Techmeme
September 9, 2021, 8:30 PM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Facebook launches $299 Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses in six countries including the US; users can capture photo and video, listen to music, or take phone calls  —  Hands-on with Facebook and Ray-Ban's first pair of smart glasses  —  Starting Thursday, the first pair of smart glasses …
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Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft indefinitely postpones the return to its offices in the US, saying it has “decided against attempting to forecast a new date for a full reopening”  —  The pandemic keeps pushing back Microsoft's plans  —  Microsoft is shelving its plans to fully reopen its US offices next month.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple has appointed longtime Apple Watch and Health software chief Kevin Lynch as the new head of its Apple Car project after Doug Field's departure  —  - Kevin Lynch replaces Doug Field as head of Apple's car efforts  — Field left Apple's project after three years to work at Ford
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Amazon launches the Fire TV Omni Series, its first smart TVs, starting at $410 and shipping in October  —  Amazon is officially in the TV set business.  —  After years of selling Fire TV devices that plug into third-party HDTVs and teaming with TV makers for Fire TV-based products …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Epic to shut down Houseparty, the video chat app it acquired in 2019, in October, along with Fortnite Mode, which uses Houseparty for video chats  —  Houseparty, the social video chat app acquired by Fortnite maker Epic Games for a reported $35 million back in 2019, is shutting down.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Epic asks Apple to reinstate its Fortnite developer account in S. Korea, after passage of a Korean bill forcing app stores to allow alternative payment systems  —  Following the passing of a bill allowing alternative payment systems on the App Store  —  Epic Games has asked Apple to reinstate …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Hackers leak a list of ~500K Fortinet VPN login names and passwords; a source in the IT security industry says at least some of the leaked credentials are valid  —  A threat actor has leaked a list of almost 500,000 Fortinet VPN login names and passwords that were allegedly scraped from exploitable devices last summer.
Reed Albergotti / Washington Post:
Security researchers say Apple's bug bounty program is undermined by Apple's insular culture, confusion about payments, and long delays in fixing bugs  —  Lack of communication, confusion about payments and long delays have security researchers fed up with Apple's bug bounty program
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro temporarily bans social media companies from removing accounts and content that violate their rules, ahead of a presidential election  —  The new rules in Brazil appear to be the first national policy that restricts how tech companies can control their sites, analysts say.
Stephen Graves / Decrypt:
Mastercard acquires CipherTrace, which offers a crypto-focused analytics service that specializes in anti-money laundering and forensics  —  Mastercard has announced that it has acquired cryptocurrency tracking firm CipherTrace with a view to providing “additional transparency and support” for the emerging ecosystem of digital assets.
Wall Street Journal:
JPMorgan Chase acquires The Infatuation, a restaurant discovery service that bought Zagat from Google in 2018  —  Deal is the bank's latest effort to cater to big spenders who like to travel and dine out  —  America's biggest bank is buying the company behind the Zagat brand.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon says it will offer to cover 100% of college tuition for its 750,000 hourly employees in the US after 90 days of employment, starting in January 2022  —  - Amazon is offering to pay the full cost of college tuition, including books and fees, for its 750,000 hourly U.S. employees.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
A number of playlist curators say Spotify is not addressing playlist abuse, letting bad actors report rivals to gain better visibility for their own playlists  —  A number of Spotify playlist curators are complaining that the streaming music company is not addressing the ongoing issue of playlist abuse …

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