Techmeme
January 27, 2022, 8:30 PM

Top News

Apple:
Apple reports Q1 revenue of $123.9B, up 11% YoY, net income of $34.6B, up from $28.8B YoY, Services sales of $19.5B, up from $15.8B YoY, iPhone sales of $71.6B  —  Revenue up 11 percent to new all-time record  —  iPhone, Mac, Wearables, and Services revenue reach new all-time highs
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Apple reports Q1 Mac revenue of $10.85B, up 25% YoY, iPad revenue of $7.25B, down 14% YoY, and other products revenue, including Watch, of $14.70B, up 13% YoY  —  - Apple reported its largest single quarter in terms of revenue ever, with sales growing over 11% despite supply challenges and the lingering effects of the pandemic.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
iOS 15.4 beta adds Face ID use with a mask for iPhone 12 and newer, without needing Apple Watch authentication, by recognizing “unique features around the eye”  —  The iOS 15.4 beta that was introduced today added a new feature designed to allow Face ID to be used with a mask and without an Apple Watch for authentication.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
iPadOS 15.4 and macOS Monterey 12.3 betas add the long-delayed Universal Control, which lets users control nearby Macs and iPads with a single mouse or keyboard  —  The iPadOS 15.4 and macOS Monterey 12.3 betas that Apple released today introduce support for Universal Control …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
The UK's CMA says Microsoft has agreed to changes for auto-renewing Xbox subscriptions, including pro-rata refunds, canceling inactive subscribers, more  —  Inactive Xbox subscriptions won't continue to be billed  —  Microsoft is making its Xbox subscriptions a little more flexible after a UK regulator raised concerns.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
FTC: consumers lost $770M to social media scams in 2021, about 25% of all fraud losses for the year and up 18x from the $42M in losses reported in 2017  —  A growing number of U.S. consumers are getting scammed on social media according to a new report by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) …
Derrek Lee / Android Central:
Meta rebrands Oculus Quest as Meta Quest, leading to criticism on social media; the rebrand was originally announced in October  —  “Meta Quest” is just so fetch.  —  What you need to know  — Meta changes the social media accounts of its VR brand to Meta Quest.
Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify is removing Neil Young's music after he gave the company an ultimatum between his music and Joe Rogan's podcast with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation  —  Folk-rock star had over six million monthly listeners on the service, which he blames for spreading fake info about vaccines
Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
OpenAI says InstructGPT, its new GPT-3 version, is better at following instructions, producing less offensive language, less misinformation, and fewer mistakes  —  OpenAI has trained its flagship language model to follow instructions, making it spit out less unwanted text—but there's still a way to go.
CNBC:
Sources: SoftBank COO Marcelo Claure is leaving as soon as today; reports said Claure wanted $2B in compensation and clashed with Son over his responsibilities  —  - SoftBank COO Marcelo Claure is leaving SoftBank today, sources say.  — Claure took over running WeWork after founder Adam Neumann stepped down.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
The US FCC approves “nutrition labels” forcing ISPs to show prices, speed, and more, plus network management practices like throttling, starting on November 15  —  It's part of the Biden administration's plan to boost market competition  —  Understanding your broadband speeds …
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
Meta says Messenger's e2ee chats and calls are now available to all users, and adds screenshot notifications, media saving, GIFs, and more to encrypted chats  —  You can flick a switch and turn on privacy-protecting encryption without losing features  —  Messenger added end-to-end encrypted …
Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Robinhood Q4: revenue of $363M, up 14% YoY, 2021 revenue of $1.82B, up 89% YoY, net loss of $423M, MAUs up 48% to 17.3M; stock down 10%+ on weak Q1 guidance  —  - Robinhood anticipates first-quarter revenue of less than $340 million, down 35% compared with 2021.
David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:
A growing number of US mayors are embracing crypto and blockchain tech, hoping to create revenue streams with NFTs or mining, attract tech talent, and more  —  This new political breed accepts paychecks in Bitcoin.  The mayors also want to use buzzy new tech like NFTs to raise money for public projects.
Reuters:
The FCC revokes China Unicom's authorization to operate in the US, granted ~20 years ago, citing national security; Unicom can still offer data center services  —  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday voted to revoke the authorization for China Unicom's (0762.HK) U.S. unit to operate in the United States.
Wall Street Journal:
Source: Meta-backed Diem Association is selling its technology to California bank Silvergate Capital, which serves crypto companies, for ~$200M  —  Diem Association is selling its technology to crypto-focused bank Silvergate Capital for $200 million  —  Facebook's ambitious effort to bring cryptocurrency to the masses has failed.
Evgenia Pismennaya / Bloomberg:
Sources: Putin plans to tax and regulate crypto mining, confining it to regions with electricity surpluses and rejecting the central bank's proposal for a ban  —  President Vladimir Putin backs a Russian government proposal to tax and regulate mining of cryptocurrencies …
The Markup:
Life360 says it will stop selling users' precise location data, after a report alleged it is one of the top sources for the location data broker industry  —  The announcement comes after The Markup identified the family tracking app as one of the largest sources of raw data for the location data industry

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Mia Sato / The Verge: