Techmeme
November 17, 2021, 4:50 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Activision CEO failed to inform the board about allegations an employee had been raped by her supervisor in 2016 and 2017, even after a settlement  —  Top executive didn't inform board of some reports, including alleged rapes; company faces multiple regulatory investigations
Shannon Liao / Washington Post:
Over 100 Activision Blizzard employees staged a walkout on Tuesday after a WSJ report, the second in four months, demanding CEO Bobby Kotick step down  —  This story has been updated from a previous version.  —  IRVINE, Calif. — Employees at beleaguered video game company Activision Blizzard walked …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Meta details a haptic glove prototype that uses air pockets to simulate touching objects in VR and has been in development for seven years  —  A new sci-fi interface for the metaverse  —  You cannot pet a dog in Meta's new, high-tech virtual reality gloves.  But researchers are getting closer.
Kurt Schlosser / GeekWire:
Sean Endicott / Windows Central:
Microsoft shifts Windows 10 from two major updates per year to one, and announces that only Windows 11 will support emulating x64 apps on ARM devices  —  You'll have to upgrade your Windows on ARM PC to use x64 emulation.  —  What you need to know  — Microsoft discussed the status of x64 emulation for Windows on ARM today.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Netflix expands its Top 10 lists to display the most-viewed shows and movies, for English and non-English titles, ranked by aggregate viewing hours  —  Netflix says it's heard the complaints about how it “cherry picks” the self-reported data it releases about content viewed on its platform.
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 …
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Israeli spyware vendor Candiru, recently blacklisted by the US, waged “watering hole” attacks on UK and Middle East websites critical of Saudi Arabia and others  —  Cybersecurity researchers tracked a hacking campaign spanning more than a year that hit around 20 websites.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Qualcomm says its next-gen PC CPUs will be designed by its recently acquired Nuvia team, hopes they will ship in devices in 2023 and be “M-series competitive”  —  Developed by the Nuvia team  —  Qualcomm is looking to seriously beef up its PC processors, with the company announcing plans …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Nicole Wetsman / The Verge:
The FDA authorizes AppliedVR's EaseVRx as a prescription VR treatment for chronic lower back pain in adults  —  It joins a handful of other digital therapeutics  —  The Food and Drug Administration authorized a virtual reality system as a prescription treatment for chronic back pain, the agency announced today.
Charles Daly / Bloomberg:
Microsoft launches a new datacenter region in Sweden that runs on only renewable energy, in partnership with state-owned utility Vattenfall AB  —  - Customers for the centers include Handelsbanken, PostNord  — Facilities to use green energy supplied by utility Vattenfall
Ashley Gold / Axios:
Microsoft and Uber leave the Internet Association; Microsoft says its decision was part of a periodic review to “ensure alignment with our policy agenda”  —  Microsoft and Uber are leaving the Internet Association, a trade group that lobbies on behalf of companies in the internet and tech industry, Axios has confirmed.
More: Protocol
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Brave now has a built-in cryptocurrency wallet, sidestepping the need for extension-based wallets like MetaMask  —  Why use an extension when it's a built-in tool?  —  Brave has announced that its web browser now includes a native cryptocurrency wallet, replacing the previous one that was based on the MetaMask wallet extension.
Celestine Bohlen / New York Times:
As Moscow Metro introduces Face Pay, digital privacy activists express alarm at the implications of introducing city-wide facial recognition  —  The latest example is Face Pay, which replaces a Metro card with facial recognition.  It may be advanced, but activists are sounding the alarm on privacy issues.
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.
Bloomberg:
Celebrity NFTs from Grimes, A$AP Rocky, John Cena, and others have dropped significantly in value, leaving some buyers with large losses  —  Tokens from Grimes and A$AP Rocky fall, leaving buyers with losses  —  Celebrities like the musician Grimes have been quick to cash in on nonfungible tokens …
Bloomberg:
Sources: China is empowering a quasi-government body to certify local suppliers in areas like cloud and semiconductors to reduce reliance on foreign tech  —  - Committee of 1,800 firms will certify trusted technologies  — U.S. blacklisting of Chinese giants adds urgency to effort

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