Techmeme
October 20, 2021, 12:55 AM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Source: Facebook is planning to change its company name to reflect its focus on the metaverse as soon as next week at Connect, its annual AR/VR conference  —  Mark Zuckerberg wants to be known for building the metaverse  —  Facebook is planning to change its company name next week to reflect …
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Google launches $599 Pixel 6, with 90Hz 6.4" display, and $899 Pixel 6 Pro, with 120Hz 6.7" display, both featuring an upgraded 50MP rear camera, coming Oct. 28  —  Google claims to finally be ready to take on Apple and Samsung  —  After many leaks, official teases, and months of waiting …
Antonio G. Di Benedetto / The Verge:
A look at Pixel 6 and 6 Pro's cameras: main sensor takes in 150% more light, Real Tone can more accurately capture skin tones, Face Unblur, Magic Eraser, more  —  New cameras and sensors aim to put the Pixels back on top of mobile photography  —  Today at its Pixel Fall Launch event …
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Q&A with Google executives on the Pixel 6's new Tensor SoC, which has two big ARM Cortex-X1 cores, 2 medium cores, and 4 efficiency cores  —  Learn more about the Google Tensor from the people that designed it.  —  The Pixel 6 is official, with a wild new camera design, incredible pricing, and the new Android 12 OS.
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Google debuts a Pixel Pass plan starting at $45/month for a Pixel 6 plus an upgrade in two years, 200GB of Google One, Play Pass, YouTube Premium, and more  —  The rumors were true: Google has an answer to the Apple One bundle.  The company has introduced a Pixel Pass subscription that includes …
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Apple botched the notch on the MacBook Pros by leaving out Face ID; the bezels are smaller but not ultrathin like on Dell and HP rivals  —  All the downsides of the notch, without the Face ID benefits  —  The day that many have been dreading has finally arrived.  Apple has added a notch to its new MacBook Pros.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Steven Sinofsky / @stevesi:
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Facebook starts testing its Novi wallet in the US and Guatemala, letting users trade the Paxos Dollar; Coinbase will provide custody services  —  Facebook's Novi wallet is ready to launch - but it won't be launching with the Diem (formerly Libra) stablecoin.
Michael Wursthorn / Wall Street Journal:
ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF gained nearly 5% in its NYSE debut, with ~$981M in trading volume, making it the second most traded ETF debut ever per FactSet  —  ProShares Bitcoin Strategy ETF advances nearly 5% following its closely watched launch  —  The first bitcoin-focused exchange-traded fund rose …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Facebook settles with DOJ over claims it discriminated by favoring temporary visa holders over US workers; Facebook will pay $4.75M and up to $9.5M for victims  —  - Facebook settled claims that it refused to recruit or hire U.S. workers for positions it set aside for temporary visa holders with the Department of Justice.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Instagram says this week it will add a “Collabs” feature to let users co-author Reels and posts, the ability to post from desktop browsers, and more  —  Desktop posting, new video effects, and fundraiser tweaks are also on the way  —  Instagram is kicking off a week of product reveals …
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Netflix reports Q3 revenue of $7.48B, up 16% YoY, operating income of $1.76B, up 33% YoY, and 214M paid subs, adding 4.4M YoY and beating estimates of 3.84M  —  - Netflix is set to report earnings after the bell Tuesday.  —  Netflix shares were up more than 2% after-the-bell Tuesday after the company posted third quarter results.
AJ Vicens / CyberScoop:
CrowdStrike details China-linked LightBasin, which has compromised 13 telecom companies since 2019, gaining access to subscriber info, call metadata, and more  —  An advanced network of digital spies with a nexus to Chinese interests has successfully compromised parts of the global telecommunications network …
Meir Orbach / CTech:
Israel-based SeaLights, whose tech lets customers spot potential quality risks associated with their software changes in real time, raises a $30M Series B  —  The Israeli startup's cloud-based solution provides its customers with full visibility into every potential quality risk associated with their software changes in real-time

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Dynamic prefilling via webhooks in Zoho Forms  —  Ever wish forms could fill themselves out for you?  You're signing up for an event at your office.  You open the form, expecting the usual hassle of filling in every detail.
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(BNS) The Answering Machine - With Toni Trucks!
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:55 AM ET, October 20, 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

Earlier Picks