Techmeme
December 10, 2021, 1:25 AM

Top News

Alex Heath / The Verge:
Meta opens its VR social platform Horizon Worlds to all adult users in the US and Canada, after announcing a private beta in September 2019  —  Facebook's first stab at the metaverse is Roblox meets the OASIS  —  More than two years and a company rebrand later, Meta is finally opening …
WABetaInfo:
WhatsApp begins a limited test of Meta's Novi digital wallet in the US, letting users send and receive USDP within a chat  —  Today, WhatsApp is finally announcing a small pilot program to some people in the US, that can finally use the Novi digital wallet within WhatsApp!
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Epic v. Apple emails show Microsoft offered to bring triple-A, Xbox-exclusive games to iOS if Apple let its xCloud game streaming service into the App Store  —  Remember when Apple pretended like it would let cloud gaming services like Microsoft xCloud and Google Stadia into the App Store …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Google says it will release Google Play Games in 2022 as a native Windows app that brings Android games to Windows 10 and Windows 11  —  Google Play Games comes to PC next year  —  Google is planning to bring Android games to Windows PCs next year.  A Google Play Games app will be available in 2022 …
Jonathan Bell / Wallpaper*:
A look at the working processes at Apple's design team, led by VP of industrial design Evans Hankey and VP of human interface design Alan Dye  —  Global exclusive!  Led by Evans Hankey and Alan Dye, the Apple Design Team holds enormous sway over our evolving relationship with technology.
Angel Au-Yeung / Forbes:
Cher Scarlett, a leader of #AppleToo, says she is no longer withdrawing her NLRB complaint against Apple after it failed to execute a settlement in good faith  —  Former Apple engineer Cher Scarlett is no longer withdrawing her complaint with the National Labor Relation Board alleging …
Eli Tan / CoinDesk:
Palm, which helps companies and brands create NFT projects, raises a $27M Series B led by Microsoft's M12  —  Microsoft's venture arm is leading a $27 million bet on NFT studio Palm.  —  The funding will be used primarily to scale the company's operations with a slew of new hires, a representative of the studio told CoinDesk.
Packy McCormick / Not Boring:
Replit, a browser-based IDE for cross-platform collaborative coding, raises an $80M Series B led by Coatue at an $800M valuation  —  Replit Raises $80M Series B to Bring the Next Billion Software Creators Online … Hi friends 👋,  —  Happy Thursday!
Politico:
Italy's competition authority fines Amazon €1.13B for abusing its market position and harming competitors in e-commerce logistics; Amazon plans to appeal  —  Italy's competition authority announced Thursday it was slapping a €1.13 billion fine on Amazon for abusing its dominant position …
Bloomberg:
Coinbase launches a DeFi yield product for non-US customers in over 70 countries, after US regulators effectively killed plans for its Lend program in September  —  - U.S. regulators effectively shut down Lend program earlier  — Holdings to be deposited into the Compound Finance protocol
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
HashiCorp closes up 6.49% in its Nasdaq debut, after raising $1.2B in its IPO at a $14B valuation  —  - Shares of HashiCorp debuted on the Nasdaq on Wednesday under the symbol “HCP.”  — HashiCorp software helps engineers set up computing infrastructure in public clouds and on-premises data centers,
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Boston-based conversational AI startup Posh Technologies raises a $27.5M Series A led by Canapi Ventures to fuel call center automation  —  As call volumes skyrocketed during the pandemic, contact centers turned to AI to help distribute the workload.  But even before the pandemic …
Riley de León / CNBC:
Brazilian neobank Nubank closes up 14.78% in its NYSE debut, giving it a $47.6B market cap, after raising $2.6B in its IPO  —  - Brazilian fintech company Nubank made its market debut Thursday on the New York Stock Exchange and is now trading under the ticker symbol “NU.”
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Tim Berners-Lee's Inrupt, which aims to “reshape the internet” by letting users control their data, raises Series A led by Forte Ventures, source says for ~$30M  —  Tim Berners-Lee's startup, Inrupt, has raised about $30 million in its Series A financing round, a source familiar with the matter said.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Celigo, whose integration platform lets companies automate business processes, raises a $48M Series C led by OMERS Growth, bringing its total funding to $80M+  —  Companies continue to add apps to their technology stacks as the pandemic drives digital transformations.
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Crypto derivatives market Paradigm, which focuses on large trades, raises a $35M Series A at a $400M valuation led by Jump Capital and Alameda Research  —  Quick Take  — Paradigm is raising $35 million in a fundraise led by Jump Capital and Alameda Research.
Elizabeth M. Renieris / CIGI:
A look at Cardano, a controversial blockchain project led by Ethereum cofounder Charles Hoskinson that aims to build a national ID system for Ethiopia  —  There are countless examples of the dangers posed by national ID schemes, including from Kenya, Uganda, Pakistan, India and elsewhere.
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
In a letter, Sen. Warren asks the US DOJ and SEC to investigate whether Meta executives knew the company inflated a key metric measuring an ad's potential reach  —  Sen. Elizabeth Warren sent a letter to the DOJ and SEC, after Sen. Maria Cantwell sent a letter to the FTC
Sylvia Varnham O'Regan / The Information:
Meta has moved its artificial intelligence group to the Reality Labs unit, shifting the AI team's focus towards metaverse-related efforts  —  Facebook parent Meta Platforms has moved its artificial intelligence group to the Reality Labs unit developing augmented and virtual reality products …
Tweets: @alexeheath and @amir

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.
Zoho:
Zoho Directory 2024: Enabling Access and Empowering Security  —  Hey there!  👋 As 2024 comes to a close, we're excited to highlight the latest updates in Zoho Directory.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/27 - A New "Definition" Of AGI
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 1:25 AM ET, December 10, 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

Bloomberg:
MacRumors:
New York Times:
C-SPAN.org: