Techmeme
March 16, 2022, 5:25 PM

Top News

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix will launch an “add an extra member” test in Chile, Costa Rica, and Peru to let primary account holders pay a fee for users outside their households  —  Netflix will soon launch a test letting primary account holders pay an additional fee for users outside their households …
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
iPad Air (2022) review: fast with the M1 chip and great display but Touch ID is not as convenient as Face ID and the front camera is awkward in landscape mode  —  The new iPad Air is a blend of familiar features with predictable results  —  Much of the new iPad Air from Apple is a known quantity.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Hands-on with Universal Control: Apple's most impressive new feature in years that bridges the gap between macOS and iPadOS without requiring Apple peripherals  —  It's super cool, super niche, and Apple at its best  —  It's been a good month for Mac desktop setup aficionados.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Meta launches Family Center, a suite of parental supervision tools for its apps, starting with Instagram in the US and rolling out globally in the coming months  —  Allowing parents and guardian to keep a watchful eye  —  Instagram's new parental controls, announced in December, are launching today in the US.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Meta adds basic parental controls for Quest VR, almost three years after launching the headset, starting with an unlock pattern for specific apps in April  —  Despite releasing its first virtual reality headsets in May 2019, Meta is only now adding parental supervision tools to its Meta Quest VR headset.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils the AI-powered Surface Hub 2 Smart Camera, with support for automatic reframing, image correction, and more, available for $799 on May 31  —  Microsoft's latest camera has a lot of smarts  —  Microsoft is launching its first AI-powered camera for the Surface Hub 2.
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Linktree, which creates simple “link in bio” landing pages for people and companies, raises a $110M Series C led by Index and Coatue at a $1.3B valuation  —  Who would've thought that an entire swath of startups would spring up all because Instagram, TikTok and Twitter only let you link to one website in your bio?
Bloomberg:
Foxconn resumes partial operations at two Shenzhen campuses closed on Monday, one of which makes iPhones, after authorities approved its “closed loop” process  —  Apple Inc. supplier Foxconn Technology Group has resumed partial operations in the Chinese tech hub of Shenzhen …
Eliza Gkritsi / CoinDesk:
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy signs a law legalizing cryptocurrency in the country, after the bill passed through parliament in February  —  Ukraine has received $100 million in crypto donations during its war with Russia.  —  Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy legalized crypto …
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
The website of Wordle Archive, which let users play previous Wordle puzzles, says it has been taken down at the request of The New York Times  —  Move could signal a more aggressive stance on certain Wordle clones.  —  Wordle Archive—a website that let users play through hundreds …
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Interview with Automattic CEO Matt Mullenweg on the company's growth, the future of open-source WordPress, Tumblr moderation, Web3, Bitcoin, Ethereum, and more  —  Matt Mullenweg is the CEO of Automattic, the company that owns WordPress.com, which he co-founded, and Tumblr …
The Information:
Sources: Google has struck a deal to acquire Raxium, a five-year-old startup that makes microLED components for AR and VR displays  —  Google has struck a deal to buy Raxium, a five-year-old startup that develops tiny light-emitting diodes for displays used in augmented and mixed reality devices …
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
A look at Ukraine's “invisible heroes”, internet technicians who are risking their lives avoiding bombs and thwarting Russian hackers to keep Ukraine online  —  They're fixing internet in bombed-out buildings, finding rogue operators providing Russians with mobile connections and thwarting hackers.
Clive Thompson / Wired:
An in-depth look at GitHub and OpenAI's Copilot, which writes 35% of its users' code, and how AI tools can make developers more efficient and democratize coding  —  OpenAI's new tool can autocomplete lines of programming or conjure software from a simple prompt.  It could also riddle the internet with even more bugs.
Tweets: @samaThanks:@colegarry2
Chris Bengel / CBS Sports:
Spotify signs a sponsorship deal with FC Barcelona, including rebranding the soccer club's stadium to Spotify Camp Nou, reportedly worth $310M over four years  —  FC Barcelona have agreed to a sponsorship deal with Spotify to have the audio streaming platform become the club's main partner.
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
The FBI and CISA warn that Russian state-sponsored hackers accessed an unnamed NGO's network by exploiting default MFA protocols and the PrintNightmare flaw  —  The FBI says Russian state-backed hackers gained access to a non-governmental organization (NGO) cloud after enrolling their own device …
Rest of World:
Six months after El Salvador adopted bitcoin as legal tender, dozens of citizens, economists, and developers detail cracks in the country's crypto revolution  —  As El Salvador prepares to launch its ‘Bitcoin bond’, interviews with citizens, economists and technologists reveal cracks in the country's crypto revolution.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
TruEra, which offers AI quality management tools to optimize and monitor ML models, raises a $25M Series B led by Menlo, bringing its total funding to $42.3M  —  TruEra, a startup that offers an AI quality management solution to optimize, explain and monitor machine learning models …

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