Techmeme
September 23, 2021, 6:30 PM

Top News

Associated Press:
European Commission proposes legislation mandating USB-C charging for mobile devices, citing electronic waste; Apple is the main USB-C holdout  —  LONDON (AP) — The European Union unveiled plans Thursday that would require smartphone makers to adopt a single charging method for mobile devices.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Google details several accessibility features coming to Android 12, including facial gesture controls, handwriting recognition, and an app for low-vision users  —  Alongside new Assistant and Gboard additions  —  Google's raft of new features coming to Android this fall includes some interesting new accessibility features.
Florence Ion / Gizmodo:
Google announces a range of features for Android, Google TV, Assistant, and Gboard, including some that were previously Pixel exclusives  —  The company just pushed out over a dozen new Android features, including some we thought would be limited to Android 12.  —  Alerts
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter integrates Strike's wallet to let users receive tips in bitcoin, rolls out Tips globally on iOS, and will explore support for NFT authentication  —  Twitter's slate of new product announcements is not slowing down.  The company today introduced a number of new initiatives aimed …
Cristiano Lima / Washington Post:
Sen. Marsha Blackburn says WSJ's Facebook Files whistleblower has turned over documents and plans to reveal their identity “at some point down the line”  —  Happy Thursday and welcome to The Technology 202!  Below: Meet “Help Desk,” a new initiative our colleagues are launching …
Casey Newton / Platformer:
WSJ's Facebook Files, which uses Facebook's own data and research to highlight its impact on users, is Facebook's biggest crisis since Cambridge Analytica  —  How the company found itself in its biggest crisis since Cambridge Analytica  —  A week ago, the Wall Street Journal began to publish …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Facebook says its global head of safety, Antigone Davis, will testify before the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection on September 30  —  - Facebook agreed to send Antigone Davis, global head of safety, to testify before the Senate Commerce subcommittee on consumer protection on Sept. 30.
Washington Post:
Researchers: despite Apple's ATT changes, at least three popular iOS apps are sending identifying info to third-parties even when users opt-out of tracking  —  On your iPhone, you can now tap a button that says, “Ask app not to track.”  But behind the scenes, some apps keep snooping anyway.
Bloomberg:
New York City passes bills establishing minimum pay and worker protections for app-based couriers, including those working for Grubhub, Uber, and DoorDash  —  - Legislation includes setting a minimum per-trip payment  — Couriers and customers will be granted more tip transparency
The Verge:
Tim Sweeney says Apple told Epic that it will not consider reinstating Epic's developer account until all legal appeals have concluded, likely years from now  —  Epic CEO Tim Sweeney revealed the conversation in a series of tweets  —  Fortnite will not be returning to the iOS App Store any time soon …
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
New York-based Ocrolus, which offers automated tools for businesses to process documents, raises $80M Series C at a $500M+ valuation led by Fin VC  —  If you've ever had to take out a loan, you know just how many documents are involved in the approval process.  —  It's a lot.
Jay Greene / Washington Post:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs a bill requiring Amazon and other employers to disclose the use of productivity quotas and more, starting January 1  —  Gov. Gavin Newsom says the new law, which targeted Amazon, will protect workers and give them “the dignity, respect and safety they deserve.”
Ben Bajarin / Creative Strategies:
Analysis: Apple Silicon averaged 19% GPU gains YoY for the past five years, and A15 grew 52%; since iPhone 5s, performance has grown 133% every four years  —  For years now, Apple's tight integration of its products and Apple Silicon have evolved in lockstep.
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Twitter plans to stop tweets from disappearing when the timeline auto-refreshes, in a series of updates over the next two months  —  address a longstanding complaint people have had with its mobile app.  If you use the software frequently, you may have noticed tweets will sometimes disappear …
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Apple releases iOS 12.5.5 and a macOS Catalina security update to fix zero-day vulnerabilities in CoreGraphics, WebKit, and XNU  —  Apple has released security updates to fix three zero-day vulnerabilities exploited in the wild by attackers to hack into iPhones and Macs running older iOS and macOS versions.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
In a memo, Lina Khan encourages FTC staff to prioritize addressing “dominant intermediaries”, unfair contracts, and mergers that are “illegal on their face”  —  - Federal Trade Commission Chair Lina Khan encouraged her staff to prioritize addressing “dominant intermediaries” …
Yong Jun Yuan / The Business Times:
Advance Intelligence, the Singapore-based parent company of buy now, pay later service Atome, raises $400M Series D led by SoftBank VF 2 at a $2B valuation  —  ADVANCE Intelligence Group, a Singapore-headquartered artificial intelligence (AI) tech startup announced on Wednesday that it had closed …
More: Bloomberg
Ian Carlos Campbell / The Verge:
Apple releases StoreKit 2 alongside iOS 15, letting developers quickly access a user's purchase history, letting users request a refund in-app, and more  —  Refunds and subscription management  —  As part of this week's launch of iOS 15, iPadOS 15, and watchOS 8, Apple also introduced StoreKit 2 …
Source: Apple DeveloperMore: iMore
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Facebook details the types of posts that get demoted in News Feed, such as clickbait and spam, but stops short of saying exactly how a demotion works  —  A high-level look at what gets suppressed by Facebook's algorithm  —  The way that Facebook controls its News Feed is often controversial and largely opaque to the outside world.

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