Techmeme
August 31, 2021, 10:55 PM

Top News

Jiyoung Sohn / Wall Street Journal:
South Korea's National Assembly passes a bill that forces Apple and Google to allow alternative payment systems in their app stores  —  Seoul requires the companies to allow competing payment systems, threatening their 30% cut of most in-app digital sales  —  SEOUL—Google and Apple Inc …
Bloomberg:
Source: Apple's upcoming Watch is suffering production snags as manufacturers adjust to a new design, likely leading to supply constraints or shipment delays  —  - Revamped device has a larger screen and other new features  — Wearables category has been one of fastest-growing for Apple
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Apple bars staff from making a Slack channel about pay equity; Apple says it's because it's not work related, despite other channels on pets and jokes  —  The company's rules around Slack usage are not being evenly enforced  —  Apple has barred employees from creating a Slack channel to discuss pay equity.
New York Times:
Investigation shows Accenture is Facebook's biggest content moderation partner, employing over a third of its moderators, with annual contracts exceeding $500M  —  The social network has constructed a vast infrastructure to keep toxic material off its platform.  At the center of it is Accenture, the blue-chip consulting firm.
Garett Sloane / Ad Age:
LinkedIn is abandoning its Stories format at the end of September and has told advertisers to adjust their ad campaigns accordingly  —  Brands will have to adjust ad campaigns when video format leaves the platform after September  —  LinkedIn is telling advertisers to prepare for the end …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says Windows 11 will not support Android apps at launch on October 5; support for Android apps will likely arrive in 2022  —  Microsoft will start testing Android apps on Windows 11 in the coming months  —  Microsoft won't ship support for Android apps on Windows 11 in time for the operating system's launch on October 5th.
Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Sundar Pichai informs Google employees that plans to return to offices are being pushed back again, from October to January 10  —  Google is pushing back its return-to-office date by three months, to Jan. 10, in a decision that reflects the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant of the coronavirus.
Scott Chipolina / Decrypt:
El Salvador's plan to make Bitcoin legal tender has been unpopular, with protests over concerns of money laundering, forcing trade in BTC, unconstitutionality  —  El Salvador will soon accept Bitcoin as legal tender, but not everybody shares the President's enthusiasm as citizens took to the streets this week.
Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
United Talent Agency signs NFT art projects CryptoPunks, Meebits, and Autoglyphs, all created by Larva Labs, for representation across film, TV, games, and more  —  The agency will represent the crypto-art projects from Larva Labs for film, TV, video games, and publishing projects …
Vildana Hajric / Bloomberg:
FTX acquires US-regulated crypto derivatives exchange LedgerX for an undisclosed sum, to expand its futures and options products in the US  —  - Strategy is to offer array of assets in regulated markets  — Majority of global crypto volume trades through derivatives
TechCrunch:
Roundup of 180+ companies that launched at YC's Summer 2021 Demo Day 1, including food delivery, investment, edtech, AI, and payment startups  —  Today Y Combinator kicked off the Demo Day cycle for its Summer 2021 cohort.  The collection of early-stage startups on day one-of-two alone numbered …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: Amazon is developing a live audio feature, led by its Music division, with a focus on live music and potentially radio and podcasts  —  Amazon is investing heavily in a new live audio feature that's similar to other live audio offerings like Clubhouse, Twitter Spaces and Spotify's new live audio platform, sources tell Axios.
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Alpaca, which offers APIs for fintech apps to connect and trade in US stocks, raises $50M Series B led by Tribe Capital and says it is expanding into crypto  —  Alpaca said this morning that it has closed a massive $50 million Series B round of capital.  TechCrunch previously covered …
Bloomberg:
Checkr, whose tech for employment background checks is used by Uber, Airbnb, and others, raises a $250M round led by Durable Capital at a $4.6B valuation  —  Checkr, a technology platform for employment background checks, has raised $250 million in a financing round that more than doubles its valuation from earlier this year.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Source: Facebook plans to downrank current events content and political posts in the News Feed, after users approved of tests that limited such content  —  Facebook plans to announce that it will de-emphasize political posts and current events content in the News Feed based on negative user feedback, Axios has learned.
Riley de León / CNBC:
Data analytics company Databricks raises $1.6B Series H led by Morgan Stanley's Counterpoint Global fund at a $38B valuation, up $10B from February  —  - Databricks has raised a $1.6 billion Series H funding round that boosts its valuation to $38 billion.  — Its latest funding round …
Mark Scott / Politico:
Facebook says it accidentally removed thousands of posts around the Jan. 6 riots from Crowdtangle, blaming a now fixed error that has existed since at least May  —  The social media company said it was a technical error, and has been fixed, but tens of thousands of posts are still missing.

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.
Zoho:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
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 10:55 PM ET, August 31, 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

Earlier Picks

MIT Technology Review: