Techmeme
December 2, 2020, 9:05 PM

Top News

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple announces Best of 2020 apps and most downloaded apps: home workout app Wakeout! won App of the Year for iPhone, Zoom for iPad, Disney+ for Apple TV  —  Apple today released its highly anticipated annual list of the best apps and games of 2020.  As in previous years …
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Three Democratic lawmakers introduce a bill that would require stablecoin issuers to obtain a banking charter, approval from the Federal Reserve and FDIC, more  —  A new U.S. Congressional bill would require stablecoin issuers to secure bank charters and secure regulatory approval prior to circulating any stablecoins.
Michael del Castillo / Forbes:
Visa says it's connecting its global network of 60M merchants to the US Dollar Coin, a stablecoin created by Circle Internet Financial on ethereum's blockchain  —  Credit card giant Visa today announced it is connecting its global payments network of 60 million merchants to the U.S. Dollar Coin …
Wall Street Journal:
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
NLRB says in a complaint that Google violated US labor laws by spying on workers who organized staff protests before firing two of them in late 2019  —  Company policies violated labor law, according to the complaint  —  Google violated US labor laws by spying on workers …
Chris Velazco / Engadget:
TikTok appears to be experimenting with allowing three-minute videos, up from its current 60-second limit  —  The beauty of TikToks is that they're (usually) never long enough to overstay their welcome, but a new report suggests the company behind the app is mulling a big change.
Mike Wuerthele / AppleInsider:
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple to release two new MacBook Pros with an all-new design in 2021 and a more affordable MacBook Air in 2022, all with mini LED panels  —  Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that as part of Apple's mini LED push, the company will release a pair of new MacBook Pro models …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Amazon adds webcam support to the 2nd-gen Fire TV Cube, enabling video calls with Alexa-enabled devices, rolling out in the coming weeks in US, UK, elsewhere  —  Call any Alexa-enabled device with a screen, including smartphones, Fire tablets, and the Echo Show
Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:
DHS' IG says it's probing the department's practice of tracking people without a warrant by buying brokered cellphone data, after Democratic senators' request  —  Inspector general to investigate legality of tracking Americans without a warrant  —  WASHINGTON—The Department …
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Google says News Showcase will soon add free access to select paywalled articles, and it has doubled publisher partners to ~400 since its launch in October  —  Google News Showcase visitors will soon be able to read select paywalled articles at no extra charge.
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify says Anchor powered 80% of its new podcasts, or 1M+ shows, in 2020; overall, Anchor powers 70% of Spotify's total podcast catalog of over 1.9M shows  —  Anchor powered more than 1 million show launches in 2020  —  Spotify's $100 million-plus Anchor acquisition is seemingly paying off.
Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:
GroupM expects marketers to spend $110.1B on digital ads in the US this year, accounting for more than half of the year's total ad spend for the first time  —  Digital ads to account for more than half of year's U.S. advertising expenditures for first time  —  For the first time …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Trump threatened in a tweet on Tuesday to veto the annual defense bill, which authorizes nearly $1T in military spending, unless Congress repeals Section 230  —  President Trump on Tuesday threatened to veto an annual defense bill authorizing nearly $1 trillion in military spending unless Congress opens …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Researcher details a zero-click iOS device exploit using Apple's AWDL protocol, now patched, which could have granted access to device hardware and data  —  A Google Project Zero researcher found a stunning vulnerability  —  Ever watch that movie, or play that video game …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Step, a mobile banking service aimed at teens, raises a $50M Series B led by Coatue after growing to 500,000+ users only two months after its official launch  —  Step, a mobile banking service aimed at teens, announced this morning it has raised $50 million in Series B funding after growing …

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