Techmeme
January 21, 2022, 10:20 PM

Top News

Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Jason Schreier / Bloomberg:
A group of 34 QA testers at Activision Blizzard's Raven Software vote to unionize with the CWA, and ask the company to voluntarily recognize their union status  —  Microsoft Corp.'s planned acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. will come with an unexpected and perhaps unwelcome addition: a small group of unionized workers.
Zac Bowden / Windows Central:
Hands-on with a pre-release mid-2018 build of Microsoft's canceled Andromeda OS for dual-screen devices  —  We take a look at Microsoft's canceled Andromeda OS project.  —  Ever wondered what Microsoft's canceled version of Windows for the Surface Duo was going to be like?
Salvador Rodriguez / Wall Street Journal:
Twitter will let iOS users of its Blue subscription service use NFTs as hexagon-shaped profile pictures  —  Service will be available to some users of the company's Blue subscriber service  —  Twitter Inc. will start allowing some users to use nonfungible tokens as their profile pictures …
Tracy Wang / CoinDesk:
CoinGecko: the cryptocurrency industry's market cap fell to ~$1.8T amidst a selloff; in 24 hours, BTC fell to ~$36K, down 10%+, ETH fell to ~$2.6K, down ~13%  —  Cryptocurrencies are getting rekt.  —  Crypto blue-chips bitcoin (BTC) and ether (ETH) breached key $40,000 …
New York Times:
Twitter terminated its head of security Peiter “Mudge” Zatko this week, and CISO Rinki Sethi will depart in the coming weeks; both execs joined Twitter in 2020  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter shook up the top ranks of its security team this week with the termination of the head …
Reuters:
Investigation finds that Binance withheld information from regulators and maintained weak checks on customers even as it publicly welcomed government oversight  —  In public, Binance said it welcomed government oversight.  At the same time, the firm was withholding information from regulators …
Karl Evers-Hillstrom / The Hill:
Amazon, at $20.3M, and Meta, at $20.1M, spent record sums on federal lobbying in 2021, both up ~7% YoY; Google spent $9.6M, up 27%; Apple spending fell to $6.5M  —  Amazon and Meta, Facebook's parent company, spent record sums on federal lobbying in 2021 as they fought legislation to limit their expansive market power.
Mack DeGeurin / Gizmodo:
Bloomberg:
IBM to sell part of Watson Health, including image software offerings and extensive data sets, to private equity firm Francisco Partners, sources say for $1B+  —  International Business Machines Corp. agreed to sell part of its IBM Watson Health business to private equity firm Francisco Partners …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Google files to dismiss state AGs' antitrust lawsuit and says in a blog post that allegations of ad auction collusion with Facebook are “more heat than light”  —  A lawsuit by states attorneys general fails to provide evidence of anticompetitive behavior, the company says

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
Everything new in the Zoho Sign iOS mobile app  —  Ranked highly in the iOS App Store (4.9 stars), Zoho Sign's mobile app for iPhone is a user favorite.  We're thrilled to share that the app has been enhanced …
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

Techmeme Ride Home:
Why COULDN'T Apple Make An iPhone In The US?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Derek Thompson (Writer, The Atlantic) and Zach Weinberg (Co-founder & CEO, Curie.Bio) Discuss the Tariff Withdrawal and America's Future
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Hard Fork:
Big Tech's Tariff Chaos + A.I. 2027 + Llama Drama
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Great Chat:
The bull case for domestic manufacturing
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Why DOGE is killing the agency that keeps banks from ripping you off
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI's CPO on how AI changes must-have skills, moats, coding, startup playbooks, more | Kevin Weil (CPO at OpenAI, ex-Instagram, Twitter)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:20 PM ET, January 21, 2022.

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

Alana Semuels / TIME:
Jeff Cox / CNBC:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Andrew Asmakov / Decrypt: