Techmeme
January 27, 2022, 4:30 PM

Top News

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
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 …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working to let businesses accept payments on their iPhones without extra hardware, thanks to tech from Mobeewave, which it acquired in 2020  —  Apple Inc. is planning a new service that will let small businesses accept payments directly on their iPhones without any extra hardware …
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.
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 …
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.
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.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Adobe-led tech coalition finalizes a digital content provenance standard, identifying how a photo or video was created and subsequent edits, to catch deepfakes  —  As part of its effort to fight deepfakes, a coalition of tech companies led by Adobe has finalized the details for a standard …
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.
More: Axios
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
France-based Sigfox, which raised $300M+ to build a global IoT communications network, files for bankruptcy, citing slow sales and an electronics shortage  —  We are continuing to see fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the tech industry, with one of the latest developments coming out from France.
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.
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 14%+ on weak Q1 guidance  —  Stock-trading app Robinhood gave a bleak revenue forecast for the first quarter of 2022 on Thursday.  —  Shares of Robinhood tanked 9% in after hours trading.
More: RobinhoodTweets: @ericnewcomer
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 …
Mia Sato / The Verge:
Fanhouse, an OnlyFans-like service, adds iOS in-app purchases with a 50% surcharge after pushing back in 2021 against Apple's 30% commission on creator earnings  —  Fanhouse previously tried to push back against Apple's fees and was granted a six-month extension to come into compliance
Sohee Kim / Bloomberg:
Samsung reports Q4 operating profit of ~$11.6B, up 53% YoY, on revenue of ~$63.8B, up 24% YoY, but misses with ~$8.9B net income, below the ~$9.2B expected  —  Samsung Electronics Co. is stepping up spending on advanced chipmaking technology as it sees growing demand for its smartphones, displays and memory products.

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
Everything new in the Zoho Sign iOS mobile app  —  Ranked highly in the iOS App Store (4.9 stars), Zoho Sign's mobile app for iPhone is a user favorite.  We're thrilled to share that the app has been enhanced …
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:
Why COULDN'T Apple Make An iPhone In The US?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Derek Thompson (Writer, The Atlantic) and Zach Weinberg (Co-founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) Discuss the Tariff Withdrawal and America's Future
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Big Tech's Tariff Chaos + A.I. 2027 + Llama Drama
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
The bull case for domestic manufacturing
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:
Why DOGE is killing the agency that keeps banks from ripping you off
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI's CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter)
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:30 PM ET, January 27, 2022.

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

Janice Bitters Turi / Crunchbase News:

Earlier Picks

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Kif Leswing / CNBC: