Techmeme
December 9, 2021, 11:40 AM

Top News

WABetaInfo:
WhatsApp begins a limited test of Meta's Novi digital wallet in the US, letting users send and receive crypto within a chat, after launching a pilot in October  —  Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry  —  Today, WhatsApp is finally announcing a small pilot program to some people in the US …
Politico:
Italy's competition authority fines Amazon €1.13B for allegedly abusing its market position and harming competitors in e-commerce logistics  —  Italy's competition authority announced Thursday it was slapping a €1.13 billion fine on Amazon for abusing its dominant position in the market …
C-SPAN.org:
Video of Adam Mosseri's testimony before a Senate Commerce subcommittee examining Instagram's negative effects on teen mental health  —  Instagram CEO testifies on impact of platform on young users before a Senate Commerce subcommittee.
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Instagram plans to bring back “a version” of its chronological feed in Q1 2022, as it experiments with other options for users including a “favorites” feed  —  After more than five years, Instagram plans to bring back “a version” of its chronological feed next year, the company's top executive said on Wednesday.
Bloomberg:
MacRumors:
Kuo: Apple's AR headset will include four sets of 3D sensors to offer hand gesture controls and object detection  —  Apple's long rumored AR headset is predicted to include multiple highly sensitive 3D sensing modules in order to offer an innovative hand gesture and object detecting user interface …
Kollen Post / The Block:
At a congressional hearing with six crypto executives, committee members voiced concerns about stablecoins and exchanges but showed a warming up to crypto  —  Quick Take  — Today's hearing before the House Financial Services Committee confirmed: Congress is warming up to crypto.
Mayank Parmar / BleepingComputer:
Amazon says it will shut down its global website ranking system Alexa.com on May 1, 2022, after 26 years of operation  —  Amazon announced on Wednesday plans to shut down its global website ranking system and competitor analysis tool “Alexa.com”, which has been available for 25 years.
New York Times:
EU Commission proposes rules turning gig workers into employees, affecting up to 4.1M workers; EU estimates 28M work through digital labor platforms in the bloc  —  A proposal with widespread political support would entitle drivers and couriers for companies like Uber to a minimum wage and legal protections.
Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
DeepMind claims its language model RETRO matches the performance of neural networks 25 times its size, cutting the time and cost to train large language models  —  RETRO uses an external memory to look up passages of text on the fly, avoiding some of the costs of training a vast neural network
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
A US appeals court grants a stay in the Epic v. Apple ruling, letting Apple keep its IAP system as the sole source of iOS in-app payments as the case proceeds  —  Apple can maintain its App Store payment monopoly while the case proceeds  —  An appeals court has paused one of the most consequential parts …
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
CloudBees, which lets companies automate software deployment and quality monitoring, raises a $150M Series F at a $1B valuation  —  Enterprise-focused software delivery platform CloudBees has raised $150 million in a series F round of funding at a valuation of $1 billion.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google confirms a permanent fix is coming for a bug that prevents some Android users from calling 911 if Microsoft Teams is installed but they are not logged in  —  Last week, a user reported that their Pixel 3 was not able to dial 911 (emergency services in the US).
Jackie Davalos / Bloomberg:
Kickstarter plans to transition its crowdfunding site to a newly created blockchain-based protocol in 2022, and will offer tools for others to build on it  —  It's creating a new company to develop and distribute the technology.  —  For more than a decade, Kickstarter PBC has convinced …
Ivan Levingston / Bloomberg:
SellerX, which buys and grows businesses on Amazon's marketplace, raises $500M in debt and equity at a $1B valuation, bringing its total funding to $750M  —  - Debt, equity financing of $500 million co-led by Victory Park  — Company will use funds to buy up e-commerce brands on Amazon
More: PR NewswireThanks:@ivanlevingston

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Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch: