Techmeme
November 18, 2020, 6:30 PM

Top News

Nick Statt / The Verge:
Apple will reduce its App Store cut to 15% from any developer who earns less than $1M in revenue per year from all their apps, starting January 1  —  Any developer that earns less than $1 million in revenue per year is eligible  —  On Wednesday, Apple announced a reduction …
More: Apple, Apple, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, MacRumors, CNBC, The Verge, The Guardian, Engadget, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, MacRumors, CNBC, 9to5Mac, TechCrunch, AppleInsider, Softpedia News, Forbes, CNN, Associated Press, MacStories, Redmond Pie, Apple Terminal, iA, Reuters, Light Reading, Android Police, IGN, USgamer.net, Michael Tsai, Daring Fireball, Nieman Lab, iMore, TalkAndroid.com, Kotaku, Ars Technica, iPhone in Canada Blog, Developer Tech News, iDownloadBlog.com, iThinkDifferent, Gamasutra, TechRadar, The Hill, KnowTechie, Trusted Reviews, Cult of Mac, Input, Polygon, GamingBolt, HotHardware.com News, Patently Apple, MCV/DEVELOP, Wccftech, GamesIndustry.biz, ZDNet, TouchArcade, coinspeaker.com, MSPoweruser, International Business Times, Macworld, Six Colors, The Mac Observer, iPhone Hacks, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, phonearena.com, Apple Must, 9to5Mac, CNET, BBC, and Axios
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Sensor Tower: Apple's move will affect ~98% of developers that pay the company a commission, but they accounted for less than 5% of App Store revenue last year  —  App makers bridled at the 30 percent commission, which has drawn scrutiny from regulators looking into antitrust claims.
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Apple agrees to pay $113M to settle an investigation into iPhone throttling brought by 34 states and District of Columbia  —  Apple will pay $113 million to settle an investigation by nearly three dozen states into the tech giant's past practice of slowing customers' old iPhones in an attempt to preserve their batteries.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google announces a major redesign for Google Pay for iOS and Android and is partnering with 11 banks to launch Plex, mobile-first bank accounts, in 2021  —  Google is launching a major redesign of its Google Pay app on both Android and iOS today.  Like similar phone-based contactless payment services …
Adam Satariano / New York Times:
Over 200 Facebook contract moderators sign an open letter criticizing Facebook, Accenture, and CPL for ending WFH policies and call for better protections  —  Here's what you need to know:  —  Facebook moderators forced back to the office raise alarms about Covid-19 protections.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google rolls out update to Chrome, with pages now loading up to 7% faster, CPU usage reduced by up to 5x by throttling background tabs, and reduced usage of RAM  —  The last Chrome update for 2020 is all about efficiency  —  Google is wrapping up 2020 with what it claims …
Om Malik / On my Om:
M1 completes Steve Jobs' vision of Apple making “the whole widget” for all the devices in the company's product line  —  Even as Apple's final event of 2020 gradually becomes a speck in the rearview mirror, I can't help continually thinking about the new M1 chip that debuted there.
Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
Marissa Mayer's Lumi Labs, now called Sunshine, unveils Sunshine Contacts, an AI-powered contact organizer app for iOS  —  Marissa Mayer shoves her iPhone toward her MacBook's webcam until it overwhelms the screen on the Google Meet video call we are sharing.  —  “I admire Apple,” she declares.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple's iOS 14.3 beta 2 lets users run shortcuts from the home screen without launching the Shortcuts app, making custom app icons more seamless  —  Apple introduced the second developer beta of iOS 14.3 yesterday, and it includes a major change to Shortcuts.
Amanda Macias / CNBC:
Trump says he has fired CISA Director Christopher Krebs, baselessly calling Krebs' previous statement on the security of the 2020 election “highly inaccurate”  —  - President Donald Trump announced Tuesday on Twitter that he has “terminated” top U.S. cybersecurity official Christopher Krebs.
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Welcome, which helps businesses create and host virtual and in-person events, raises $12M Series A led by Kleiner Perkins  —  On the heels of Hopin's $125 million funding round, a newcomer in the virtual events space is gaining steam.  Welcome, led by co-founder and CEO Roberto Ortiz …
Nick Summers / Engadget:
Fortnite now offers Houseparty video calls on PC, PS4, and PS5; users need the Houseparty app installed on an iOS or Android device, which functions as a webcam  —  Houseparty wants to change the way that people communicate while playing video games.  The company, which offers …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Cloudbolt, which helps companies manage hybrid cloud environments, raises $15M in equity and $20M in debt, bringing its total raised to $61M  —  Cloudbolt, a Bethesda, MD startup that helps companies manage hybrid cloud environments, announced a $35 million Series B investment today.

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
Introducing AI Forms: Create optimized forms with AI in Zoho Forms  —  The future of form creation isn't coming, it's here.  Forget everything you thought you knew about building online forms.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
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 6:30 PM ET, November 18, 2020.

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

Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Kate Conger / New York Times: