Techmeme
February 12, 2021, 4:45 PM

Top News

Sam Shead / CNBC:
Sources: Qualcomm has told regulators around the world, including the FTC and UK's CMA, that it is against Nvidia's $40B acquisition of Arm  —  - Qualcomm has told regulators around the world that it is against Nvidia's $40 billion acquisition of British chip designer Arm, according to sources familiar with the matter.
Kate Klonick / New Yorker:
A look at the making of Facebook's Oversight Board, its members, Zuckerberg's rationale for its existence, and criticisms of the endeavor  —  The company has created a board that can overrule even Mark Zuckerberg.  Soon, it will decide whether to allow Trump back on Facebook.
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Bloomberg:
Sources: US investigators say hardware and firmware of Supermicro servers were tampered with as late as 2018, via chips with backdoors sending data to China  —  In 2010, the U.S. Department of Defense found thousands of its computer servers sending military network data to China …
TechCrunch:
Jack Dorsey and Jay Z create ₿trust endowment with 500 bitcoin, worth $23M+, to fund teams working on Bitcoin development, initially in Africa and India  —  Twitter and Square CEO Jack Dorsey and rapper Jay Z have created an endowment to fund bitcoin development initially in Africa and India, Dorsey said Friday.
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Spotify says it is adapting a Work From Anywhere model and will provide co-working space memberships for employees who choose to work remotely  —  - Spotify is adapting a “Work from Anywhere” model, which will allow employees to choose whether they want to be in the office full time, be at home full time or a combination of the two.
Neil Cybart / Above Avalon:
According to an estimate Apple Watch reached 100M users in December, 30M of which came in 2020; 35% of US iPhone users wear an Apple Watch  —  More than 100 million people wear an Apple Watch.  Based on my estimates, Apple surpassed the important adoption milestone this past December.
The Information:
Sources: Facebook is building an Android-based smartwatch with health and fitness capabilities, which it aims to launch in 2022  —  Facebook is building a smartwatch it hopes to start selling next year, according to people with direct knowledge of the device.
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
AT&T installs fiber for a 90-year-old after his WSJ print ad complaining of slow AT&T Internet service speeds goes viral  —  From 3Mbps DSL to 300Mbps fiber: Aaron Epstein's newspaper ad gets amazing result.  —  When 90-year-old Aaron Epstein bought a Wall Street Journal print ad …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple launches its first standalone Apple TV+ AR app, with a For All Mankind backstory and exclusive content for the latest iPad Pro and iPhone 12 Pro models  —  Apple's rumored augmented reality experience for Apple TV+ has arrived in the form of For All Mankind: Time Capsule.
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon sues NY state AG, seeking to prevent her from penalizing Amazon for alleged retaliation against staff and failures in its safety response to the pandemic  —  - Covid-19 worker safety claims are federal matters, Amazon says  — Company has been at odds with AG since firing worker activists
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
Facebook says it is limiting the distribution of all content posted by Myanmar's military, which has been using the platform to spread misinformation  —  detailed how it's handling the political situation Myanmar in a new post, where it has revealed that it's limiting the distribution of all content posted by the country's military.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Microsoft President Brad Smith says the US and other countries should adopt Australia's proposed media rules, which require tech firms to pay for news content  —  Microsoft President Brad Smith told Axios in an interview that the U.S. and other countries should consider adopting media rules …
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon drivers say Mentor, the company's app to track drivers and score their driving, is often invasive and its bugs can lead to unfair disciplinary action  —  - Amazon confirmed last week it has started putting AI-equipped cameras in some delivery vans.  — It already requires contracted …
Will Oremus / OneZero :
Clubhouse employs an unusually aggressive user onboarding process, pressuring users to upload contacts before ranking those contacts based on total connections  —  The app pressures you to upload your phone's contacts — and makes them visible in surprising ways
William Turton / Bloomberg:
Alex Kantrowitz / Big Technology:

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Earlier Picks

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
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Kerry Flynn / CNN:
Jenny Leonard / BloombergQuint:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Sami Fathi / MacRumors: