Techmeme
September 1, 2021, 6:20 PM

Top News

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Apple says Arizona and Georgia will be first to support adding IDs to Wallet in iOS 15, with six states, including Utah, Maryland, and Iowa, expected to follow  —  Apple's plan to digitize your wallet is slowly taking shape.  What started with boarding passes and venue tickets later became credit cards …
Kait Sanchez / The Verge:
Twitter launches Super Follows for iOS users, allowing a select group of US test users to charge either $2.99, $4.99, or $9.99 per month for their tweets  —  Select users in the US can now charge for tweets  —  Twitter is starting to roll out Super Follows, its new feature that lets users charge for subscriber-only content.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft announces an online-only Surface hardware event for September 22, where an updated Surface Duo and Laptop are expected  —  New Surface hardware is on the way  —  Microsoft is holding a special Surface hardware event on September 22nd.  The software maker has started sending media invites …
Cheng Ting-Fang / Nikkei Asia:
Sources: Google is developing Arm-based chips for laptops and tablets that run on Chrome OS, set to launch around 2023  —  US software giant ramps up hiring blitz for semiconductor and hardware ambitions  —  TAIPEI — Google is developing its own central processors for its notebook and tablet computers …
Jarrod Doherty / Twitter:
Twitter introduces Safety Mode, which blocks harassing accounts for seven days, in beta for some English-language accounts  —  Feeling safe on Twitter looks different for everyone.  We've rolled out features and settings that may help you to feel more comfortable and in control of your experience …
Jeffrey Dastin / Reuters:
Andy Jassy says Amazon plans to hire over 55,000 corporate employees globally, including over 40,000 in the US, a 20% increase in tech and corporate staff  —  Amazon.com Inc (AMZN.O) is planning to hire 55,000 people for corporate and technology roles globally in the coming months, Chief Executive Andy Jassy told Reuters.
Joe Williams / Protocol:
Sources: Andy Jassy overruled an internal recommendation to fire a top AWS executive after a probe of claims the executive made discriminatory comments in 2019  —  Amazon CEO Andy Jassy intervened to prevent the firing of a top executive after an internal HR report recommended …
More: The VergeThanks:@tomkrazit
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple is planning to add health features, including a blood pressure monitor and thermometer to track fertility, to Watch as soon as 2022  —  Tech giant seeks to push past obstacles in adding health features on your wrist  —  Apple Inc. is working on new health-related features for its smartwatch …
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
Profile of Li Jin, an aggressively pro-worker VC who founded Atelier Ventures, which manages $13M, to invest in influencer-related startups  —  Li Jin, 31, began backing creators years ago.  She has raised her own fund to invest in influencer-related start-ups.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple says it has asked all of its US employees to report their vaccination status voluntarily by mid-September, but stops short of mandating COVID-19 vaccines  —  - Company is still stopping short of mandating Covid-19 shots  — It previously ramped up an optional virus testing program
James Vincent / The Verge:
Analysis: governments intentionally blocked internet access nearly 850 times in the past decade, including 213 shutdowns in 2019, 155 in 2020, and 50 in 2021  —  A favorite tactic for stifling dissent in the 21st century  —  The number of government-led internet shutdowns has exploded …
Oscar Gonzalez / CNET:
Reddit bans r/NoNewNormal, its largest anti-vax subreddit, for harassing other communities, following weeks of user moderators asking Reddit admins to ban it  —  It's also putting 54 other subreddits in quarantine. … Last week, more than a thousand subreddit's posted the same message calling …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Financial Times:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Amazon says it will stop showing autocomplete search suggestions for horse de-worming drug ivermectin; the drug remains easy to purchase on the site  —  Amazon claims it will fix autocomplete search suggestions  —  Earlier this week, I started a search on Amazon and mistyped, entering just two letters in: “iv.”
More: USA Today
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
A look at the implications of South Korea's alternative app store payment law: confusion for non-technical users, difficulty managing subscriptions, and more  —  Apple, in a statement to MacRumors (and other media outlets), regarding South Korea's just-passed “Google power-abuse-prevention law” …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Telegram releases an update that removes the cap on live stream viewers, from 1,000 to unlimited, introduces more options for forwarding messages, and more  —  Along with more forwarding options  —  Telegram, the messaging app that's becoming more and more like a fully-fledged social media network …
Jonathan Greig / ZDNet:
Asana beats in Q2 with revenue of $89.5M, up 72% YoY, net loss of $68.4M, up from $41.1M last year, and says it has over 107K paying customers  —  Asana brought in a revenue of $89.5 million in Q2, an increase of 72% year over year.  —  Team management software provider Asana reported better …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook launches Facebook Fantasy Games, a fantasy sports and reality show prediction feature, available for free on the Facebook app in the US and Canada  —  Facebook is getting into fantasy sports and other types of fantasy games.  The company this morning announced the launch …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Insurify, which has built an ML-based virtual insurance agent to help people get better rates, raises $100M Series B led by Motive Partners  —  How many of us have not switched insurance carriers because we don't want to deal with the hassle of comparison shopping?  —  A lot, I'd bet.
Zinnia Lee / Forbes:
Malaysian used car marketplace Carsome Group raises $170M from MediaTek and others at a $1.3B valuation, making it Malaysia's largest tech startup  —  Carsome Group, an online platform for buying and selling used cars, said on Wednesday that it had become Malaysia's largest tech unicorn …
Matthew Monks / Bloomberg:
Samsara, a cloud-based fleet vehicle management service, says it has confidentially filed for an IPO; Samsara raised $400M at a $5.4B valuation last year  —  Samsara Inc., a software company valued at $5.4 billion last year, has filed confidentially for an initial public offering.
More: Reuters
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Code Climate, which offers software engineering project management tools, raises $50M Series C from PSG, USV, and others  —  The Transform Technology Summits start October 13th with Low-Code/No Code: Enabling Enterprise Agility.  Register now!  —  Code Climate, a platform …
The Tutanota Blog:
Australia passes bill that lets police hack user devices to modify, collect, or delete data and take over social media accounts without a judge's warrant  —  The Microsoft database hack shows that data stored in the cloud must always be encrypted end-to-end.

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