Techmeme
February 1, 2022, 4:30 PM

Top News

Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google begins rolling out iMessage reactions for Android's Messages app in beta, appearing next to message bubbles; some emoji reactions are not quite identical  —  As we spotted in November and following the latest push for RCS support on iPhone earlier this month, Google Messages is starting …
Maximiliano Firtman / firt.dev:
iOS 15.4 and iPadOS 15.4 beta code shows Apple is working on adding push notifications for web-based apps to Safari  —  iOS 15.4 beta has finally added icon support in the manifest, Web Push, AR, and VR experiments.  —  Twitter @firt About Newsletter  —  About 8 min reading time
Tom Krisher / Associated Press:
NHTSA: Tesla will issue an OTA update for 53,822 cars and SUVs to remove an FSD feature that let vehicles roll through stop signs without coming to a halt  —  DETROIT (AP) — Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their “Full Self-Driving” software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India proposes a 30% tax on income from the transfer of crypto, NFTs, and other digital assets and will launch a digital rupee in the next financial year  —  India on Tuesday proposed launching digital rupee in within a year and a 30% tax on income from transfer of virtual digital assets …
Craig Timberg / Washington Post:
A whistleblower working with the DOJ says NSO Group offered staffers from US mobile security firm Mobileum “bags of cash” for access to global cellular networks  —  Rep. Ted Lieu asks the Justice Department to investigate after hearing the account of what he called ‘fishy’ behavior.
Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic:
As Tumblr CEO Jeff D'Onofrio quietly departs and the company merges with Automattic, a look at its plans and enormous impact on the modern social web  —  The CEO of Tumblr—a social platform that was once worth more than $1 billion, and in its time was among the internet's most popular …
John Hendel / Politico:
Nonprofit suicide chat service Crisis Text Line ends its data sharing relationship with for-profit spinoff Loris.ai and asks the company to delete existing data  —  The nonprofit mental-health hotline Crisis Text Line ended its data-sharing relationship with a for-profit spinoff Monday …
David McLaughlin / Bloomberg:
Source: the FTC, not the DOJ, will oversee the US antitrust review of Microsoft's Activision Blizzard acquisition and will focus on potential harm to rivals  —  The U.S. antitrust review of Microsoft Corp.'s proposed acquisition of Activision Blizzard Inc. will be handled by the Federal Trade Commission …
IDC:
Global tablet shipments grew 3.2% YoY to 168.8M in 2021; Apple had 34.2% market share, Samsung had 18.3%, Lenovo had 10.5%, Amazon had 9.5%, and Huawei had 5.7%  —  Worldwide tablet shipments reached 46 million units during the fourth quarter of 2021 (4Q21), posting a decline for the second time since the pandemic began in 2020.
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Cruise raises $1.35B more from SoftBank Vision Fund and launches a waitlist for a driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco that will run from 11pm to 5am  —  Cruise is opening up its driverless robotaxi service to the public in San Francisco as the GM subsidiary creeps toward commercialization …
Taylor Lyles / IGN:
Discord starts letting US PlayStation 5 and PlayStation 4 users link their PSN accounts and display game activity; support for more countries is coming soon  —  Support will roll out first to US users, though.  —  PlayStation owners will able to connect their accounts to Discord starting today …
Matt Burgess / Wired:
Internal messages from the Trickbot ransomware gang during 2020 detail its structure, target choices, plans to open St. Petersburg offices, and more  —  Internal messages WIRED has viewed shed new light on the operators of one of the world's biggest botnets.
Financial Times:
Analysis: Google, Amazon, Meta, and Apple donated $1.2M+ to the four biggest US foreign policy think tanks in 2019-2020, up from $625K+ in 2017-2018  —  Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple battle Washington's move towards stricter regulation using anti-China lobbying
The New York Times Company:
The New York Times acquires Wordle, the simple word game that has amassed “millions of daily players”, for “an undisclosed price in the low-seven figures”  —  Wordle, Josh Wardle's stimulating and wildly popular daily word game, is joining The New York Times's portfolio of original …
Wall Street Journal:
Indian politician Rahul Gandhi writes to Twitter's CEO alleging the company is unwittingly complicit in a government campaign limiting followers to his account  —  Politician writes to Twitter CEO to complain about curbs he blames on India's government, highlighting how New Delhi polices U.S. social media companies
Mary Ann Azevedo / TechCrunch:
Metronome, which offers APIs to help SaaS companies charge customers on a usage basis, raises a $30M Series A led by a16z  —  As more software companies shift to more flexible pricing models based on consumption, many are choosing to charge customers on a per-use, or usage, basis.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
SiriusXM rolls out AudioID to track its audience across its apps Pandora and Stitcher and its satellite radio service, offering first-party ad targeting  —  The use of tracking cookies is winding down, and Apple's anti-tracking privacy update has impacted mobile apps' advertising revenues.
More: Gizmodo
Brendan Sinclair / GamesIndustry.biz:
Sony Interactive Entertainment announces it is buying Bungie, which makes Destiny and other games, for $3.6B; Bungie will become an independent subsidiary  —  Destiny studio will remain multiplatform, able “to self-publish and reach players wherever they choose to play”

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