Techmeme
July 21, 2022, 8:35 AM

Top News

Minecraft:
Mojang Studios will not support or allow NFTs, as they “create models of scarcity and exclusion that conflict with our Guidelines and the spirit of Minecraft”  —  Hello everyone!  Recently, we've received some feedback from members of the community asking for clarification …
Stacy Elliott / Decrypt:
Tesla says a “bitcoin impairment” negatively impacted its Q2 profitability and that it sold 75% of its bitcoin, worth approximately $936M, in the quarter  —  “Bitcoin impairment” prompted the sale, the company said.  —  Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin, worth approximately $936 million, according to its Q2 earnings report.
Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
Ofcom: TikTok is the fastest growing news source among UK adults, being used by 7%, up from 1% in 2020; 32% use Facebook, 17% use Twitter, and 16% use Instagram  —  App is used by 7% of adults for news with nearly half turning to TikTokers rather than conventional outlets for updates
Andrew Myrick / Android Central:
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and W5+ Gen 1 chips for wearables, based on 4nm process and debuting in watches from Oppo and Mobvoi  —  The upgrade we've been waiting for is here.  —  What you need to know  — Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon W5 platform for wearables.
Erin Woo / The Information:
Google says it will pause hiring for two weeks, except for offers that have already been made, after saying last week it would slow hiring for the rest of 2022  —  Google said it will pause hiring for two weeks, after saying last week it would slow its pace of hiring for the rest of the year.
Dylan Patel / SemiAnalysis:
A chip teardown shows that China's SMIC is quietly shipping 7nm chips; SMIC is rapidly approaching as the world's third largest foundry, behind TSMC and Samsung  —  The Most Advanced Foundry In The World After TSMC And Samsung  —  SMIC, China's largest foundry has slowly been catching up to TSMC …
Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
An interview with Alexa smart home director Marja Koopmans on how embracing the Matter standard can help Amazon realize its vision of ambient intelligence  —  The director of Alexa smart home explains how Matter can help realize Amazon's vision of ambient intelligence
Bloomberg:
Amazon spent a record $4.98M on lobbying in Q2 2022, up 2.5% YoY, Google spent $2.77M, up 32% YoY, Microsoft $2.41M, down 2.4% YoY and Apple $1.9M  —  Amazon.com Inc. spent a record $4.98 million on lobbying during the second quarter of this year as momentum intensified in Congress …
More: 9to5Mac
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch:
OpenAI makes DALL-E 2 widely available in beta through a credit-based fee structure; users will get free credits every month and can buy more in $15 increments  —  Today, DALL-E 2, OpenAI's AI system that can generate images given a prompt or edit and refine existing images, is becoming more widely available.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
15Five, which builds HR software used at Spotify, Credit Karma, and other companies, has raised a $52M Series C led by Quad Partners  —  15Five — an early mover in the world of building technology to help motivate teams, and to improve performance management for execs overseeing those teams …
Bloomberg:
Jason Calacanis says litigation, and possibly criminal charges, await the companies and “grifting” VCs that knowingly flipped crypto tokens to retail investors  —  Watch out venture capital, the regulators are coming.  —  That's the warning from long-time angel investor Jason Calacanis …
Jasmine Hicks / The Verge:
The new Google Wallet rolls out to all users with Android 5.2+, available as a separate app in the US and Singapore and as a Google Pay update for others  —  Google Wallet will be a separate app for US and Singapore users and a simple Google Pay update for others
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
Meta and Google's content rules are restrictive for many abortion-rights groups worldwide, while abortion ads on Google aren't permitted in dozens of countries  —  Poland's biggest protests since the fall of communism broke out in October 2020, after a court decision rendered nearly all abortions in the country illegal.
Alexandra Alper / Reuters:
Sources: US is probing Huawei over concerns that gear in cell towers could capture sensitive info from military bases and missile silos and transmit it to China  —  The Biden administration is investigating Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei over concerns that U.S. cell towers fitted …

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:
Planned US Data Center Maintenance on 23rd and 30th November 2024, between 08.30PM to 00.30AM PST  —  Dear Customers, Our annual infrastructure maintenance for our US Data Center is scheduled for 23rd November 2024 …
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:
Tue. 11/12 - Apple Into The Smarthome
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 8:35 AM ET, July 21, 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

Rebecca Klar / The Hill:

Earlier Picks

José Adorno / 9to5Mac:
Kevin McLaughlin / The Information:
The Verge:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: