Techmeme
October 2, 2021, 6:30 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Google scraps plans for mobile-first bank accounts service Plex; sources say the move follows April departure of a Google Pay exec who championed the project  —  Tech giant had partnered with Citigroup and other banks on ‘Plex’ accounts that would sync with Google Pay
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Coinbase says a threat actor stole cryptocurrency from 6,000 customers between March and May 20 using a vulnerability in its SMS multi-factor authentication  —  Crypto exchange Coinbase disclosed that a threat actor stole cryptocurrency from 6,000 customers after using a vulnerability to bypass …
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Senators grilled Facebook exec Antigone Davis at a hearing about Instagram's impact on teens and were frustrated by her reticence to answer questions directly  —  Last night, Facebook published two annotated slide decks in an attempt to contextualize the documents that the Wall Street Journal published …
New York Times:
Sources: emergency meetings continue inside Facebook amid WSJ exposé, as some research staff decry Facebook's public response in group chats  —  The social network has been all hands on deck as it grapples with revelations that it knew the harmful effects its Instagram photo-sharing app was having on teenagers.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple rolls out iOS 15.0.1 and iPadOS 15.0.1, with bug fixes for multiple issues, including Unlock with Apple Watch on iPhone 13  —  One week after the release of the iPhone 13 and iOS 15, Apple is rolling out a bug fix update with some notable improvements. iOS 15..1 and iPadOS 15..1 …
Sean Lyngaas / CNN:
President Biden to convene a 30-country meeting this month to try to ramp up global efforts to address the ransomware threat  —  (CNN)The White House will convene a 30-country meeting this month to try to ramp up global efforts to address the threat of ransomware to economic and national security …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft details Office 2021 features and pricing ahead of Oct. 5 release: Office Home and Student will cost $150 and Office Home and Business will cost $250  —  Microsoft is launching Office 2021 on October 5th, and the company is finally detailing the features and pricing today.
Carolina Milanesi / Fast Company:
Amazon Astro review: impressive autonomous navigation skills, reasonable price for the tech, attractive design, but its daily utility is questionable  —  In a two-week trial, Astro was surprisingly endearing and avoided hazards such as pets and stairs.  But I still don't know what I'd do with one.
Josef Adalian / Vulture:
South Korean show Squid Game, topping Netflix charts in 90 countries, vindicates Netflix's strategy of creating franchises using content from around the world  —  At your service.  —  This story also ran in Buffering, Vulture's newsletter about the streaming industry.  Head to vulture.com/buffering and subscribe today!
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Vareto, which makes software to help companies with financial planning, raises $4.2M seed led by Menlo Ventures and $20M Series A led by GV  —  Vareto, a startup aiming to help companies conduct more forward-looking financial planning and analysis, is coming out of stealth today with $24 million in total funding.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Google announces a $1M sponsorship for Linux Foundation's Secure Open Source, a new pilot program to enhance the security of critical open source projects  —  Google has announced today a $1 million sponsorship for a new pilot program aimed at enhancing the security of critical open source software projects.
Steve Kovach / CNBC:
Amazon's new PC game New World is a hit, with hundreds of thousands on Steam playing it at any given time, representing a leap for Amazon's gaming ambitions  —  - Amazon released a new video game for PCs this week called “New World.”  — The game is already a smash hit …
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
The new tab design in Safari 15 for macOS makes usability worse and shows a complete disregard for the familiarity users had with Safari's previous tab design  —  Safari 15 on iPad suffers similarly, but it's the Mac version I'll concentrate on here.  —  The most controversial Mac Safari changes shown …
Kaya Genç / Rest of World:
As Istanbul becomes the world's capital of casual mobile gaming, with an estimated size of $880M in 2020, a look at the industry's exploitative labor practices  —  Overworked and underpaid engineers are helping fuel Istanbul's mobile gaming bonanza.  —  • ISTANBUL, TURKEY
Tarush Bhalla / Livemint:
MFine, a Bangalore-based on-demand healthcare platform, raises $48M Series C co-led by Moore Strategic Ventures and BEENEXT, sources say at a $450M+ valuation  —  BENGALURU: Digital health platform MFine has raised $48 million as part of its Series C round, co-led by Moore Strategic Ventures and BEENEXT.
Joel Stinnett / Nashville Business Journal:
Nashville-based Built Technologies, which provides cloud-based construction lending software, raises $125M Series D led by TCV at a $1.5B valuation  —  Music City is home to Titans, Predators — and now, unicorns.  —  Nashville-based fintech Built Technologies has secured a $125 million round of funding …
More: Built and Bloomberg
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Biden administration is considering ways to impose bank-like regulation on stablecoin issuers, including prodding them to register as banks  —  Move would aim to address concerns that the digital currency could fuel financial panics  —  WASHINGTON—The Biden administration …

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Earlier Picks

The Markup:
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
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Aislinn Keely / The Block: