Techmeme
August 2, 2021, 7:15 PM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google unveils Pixel 6, with 6.4" 90Hz display, and Pixel 6 Pro, with 6.7" 120Hz display and 4x optical zoom, with a Google-designed Tensor SoC, coming in fall  —  Google's new Tensor SoC is the heart of its next phone  —  Google is announcing the Pixel 6 and Pixel 6 Pro today …
Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo:
Google's Rick Osterloh demos Pixel 6's Tensor SoC, which enables real-time object detection and HDR in videos as well as real-time translation and live captions  —  We sat down with Google's phone chief, Rick Osterloh, to see what the Pixel 6 has in store.  —  Alerts
Kim Willsher / The Guardian:
The French government found proof of Pegasus malware on three French journalists' phones and has referred its findings to the Paris public prosecutor's office  —  Announcement is first time an independent and official authority has corroborated Pegasus project findings
Olivia Solon / NBC News:
Female journalists and activists share how they were targeted and harassed by authoritarian regimes through hack-and-leak attacks using Pegasus spyware  —  Ghada Oueiss, a Lebanese broadcast journalist at Al-Jazeera, was eating dinner at home with her husband last June when she received …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
YouTube trials a Premium Lite tier for €6.99/month in Europe, giving viewers ad-free viewing on the web, iOS, Android, smart TVs, and game consoles  —  Currently being piloted in parts of Europe  —  Google is piloting a more affordable premium subscription tier for YouTube …
Politico:
Pro-Trump social network GETTR is awash with Islamic State propaganda, including graphic videos of beheadings and memes of a militant executing Trump  —  GETTR, the new platform started by members of the former president's inner circle, is awash with beheading videos and extremist content.
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
A look at Fuck You Pay Me, a Glassdoor-like service where creators can review brands they have worked with and share ad rates  —  Fed up with the imbalance between online influencers and brands, Lindsey Lee Lugrin and Isha Mehra created a platform to change that.
Greg Ahlstrand / CoinDesk:
Square reports Q2 revenue of $4.88B, up 143% YoY; Cash App's bitcoin yearly revenue was $2.72B, up 200%, as Square's bitcoin holdings had a $45M impairment loss  —  Cash App's bitcoin gross profit rose to $55 million, Square said in its Q2 letter to shareholders.
Aoife White / Bloomberg:
Following the UK's CMA, European Commission is launching an investigation into Facebook's acquisition of Kustomer with a deadline of December 22 for a ruling  —  - EU sets Dec. 22 deadline to examine customer-service software  — EU will also examine Facebook's ad-targeting “data advantage”
Sifted:
Current and former employees at German grocery delivery startup Gorillas describe arbitrary firings and exploitation of riders and warehouse workers  —  “It's like the new WeWork story,” says Ben*, who joined Gorillas' operations team last summer in Berlin.  —  The comparison to coworking company WeWork is a brutal one.
New Statesman:
Investigation: in the last five years, six EU academic institutes received tens of millions of pounds in funding from Google, Facebook, Amazon, and Microsoft  —  The search giant has provided tens of millions of pounds of funding to academics investigating issues closely related to its business model.
Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech:
A now-deleted tweet by an Intel executive suggests Thunderbolt 5 could double the bandwidth of existing Thunderbolt 4 and USB 4 connections to 80 Gbps  —  An executive visiting various research divisions across the globe isn't necessarily new, but with a focus on social media driving named individuals …
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Researchers say a collection of nine vulnerabilities impact pneumatic tube systems installed in ~80% of all major US hospitals  —  Details have been published today about a collection of nine vulnerabilities known as PwnedPiper that impact a common type of medical equipment that's installed …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Facebook to require all US on-campus staff to wear masks starting on Aug. 4, regardless of vaccination status, citing rising COVID cases and local regulations  —  - Facebook will begin requiring all of its employees to wear masks when on its campuses in the U.S., regardless of an employee's vaccination status.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft's desktop-as-a-service Windows 365 Cloud PC is generally available and costs between $20 to $162 per user per month, based on cores, RAM, and storage  —  Microsoft's Windows 365 Cloud PC service is now generally available, and pricing is public.  The service will cost users anywhere between $20 …
Heather Somerville / Wall Street Journal:
Non-VC funds invested in a record 42% of tech startup funding deals in Q2 2021; H1 '21 US startup funding was $150B, with FY 2021 on pace to double 2020's total  —  Hedge, mutual and pension funds are investing heavily, leading to higher valuations and more leverage for company founders
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
Finite State, a supply chain security startup that helps uncover security flaws in device firmware, lands $30M Series B led by Energize Ventures  —  Columbus, Ohio-based Finite State, a startup that provides supply chain security for connected devices and critical infrastructure, has raised $30M in Series B funding.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Tire maker Bridgestone acquires Azuga, a San Jose-based company that offers vehicle fleet tracking, including GPS and dual-facing dashcam setups, for $391M  —  All the sessions from Transform 2021 are available on-demand now.  Watch now.  —  Bridgestone Americas today announced that it has acquired Azuga …
Leah Nylen / Politico:
Sources: FTC's lead economics expert in its antitrust case against Facebook, Carl Shapiro, has parted ways with the agency as it prepares to refile its case  —  Economics consultant Carl Shapiro, who hasn't commented on why he left the case, has a history of ideological differences with agency Chair Lina Khan.

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