Techmeme
January 27, 2022, 4:30 PM

Top News

Anne Steele / Wall Street Journal:
Spotify is removing Neil Young's music after he gave the company an ultimatum between his music and Joe Rogan's podcast with COVID-19 vaccine misinformation  —  Folk-rock star had over six million monthly listeners on the service, which he blames for spreading fake info about vaccines
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
iOS 15.4 beta adds Face ID use with a mask for iPhone 12 and newer, without needing Apple Watch authentication, by recognizing “unique features around the eye”  —  The iOS 15.4 beta that was introduced today added a new feature designed to allow Face ID to be used with a mask and without an Apple Watch for authentication.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
iPadOS 15.4 and macOS Monterey 12.3 betas add the long-delayed Universal Control, which lets users control nearby Macs and iPads with a single mouse or keyboard  —  The iPadOS 15.4 and macOS Monterey 12.3 betas that Apple released today introduce support for Universal Control …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is working to let businesses accept payments on their iPhones without extra hardware, thanks to tech from Mobeewave, which it acquired in 2020  —  Apple Inc. is planning a new service that will let small businesses accept payments directly on their iPhones without any extra hardware …
Derrek Lee / Android Central:
Meta rebrands Oculus Quest as Meta Quest, leading to criticism on social media; the rebrand was originally announced in October  —  “Meta Quest” is just so fetch.  —  What you need to know  — Meta changes the social media accounts of its VR brand to Meta Quest.
CNBC:
Sources: SoftBank COO Marcelo Claure is leaving as soon as today; reports said Claure wanted $2B in compensation and clashed with Son over his responsibilities  —  - SoftBank COO Marcelo Claure is leaving SoftBank today, sources say.  — Claure took over running WeWork after founder Adam Neumann stepped down.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
The US FCC approves “nutrition labels” forcing ISPs to show prices, speed, and more, plus network management practices like throttling, starting on November 15  —  It's part of the Biden administration's plan to boost market competition  —  Understanding your broadband speeds …
Wall Street Journal:
Source: Meta-backed Diem Association is selling its technology to California bank Silvergate Capital, which serves crypto companies, for ~$200M  —  Diem Association is selling its technology to crypto-focused bank Silvergate Capital for $200 million  —  Facebook's ambitious effort to bring cryptocurrency to the masses has failed.
David Yaffe-Bellany / New York Times:
A growing number of US mayors are embracing crypto and blockchain tech, hoping to create revenue streams with NFTs or mining, attract tech talent, and more  —  This new political breed accepts paychecks in Bitcoin.  The mayors also want to use buzzy new tech like NFTs to raise money for public projects.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Adobe-led tech coalition finalizes a digital content provenance standard, identifying how a photo or video was created and subsequent edits, to catch deepfakes  —  As part of its effort to fight deepfakes, a coalition of tech companies led by Adobe has finalized the details for a standard …
Reuters:
The FCC revokes China Unicom's authorization to operate in the US, granted ~20 years ago, citing national security; Unicom can still offer data center services  —  The U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) on Thursday voted to revoke the authorization for China Unicom's (0762.HK) U.S. unit to operate in the United States.
More: Axios
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
France-based Sigfox, which raised $300M+ to build a global IoT communications network, files for bankruptcy, citing slow sales and an electronics shortage  —  We are continuing to see fallout from the Covid-19 pandemic and its impact on the tech industry, with one of the latest developments coming out from France.
Will Douglas Heaven / MIT Technology Review:
OpenAI says InstructGPT, its new GPT-3 version, is better at following instructions, producing less offensive language, less misinformation, and fewer mistakes  —  OpenAI has trained its flagship language model to follow instructions, making it spit out less unwanted text—but there's still a way to go.
Maggie Fitzgerald / CNBC:
Robinhood Q4: revenue of $363M, up 14% YoY, 2021 revenue of $1.82B, up 89% YoY, net loss of $423M, MAUs up 48% to 17.3M; stock down 14%+ on weak Q1 guidance  —  Stock-trading app Robinhood gave a bleak revenue forecast for the first quarter of 2022 on Thursday.  —  Shares of Robinhood tanked 9% in after hours trading.
More: RobinhoodTweets: @ericnewcomer
Evgenia Pismennaya / Bloomberg:
Sources: Putin plans to tax and regulate crypto mining, confining it to regions with electricity surpluses and rejecting the central bank's proposal for a ban  —  President Vladimir Putin backs a Russian government proposal to tax and regulate mining of cryptocurrencies …
Mia Sato / The Verge:
Fanhouse, an OnlyFans-like service, adds iOS in-app purchases with a 50% surcharge after pushing back in 2021 against Apple's 30% commission on creator earnings  —  Fanhouse previously tried to push back against Apple's fees and was granted a six-month extension to come into compliance
Sohee Kim / Bloomberg:
Samsung reports Q4 operating profit of ~$11.6B, up 53% YoY, on revenue of ~$63.8B, up 24% YoY, but misses with ~$8.9B net income, below the ~$9.2B expected  —  Samsung Electronics Co. is stepping up spending on advanced chipmaking technology as it sees growing demand for its smartphones, displays and memory products.

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Earlier Picks

Sara Fischer / Axios:
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