Techmeme
February 17, 2021, 8:15 AM

Top News

Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
Epic Games files a formal antitrust complaint against Apple to the European Commission, claiming that Apple imposes commercially unviable burdens on rivals  —  Filing is latest shot in escalating feud between ‘Fortnite’ developer and Silicon Valley giant  —  Epic Games has filed …
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 …
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.
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 …
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.
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 …
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 …
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 …
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.”
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
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 …
Emil Protalinski / GeekWire:
IDC: Chrome OS annual market share passed macOS for the first time in 2020, up 4.4% YoY to 10.8%, Windows fell 4.9% YoY to 80.5%, macOS up 0.8% YoY to 7.5%  —  New numbers show 2020 was the first year that Chromebooks outsold Macs, posting impressive market share gains at the expense of Windows.
More: iMore and 9to5GoogleThanks:@toddbishop
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 …
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.
Danielle Bochove / Bloomberg:
Shopify beats estimates with Q4 revenue of $977.7M, up 94% YoY, profit of $504.4M, up 91% YoY, and Gross Merchandise Volume of $41.1B, up 99% YoY  —  - Vaccine for Covid-19 could moderate strength of e-commerce  — Firm expects subscription growth from international merchants

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