Techmeme
June 3, 2021, 3:55 PM

Top News

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Twitter launches its subscription service Twitter Blue in Canada and Australia for CAD $3.49 and AU $4.49/month, with features like Undo Tweet, Bookmark Folders  —  - Twitter Blue is designed for power users who are willing to pay a monthly fee for exclusive features.
WABetaInfo:
Zuckerberg says WhatsApp is working on a Disappearing Mode for messages in all threads, View Once for photos and videos, and multi device support  —  Like Love Haha Wow Sad Angry  —  WhatsApp has unexpectedly reached out to me to confirm that some important features are coming on WhatsApp!
Ian Sherr / CNET:
Apple cuts the amount of time before alerting people to AirTags that may be in use to track them and will launch an Android app for detecting AirTags this year  —  Apple said it's adjusting its approach to its AirTags sensors, changing the time they play an alert when separated from their owner …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Trump shutting down his blog shows the significance of social media platforms' amplification mechanics and how they give free and huge reach to the worst actors  —  What a failed blog tells us about the power of Twitter  —  Last month, after months of hyping up a forthcoming “social media platform” …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Review of Google's new $99 Pixel Buds A-Series: good sound quality, improved comfort, and water resistant, but audio can cut out and ear hooks are non-removable  —  The $99 Pixel Buds are a better buy than their pricier predecessors  —  With the new, awkwardly named Pixel Buds A-Series …
BBC:
Google says it removed diversity strategy lead Kamau Bobb over a 2007 post in which he said Jews have an “insatiable appetite for war”  —  Google has removed its head of diversity over a 2007 blog post that said Jewish people had “an insatiable appetite for war and killing”.
Patrick McGee / Financial Times:
Politico:
SCOTUS narrows the scope of Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, ruling it can't be used to charge people who misused databases they are otherwise entitled to access  —  The justices agreed with a broad range of critics that prosecutors had been misusing the 35-year-old law.  —  The U.S. Supreme Court building is shown.
Associated Press:
EU unveils plans for a digital ID wallet that residents can use to prove their identities and share electronic documents across the 27-nation bloc  —  LONDON (AP) — The European Union unveiled plans Thursday for a digital ID wallet that residents could use to access services across the 27-nation bloc …
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
In an email, Tim Cook says Apple employees will be asked to return to offices on Mondays, Tuesdays, and Thursdays, starting in early September  —  Employees can work remotely for up to two weeks a year  —  Apple employees are being asked to return to the office three days a week starting in early September.
Paul R. La Monica / CNN:
NortonLifeLock says it's adding an Ethereum mining function to Norton 360, its paid antivirus software, initially to a small group of customers  —  New York (CNN Business)Mining for bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies is typically done by companies that own massive server farms operating outside of the United States.
Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Amazon says it will require police departments that need Ring security footage to publicly post requests in Ring's Neighbors app, beginning next week  —  - The change follows criticism of cozy ties to law enforcement  — Police officers must post requests in Ring's Neighbors app
New York Times:
Facebook employees say discontent at the company has surged over its handling of government demands to take down content in India and Israel  —  The social network wrongly bowed to government demands to take down content in the countries, employees said, in more signs of internal dissent.
Shirin Ghaffary / Vox:
Some current members of Google's ethical AI team say they have been in limbo for months and have serious doubts about whether Google can rebuild credibility  —  Six months after Timnit Gebru left, Google's ethical artificial intelligence team is still in a state of upheaval.
Coco Feng / South China Morning Post:
Chinese researchers unveil WuDao 2.0, an AI model they say was trained using 1.75T parameters, 10x more than GPT-3, to simulate conversational speech and more  —  The WuDao 2. natural language processing model had 1.75 trillion parameters, topping the 1.6 trillion that Google unveiled …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Stratechery's Ben Thompson announces a service called Passport to let creators manage their subscriptions and communicate with subscribers  —  Seven years ago, when I initially launched the paid Daily Update, there weren't really any tools designed for independent subscription businesses …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Kamala Harris announces that the Biden administration will make $1B in grants available to expand broadband access and adoption on tribal lands  —  The Biden administration will make $1 billion in grants available to expand broadband access and adoption on tribal lands …
More: StateScoop

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