Techmeme
November 17, 2021, 5:00 PM

Top News

Ian Sherr / CNET:
Apple announces Self Service Repair, a program starting next year that will publish repair manuals, let customers buy parts and tools, and more  —  The tech giant says it will publish repair manuals and allow everyday customers to buy the same parts and tools certified technicians and repair shops use.
Sam Dean / Los Angeles Times:
LA's iconic Staples Center to be renamed as Crypto.com Arena, sources say in a deal worth $700M+ for 20 years  —  Staples Center is getting a new name for Christmas: Crypto.com Arena.  —  The downtown Los Angeles venue — home of the Lakers, Clippers, Kings and Sparks …
Bloomberg:
Amazon tells UK customers it won't accept Visa credit cards issued in the UK from January 19, 2022, citing high transaction fees  —  - Customers told the change will come into effect in Jan. 2022  — Amazon cites high fees charged by Visa as reason for change
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Instagram says it is shutting down its standalone mobile messaging app Threads by December 31  —  Instagram's standalone messaging app Threads is shutting down.  The app will no longer be supported by the end of December 2021, the company confirmed to TechCrunch after reports began circulating …
Shannon Liao / Washington Post:
Over 100 Activision Blizzard employees staged a walkout on Tuesday, the second in four months, demanding CEO Bobby Kotick step down, after a WSJ report  —  This story has been updated from a previous version.  —  IRVINE, Calif. — Employees at beleaguered video game company Activision Blizzard walked …
Shannon Liao / Washington Post:
A group of shareholders owning less than 1% of Activision Blizzard calls for CEO Bobby Kotick and two of its longest serving board members to resign  —  A day after Activision Blizzard employees staged a walkout and called for the resignation of CEO Bobby Kotick and several other executives …
Wall Street Journal:
Gene Maddaus / Variety:
Miramax sues Quentin Tarantino over copyright infringement for selling NFTs based on Pulp Fiction screenplay excerpts; Miramax says it owns screenplay rights  —  Miramax filed a lawsuit on Tuesday accusing Quentin Tarantino of copyright infringement by selling NFTs based on the screenplay for “Pulp Fiction.”
Axios:
Analysis: the top five most-followed accounts on TikTok do not rank in the top 50 on Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, or Instagram  —  The creator economy has produced thousands of social media entrepreneurs who have built mega-audiences in the millions — larger than many media companies.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Netlify, which offers a cloud-based service for automating web development projects, raises a $105M Series D at a $2B valuation, bringing funding to $200M+  —  Sign up here.  —  Netlify, a platform as a service that builds, deploys, and hosts websites and apps, today announced …
Reuters:
Profile of Vignesh Sundaresan, aka MetaKovan, who bought the $69M Beeple NFT, as customers and investors in his companies say they lost millions of dollars  —  Vignesh Sundaresan, aka MetaKovan, has amassed a digital art collection worth tens of millions of dollars.  His path to riches was sometimes rocky.
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
HaptX, a developer of haptic gloves for VR and robotics, says Meta's prototype is “substantively identical” to tech it claims to have demoed to Facebook execs  —  Meta made a big announcement Tuesday about how it hopes to bring touch to the virtual world through the use …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Cisco reports Q1 revenue of $12.9B, up 8% YoY, total annualized recurring revenue of $21.6B, up 10% YoY, and total product order growth up 33% YoY  —  - Cisco fell short of analysts' estimates on revenue in the quarter.  — The company also issued guidance that missed analyst' predictions.
More: Cisco
Nina Bambysheva / Forbes:
Nym Technologies, which provides network-level privacy through its blockchain-based “mixnet”, raises a $13M Series A led by a16z at a $270M valuation  —  I cover cryptocurrencies and other applications of blockchain  —  Working to make the internet more private …
More: The Block
Joe Woelfel / Barron's Online:
Baidu beats in Q3 with revenue of $4.95B, up 13% YoY, Core revenue of $3.83B, up 15% YoY, and losses of $2.6B; stock down 5%+  —  Baidu, the Chinese search-engine giant, reported a third-quarter loss of 16.6 billion yuan ($2.6 billion) after recording significant charges, but revenue jumped 13% and beat analysts' estimates.
More: Baidu
Brandy Betz / CoinDesk:
Anoma Foundation, which offers a blockchain for exchanging cryptocurrencies at the best market rate, raises $26M led by Polychain Capital at a $260M valuation  —  Polychain Capital led the round, which valued Anoma at $260 million.  —  The Anoma Foundation, a blockchain technology company …
More: Decrypt
Peter Guest / Rest of World:
Singapore, which is often portrayed as an aspiring techno-utopia, is edging closer to a surveillance state amid a nationwide move toward constant vigilance  —  In the “smart nation,” robot dogs enforce social distancing and an app can claim to neutralize racism.  The reality is very different.

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.
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.
Zoho:
5 common accounting mistakes  —  This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions.  A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms.  This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/22 - An LLM Siri But... Only The Year AFTER Next?
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 5:00 PM ET, November 17, 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

Earlier Picks

Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Todd Spangler / Variety: