Techmeme
March 2, 2022, 7:45 PM

Top News

Ethan Diamond / Bandcamp Updates:
Epic Games acquires Bandcamp, which will continue operating as a standalone marketplace and music community; Bandcamp has paid nearly $1B to artists and labels  —  I'm excited to announce that Bandcamp is joining Epic Games, who you may know as the makers of Fortnite and Unreal Engine, and champions for a fair and open Internet.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple announces a digital-only event dubbed “Peek performance” will be held on March 8 at 10am PT; a 5G iPhone SE, revamped iPad Air, and new Macs are expected  —  Apple today announced that it will be holding its first event of 2022 on Tuesday, March 8 at 10:00 a.m. Pacific …
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Ukrainian vice PM calls for game companies to ban all Russian and Belarusian accounts during the invasion, calling on Sony, Ubisoft, Microsoft, and others  —  Vice PM says move “will motivate the citizens of Russia” to rise up in protest.  —  Mykhailo Fedorov, the vice prime minister …
Washington Post:
A profile of Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine's youngest cabinet minister, who is using his Twitter account to pressure tech giants to shut down Russian propaganda  —  Six months ago, Mykhailo Fedorov, one of Ukraine's deputy prime ministers, made a pilgrimage to Silicon Valley to discuss his country's digital transformation.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon plans to close 68 brick-and-mortar retail locations across the US and the UK, including all of its Amazon Books, 4-star, and Pop Up stores  —  - Amazon plans to close all locations of its Pop Up, Books and 4-star stores, the company confirmed to CNBC.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Several US state AGs launch a probe into TikTok, focusing on whether the app's design and operations negatively impact young users' physical and mental health  —  - TikTok is under investigation by a bipartisan group of state attorneys general to determine if the popular short-form video …
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Paresh Dave / Reuters:
Google will remove RT News and Sputnik News from the Play Store, after removing Russian state outlets from its news features, following a similar move by Apple  —  Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google said on Tuesday that it has blocked mobile apps connected to RT and Sputnik from its Play store …
Paul Alcorn / Tom's Hardware:
Intel, AMD, Arm, TSMC, Samsung, and others introduce the Universal Chiplet Interconnect Express (UCIe) consortium to standardize die-to-die interconnects  —  A broad range of blue-chip industry promoters, like Intel, AMD, Arm, TSMC, and Samsung, among others, introduced the new Universal …
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
The US CPSC and Fitbit recall Fitbit Ionic smartwatches after receiving 118 reports of burn injuries; Fitbit sold ~1M units in the US and 693K internationally  —  Fitbit has issued a voluntary recall for Ionic smartwatches that it manufactured and sold from 2017 through 2020.
Andrew Hutchinson / Social Media Today:
Meta releases its Widely Viewed Content report for Q4, showing the most viewed Facebook Page was removed for violating policies; Meta would not reveal its name  —  Safe to say that Meta's efforts to refute the idea that Facebook amplifies divisive political content are not going exactly as it would have hoped.
Vikas SN / Moneycontrol:
Netflix acquires Finnish mobile game developer Next Games for ~$72M; the studio specializes in games based on entertainment franchises, such as Stranger Things  —  Next Games had released ‘Stranger Things: Puzzle Tales’, a role-playing game based on the streaming giant's hit 80s horror drama series in October last year.
Ciaran Martin / Lawfare:
An in-depth look at Russia's offensive cyber capabilities, their potential use in Ukraine, the limitations of cyber power, and implications for the West  —  It turns out that the next war was not fought in cyberspace after all.  Or at least the start of it has not been.
Matt Robinson / Bloomberg:
Sources: the SEC is probing the NFT market to determine if tokens are like securities, focusing on fractional NFTs, in which a token is broken and sold in units  —  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is scrutinizing creators of NFTs and the crypto exchanges where they trade to determine …
More: CoinDesk and Decrypt
Catherine Shu / TechCrunch:
Melbourne-based neobank Zeller, which offers fintech tools for SMBs, raises a A$100M Series B led by Headline, bringing its valuation to A$1B+  —  Zeller, the Australian neobank for SMBs, has raised a $100 million AUD Series B (about $72.7 million USD), doubling its valuation to more than $1 billion AUD (about $727 million USD).

Sponsor Posts

Termina:
AI Powered Diligence at Scale  —  VCs and founders deploy Termina AI Scans on >12% of all known series A+ deals to uncover hidden risks and opportunities.  Explore how you too can invest and build better companies with AI.
Zoho:
Key components of a successful L&D strategy  —  A learning and development strategy is a comprehensive plan that focuses on devising strategies to enhance the skills and competencies of employees while aiding …
SBS Comms:
Expect Better: SBS Comms  —  The media landscape is changing fast, so don't be slow — out with the old, in with the new.  SBS helps tech companies like GitHub, Cloudflare, Flexport, Ramp and more modernize comms and secure impactful results.
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:
Nvidia Earnings
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Understanding Elon Musk's polarizing ascent in the MAGA movement
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
An inside look at X's Community Notes | Keith Coleman (VP of Product) and Jay Baxter (ML Lead)
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.
Generative Now:
Mikey Shulman answers your questions about Suno and making music with AI
A podcast from Lightspeed dedicated to highlighting the stories, strategies and insights behind today's most exciting AI companies.
Subscribe to Generative Now.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Free speech is under attack
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:45 PM ET, March 2, 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

Dan Primack / Axios:

Earlier Picks

Washington Post:
Chris Stokel-Walker / Wired:
Mark Scott / Politico: