Techmeme
September 30, 2021, 3:35 PM

Top News

Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Senators grilled Facebook exec Antigone Davis at a hearing about Instagram's impact on teens and were frustrated by her reticence to answer questions directly  —  Last night, Facebook published two annotated slide decks in an attempt to contextualize the documents that the Wall Street Journal published …
Wall Street Journal:
WSJ publishes six internal Facebook documents it used for its report about Instagram's negative impact on teen girls, after Facebook published two of the docs  —  The Senate holds a hearing Thursday about the social network's impact, prompted by The Wall Street Journal's coverage
The Verge:
Facebook shares two annotated internal research docs about Instagram's impact on teen mental health, after being notified of WSJ's plans to publish the docs  —  The company shared the PDFs Wednesday night  —  Facebook has shared the internal research about the impact of Instagram …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
BBC:
Researchers: a flaw in Apple Pay lets attackers make a Visa payment with a locked iPhone in Express Transit mode; Apple calls it “a concern with a Visa system”  —  Large unauthorised contactless payments can be made on locked iPhones by exploiting how an Apple Pay feature designed …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Visually impaired users say that iOS 15 appears to have removed call, email, and voicemail Siri features they relied on  —  With the recent release of iOS 15, Apple appears to have made some changes to Siri functionality that have removed features relied on by low vision and blind iPhone users.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Chinese AR company Nreal unveils Nreal Air, consumer glasses with micro OLED displays and iOS compatibility, shipping in Dec. in Japan, China, and South Korea  —  They'll ship later this year in Asia  —  Augmented reality company Nreal is launching a cheaper, iOS-compatible, more compact version of its smart glasses.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Facebook announces updates to Messenger, including group chats between Instagram and Messenger contacts  —  Facebook Messenger is releasing a bundle of products this morning — most notably, including cross-app group chats.  Last year, the company introduced cross-app messaging between Messenger …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Intel unveils Loihi 2, a second-generation neuromorphic computing chip, and Lava, an open-source framework for developing “neuro-inspired” applications  —  Intel today announced a major update to its neuromorphic computing program, including a second-generation chip called Loihi 2 and Lava …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple has quietly begun allowing users to rate and review its built-in iPhone and iPad apps in the App Store with iOS 15  —  For the longest time, the App Store did not allow users to rate or review Apple's built-in iPhone and iPad apps, like Mail, Music, News, Stocks and Calculator.
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Alloy, which offers an identity verification service for the financial services industry, raises $100M Series C at a $1.35B valuation led by Lightspeed  —  Alloy, which has built an identity operating system for banks and fintechs, announced Thursday that it has raised $100 million at a $1.35 billion valuation.
Karen Weise / New York Times:
Amazon settles with two former employee activists, Emily Cunningham and Maren Costa, over accusations it illegally fired them for organizing  —  Amazon has settled with two of its most prominent internal critics, staving off a public hearing over accusations that the company illegally fired the pair …
Samantha Cole / VICE:
Source: ex-OnlyFans staff had access to highly sensitive user and model data, like bank statements, legal names, and KYC images, long after leaving the company  —  Addresses, full names, passports, bank statements and other sensitive personal data were viewable.  —  Samantha Cole
Sam Bourgi / Cointelegraph:
Chainalysis: crypto transaction volume for Central, Northern, and Western Europe reached $1T+ from July 2020-June 2021, comprising 25% of global crypto activity  —  DeFi has become a major catalyst for Europe's crypto economy.  Large institutions have also upped their share of transactions significantly.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Fairphone, which makes ethically sourced modular phones, announces Fairphone 4 with a 6.3-inch display, 5G, and up to 256GB of storage, starting at €579  —  The Fairphone 4's software support should stretch until 2025  —  Fairphone, the manufacturer focused on making easy to repair smartphones …
Benjamin Wallace / New York Magazine:
Miami's mayor has helped turn Miami into the most crypto-friendly US city, even as Florida's governor appears to object to the idea of an influx of tech workers  —  Silicon Valley's favorite politician, Miami mayor Francis Suarez, has many lures to dangle when he's wooing techies to relocate to his city.
Ana Diaz / Polygon:
Twitch rolls out the option for streamers to require phone and email-verified accounts in chat, as part of the company's effort to reduce targeted harassment  —  Curbing harassment continues to be a “top priority” for Twitch  —  After an upswell in targeted harassment on the streaming platform Twitch …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Materialize, which is developing an SQL database service for streaming data, raises $60M Series C, bringing its total raised to $100M+  —  The Transform Technology Summits start October 13th with Low-Code/No Code: Enabling Enterprise Agility.  Register now!
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
London-based Reachdesk, which offers tools for sending and managing B2B gifts, raises $45M Series B led by Highland Europe  —  Gifting has become a major lever in the world of building business relationships in the last 20 months.  With in-person meetings reduced to a trickle …
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