Techmeme
September 15, 2021, 4:20 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Internal documents: Facebook's own research found that a 2018 change to encourage positive interactions had the opposite effect; Zuckerberg resisted any fixes  —  Internal memos show how a big 2018 change rewarded outrage and that CEO Mark Zuckerberg resisted proposed fixes
Ryan Weeks / The Block:
NFT marketplace OpenSea acknowledges that its head of product, Nate Chastain, purchased NFTs he knew were going to be displayed prominently  —  Quick Take  — The marketplace has acknowledged that its head of product Nate Chastain purchased NFTs that he knew were going to be displayed prominently.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft will now let users access accounts without a password by using Microsoft Authenticator, Windows Hello, a security key, or a verification code  —  You can delete your Microsoft account password  —  Microsoft now lets you remove passwords from Microsoft accounts to embrace a passwordless future.
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Apple's iPhone 13 and 13 Pro are the first to support dual eSIM, expanding on support for eSIM and regular SIM in previous iPhones  —  Apple introduced eSIM support on iPhone with iPhone XR and iPhone XS in 2018.  However, while you can use a regular SIM and an eSIM simultaneously …
Dylan Patel / SemiAnalysis:
Apple, in a first, reported no CPU gains for the A15, likely because of the engineer exodus to companies like Nuvia and Rivos  —  Apple has been long hailed for having the best CPU cores for consumer workloads for years.  They have by far the highest performance per clock and efficiency driven …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Ash Parrish / The Verge:
After being sued by the state of California, Activision Blizzard is sued by a group representing employees, alleging it tried to prevent them from organizing  —  Organized by CODE-CWA, the suit claims Activision Blizzard engaged in coercive and intimidating behavior
BBC:
Google's Grace Hopper transatlantic communications cable, measuring 4,350 miles and operational in 2022, has reached Bude in the UK and Bilbao in Spain  —  A new “massive” undersea transatlantic communications cable has been brought ashore on a beach in Cornwall.
Max Chafkin / Bloomberg:
Book excerpt examines Peter Thiel's support for Trump and partnership with Steve Bannon, libertarian ideology, battles with the IRS, and founding of Palantir  —  In an exclusive excerpt from The Contrarian, a new biography, the disruption-preaching power broker is revealed …
Turner Wright / Cointelegraph:
Chainalysis: Africa's crypto market grew 1,200%+ in value between July 2020 and June 2021 to reach $105.6B; retail-sized transfers made up 7%+ of overall volume  —  P2P platforms, the need for remittances to circumvent restrictions from banks, and putting savings into crypto as a means …
Keith Broni / Emojipedia:
Unicode Consortium launches version 14.0 with 112 new emoji, including multiracial handshake, melting face, saluting face, and heart hands  —  Today the latest emoji list will be released by the Unicode Consortium, with additions including Biting Lip, Troll, Saluting Face …
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Xiaomi launches flagship 11T series, including the 11T Pro with 120W fast charging, claiming 100% charge in 17 minutes, starting at €649  —  A fully charged 5,000mAh battery in 17 minutes  —  Xiaomi has launched its 11T series, the headline of which is the 11T Pro …
Elizabeth Culliford / Reuters:
WhatsApp launches its first test of a public directory for businesses within the app, starting in São Paulo  —  (Reuters) - Facebook's messaging service WhatsApp on Wednesday launched a new feature to make it possible to search for businesses within its app for the first time, the company told Reuters.
Alex Engler / Tech Policy Press:
Review finds at least 700 US colleges use enrollment algorithms that intentionally reduce scholarships, leading to higher debt and lower college completion  —  As colleges look for any advantage in the fierce competition to enroll students, hundreds of institutions have turned to algorithms …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Manchester-based Matillion, which offers “low-code” tools to manage disparate data, raises $150M at a $1.5B valuation led by General Atlantic  —  Businesses and the tech companies that serve them are run on data.  At best, it can be used to help with decision-making …
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
DOJ court documents: three former US intel operatives, who worked as mercenary hackers for the UAE, face charges of conspiring to violate hacking laws  —  The US Department of Justice has fined three former NSA employees who worked as hackers-for-hire for a United Arab Emirates cybersecurity company.

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