Techmeme
September 21, 2021, 10:25 AM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
iPhone 13 review: excellent cameras and battery life and more base storage but front camera is unchanged, has a standard refresh rate, and 12 cases don't fit  —  So are bigger cameras  —  What, really, do you want out of a new phone?  —  Assuming you're starting with a good foundation …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple iPhone 13 Pro review: incredible cameras, improved battery, and high refresh display but front camera is average, no USB-C, and Cinematic Mode is limited  —  The iPhone 13 Pro and 13 Pro Max are phones designed for people who care about the details.  The improvements over last year's iPhones …
Konrad Putzier / Wall Street Journal:
Google says it will buy St. John's Terminal, a 1.3M square foot office building it is leasing on Manhattan's West Side, for $2.1B in Q1 2022  —  Manhattan deal is priciest sale of a U.S. office building since pandemic began  —  Google said it is buying a Manhattan office building for $2.1 billion …
Ryan Weeks / The Block:
Paris-based Sorare, a soccer-focused NFT trading platform, raises $680M Series B led by SoftBank Vision Fund 2 at a $4.3B valuation  —  Quick Take  — The fundraise values the Paris-based NFT startup at $4.3 billion.  — It comes off a period of rapid growth for Sorare, which now boasts 600,000 registered users.
Rolfe Winkler / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple is working with UCLA and Biogen to identify depression, cognitive decline, and other issues using sensor data, such as typing behavior and sleep  —  Company is working with UCLA, Biogen to see if sensitive data like facial expressions, typing metrics could signal mental-health concerns
Pew Research Center:
Survey: 47% of US Facebook users regularly get news on the platform, down from 54% in 2020; 29% of US TikTok users regularly get news from the app, up from 22%  —  More than half of Twitter user get news on the site regularly  —  To better examine the ways Americans get news in a digital age …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Review of iOS 15 and iPadOS 15, which are now available: focus modes are great, Safari update is an acquired taste, and iOS' Dark Sky-style Weather is excellent  —  Apple's latest updates lay good groundwork, but don't add many big new features  —  iOS 15 and iPadOS 15 are strange updates.
Federico Viticci / MacStories:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: the SEC has launched an investigation into Activision Blizzard, including how it handled employees' allegations of sexual misconduct and discrimination  —  Agency has issued subpoena to videogame company and several executives including CEO Bobby Kotick
Pádraig Belton / The Guardian:
As TSMC pledges to reach net zero emissions by 2050, a look at how the semiconductor industry is tackling its huge carbon footprint and resource consumption  —  As demand for chips surges, the semicondutor industry is trying to grapple with its huge carbon foot print  —  he semiconductor industry has a problem.
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
HP announces refreshed consumer devices, including Spectre x360 16" 2-in-1 for $1,639+, Envy 34" 5K all-in-one desktop for $2,000+, and $599 11-inch Tablet PC  —  The consumer PC refresh accounts for Windows 11 and a heavy dose of hybrid work features.  —  HP is revamping its consumer lineup …
Corin Faife / The Markup:
Analysis: Facebook appears to be adding code to interfere with automated data collection of News Feed posts by researchers, such as NYU's Ad Observatory  —  The tweak, which targets the code in accessibility features for visually impaired users, drew ire from researchers and those who monitor the platform
Lisa Richwine / Reuters:
Netflix launches a free plan in Kenya with a quarter of the content from its paid plans, available only on Android phones  —  LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - Netflix Inc on Monday began offering a free mobile plan with about one-quarter of its TV shows and movies in Kenya, a strategy aimed …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Slack announces Clips, short video voicemail messages for channels, rolling out today for paid accounts, changes to Connect, GovSlack, and more  —  Slack is getting video voicemails  —  Slack is launching its new clips feature today, allowing coworkers to record video messages that exist in Slack channels.
Benjamin Bain / Bloomberg:
Coinbase quietly updates its blog to say it is tabling the launch of Lend, a product intended to pay users interest for lending out tokens, after SEC pressure  —  - Company faced threat by agency to sue if it pursued plan  — SEC has taken a tougher line on crypto under Gary Gensler
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Kuo: an iPhone SE with 5G is coming in H1 2022; a cheaper 6.7" iPhone and two high-end models with a punch-hole display and 48MP wide camera are due in H2 2022  —  Following last week's release of the iPhone 13 lineup, reliable Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo is out with new expectations for what to expect from the iPhone 14.

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