Techmeme
December 14, 2021, 5:25 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Tim Starks / CyberScoop:
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Oppo unveils Air Glass, a 30g “assisted reality” wearable that projects 2D info into the user's FoV with a claimed three-hours usage, coming to China in Q1 2022  —  Coming to China early next year  —  Oppo has announced the Air Glass, an AR device that'll go on sale early next year.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
LogMeIn plans to spin out password management tool LastPass; LogMeIn acquired LastPass, now used by 30M people and 85K businesses, for $125M in 2015  —  LastPass has more than 30 million users  —  LogMeIn plans to spin out password management tool LastPass as a standalone company, it announced Tuesday.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
A look back at tech's three eras, from Bell Labs to Facebook, and why the metaverse is the fourth, defined by its bifurcation with the physical world  —  For the first several years of Stratechery I would write a year end article about “The State of Consumer Technology”; the last one I wrote …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Sources: Instagram passed 2B monthly active users this fall, up from 1B in June 2018, the last time it publicly disclosed the metric  —  - Instagram now has more than 2 billion monthly active users worldwide, according to employees with knowledge of the key metric.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
US OSHA is investigating the collapse of an Amazon warehouse in Illinois caused by a tornado, where six workers died, one was injured, and 45 were rescued  —  - OSHA is investigating a collapse at an Amazon warehouse in Edwardsville, Illinois.  — The facility collapsed Friday as a tornado rolled through, killing six employees.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
The UK's CMA issues an interim report voicing concerns over Apple and Google's “vice-like grip” on the mobile ecosystem, hinting at future antitrust action  —  The UK's antitrust watchdog has given the clearest signal yet that interventions under an upcoming reform …
CoinDesk:
Institutional bitcoin broker and custody services provider NYDIG raises $1B led by WestCap, valuing the startup at $7B+  —  NYDIG said Tuesday it raised a stunning $1 billion in a funding round that will value the firm at over $7 billion - and potentially expand bitcoin's reach into …
Bloomberg:
Sources: the NSO Group is considering shuttering its Pegasus unit and selling the company, amid US restrictions and the danger of defaulting on $450M in debt  —  - Moelis tapped to advise on talks with investment funds  — One plan would repurpose product for strictly defensive use
Eva Dou / Washington Post:
Internal Huawei marketing slides show a broader role in surveilling China's population than it has admitted to, including using voice ID and tracking shoppers  —  The Chinese tech giant Huawei Technologies has long brushed off questions about its role in China's state surveillance, saying it just sells general-purpose networking gear.
Sami Fathi / MacRumors:
Apple delays macOS Monterey's Universal Control until spring 2022, after already delaying it to “later this fall”  —  Apple has officially delayed Universal Control, a hallmark feature of macOS Monterey and iPadOS 15 announced in June, until Spring 2022.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Nike acquires RTFKT, an NFT studio founded in 2020, for an undisclosed sum; RTFKT raised an $8M seed in May led by a16z at a $33.3M valuation  —  Nike is taking a plunge deeper into the world of crypto collectibles, announcing that they're acquiring the NFT studio RTFKT (pronounced “artifact").
Charmaine D'Silva / The Keyword:
Google details Android 12 Go edition, coming to low-end phones in 2022 with faster app launches, longer battery life, better sharing, and more privacy controls  —  Android (Go edition) launched in 2017 with the goal to help more people access the best of Android and Google through affordable, entry-level phones.
Louise Matsakis / The Atlantic:
Investors have poured $1B+ into startups looking to turn mom-and-pop stores into digital retailers and mini-tech hubs, especially in South and Southeast Asia  —  Corner stores don't look like much.  Maybe the one nearest to you has dusty shelves lined with bags of chips and cookies …
Amanda Silberling / TechCrunch:
Twitter rolls out automatic captions for videos, with support for over 30 languages, but not for previously uploaded videos  —  Starting today, Twitter is rolling out auto-generated captions on videos.  This feature will make videos more accessible for Deaf and hard-of-hearing users.
More: The Verge
BBC:
UK MPs propose changes to the UK's Online Safety Bill, including adding more offenses and fines, mandating tech firms appoint a “safety controller”, and more  —  New criminal offences and major changes have been proposed in the UK's landmark Online Safety Bill, which seeks to regulate social media and tech giants.

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Financial Times:
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