Techmeme
January 28, 2022, 1:10 PM

Top News

New York Times:
An investigation into the rise of NSO's Pegasus shows its widespread use by the CIA, UAE, Mexico, Saudi Arabia, and others; the FBI bought but didn't use it  —  A Times investigation reveals how Israel reaped diplomatic gains around the world from NSO's Pegasus spyware — a tool America itself purchased but is now trying to ban.
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple removes Python 2.7 from macOS 12.3, asks developers to use alternative languages like Python 3; Python 2 has not been supported since January 1, 2020  —  Apple will no longer bundle Python 2.7 with macOS 12.3, according to developer release notes for the upcoming software update.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple:
Apple reports Q1 revenue of $123.9B, up 11% YoY, net income of $34.6B, up from $28.8B YoY, Services sales of $19.5B, up from $15.8B YoY, iPhone sales of $71.6B  —  Revenue up 11 percent to new all-time record  —  iPhone, Mac, Wearables, and Services revenue reach new all-time highs
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
Alex Heath / The Verge:
Will Cathcart says WhatsApp has no plans for RCS support, as Meta launches its first marketing push for WhatsApp in the US, touting its privacy compared to SMS  —  The Meta-owned messaging app wants to be as popular in the US as it is everywhere else — will a big marketing push work?
Florian Mueller / FOSS Patents:
Microsoft and 35 US states led by Utah support Epic Games against Apple through amicus curiae briefs filed with the Ninth Circuit appeals court  —  [Update] The Biden Administration is also supporting Epic.  [/Update]  —  Apple just reported record numbers.
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
After customer backlash, Google says users of legacy free G Suite accounts will be able to migrate data to free, consumer accounts  —  Last week, Google essentially told free G Suite users “pay up or lose your account.”  —  There is hope for users of Google's “legacy” free G Suite accounts.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
FTC: US consumers lost $770M to social media scams in 2021, about 25% of all fraud losses for the year and up 18x from the $42M in losses reported in 2017  —  A growing number of U.S. consumers are getting scammed on social media according to a new report by the Federal Trade Commission …
Catalin Cimpanu / The Record:
Qubit Finance, a DeFi service that lets users lend and borrow cryptocurrencies, says hackers stole around $80M in cryptocurrency on January 27  —  A threat actor has used an exploit to steal approximately $80 million from Qubit Finance, a decentralized finance (DeFi) platform that allows users …
Daren Fonda / Barron's Online:
Source: White House is readying an executive action to task federal agencies with regulating Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies as a matter of national security  —  The Biden administration is preparing to release an executive action that will task federal agencies with regulating digital assets …
Jonathan Browning / Bloomberg:
Mike Lynch, founder of Autonomy, loses $5B court battle with HP over false accounting; UK government will now decide whether to extradite him to the US  —  Mike Lynch, the Autonomy Corp. founder lost his acrimonious court battle with Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co. over false accounting.
Alexandra S. Levine / Politico:
A for-profit spinoff of Crisis Text Line uses anonymized data collected by the AI-driven suicide chat service to create and market customer service software  —  Crisis Text Line is one of the world's most prominent mental health support lines, a tech-driven nonprofit that uses big data …
P R Sanjai / Bloomberg:
Google to invest $700M in Bharti Airtel, India's second largest telecom operator, for a 1.28% stake; an additional $300M will go to multiyear agreements  —  Google will invest as much as $1 billion in India's second-largest mobile phone operator, as firms race to offer inexpensive data …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Alphabet's Google Cloud division has formed a group to build business around blockchain applications and plans to hire a slew of blockchain experts  —  - Alphabet's Google Cloud division is forming a team to win blockchain business after making a concerted effort in retail and other industries.
Russ Mitchell / Los Angeles Times:
Waymo sues California DMV to keep secret safety details, including descriptions of driverless car crashes, and says the data should be designated a trade secret  —  Waymo, the driverless car company operating an autonomous taxi fleet in San Francisco, is suing the California Department of Motor Vehicles.
Saheli Roy Choudhury / CNBC:
SoftBank confirms COO Marcelo Claure is leaving the company after nine years and names Michel Combes as CEO of SoftBank Group International  —  - Japanese conglomerate SoftBank Group confirmed Friday that its Chief Operating Officer Marcelo Claure is leaving the company following a nine-year tenure.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Three things Web3 should fix in 2022: make crypto transactions safe and reliable, make blockchains efficient, develop tech for mitigating harassment and abuse  —  A viral video highlights some very real shortcomings in the next-generation internet  —  Last weekend, it felt like everyone I knew was sending me the same link.

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:
Thu. 11/21 - What The DOJ Wants Google To Do
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 1:10 PM ET, January 28, 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

Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:
The Markup:
Tom Warren / The Verge: