Techmeme
February 8, 2022, 10:00 PM

Top News

Devlin Barrett / Washington Post:
The US DOJ arrests two people in New York and seizes ~$3.6B worth of bitcoin allegedly stolen in a 2016 Bitfinex hack, its “largest financial seizure ever”  —  The Justice Department announced Tuesday it had seized more than $3.6 billion in bitcoin allegedly stolen as part …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple unveils Tap to Pay, letting US merchants accept payments with an iPhone and a partner-enabled app “later this year”; partners include Stripe and Shopify  —  Apple has officially announced a new Tap to Pay feature for iPhone.  This feature, coming later this year …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Microsoft is in talks to acquire cybersecurity research and incident response company Mandiant, whose stock closed up 17.86% on Tuesday  —  Microsoft Corp. is considering making a bid for cybersecurity-research and incident response company Mandiant Inc., according to a person familiar …
Cara Lombardo / Wall Street Journal:
Peloton CEO John Foley will step down and ex-Spotify and Netflix CFO Barry McCarthy will take over; Peloton will cut ~2,800 jobs and cancel its Ohio factory  —  Exercise-equipment maker to name former Spotify CFO Barry McCarthy as successor, overhaul board and cut costs
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Sony's second PS5 beta adds a “Hey PlayStation” voice command feature, for US and UK accounts at first, alongside party chat changes and new UI settings  —  Sony is also making changes to the way parties work  —  Sony announced that it will begin rolling out its second PS5 software beta …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
As Meta dips under a $600B market cap, it may avoid antitrust liability since it falls below the threshold set by recent US House bills as a “covered platform”  —  - Facebook owner Meta closed with a market cap below $600 billion on Tuesday for the first time since May 2020.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple plans to improve benefits for full- and part-time US retail workers, including doubling paid sick days and increasing PTO, amid a tight labor market  —  Apple Inc. plans to significantly increase its benefits for U.S. retail store workers as it grapples with a tightening labor market …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Nvidia and SoftBank call off Nvidia's Arm acquisition, following regulatory scrutiny; Arm CEO Simon Segars resigns, replaced by Arm IP group president Rene Haas  —  Nvidia's deal to acquire Arm is off, the two companies and Arm owner SoftBank announced Tuesday.  —  With this, there is also a major leadership change at Arm.
CNBC:
Amazon Care rolls out its telehealth service nationwide, expands in-person care to more US cities, and adds Whole Foods, Silicon Labs, and TrueBlue as customers  —  - Amazon is launching its telehealth program, known as Amazon Care, nationwide and has signed up a handful of new companies to use its services.
Emma Roth / The Verge:
Google rolls out Journeys for Chrome on desktop, letting users revisit old browsing sessions, based on searches from the omnibar, organized by subject matter  —  Journeys groups your search history together by category  —  Google Chrome is rolling out Journeys, a feature that lets you revisit …
Darren Loucaides / Wired:
A deep dive into the CEO and history of Telegram, which has about 30 core employees, minimal content moderation, and, until recently, no ongoing revenue  —  Hundreds of millions of users.  No algorithm.  No ads.  Courage in the face of autocracy.  Sound like a dream?  Careful what you wish for.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
A review of digital advertising in 2022, which has shifted from a Google-Meta duopoly to one where Amazon and potentially Apple are major forces  —  Six years ago tomorrow, in The Reality of Missing Out, I wrote that the digital advertising market was settled, and Google and Facebook won:
Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:
Twitter tells US Senator Wyden that it's “transitioning” away from using Mitto for passcodes, as the text message services firm faces surveillance accusations  —  Twitter Inc. told a U.S. senator it is cutting ties with a European technology company that helped it send sensitive passcodes to its users via text message.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok updates its policies to improve safety for LGBTQ users, including banning misgendering and deadnaming, adds tools for age-appropriate content, and more  —  Months after TikTok was hauled into its first-ever major congressional hearing over platform safety, the company is today announcing …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
A look at Apple's IAP changes for Dutch dating app developers: its proposal seemingly isn't compliant, reducing the commission by just 3% is spiteful, and more  —  The continuing saga of Apple's conflict with the Netherlands Authority for Consumers and Markets (ACM) — the Dutch equivalent …
Dade Hayes / Deadline:
Netflix and Amazon had fewer Oscar nominations in 2022; half of the Best Picture nominees had little to no theater time and all major studios used hybrid models  —  This morning's Oscar nominations suggest a rethink — or at least a collective hitting of the pause button — on the status of streaming in the awards conversation.

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:
Introducing AI Forms: Create optimized forms with AI in Zoho Forms  —  The future of form creation isn't coming, it's here.  Forget everything you thought you knew about building online forms.
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:
Mon. 12/23 - The Revenge Of Google Glass?
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 10:00 PM ET, February 8, 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

Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

Shiona McCallum / BBC: