Techmeme
December 7, 2021, 2:45 PM

Top News

Wayne Ma / The Information:
Sources: Tim Cook brokered a secret five-year deal with China in 2016, paving the way for Apple's success by promising to invest $275B+ in the country's economy  —  Interviews and internal Apple documents provide a behind-the-scenes look at how the company made concessions to Beijing and won key legal exemptions.
Richard Lawler / The Verge:
An AWS outage that began around 10:45am ET has led to disruptions for many services including Disney+, Tinder, Roku, Coinbase, Cash App, Amazon Music, and Venmo  —  Amazon says it is working toward a solution  —  Problems with some Amazon Web Services cloud servers are causing slow loading …
Andrew Hayward / Decrypt:
Ubisoft will add NFT items into its games, starting with Ghost Recon Breakpoint on the Tezos blockchain, becoming the first major gaming company to do so  —  In brief  — Major game publisher Ubisoft will implement in-game NFT items into its games, starting with Tom Clancy's Ghost Recon Breakpoint.
David McCabe / New York Times:
Ahead of a congressional hearing, Adam Mosseri outlines Instagram parental controls coming in March, including monitoring time spent and bulk deleting posts  —  Adam Mosseri, the head of the company, is expected to face questions from lawmakers this week about whether social media harms children.
Cho Mu-Hyun / ZDNet:
Samsung merges its mobile and consumer electronics divisions into one business unit led by JH Han, and names Kyehyun Kyung as the CEO of its semiconductor unit  —  The Galaxy-device maker's smartphone and TV divisions will now be run by a single CEO.  —  Samsung said on Tuesday it has merged …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
The Senate confirms Jessica Rosenworcel to lead the FCC, the first female chair in the agency's history, in a 68 to 31 vote  —  She will be the first female chair in FCC history  —  On Tuesday, the Senate voted 68 to 31 to confirm Jessica Rosenworcel's re-appointment to the Federal …
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Hands-on with Snap Spectacles, announced in May: lightweight, bold design, and impressive AR, but overheating and a 30-minute battery is why they aren't on sale  —  Mainstream AR glasses are still years away  —  It doesn't take long to realize why Snap's first true AR glasses aren't for sale.
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Microsoft seizes 42 domains allegedly used by a Chinese cyber espionage group that targeted organizations in 29 countries including the US  —  Microsoft said today that its legal team has successfully obtained a court warrant that allowed it to seize 42 domains used by a Chinese cyber-espionage group …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Twitter acquires messaging app Quill, which will shut down and delete all user data on December 11 after launching in February to challenge Slack  —  In February 9to5Mac reported on the launch of a focus-focused Slack competitor called Quill.  Today Twitter is bringing Quill under its wing …
Wall Street Journal:
Intel plans to take its Mobileye unit public in mid-2022, sources say at a $50B+ valuation; Intel acquired the self-driving car company in 2017 for about $15B  —  Move could value Mobileye at more than $50 billion, according to people familiar with the matter
Kenrick Cai / Forbes:
Anyscale, which helps apps run efficiently across distributed infrastructure with the Ray open source framework, raises $100M Series C led by a16z and Addition  —  The UC Berkeley computer science labs, from which seven academics formed $38 billion data startup Databricks, have minted a second billion-dollar business.
Packy McCormick / Not Boring:
The allure of speculative returns on Web3 is attracting talent, who in turn will create opportunities for more people to earn money by doing what they find fun  —  More fun making money, and more money having fun … Today's Not Boring is brought to you by... Mosaic
Eric Geller / Politico:
White House officials met with Google, AT&T, Cloudflare, Mandiant, and others in Silicon Valley to discuss combating state-sponsored hackers and criminal gangs  —  As cyber threats from countries like Russia multiply, officials met with corporate executives to pitch their vision for “operational collaboration.”
More: SlashdotTweets: @ericgeller, @ericgeller, and @ericgeller
D. T. Max / New Yorker:
An in-depth look at Welshman James Howells' desperate efforts to excavate his local landfill to recover a hard drive with 8,000 bitcoins mined in 2013  —  For years, a Welshman who threw away the key to his cybercurrency stash has been fighting to excavate the local landfill.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Report: the US DOJ has asked Roblox why it changed “games” to “experiences” on its website, and asked Roblox and other developers to clarify the difference  —  The United States Justice Department is investigating Apple for antitrust issues, and Roblox is an area …
Bloomberg:
NFT data shows price differences based on race and gender; the average minimum sale price of darker-skinned male CryptoPunks trails lighter ones  —  Price differences based on race and gender are emerging among the CryptoPunk NFTs.  What do the disparities mean?
Anita Ramaswamy / TechCrunch:
Majority, a mobile banking service serving migrants to the US, raises a $27M Series A led by Valar Ventures, six months after its $16M seed round  —  MAJORITY, a mobile banking service for migrants to the United States, said on Tuesday it had raised $27 million in its Series A funding round led by Valar Ventures.
More: FinLedger and Finextra
Christine Hall / TechCrunch:
Circle, a community platform where creators can manage content and memberships, raises a $24.7M Series A led by Tiger Global at a $200M post-money valuation  —  Having a thriving community is the backbone for creators, but when the global pandemic hit, brands also found that they needed similar engagement …
Bloomberg:
A look at the impact of a COVID-19 outbreak at a STMicroelectronics chipmaking factory in Malaysia, as pressure to increase production overrode safety concerns  —  While companies and governments push to keep supply chains running, ordinary people are the ones putting their lives at risk.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Atomico: European tech startups will raise a record $121B in 2021, up from $41B in 2020, with <1% going to early-stage; 98 unicorns were created in 2021  —  - Start-ups in Europe are on track to haul in a record $121 billion in funding this year, according to a report from venture capital firm Atomico.

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
See how your customer experience priorities compare  —  TELUS Digital surveyed leaders about the tech they're investing in, the KPIs they're tracking and their plans for outsourcing.  Get the results.  No form fill required!
Intel:
Intel Delivers powerful CPUs for AI and Networking  —  With the onset of AI, businesses demand powerful and efficient CPUs.  Explore new Intel Xeon 6 processors, for the broadest set of workloads with leadership performance and lower TCO.
Zoho:
Zoho Sign at Kenya's Digital Trust Forum 2025 organized by Evrotrust and Geda  —  Kenyan businesses and government services are adapting to digital alternatives to explore opportunities in the nation's newly launched ten-year Digital Master Plan.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

The Logan Bartlett Show:
Zach Weinberg (Co-Founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) on The Tariff Trap, Self-Inflicted Recession Risk, and Open AI's Fundraise
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Techmeme Ride Home:
The Nintendo Switch 2
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Trump vs The Media, Round 2, with Sara Fischer
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Spotlight On:
Graphite's Merrill Lutsky on Revolutionizing Code Review for the AI Era
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Darren Farber - The Business of Defense
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
CEO Matt Bromberg on ending Unity's 'war' against its customers
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:45 PM ET, December 7, 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

Kaya Yurieff / The Information:
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Kevin Breuninger / CNBC: