Techmeme
April 5, 2022, 4:55 PM

Top News

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Twitter appoints Elon Musk to its board after he bought a 9.2% stake in the company; Musk cannot own over 14.9% of common stock during his term or 90 days after  —  - Elon Musk will join Twitter's board of directors after taking a 9.2% stake in the social media company, according to a release filed with the SEC.
Matt Levine / Bloomberg:
If Elon Musk wants to change Twitter, he might have to gesture in the direction of ESG or profitability to get other shareholders to support him  —  Programming note: Money Stuff was supposed to be off today but, Elon.  So here we are.  —  Oh Elon  —  Look this all makes complete sense, obvious, intuitive, simple sense.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft will let Windows 11 PCs boot straight to Windows 365 Cloud PCs and switch between cloud and native desktops using the virtual desktops feature  —  Windows is getting even more cloud-powered features  —  Microsoft put PCs in the cloud with Windows 365 last year …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Aisha Malik / TechCrunch:
Google Maps gets estimated toll road prices, map details like stop lights and stop signs, directions on Apple Watch, and an iOS widget that shows pinned trips  —  Google Maps is getting an update that will add toll road prices and more map details like stop lights and stop signs, Google announced on Tuesday.
Eliza Gkritsi / CoinDesk:
German police shut down Russian-language darknet market Hydra Market, which had a bitcoin privacy mixer and made €1.23B in 2020 revenue, and seize 543 bitcoins  —  The Hydra Market's bitcoin privacy mixer complicated the investigation, police said.  —  German authorities seized $25 million …
Janko Roettgers / Protocol:
Plex updates its app with universal search across a user's streaming services, a watchlist, and other discovery features; the company says it has 13M MAUs  —  Plex has an audacious plan to become the daily go-to app for everyone's streaming needs: The media center app rolled out new universal search …
The Information:
Sources: one-click checkout startup Fast is shutting down entirely; Fast raised $120M from backers including Stripe, Index Ventures, and Addition  —  One-click checkout startup Fast is shutting down entirely and will discontinue its products and brand, according to several people familiar with the matter.
Dan Swinhoe / DCD:
IBM unveils its z16 mainframe, generally available on May 31, which the company claims will be resistant to upcoming encryption-breaking quantum computers  —  New system offers AI capabilities and is reportedly quantum proof  —  IBM has unveiled the latest iteration of its Z-series mainframe.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple announces WWDC 2022 will be held from June 6 through June 10 as a virtual event; Apple will host an invite-only watch party on June 6 at Apple Park  —  Apple today announced that its 33rd annual Worldwide Developers Conference is set to take place from Monday, June 6 to Friday, June 10.
Ken Klippenstein / The Intercept:
Loren Grush / The Verge:
Amazon's Project Kuiper books up to 83 satellite launches on three rockets over five years for most of its 3,236 satellites, which will beam internet to earth  —  The subsidiary is partnering with Arianespace, ULA, and Blue Origin  —  Project Kuiper — Amazon's planned internet-from-space initiative …
Carly Page / TechCrunch:
Filing: Block is contacting 8.2M US Cash App users about a December 10 breach by a former employee who downloaded reports with some of their account information  —  Block has confirmed a data breach involving a former employee who downloaded reports from Cash App that contained some U.S. customer information.
Edward Ongweso Jr / VICE:
A look at Axie Infinity “managers”, who loan in-game NFTs to “scholars” in exchange for a cut of any profits and depend on a constant influx of new players  —  Managers in play-to-earn game Axie Infinity employ large teams of “scholars” who can't afford their own NFTs even as the game's economy spirals.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
VerSe Innovation, the parent company of news aggregator app Dailyhunt and short video app Josh, says it has raised $805M at a valuation of nearly $5B  —  At a time when a number of startups are finding it difficult to raise capital, VerSe Innovation, the parent firm of news aggregator app Dailyhunt …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
No-code mobile app development service Thunkable raises a $30M Series B led by Owl Ventures and announces it has surpassed 3M users and 6M apps developed  —  Mobile apps have become part of the bedrock of how the world at large gets things done and spends a lot of its leisure time …
TechCrunch:
George Kaloudis / CoinDesk:
Lightning Labs raises a $70M Series B for its Lightning Network-powered Taro protocol, which could bring stablecoins and other assets to Bitcoin's blockchain  —  The Taproot-powered “Taro” protocol aims to bring low-fee stablecoin and asset transfers to the Bitcoin Lightning Network.
Taylor Lorenz / Washington Post:
A look at Reddit's r/Place, which lets users create collective art by posting a colored pixel every five minutes and had nearly 72M tiles placed by Sunday night  —  Since last Friday, millions of Reddit users have banded together to collectively generate a massive, collaborative piece of artwork that has become a viral phenomenon.

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