Techmeme
September 9, 2021, 10:35 AM

Top News

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Amazon launches the Fire TV Omni Series, its first smart TVs, starting at $410 and shipping in October  —  Amazon is officially in the TV set business.  —  After years of selling Fire TV devices that plug into third-party HDTVs and teaming with TV makers for Fire TV-based products …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Amazon introduces the Fire TV Stick 4K Max, its new flagship streaming device, with WiFi 6 and faster performance, for $55, shipping October 7  —  And it still comes in at an appealing $54.99 price  —  Amazon is today introducing a new flagship streaming stick that joins the Fire TV Stick 4K, Fire TV Stick, and Fire TV Stick Lite.
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Brazil's Jair Bolsonaro temporarily bans social media companies from removing accounts and content that violate their rules, ahead of a presidential election  —  The new rules in Brazil appear to be the first national policy that restricts how tech companies can control their sites, analysts say.
Matt Levine / Bloomberg:
While SEC rules are hazy, Coinbase's Lend product likely does constitute a security; to avoid SEC oversight, Coinbase would need to be regulated like a bank  —  Is lending your Bitcoins a security?  —  Oh, sure, yes, absolutely.  The rule in the U.S. is that an “investment contract,” …
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Coinbase says SEC threatened to sue over its yet-to-be-launched Lend program, following discussions with the regulator that have lasted almost six months  —  Crypto exchange Coinbase CEO Brian Armstrong responded Tuesday evening to planned enforcement by the U.S. Securities …
Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it is testing Communities, invite-only topic-based public feeds curated by moderators, initially limited to a few topics, such as dogs and skincare  —  Twitter is a useful place for following breaking news and keeping up with what the people you're already interested in are doing …
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Twitter begins testing emoji reactions to tweets, starting with five options, in Turkey on iOS and Android for a limited time  —  Starting today, Twitter is testing Tweet Reactions in Turkey for a limited time.  Users in the region will be able to react to tweets using , , , , in addition to .
Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge:
Josh Ye / South China Morning Post:
Sources: Chinese regulators are slowing approvals for all new online games, revealing the move in a meeting with Tencent and NetEase  —  Sources said the move to slow down new video game approvals is in line with Beijing's initiative to reduce gaming addiction in minors It is unclear …
Joseph Menn / Reuters:
Microsoft says it has fixed a flaw that could have let hackers access the data of some Azure customers; Palo Alto Networks reported the flaw in July  —  Microsoft (MSFT.O) warned some of its Azure cloud computing customers that a flaw discovered by security researchers could have allowed hackers access to their data.
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
UK network Three joins EE and Vodafone in adding a £2/day charge for EU roaming starting May 2022; O2 will offer free EU roaming as an add-on for some plans  —  Three has become the latest UK mobile network to reintroduce EU roaming fees, in another post-Brexit setback for customers traveling abroad.
Odanga Madung / Wired:
Investigation reveals how social media influencers in Kenya are hired to spread disinformation on Twitter against Kenyan journalists, judges, and activists  —  It's a lucrative gig for content creators, who can make $10 to $15 a day by smearing journalists and activists on social media.
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Mobile banking startup Varo Money raises $510M Series E at a $2.5B valuation, which it says is up ~5x since May 2020, bringing total raised to $992.4M  —  Varo Bank, which last year became the first U.S. neobank to be granted a national bank charter, announced this morning it has raised …
More: Forbes and Finextra
Damien Wilde / 9to5Google:
Xiaomi says its upcoming 11T flagship series will get three years of OS updates and four years of security updates, matching Samsung and Google  —  Ahead of the release of the Xiaomi 11T Pro and 11T, the Chinese firm is promising extended support for the upcoming duo with three years …
Jamie Crawley / CoinDesk:
Spain's La Liga soccer league partners with French platform Sorare to offer NFTs of all its players, the first major European soccer league to do so  —  Spain's La Liga has become the first of Europe's top soccer leagues to offer non-fungible tokens (NFTs) for all its players.
Dave Nyczepir / FedScoop:
US Commerce Dept. says it is forming the National AI Advisory Committee, which will advise POTUS and federal agencies on AI research, competitiveness, and more  —  The Department of Commerce has set up a committee to advise the president and other federal agencies on artificial intelligence issues …
Cade Metz / New York Times:
A look at Sila Nanotechnologies' new battery model, which ships in the new Whoop wearable and may fuel a change in energy storage for electric cars and more  —  This week, a more efficient type of battery arrives in a wristband fitness tracker.  It could soon reach smart glasses, cars and even aircraft.

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 10:35 AM ET, September 9, 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

Ann-Marie Alcántara / Wall Street Journal:
Ali Watkins / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

David Zipper / Slate:
Sam Levin / The Guardian:
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: