Techmeme
November 3, 2022, 2:05 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Elon Musk plans to cut ~3,700 jobs at Twitter, or half of the company's workforce, starting on November 4, and reverse its work-from-anywhere policy  —  Elon Musk plans to eliminate about 3,700 jobs at Twitter Inc., or half of the social media company's workforce …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Twitter aims to charge for verification as soon as November 7, give current verified users a multi-month grace period, and make the edit button free  —  Twitter Inc. aims to start selling blue verification badges for user profiles as soon as next week, part of a plan by new owner Elon Musk …
Hamish McKenzie / On Substack:
Washington Post:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Gmail now shows package delivery information for order confirmation emails as a label under sender name which is continuously updated as the order progresses  —  Google announced today a small but useful update to Gmail that will allow users to soon be able to track their upcoming package deliveries directly from their inbox.
Kate Irwin / Decrypt:
Meta is letting select Instagram US creators test a toolkit for minting NFTs and selling them on and off the platform, and says it won't charge fees until 2024  —  Instagram will soon have NFT creation and trading tools built in, but in-app purchases will be “subject to applicable app store fees.”
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sony plans to launch the PlayStation VR2 with Sense controllers and stereo headphones on February 22 for $550, £530, or €600; preorders open on November 15  —  Sony will launch its PSVR2 headset on February 22nd priced at $549.99.  The PSVR2 will be priced at $549.99 in the US …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Qualcomm expects to provide modem chips for the “vast majority” of iPhones in 2023, retaining its current foothold after previously planning to supply ~20%  —  Qualcomm Inc. will continue to provide the modem chips for the “vast majority” of iPhones in 2023 …
Reuters:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
South Korea-based Wemade, which develops the Wemix blockchain gaming platform, raised ~$46M from Microsoft, Shinhan Asset Management, and Kiwoom Securities  —  Microsoft has backed Wemade, a popular video game developer that has made aggressive bets on blockchain in recent years …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Google expands Google Play Games beta for PC to the US, Canada, Mexico, Brazil, Indonesia, the Philippines, Malaysia, and Singapore, offering 85 Android games  —  Google Play Games is launching in open beta in the US today, allowing anyone to try out a selection of Android games on PC.
Bloomberg:
Apple's unionized Maryland store files a complaint with the NLRB after Apple withheld medical, educational, and other new benefits given to non-union workers  —  Apple Inc.'s unionized retail store in Maryland is filing a complaint with the National Labor Relations Board after it was excluded …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Roku reports Q3 revenue up 12% YoY to $761.4M, vs. $694M est., 21.9B streaming hours, and 2.3M active accounts added; the stock drops 18%+ on weak Q4 guidance  —  Roku handily topped Wall Street estimates for the third quarter of 2022, as the streaming platform and media company packed …
Patrick Clark / Bloomberg:
Home buying startup Opendoor lays off ~550 employees, or ~18% of its staff, after higher rates and a shift in prices forced the company to sell homes at a loss  —  Opendoor Technologies Inc. is laying off about 550 employees after higher mortgage rates cratered US housing demand.
Elisa Lipsky-Karasz / Wall Street Journal:
A profile of, and interview with, Jony Ive, covering life before and after Apple, his design philosophy, his company LoveFrom, the importance of words, and more  —  can always write an awful lot that I can't draw,“ Jony Ive, the mastermind behind Apple's most revolutionary products, says as he holds up a Space Age-style coffee cup. ”
Ian Allison / CoinDesk:
A financial document details some ties between Sam Bankman-Fried's FTX and Alameda Research; Alameda's biggest asset is $3.66B of unlocked FTT, an FTX token  —  Alameda had $14.6 billion of assets as of June 30, according to a private document CoinDesk reviewed.
Masha Borak / Wired:
Tech insiders and academics say most independent Uyghur-run websites ceased to exist as Beijing's crackdown in the Muslim-majority Xinjiang region unfolded  —  China's Muslim minority used to have its own budding cluster of websites, forums, and social media.  Now that's been erased.

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Earlier Picks

Chris Welch / The Verge:
Karen Hao / Wall Street Journal:
William Turvill / Press Gazette: