Techmeme
February 9, 2022, 5:00 PM

Top News

Matt Levine / Bloomberg:
How the feds caught Heather Morgan and Ilya Lichtenstein as they allegedly attempted, rather sloppily, to launder bitcoin from the Bitfinex hack  —  Bitfinex laundry  —  In her public life, Heather Morgan seems to have been the cringiest imaginable sort of crypto-adjacent hustle-bro.
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Samsung debuts Galaxy S22 Ultra starting at $1,199 with a 6.8" 120Hz display, S-Pen support, up to 1TB of storage, and updated cameras, on sale from February 25  —  It gains an on-board stylus, plus some incremental hardware and software upgrades  —  The Samsung Galaxy S22 Ultra has shaped …
Sam Rutherford / Engadget:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
References to “realityOS” appear to have briefly shown up again in Apple's code, this time in a GitHub repo; reports of a new AR headset OS date back to 2017  —  The long-rumored Apple headset could have a new OS  —  Apple's long-rumored virtual or augmented reality headset might …
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
In a bid to appease lawmakers and regulators, Microsoft outlines 11 app store principles, including equal treatment and allowing third-party payment processing  —  The rules come as Microsoft is attempting to win regulatory approval for the largest deal in the company's history
Will Knight / Wired:
Sony details GT Sophy, an AI built to master Gran Turismo that outraces human drivers; the research could eventually help develop autonomous vehicles  —  The company built GT Sophy to master the game Gran Turismo, but it may help the development of real self-driving cars. … APPLICATION  —  SECTOR
Ellen Huet / Bloomberg:
As CB Insights says there are 1K unicorns globally, about two added to the herd per day in 2022, a look at soaring valuations, the “first” unicorns, and more  —  Hubert Palan signed on to Zoom from his home in Oakland, Calif., on Feb. 2 and prepared to address the 400 or so employees …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Samsung unveils 6.1" Galaxy S22 and 6.6" S22+ with updated cameras, 10Hz-120Hz displays, and Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, coming February 25, starting at $800 and $1,000  —  Will iterative upgrades cure Samsung's sales problem?  —  By most accounts, last year's Galaxy S21 lineup didn't measure up to Samsung's sales expectations.
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Samsung unveils the $1,100 Tab S8 Ultra, with a 14.6" 120Hz display, 16GB of RAM, two front-facing cameras, and Snapdragon Gen 1, shipping later in February  —  The Tab S8 Ultra comes with a giant 14.6-inch display  —  Samsung thinks your tablet is too small.
Phillip Tracy / Gizmodo:
Biz Carson / Protocol:
A profile of Sequoia's Roelof Botha, who seeded the idea of Sequoia Capital Fund, which holds stakes in companies past the traditional 10-year VC fund cycle  —  109. One billion dollars.  —  Roelof Botha used to write 109 on the corner of his notepad every week when he started at Sequoia 19 years ago.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
A look at the Open App Markets Act, aimed at curbing anti-competitive behavior from large app store operators like Apple and Google and headed to a Senate vote  —  The Open App Markets Act wants to remake mobile computing  —  Last week, the Senate Judiciary Committee passed the Open App Markets Act …
Justine Calma / The Verge:
The WWF hyped and then canceled plans to raise money for conservation with NFTs on Polygon's “eco-friendly blockchain”, a fraught claim dismissed by experts  —  WWF thought it picked a less polluting blockchain  —  Within a few days last week, the World Wildlife Fund hyped …
Bloomberg:
After crypto's recent plunge, FTX and Crypto.com seek new customers with Super Bowl ads; iSpot.tv data: $112.9M+ has been spent on US crypto TV ads since 2020  —  It's a testing time for crypto exchanges to be making their Super Bowl ad debuts.  —  Recruiting new users can be simple when prices are skyrocketing.
Karissa Bell / Engadget:
Instagram rolls out tools to remove posts, comments, and more in bulk, and review past interactions and searches, after a preview in December  —  Instagram is making it a whole lot easier to remove posts, comments and other activity from the platform.  The photo sharing app is rolling …
Queenie Wong / CNET:
Reddit expands its live audio product Reddit Talk, adding recordings and a desktop web version, and will test highlighting chats at the top of home feeds  —  Reddit said Wednesday that it's adding new features to its live audio product, a sign that the social media site is experimenting …
More: TechCrunch and EngadgetThanks:@stshank

Sponsor Posts

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.
Zoho:
CIO challenge 6: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(BNS) How To Know When To Kill Your Startup
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 5:00 PM ET, February 9, 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

Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Olivia Little / Media Matters for America:
Shubham Agarwal / The Verge:
Darren Loucaides / Wired:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC: