphabet shares are up 65% over 2021, and up more than 7% in August to reach a record high of $2,891.81, the longest rally since 2009  —  - Shares are poised for their eighth straight month of gains  — Yearly rise nearly twice as much as Facebook, Microsoft
Kate Rooney / CNBC:
Paypal has hired the co-founder of online brokerage TradeKing to lead the “Invest at Paypal” unit, which, sources say, plans to let US customers trade stocks  —  - PayPal is exploring ways to let users trade individual stocks, according to two sources familiar with the plan.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Sensor Tower: Telegram crossed 1B global downloads, with ~214.7M installs in H1 2021, up 61% YoY, and 22% of total global downloads coming from India  —  Popular instant messaging app Telegram has joined the elite club of apps that have been downloaded over 1 billion times globally, according to Sensor Tower.
More: 9to5Mac and Softpedia NewsTweets: @kingtutspacs

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
Everything new in the Zoho Sign iOS mobile app  —  Ranked highly in the iOS App Store (4.9 stars), Zoho Sign's mobile app for iPhone is a user favorite.  We're thrilled to share that the app has been enhanced …
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

Techmeme Ride Home:
Why COULDN'T Apple Make An iPhone In The US?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Derek Thompson (Writer, The Atlantic) and Zach Weinberg (Co-founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) Discuss the Tariff Withdrawal and America's Future
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Big Tech's Tariff Chaos + A.I. 2027 + Llama Drama
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.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
The bull case for domestic manufacturing
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Why DOGE is killing the agency that keeps banks from ripping you off
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI's CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter)
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:01 AM ET, August 31, 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

Toby Sterling / Reuters:

Earlier Picks

Daniel Howley / Yahoo Finance:
Andrew Ackerman / Wall Street Journal:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge: