Techmeme
April 12, 2022, 7:50 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple has delayed adding a blood pressure monitor to Apple Watch until 2024, possibly 2025, after difficulties with accuracy during testing  —  Apple Inc.'s plan to add a highly anticipated blood-pressure monitor to its smartwatch has hit some snags and the technology isn't expected …
Jonathan Greig / The Record:
Ukrainian officials say they stopped an attack on an energy facility with help from ESET and Microsoft, and identified a new variant of the Industroyer malware  —  Ukrainian officials said they stopped an attack on an energy facility with the help of researchers from ESET and Microsoft.
Matt Burgess / Wired:
DuckDuckGo launches its privacy-focused browser on macOS in beta through a private waiting list  —  DuckDuckGo started out as a private search engine.  Now its web browser is debuting on Macs to rival Chrome, Safari, Edge, and Brave.  —  When Google launched Chrome back in 2008, it changed the web overnight.
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
A profile of a16z VC Chris Dixon, who made early bets on crypto startups like Coinbase; sources: a16z plans to fold its crypto funds back into its central funds  —  The Andreessen Horowitz partner is the new no. 1 on Forbes' 21st annual Midas List of top venture investors, thanks to savvy bets on tokens …
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: two weeks after the launch of CNN+, the premium streaming service has garnered under 10K DAUs, amid reports that CNN has spent ~$300M on the effort  —  - Fewer than 10,000 people are using CNN+ on a daily basis two weeks into its existence, sources said.
Michael Bellusci / CoinDesk:
Cryptocurrency lender Celsius, recently valued at ~$3B, says only accredited US investors will be able to add new assets and earn rewards starting April 15  —  In the US, only accredited investors, and those with coins already in the Earn platform, will be able to earn rewards.
Zack Seward / CoinDesk:
Circle, which maintains the USDC stablecoin, raises $400M from BlackRock, Fidelity, and others, after raising $440M in May 2021  —  BlackRock and Fidelity headlined the stablecoin issuer's latest funding round, which follows a $440 million raise from last May.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok is rolling out Effect House, which lets creators make AR effects that others can use in videos, to all users after a closed beta test last fall  —  Last August, TechCrunch noted TikTok was working to build its own augmented reality (AR) development platform called Effect House …
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Apple updates iMovie for iOS and iPadOS with Magic Movie, for automatic movie creation from clips and photos, and storyboards for a template-guided approach  —  Apple is releasing an iMovie update today for iOS and iPadOS. iMovie 3.0 introduces two new major features — storyboards and Magic Movie.
New York Times:
Many tech companies, eager to please employees returning to offices, are providing perks like concerts with pop stars, food trucks, and “appreciation events”  —  Tech companies really want their employees to be happy — or at least less annoyed — about returning.
Ionut Ilascu / BleepingComputer:
RaidForums, used by Lapsus$, Babuk, and other extortion gangs, is seized in a US-led international operation; Europol says the hacking forum had 500K+ users  —  The RaidForums hacker forum, used mainly for trading and selling stolen databases, has been shut down and its domain seized …
Cheyenne Ligon / CoinDesk:
Former Ethereum developer Virgil Griffith is sentenced to 5+ years in prison and fined $100K for helping North Koreans use cryptocurrencies to evade sanctions  —  Griffith previously pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to violate international sanctions for giving a talk at a crypto conference in Pyongyang in 2019.
Nikkei Asia:
Major iPhone manufacturer Pegatron, Mac manufacturer Quanta, and iPad maker Compal suspend factory operations near Shanghai amid strict COVID-19 measures  —  TAIPEI — Three key Apple suppliers have suspended production in and near Shanghai as strict COVID-19 lockdown measures show signs …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify rebrands companion app Spotify Greenroom as Spotify Live and integrates its live audio capabilities in the main app minus the interactive features  —  As an earlier report had suggested, Spotify today announced it will integrate the live audio capabilities from its companion app …
Akshat Rathi / Bloomberg:
A look at Stripe's $925M Frontier initiative, which funds carbon-removal startups and has received funding from Alphabet, Shopify, Meta, and others  —  Some of the world's largest companies will spend $925 million buying offsets from startups that remove carbon dioxide from the air.
Jill R Shah / Bloomberg:
Filing: Meta spent $26.8M on Mark Zuckerberg's security in 2021, up 6% from 2020, far above other execs, such as Sundar Pichai ($4.3M) and Jeff Bezos ($1.6M)  —  The cost of keeping Mark Zuckerberg safe keeps going up for Meta Platforms Inc., far outstripping what similar technology companies with high-profile executives are spending.
Eric Migicovsky:
On the 10th anniversary of smart watch maker Pebble's Kickstarter launch, its founder says Pebble failed as it tried to expand beyond a hacker user base  —  I've been giving a talk on the importance of learning from failure to every YC batch for last few years.  I wrote this post in 2017 but never published it.

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:
Fri. 11/15 - Crypto Ascendant
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 7:50 PM ET, April 12, 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

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Andi Ortiz / The Wrap:
Olga Kharif / Bloomberg:
Eli Tan / CoinDesk:
Dina Bass / Bloomberg: