Techmeme
February 23, 2023, 4:00 PM

Top News

Shaurya Malwa / CoinDesk:
Coinbase launches Base, a Layer 2 network built on Optimism's OP Stack, offering access to Ethereum, Solana, and others, and has no plans for new network tokens  —  Base is built on Optimism and Coinbase has no plans to issue a new network token.  —  Join the most important conversation …
CoinDesk:
A US court unseals a superseding indictment that charges Sam Bankman-Fried with 12 counts, up from the initial eight, including conspiracy to commit bank fraud  —  FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried faces additional charges, including bank fraud allegations, under a new indictment unveiled Thursday morning.
New York Times:
In its superseding indictment, the US charges that SBF and two unnamed FTX executives made 300+ “unlawful” political donations, including using customers' funds  —  Prosecutors accused FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried and two unnamed people of making unlawful campaign donations using customers' money.
Luca Bertuzzi / Euractiv:
The European Commission bans TikTok on corporate devices and personal devices using the Commission's corporate apps, asks staff to uninstall TikTok by March 15  —  The EU executive's IT service has asked all Commission employees to uninstall TikTok from their corporate devices …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says Sydney is an old codename for a chatbot some Bing users in India began testing in late 2020; sources: Sydney had less personality until late 2022  —  Microsoft's Bing AI chatbot history dates back at least six years, with Sydney first appearing in 2021.
Davey Alba / Bloomberg:
Nicole Carpenter / Polygon:
Valve recently patched a Dota 2 exploit used by a third-party cheating client, created a honeypot to catch cheaters, and permanently banned over 40,000 accounts  —  The update added a ‘honeypot’ to catch cheaters  —  Valve issued an update to Dota 2 recently that patched an exploit used …
Rosie Perper / CoinDesk:
Spotify tests “token-enabled playlists” that let some NFT holders connect their wallets and listen to curated music, starting on Android in five countries  —  Music streaming Spotify is testing a new service called “token-enabled playlists,” which allows holders of non-fungible tokens …
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Jamf finds Mac cryptomining malware in pirated copies of Final Cut Pro and warns the power of Apple Silicon Macs is making them popular cryptojacking targets  —  Update: Apple has now commented on the findings - see the end of the piece.  —  Cybersecurity company Jamf Threat Labs …
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Google expands Magic Eraser, which lets users remove parts of a picture, from Pixel devices to Google One subscribers using Google Photos on Android or iOS  —  Google has announced that the Magic Eraser feature, which tried to automatically remove unwanted parts of a picture and debuted with the Pixel 6 …
Osato Avan-Nomayo / The Block:
Binance closed some derivative trading accounts in Australia after an investigation found the customers didn't meet the criteria for wholesale investors  —  Binance closed the derivative trading accounts of some wholesale investors in Australia after an investigation found that they didn't meet the criteria for such investors.
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Internal FAQ: Google asks Cloud employees and partners in its five largest US locations to share desks and work from an office on alternate days starting in Q2  —  - The company's cloud unit has told employees that it will transition to a desk-sharing workspace in its five largest locations.
Steve Dent / Engadget:
Samsung announces a standardized 5G Non-Terrestrial Network (NTN) modem that enables two-way communication between smartphones and satellites  —  There was speculation that Samsung could use smartphone-to-satellite technology in its Galaxy S23 much like Apple has for the iPhone 14, but that didn't happen in the end.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
YouTube rolls out multi-language audio tracks to more creators worldwide; creators saw 15%+ of their watch time from the video's non-primary language in January  —  After initial testing over the last few months, YouTube is rolling out access to multi-language audio tracks to more creators worldwide …
Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:
Netflix cut its prices on certain subscription tiers across 36+ countries in recent weeks, in some cases halving the cost; Netflix operates in 190+ countries  —  Move comes as streaming company says members ‘have never had more choices when it comes to entertainment’
Ankush Khardori / New York Magazine:
An interview with SEC chair Gary Gensler on meeting Sam Bankman-Fried and FTX executives in March 2022 and October 2021, how tokens are securities, and more  —  As recently as a year ago, Sam Bankman-Fried seemed to be an unstoppable force in official Washington.
Jack Schickler / CoinDesk:
Mozilla Foundation:
An analysis of the top 40 Android apps on Google Play finds that nearly 80% had discrepancies between their privacy policies and Google's Data Safety labels  —  The apps' privacy policies, however, both explicitly state that they share user information with advertisers, Internet service providers …
Adam Rawnsley / Rolling Stone:
Twitter under Elon Musk has yet to publish transparency reports detailing government content removal demands; the company published its last report in July 2022  —  “That shit went out the window right after Elon came in,” one former staffer says of Twitter's previously routine transparency reports
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Ben Rubin, who founded Meerkat and Houseparty, announces Towns, a protocol and a web-based chat app, and raised a $25.5M Series A led by a16z Crypto  —  After launching a pair of well-loved but ultimately star-crossed social apps, Ben Rubin is going all-in on decentralization.
New York Times:
After the US passed the industry-supported $52B CHIPS Act, chipmakers turn cutthroat to snag a bigger share of the federal cash, setting off a lobbying frenzy  —  Semiconductor companies, which united to get the CHIPS Act approved, have set off a lobbying frenzy as they argue for more cash than their competitors.
Max Weinbach / 9to5Mac:
Leaked iPhone 15 CAD files reveal a larger 6.2-inch display, Dynamic Island, a USB-C charging port, and more, after iPhone 15 Pro CAD files leaked last week  —  Apple's iPhone 15 is still months away from being announced, but we have some exciting news to share with you today.

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Mickey Djuric / The Canadian Press News: