Techmeme
February 23, 2021, 11:00 AM

Top News

Gene Park / Washington Post:
Sony says it is developing a VR headset for the PlayStation 5 that will be much less cumbersome than its current PS VR setup and will not be launching in 2021  —  The PlayStation 5 will have its own virtual reality headset, however, consumers may face ongoing difficulties obtaining a PS5 console given a supply chain shortfall.
Georgia Hitch / ABC:
Australia says Facebook agreed to reinstate news content in Australia in the coming days after the government promised amendments to its proposed media bill  —  We acknowledge Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the First Australians and Traditional Custodians of the lands where we live, learn, and work.
Alex Barker / Financial Times:
Microsoft partners with EU publishing lobbyists to push for payment for news content amid Australia's effort to force Facebook and Google to share their revenue  —  Seattle-based company aligns with press industry and exploits rivals' difficulties  —  Microsoft has joined forces …
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Kuo: Apple plans to release two new MacBook Pro models with an HDMI port and an SD card reader in the second half of 2021  —  Apple plans to release two new MacBook Pro models equipped with an HDMI port and SD card reader in the second half of 2021, according to analyst Ming-Chi Kuo …
The Verge:
Epic will give Fortnite and Rocket League players who have bought loot boxes ~$8 worth of credits and set aside $26M+ for claims to settle a class action suit  —  The class action settlement also provides an additional $26 million in benefits  —  Epic Games will give Fortnite players 1,000 V-Bucks …
Eugene Wei / Remains of the Day:
TikTok's networks effects, largely driven by remixability of content and features that interconnect, cannot be easily cloned by rivals to recreate the ecosystem  —  I promised one final piece on TikTok, focused primarily on the network effects of creativity.  And this is that, in part.
Tim Copeland / Decrypt:
Bitfinex and Tether agree to an $18.5M settlement with the New York AG and to stop operating in the state following a two-year probe  —  New York Attorney General Letitia James has required Bitfinex and Tether to stop trading in New York, according to a statement today.
Mickey Rapkin / Esquire:
Profile of Mike Winkelmann, aka Beeple, who has made millions of dollars by selling and auctioning his digital art on marketplaces for non-fungible tokens  —  He's a dad from Wisconsin who drives a “piece of shit” Corolla.  And his brilliantly absurd artwork has made him the face of a crypto market you didn't know existed.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Spotify says it will launch a subscription later this year called HiFi that will offer “CD-quality, lossless audio”; Spotify currently tops out at 320kbps audio  —  Your turn, Apple Music  —  Spotify is going hi-fi.  Well, “HiFi.”  It's taken longer than competitors like Tidal …
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Researchers say China used NSA's EpMe exploit to attack Windows devices for years before the Shadow Brokers leaked the agency's zero-day toolkit online  —  The hackers used the agency's EpMe exploit to attack Windows devices years before the Shadow Brokers leaked the agency's zero-day arsenal online.
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
Gartner: in Q4 2020, Apple sold 80M new iPhones globally, overtaking Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor, increasing its market share by ~15%  —  Apple overtook Samsung to become the largest smartphone vendor worldwide in the fourth quarter of 2020, a feat not achieved by Apple since 2016 …

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:
CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 11/21 - What The DOJ Wants Google To Do
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 11:00 AM ET, February 23, 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

Zachary Fryer-Biggs / Washington Post:
Malcolm Owen / AppleInsider:

Earlier Picks

Jimmy Jenkins / KJZZ:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Bloomberg: