Techmeme
February 1, 2021, 6:55 PM

Top News

Stephen Totilo / Kotaku:
Google says it will close its two Stadia game studios, in LA and Montreal, and Jade Raymond is leaving the company; source: the move affects ~150 developers  —  Google Stadia, the late 2019 streaming platform that promised to revolutionize gaming by letting users stream games without needing …
Chris Velazco / Engadget:
Apple releases the first iOS 14.5 beta, which lets users unlock their iPhones with Face ID while wearing a mask if they are also wearing an Apple Watch  —  The feature debuts in a new developer beta, available now  —  While the full release won't arrive for some time …
Peter Rudegeair / Wall Street Journal:
Robinhood says it has raised $2.4B from shareholders, just days after raising ~$1B  —  The $3.4 billion raised since last Thursday is more than the company has raised in its entire prior existence  —  Robinhood Markets Inc. raised another $2.4 billion from shareholders …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Ford says “millions” of its vehicles will run on Android starting in 2023, as it signs a six-year deal for Google Cloud to provide connected vehicle services  —  Google bags its latest automotive partner  —  Ford is the latest automaker to turn its vehicle operating systems over to Google.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook is testing a notification for Facebook and Instagram iOS app users globally that encourages opting in to tracking for a “better ads experience”  —  Facebook is testing a notification that notifies Apple iOS users about ways the tech giant uses their data to target personalized ads to them.
Alex Heath / The Information:
Source: Sriram Krishnan, known for holding product leadership roles at Facebook, Twitter, and Snap, has joined Andreessen Horowitz as a general partner  —  Sriram Krishnan, a well-known tech investor and former product leader at Twitter, has joined the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz …
Kellen Browning / New York Times:
Microsoft's head of IR says Xbox will be in short supply through at least June, after it sold every unit it had last quarter and topped $5B in gaming revenue  —  A month after the holiday season, gamers are still contending with scalpers, bots and immense demand as they hunt for elusive devices.
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
A recap of Elon Musk's Clubhouse appearance, which broke the 5,000 participant limit, pushing some to YouTube, and included an interview with Robinhood's CEO  —  Elon Musk, the founder of Tesla, SpaceX, and many other companies, has mastered the art of using Twitter to harness fans …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Twitter quietly restored a number of high-profile accounts in India it banned earlier, citing a “legal demand”, including Caravan and two politicians  —  Twitter blocked access to dozens of accounts in India, including some that belonged to high-profile individuals in the country …
Byron Kaye / Reuters:
Australian PM Scott Morrison says Microsoft is confident Bing can fill the gap created by Google if it pulls its search services over news payment disputes  —  SYDNEY (Reuters) -Software giant Microsoft Corp is confident its search product Bing can fill the gap in Australia if Google pulls …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Cybersecurity company Rapid7 acquires Kubernetes security startup Alcide for $50M; Alcide had raised ~$12M to date according to Crunchbase data  —  Rapid7, the Boston-based security operations company, has been making moves into the cloud recently and this morning it announced …

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