Note: Techmeme is hiring part-time editors. Go here to apply, or tell a friend!
Techmeme
July 21, 2022, 2:10 PM

Top News

Jon Porter / The Verge:
Facebook splits the Feed on iOS and Android into Home, a TikTok-style tab with recommended content, and Feeds, a chronological tab of followed pages and people  —  While new Feeds tab will show chronological content from pages you actually follow  —  Facebook's almighty News Feed is getting split in two... kind of.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Amazon plans to acquire primary health care provider One Medical, which offers in-person, digital, and virtual services, for about $3.9B in an all-cash deal  —  Amazon's interest in healthcare and being a major player in that industry is taking one big step forward today.
Bloomberg:
The US DOJ arrests a former Coinbase product manager for allegedly leaking insider info about tokens before they were listed; Coinbase won't face charges  —  US authorities arrested a former Coinbase Global Inc. product manager for allegedly leaking insider information to help his brother …
Ben Horowitz / Andreessen Horowitz:
Ian Allison / CoinDesk:
Blockchain.com plans to cut 25% of its workforce, or ~150 people, close its Argentina offices, and cancel team expansion in several countries, citing the market  —  The digital assets trading firm said it will shutter its Argentina-based offices and halt its expansion plans in several countries.
Bloomberg:
Jason Calacanis says litigation, and possibly criminal charges, await the companies and “grifting” VCs that knowingly flipped crypto tokens to retail investors  —  Watch out venture capital, the regulators are coming.  —  That's the warning from long-time angel investor Jason Calacanis …
Bloomberg:
Amazon spent a record $4.98M on lobbying in Q2 2022, up 2.5% YoY, Google spent $2.77M, up 32% YoY, Microsoft spent $2.41M, down 2.4% YoY, and Apple spent $1.9M  —  Amazon.com Inc. spent a record $4.98 million on lobbying during the second quarter of this year as momentum intensified in Congress …
Dan Milmo / The Guardian:
Ofcom: TikTok is the fastest growing news source for UK adults, used by 7%, up from 1% in 2020; 32% use Facebook, 24% the BBC, 17% Twitter, and 16% Instagram  —  App is used by 7% of adults for news with nearly half turning to TikTokers rather than conventional outlets for updates
Allison Johnson / The Verge:
Google Pixel 6a review: a good camera and flagship-class Tensor chip performance, but a slow fingerprint sensor and the 6.1" screen only has a 60Hz refresh rate  —  The 6A's Tensor chipset makes all the difference in this midrange phone  —  For a few years running, the Pixel A-series phone …
Alexandra Alper / Reuters:
Sources: the US is probing Huawei over concerns that cell tower gear could capture sensitive military base and missile silo info, which it could send to China  —  The Biden administration is investigating Chinese telecoms equipment maker Huawei over concerns that U.S. cell towers fitted …
Austin American-Statesman:
Filings: Samsung seeks tax breaks to build 11 chipmaking facilities in the Austin area for $192.1B over two decades; Samsung has made no investment guarantees  —  Bob Sechler Kara CarlsonAustin American-Statesman  —  In what could be the biggest economic investment in Central Texas history …
Josh Dzieza / The Verge:
A look at GPT-3-powered fiction writing tools like Sudowrite, which proposes plot twists, rewrites in specific tones, suggests metaphors, and more  —  On a Tuesday in mid-March, Jennifer Lepp was precisely 80.41 percent finished writing Bring Your Beach Owl, the latest installment in her series …
Reuters:
Meta's research published internally in February 2022 reveals Facebook's challenges in India, including that women are shunning it over safety concerns and more  —  Meta's internal research reveals challenges in India Many women steered clear of male-dominated Facebook Their concerns included safety …
Andrew Myrick / Android Central:
Qualcomm unveils the Snapdragon W5 Gen 1 and W5+ Gen 1 for wearables, using a 4nm main processor and a 22nm co-processor, debuting in Oppo and Mobvoi watches  —  The upgrade we've been waiting for is here.  —  What you need to know  — Qualcomm has announced the Snapdragon W5 platform for wearables.
Stacy Elliott / Decrypt:
Tesla says a “bitcoin impairment” negatively impacted its Q2 profitability and that it sold 75% of its bitcoin, worth approximately $936M, in the quarter  —  “Bitcoin impairment” prompted the sale, the company said.  —  Tesla sold 75% of its Bitcoin, worth approximately $936 million, according to its Q2 earnings report.
Dylan Patel / SemiAnalysis:
Chip teardown: China's SMIC quietly released, and mass produces, 7nm chips; SMIC is rapidly becoming the world's third largest foundry, behind TSMC and Samsung  —  The Most Advanced Foundry In The World After TSMC And Samsung  —  SMIC, China's largest foundry has slowly been catching up to TSMC …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Generate videos with Veo 3 in Google Gemini  —  Create high-quality, 8-second videos with Veo 3, our state-of-the-art AI video generator.  Try it with a Google AI Pro plan or get the highest access with the Ultra plan.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future  —  Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
Sandbox testing: Create Mail Agents in sandbox mode  —  Email is considered the backbone for any organization's communication.  That's even more true for transactional emails, which are operation-critical for any business.
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:
Big Meta/Anduril Deal Is A Big Deal
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Social Radars:
Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel Part 4 (Bonus)
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Hard Fork:
The A.I. Jobpocalypse + Building at Anthropic with Mike Krieger + Hard Fork Crimes Division
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.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Rick Smith (CEO, Axon): The Wild Ride From Near-Bankruptcy to $50B+
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Sewing Machine Repair Shop', With Patrick McGee
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How private equity kills companies and communities
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:10 PM ET, July 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

Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:

Earlier Picks

Rebecca Klar / The Hill:
Kyle Wiggers / TechCrunch: