Techmeme
December 7, 2021, 4:00 PM

Top News

Wayne Ma / The Information:
Sources: Tim Cook brokered a secret five-year deal with China in 2016, paving the way for Apple's success by promising to invest $275B+ in the country's economy  —  Interviews and internal Apple documents provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the company made concessions to Beijing and won key legal exemptions.
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
An AWS outage that began around 10:45am ET has led to disruptions for many services including Disney+, Tinder, Roku, Coinbase, Cash App, Amazon Music, and Venmo  —  Amazon says it is working toward a solution  —  Problems with some Amazon Web Services cloud servers are causing slow loading …
David McCabe / New York Times:
Ahead of a congressional hearing, Adam Mosseri outlines Instagram parental controls coming in March, including monitoring time spent and bulk deleting posts  —  Adam Mosseri, the head of the company, is expected to face questions from lawmakers this week about whether social media harms children.
Andrew Hayward / Decrypt:
Ubisoft will add NFT items into its games, starting with Ghost Recon Breakpoint on the Tezos blockchain, becoming the first major gaming company to do so  —  In brief  — Major game publisher Ubisoft will implement in-game NFT items into its games, starting with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Twitter acquires messaging app Quill, which will shut down and delete all user data on December 11 after launching in February to challenge Slack  —  In February 9to5Mac reported on the launch of a focus-focused Slack competitor called Quill.  Today Twitter is bringing Quill under its wing …
Cho Mu-Hyun / ZDNet:
Samsung merges its mobile and consumer electronics divisions into one business unit led by JH Han, and names Kyehyun Kyung as the CEO of its semiconductor unit  —  The Galaxy-device maker's smartphone and TV divisions will now be run by a single CEO.  —  Samsung said on Tuesday it has merged …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Stan Chudnovsky, Meta's Messenger chief who is also leading the integration of Meta's messaging services, will leave the company, plans to stay until Q2 2022  —  The executive has been overseeing efforts to integrate the company's messaging services  —  Stan Chudnovsky, the Meta Platforms …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
The Senate confirms Jessica Rosenworcel to lead the FCC, the first female chair in the agency's history, in a 68 to 31 vote  —  She will be the first female chair in FCC history  —  On Tuesday, the Senate voted 68 to 31 to confirm Jessica Rosenworcel's re-appointment to the Federal …
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Hands-on with Snap Spectacles, announced in May: lightweight, bold design, and impressive AR, but overheating and a 30-minute battery is why they aren't on sale  —  Mainstream AR glasses are still years away  —  It doesn't take long to realize why Snap's first true AR glasses aren't for sale.
Jamie Tarabay / Bloomberg:
Alphabet sues two Russians it claims help run a botnet that has infected 1M+ devices and has command-and-control server addresses stored on Bitcoin's blockchain  —  - Complaint says the two created a sophisticated ‘botnet’  — Glupteba sells stolen logins, credit cards, Google says
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Microsoft seizes 42 domains allegedly used by a Chinese cyber espionage group that targeted organizations in 29 countries including the US  —  Microsoft said today that its legal team has successfully obtained a court warrant that allowed it to seize 42 domains used by a Chinese cyber-espionage group …
Eric Geller / Politico:
White House officials met with Google, Juniper, Mandiant, AT&T, Cloudflare, VMware, and Lumen to discuss combating hackers hired by regimes and criminal gangs  —  As cyber threats from countries like Russia multiply, officials met with corporate executives to pitch their vision for “operational collaboration.”
More: SlashdotTweets: @ericgeller, @ericgeller, and @ericgeller
Wall Street Journal:
Intel plans to take its Mobileye unit public in mid-2022, sources say at a $50B+ valuation; Intel acquired the self-driving car company in 2017 for about $15B  —  Move could value Mobileye at more than $50 billion, according to people familiar with the matter
Packy McCormick / Not Boring:
The allure of speculative Web3 returns is attracting talent that in turn will create opportunities for more people to earn money by doing what they find fun  —  More fun making money, and more money having fun … Today's Not Boring is brought to you by... Mosaic
D. T. Max / New Yorker:
An in-depth look at Welshman James Howells' desperate efforts to excavate his local landfill to recover a hard drive with 8,000 bitcoins mined in 2013  —  For years, a Welshman who threw away the key to his cybercurrency stash has been fighting to excavate the local landfill.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Atomico: European startups will raise a record $121B in 2021, up from $41B in 2020, with <1% going to those founded this year; 98 unicorns were created in 2021  —  - Start-ups in Europe are on track to haul in a record $121 billion in funding this year, according to a report from venture capital firm Atomico.
Bloomberg:
NFT data shows price differences based on race and gender; the average minimum sale price of darker-skinned male CryptoPunks trails lighter-skinned ones  —  Price differences based on race and gender are emerging among the CryptoPunk NFTs.  What do the disparities mean?
Bloomberg:
A look at the impact of a COVID-19 outbreak at a STMicroelectronics chipmaking factory in Malaysia, as pressure to increase production overrode safety concerns  —  While companies and governments push to keep supply chains running, ordinary people are the ones putting their lives at risk.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Report: the US DOJ has asked Roblox why it changed “games” to “experiences” on its website, and asked Roblox and other developers to clarify the difference  —  The United States Justice Department is investigating Apple for antitrust issues, and Roblox is an area …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
Portable badge printing with SUNMI mobile terminals, now on Zoho Backstage  —  We're excited to roll out our latest integration: the Zoho Backstage Organizer app now supports SUNMI smart mobile terminals (Android only).
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:
Is AI Eating Into Google Search?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Great Chat:
Great managers, and what makes them great
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:
Reuters is ready to stand up for the press -- and embrace AI
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
How have I been complicit in creating the conditions I say I don't want? | Jerry Colonna (CEO of Reboot, executive coach, former VC)
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Ian Rogers tells me I need a crypto wallet
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Azeem Azhar's Exponential View:
What does Spain's blackout mean for the future of clean energy?
Azeem Azhar explores how AI and exponential technologies are shaping our future.
Subscribe to Azeem Azhar's Exponential View.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:00 PM ET, December 7, 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

Kaya Yurieff / The Information:
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC: