Techmeme
February 17, 2021, 5:00 AM

Top News

Sean Endicott / Windows Central:
Microsoft begins testing a Kids Mode for Edge, with Bing SafeSearch on and tracking prevention set to strict by default, plus other safety features  —  Kids Mode helps parents provide a more child-friendly browsing experience on Edge.  —  What you need to know
Wall Street Journal:
A hacker claims to have stolen and posted files from global law firm Jones Day on the dark web; Jones Day says a file-sharing company it used was compromised  —  Firm disputes network breach, says its file-transfer company was compromised  —  A hacker claims to have stolen files belonging …
Karen Weise / New York Times:
NY AG sues Amazon, alleging it inadequately protected workers from COVID-19 in Staten Island and Queens, and retaliated against employees who raised concerns  —  The case focuses on two of the company's facilities in New York.  —  New York's attorney general, Letitia James …
Jeremy Burge / Emojipedia:
A look at the new 217 new emojis coming in iOS 14.5, including a syringe without blood, couples with a mix of skin tones, AirPod Max headphones, and more  —  New emojis have arrived on iOS as part of the latest iOS 14.5 beta.  These include a heart on fire, exhaling face, and gender options for the people with beards.
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Microsoft has created a game accessibility testing program, letting studios send in their games for in-person validation based on Microsoft's updated guidelines  —  Xbox Adaptive Controller in 2018, Microsoft has placed a greater emphasis on making its games more accessible to those with disabilities and impairments.
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
North Dakota state Senate blocks bill that would have required app stores to allow devs to use their own payment systems; Epic lobbied in favor of the bill  —  - The North Dakota state senate voted 36-11 on Tuesday not to pass a bill that would have required app stores to enable software developers …
Cathy Applefeld Olson / Forbes:
20 music streaming services have paid $424M+ in historical unmatched royalties to Mechanical Licensing Collective; Apple paid $163M, Spotify $153M, Amazon $42M  —  The Mechanical Licensing Collective has received a total of $424.38 million in accrued historical unmatched royalties …
The Markup:
Survey of 2,200+ Facebook users from Dec.-Jan.: 330+ saw flagged posts about controversial issues, like 2020 election, but “false” label was added only 12 times  —  Data from Citizen Browser shows how rare it is for a post to be called “false”—especially if you're the president
Kotaku:
Sources: Google's Stadia VP Phil Harrison sent an email to Stadia's game studios lauding their “great progress”, despite knowledge of its impending shutdown  —  Developers at Google's recently formed game studios were shocked February 1 when they were notified that the studios would be shut down …
Times Now:
Sources: Indian conglomerate Tata Group is buying a 68% stake in online grocery delivery service BigBasket for ~$1.3B, valuing the startup at ~$1.85B  —  Tata's stake will translate into an enterprise value of Rs 13,500 crore for BigBasket, ET Now reported.
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Amazon confirms it has acquired Australian e-commerce startup Selz, a Shopify competitor that employs less than 50 people and has raised $11M  —  Amazon has acquired Selz, a 7-year-old startup that helps entrepreneurs sell products online.  The deal signals Amazon's continued focus …
Micah Singleton / Billboard:
Triller didn't deny the claim from a source that it inflates MAUs to the public and says there's “no legal definition of MAU/DAU”, ahead of expected SPAC merger  —  “There is no legal definition of MAU/DAU,” says Mike Lu, Triller CEO.  “We are an open ecosystem ... Triller's value is in monetizing users, not MAU or DAU.”
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
LastPass Free users must choose between mobile or computers for unlimited device access starting March 16; email support limited to paid plans starting May 17  —  One of the most attractive features of the popular password manager LastPass is that, if you choose to, you can use it pretty effectively without paying a dime.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Atlassian updates Trello with a visual overhaul, new card customization, and new board views; Trello says it has 50M+ users  —  The app is getting a visual overhaul and new features  —  Productivity app Trello, a virtual whiteboard-style platform for organizing and managing projects …

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.
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.
Zoho:
5 common accounting mistakes  —  This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions.  A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms.  This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(BNS) Brian's Appearance On Daily Detroit
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 5:00 AM ET, February 17, 2021.

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

BBC:
Olivia Raimonde / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

David McCabe / New York Times:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
The Economic Times:
Meir Orbach / CTech:
David Meyer / Fortune:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
@pwnallthethings: