Techmeme
August 18, 2021, 7:15 PM

Top News

Joseph Cox / VICE:
Apple says NeuralHash flaw found by researchers in CSAM detection system was in a generic version of the software and not in the final version it plans to use  —  Apple said the version of NeuralHash analyzed by researchers is not the final version that will be used for iCloud Photos CSAM detection.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Profile of Andrey Shumeyko, who advertised internal Apple docs and devices on forums while being an Apple informant and who says Apple took advantage of him  —  He spent years inside the iPhone leaks and jailbreak community.  He was also spying for Apple.  —  Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
Facebook, for the first time, shares a report on the most widely viewed domains, links, posts, and Pages on Facebook in the US during Q2  —  A video of two cats walking, tails intertwined, looking like the best of friends.  A resource site for Green Bay Packers alumni.
Ethan Zuckerman:
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:
T-Mobile says an investigation found 7.8M current users and over 40M past and prospective users who applied for credit had information stolen in a cyberattack  —  - About 7.8 million current customers had information stolen  — Records from former and prospective users also accessed
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft has made changing default browsers in Windows 11 unnecessarily complex compared to Windows 10, drawing criticism from Firefox and Opera  —  Competitors aren't happy  —  Microsoft's upcoming release of Windows 11 will make it even harder to switch default browsers and ignores browser defaults …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Samsung confirms it will stop showing ads in default apps, including Weather, Pay, and Theme, starting later this year  —  Including its Weather, Pay, and Theme apps  —  Samsung has confirmed that it will stop showing ads in default apps including Samsung Weather, Samsung Pay, and Samsung Theme.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
As Facebook bans the Taliban, Twitter says it only takes action against accounts breaking its rules, and YouTube says it will terminate Taliban-linked accounts  —  Who will control Afghanistan's official Facebook page?  —  Social platforms including Facebook, Twitter …
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Podcasters say Apple Podcasts Connect, a requirement for using its new subscriptions product, is buggy and has a confusing UI  —  In April, Apple Podcasts was poised to revolutionize the industry.  It announced in-app subscriptions, as well as an entirely new backend, representing …
Nikkei Asia:
Recent COVID-19 outbreaks are slowing plans by Apple, Google, and Amazon to shift production from China to Vietnam as governments tighten border controls  —  Suppliers say tighter border controls are hindering output expansion in Vietnam  —  TAIPEI — Recent outbreaks of COVID-19 …
Joseph Bernstein / Harper's:
A look at the focus on disinformation by media, tech, and academic leaders, and how assumptions about disinfo effectiveness echo old media and advertising myths  —  In the beginning, there were ABC, NBC, and CBS, and they were good.  Midcentury American man could come home after eight hours …
Matt Robinson / Bloomberg:
SEC sues three ex-Netflix software engineers and two others for allegedly using confidential subscriber growth numbers to trade ahead of earnings announcements  —  - Group allegedly made $3 million in profits from illicit tips  — Scheme involved illegal trades on subscriber data, SEC says
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Postman, which helps developers build, test, and iterate their APIs, raises $225M Series D led by Insight Partners at a $5.6B valuation, up from $2B in 2020  —  San Francisco-based Postman, which operates a collaborative platform for developers to help them build, design, test and iterate their APIs …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple says FaceTime's SharePlay feature, heavily promoted during WWDC, will not be released in iOS 15, arriving instead in a later update  —  Apple has made the decision to delay the launch of its new SharePlay feature in iOS 15.  The new feature will be available in a later update to iOS 15 …
Lizette Chapman / Bloomberg:
Filing: Palantir acquired $50.7M in 100-ounce gold bars in August, in preparation for a “black swan event”, and will accept payment from clients in gold  —  - Company spent $50.7 million on 100-ounce gold bars in August  — Customers can now pay for software in Bitcoin, though none has
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon is emailing some third-party merchants warning them that Congress' proposed antitrust reforms could limit their ability to sell on Amazon  —  - Amazon is contacting a limited group of third-party sellers to discuss how sweeping antitrust reforms approved in June by the House Judiciary Committee …
Bloomberg:
Sources: several execs at Waymo, which saw a mass exodus of top talent this spring, felt frustrated about the sluggish pace of progress with its driverless tech  —  The world's most famous autonomous car shop has lost its CEO and is still getting stymied by traffic cones.  What's taking so long?
South China Morning Post:
Tencent reports Q2 revenue rose 20% YoY to $21.3B, beating estimates, as profit reached $6.6B, up 29% YoY from $5.1B  —  The Hong Kong-listed company reported a profit of US$6.6 billion in the quarter ended June The results come amid a recent stock market rout for the country's tech sector …

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 7:15 PM ET, August 18, 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

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Jacob Silverman / New Republic:
Olivia Carville / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Reuters: