Techmeme
August 17, 2021, 2:55 PM

Top News

Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google's new $449 Pixel 5a review: IP67 water resistance, big 4,680mAh battery, and top-class camera, but limited availability and only three years of updates  —  Smart updates and a lower price  —  Google is revealing a phone this year where it's pulling out all the stops and going big on a cutting-edge …
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
WhatsApp shuts down Taliban helpline in Kabul that was allegedly for reporting violence and looting, as Facebook blocks other “official Taliban channels”  —  Complaints number meant to act as emergency hotline for civilians to report violence and looting
Bloomberg:
Adam Mosseri says Facebook is “proactively” removing content from its platforms that promotes or represents the Taliban  —  A Facebook Inc. executive said the company is “proactively” removing content from its platforms that promotes the Taliban as the group seizes power in Afghanistan.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
OnlyFans begins promoting OFTV, a free safe-for-work app available on iOS and Android with 800+ videos, as it prepares to raise new funding  —  The most common question customers ask Tim Stokely, the chief executive officer of OnlyFans, is why he doesn't have an app.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
T-Mobile confirms hackers gained access to its systems, following reports that sensitive data, including SSNs, for over 100M people was for sale on the dark web  —  “We have determined that unauthorized access to some T-Mobile data occurred.”  —  Joseph Cox
Ax Sharma / BleepingComputer:
Researcher finds a terrorist watchlist of 1.9M people, including “no-fly” records, on an unsecured Elasticsearch cluster; DHS later took the server offline  —  A secret terrorist watchlist with 1.9 million records, including classified “no-fly” records was exposed on the internet.
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Researchers find a bug in the ThroughTek Kalay SDK, which connects over 83M IoT devices with apps, that lets attackers access audio and video streams  —  A vulnerability in the Kalay platform leaves countless IoT devices susceptible to hackers.  —  A VULNERABILITY IS lurking in numerous types …
South China Morning Post:
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Vienna-based crypto trading platform Bitpanda raises $263M led by Valar Ventures at a $4.1B valuation, up from $1.2B five months ago  —  - Cryptocurrency trading platform Bitpanda raised $263 million in a fresh round of funding valuing the company at $4.1 billion.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple tells staff it will increase COVID-19 testing for corporate and retail employees and pauses relaunching classes at Apple Stores this month in some regions  —  - Company to start testing employees for Covid-19 twice per week  — Apple reverses course on relaunching store classes this month
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Brex, which offers credit cards tailored to startups, acquires Weav, a developer of a universal API for commerce platforms, for $50M  —  Fintech Brex first partnered with Weav, a developer of a universal API for commerce platforms, last summer.  —  In March, Brex launched Instant Payouts …
Samantha Hissong / Rolling Stone:
TikTok partners with Audius, a music streaming service built on Ethereum, to let users upload their music as TikTok Sounds  —  It's the blockchain-powered Audius, rather than Spotify or Apple Music, that will let artists share their sounds into TikTok in one click
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Tinder says it will bring its optional ID Verification feature, which has been available in Japan since 2019, to all members globally “in the coming quarters”  —  The feature has been active in Japan since 2019  —  Tinder said on Monday that it will make its ID Verification feature available …
Reema Al Othman / Bloomberg:
Filing: Saudi Arabia's Public Investment Fund raised its stake in Activision Blizzard by 13% to 37.9M shares, worth $3.6B, in Q2, despite workplace controversy  —  Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund kept buying Activision Blizzard Inc.'s stock last quarter, a commitment that may be tested …
Tweets: @kylebrussell

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