Techmeme
August 24, 2021, 5:00 PM

Top News

The Citizen Lab:
Investigation details ForcedEntry, an iMessage “zero-click” attack used by NSO Group that circumvents iOS 14's BlastDoor, likely used by the Bahraini government  —  Summary & Key Findings  — We identified nine Bahraini activists whose iPhones were successfully hacked …
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Microsoft says that Xbox Cloud Gaming will expand beyond PC and mobile to its Xbox Series X, Xbox Series S, and Xbox One consoles this holiday  —  - Microsoft said its Xbox Cloud Gaming service will arrive on console this holiday.  — Cloud gaming lets people stream games over the internet rather than install them locally.
Sascha Segan / PCMag:
Testing of carriers across the US shows T-Mobile with a commanding lead in 5G, winning speed tests in 24 cities and rural regions to AT&T's eight, Verizon's two  —  For our 12th annual test, we drove more than 10,000 miles, speed-testing AT&T, T-Mobile, and Verizon 4G and 5G in cities, towns, and rural regions all over the US.
Erin Woo / New York Times:
TikTok partners with Shopify to launch a pilot program letting merchants add a shopping tab to their profiles and link to products in their posts  —  TikTok and Shopify, the e-commerce platform, said on Tuesday that they were working together to add the ability for consumers to shop directly in the TikTok app for the first time.
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify says all US-based podcasters using Anchor can sell subscriptions to episodes available on RSS and Spotify, expanding internationally later  —  Plus new price tiers and email addresses  —  Spotify is broadening the number of people who can offer subscription podcasts and have their shows play on its service.
Patricia Nilsson / Financial Times:
OnlyFans founder Tim Stokely blames banks, including BNY Mellon, Metro Bank, JPMorgan, for its porn ban, but says Mastercard's rules had no bearing on the ban  —  Tim Stokely says Bank of New York Mellon ‘flagged and rejected’ all interbank wires linked to website
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Ramp, which provides corporate cards and spend management software, raises $300M Series C at a $3.9B valuation, up from $1.6B after raising $115M in April  —  Less than five months after raising $115 million, spend management startup Ramp announced today it has raised $300 million …
New York Times:
Apple and Google call on the White House to oppose a South Korean bill, set to face a vote this week, that would mandate multiple payment systems for IAPs  —  A proposal in the South Korean legislature is an early test of how forcefully the Biden administration will defend the companies abroad while trying to trim their power at home.
Michael Finnegan / Los Angeles Times:
FBI says a man phished thousands of iCloud accounts via an email scam where he impersonated customer support, stealing 620K photos and 9K videos until mid-2018  —  A Los Angeles County man broke into thousands of Apple iCloud accounts and collected more than 620,000 private photos and videos …
Charles Riley / CNN:
Brian Chesky says Airbnb will provide free housing for 20,000 Afghan refugees without specifying for how long  —  London (CNN Business)Airbnb has pledged to provide free housing for 20,000 Afghan refugees.  —  CEO Brian Chesky said Tuesday that the program would begin immediately, and that Airbnb would pay for the stays.
Matt Phillips / New York Times:
Profile of Cathie Wood, the CEO of Ark Invest, which manages $85B, whose aggressive bets on Tesla and others have earned her admiration from Reddit traders  —  Ms. Wood says the Holy Spirit moved her to strike out on her own after an up-and-down career in money management.
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
NoRedInk, which aims to improve students' writing through a curriculum that pairs adaptive learning with Mad Libs-style prompts, raises $50M Series B  —  “In order to become a better writer, read your written words out loud.”  —  That's one of the first, and best, writing tips I ever received.
More: FinSMEs
Josh Scott / BetaKit:
Blockstream, which offers Bitcoin infrastructure and apps, raises $210M Series B at a $3.2B valuation and will acquire Israeli mining manufacturer Spondoolies  —  With years invested in building its sidechain-based settlement network, Blockstream has raised significant funding to continue …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Tim Cook, Satya Nadella, and Andy Jassy plan to attend a meeting with Joe Biden on Wednesday to discuss efforts to improve cybersecurity  —  Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook and Microsoft Corp. CEO Satya Nadella plan to attend a White House meeting with President Joe Biden …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold3 review: water resistant with an improved screen feel and multitasking, but terrible under-screen camera, expensive, and heavy  —  As good as foldables get, but is that good enough?  —  The Galaxy Z Fold 3 is the best possible case Samsung can make for a phone that unfolds into a small tablet.
Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg:

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