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Showing posts from 2020

The Biggest Trends of TikTok 2020

Business, entertainment, news, activism and social connection will never be the same. https://nyti.ms/3hFo9ti

FarmVille Once Took Over Facebook. Now Everything Is FarmVille.

The game, a phenomenon a decade ago, is shutting down on Thursday. But its legacy — for better and for worse — carries beyond gaming. https://nyti.ms/2JDKzi0

German Automakers Are Charged Up and Ready to Take on Tesla

As Tesla completes a factory in Berlin, Mercedes-Benz and Audi are introducing electric cars in bids to defend their dominance of the luxury market. https://nyti.ms/3rHfVFn

Amazon Buys Wondery as Podcasting Race Continues

The deal, valued at $300 million, is the latest in a string of acquisitions as streaming platforms expand beyond music and video. https://nyti.ms/2WWQBgB

Cryptocurrency Start-Up Underpaid Women and Black Employees, Data Shows

An analysis of internal pay data at the San Francisco company Coinbase shows disparities that were much larger than those in the tech industry. https://nyti.ms/2Juh9Tn

Flawed Facial Recognition Leads To Arrest and Jail for New Jersey Man

A New Jersey man was accused of shoplifting and trying to hit an officer with a car. He is the third known Black man to be wrongfully arrested based on face recognition. https://nyti.ms/34SXDHM

Life Without Amazon (Well, Almost)

For concerned customers, avoiding one of the world’s largest retailers and web service providers is proving harder than expected. https://nyti.ms/3rBNGrP

The Lasting Lessons of John Conway’s Game of Life

Fifty years on, the mathematician’s best known (and, to him, least favorite) creation confirms that “uncertainty is the only certainty.” https://nyti.ms/2M83imt

China Orders Ant Group to Revamp Its Business

The country’s central bank made clear its displeasure with the financial technology company, adding to the growing scrutiny of Chinese internet giants. https://nyti.ms/2MeP83j

China Opens Antitrust Investigation Into Alibaba

Jack Ma and other entrepreneurs prospered under Beijing’s laissez-faire attitude toward the business side of the internet. The dynamic is shifting as the companies have grown in power. https://nyti.ms/2WKUtBm

Bollywood, Reeling From the Pandemic, Shifts to Streaming

India’s film industry, which relied on theatrical releases, is experimenting with going straight to streaming services such as Amazon, Netflix and Disney’s Hotstar. https://nyti.ms/3hn8631

With Money, and Waste, China Fights for Chip Independence

Beijing’s drive to free itself from reliance on imported semiconductors has lifted start-ups and big firms alike. Some have flamed out. But there has been progress. https://nyti.ms/34JrXEm

Pennsylvania man is accused of casting Trump vote for his dead mother.

The Trump campaign had circulated the mother’s name while arguing there was widespread voter fraud that helped propel Joseph R. Biden Jr. to victory. https://nyti.ms/3piuD3N

The Tech That Was Fixed in 2020 and the Tech That Still Needs Fixing

From videoconferencing to fitness apps, the best tech helped us endure a hard year. But there were also low points. https://nyti.ms/3heErZQ

Amazon Workers Near Vote on Joining Union at Alabama Warehouse

The election, expected early next year, will be one of the few times that employees of the e-commerce giant have had an opportunity to decide whether to join a union. https://nyti.ms/37IhcEd

How Retail Online Shops Are Trying Augmented Reality

Retailers are turning to the filtering technology popularized by Snapchat to add a real-world feel to online shopping. https://nyti.ms/3pgeQT1

Cryptocurrency Company Ripple Facing an S.E.C. Lawsuit

Ripple, the company behind the third most valuable digital token, is expecting to be sued by regulators as cryptocurrency values skyrocket. https://nyti.ms/37FkFU1

Google Denies Antitrust Claims in Early Response to U.S. Lawsuit

The company said people use its services because they choose to, not because they lack alternatives. https://nyti.ms/3pbXCWW

The Mystery of the Disappearing Manuscripts

A phishing scam with unclear motive or payoff is targeting authors, agents and editors big and small, baffling the publishing industry. https://nyti.ms/2WHc1xX

Apple closes all California stores as virus cases spike.

https://nyti.ms/2LW0PLZ

The Antitrust Case Against Big Tech, Shaped by Tech Industry Exiles

Regulators are relying on insiders like Dina Srinivasan, who left her digital ad job after concluding that “Facebook and Google were going to win and everybody else is going to lose.” https://nyti.ms/2J6Yb4V

Giving Billions Fast, MacKenzie Scott Upends Philanthropy

Through a streamlined operation, Ms. Scott has given away $6 billion this year, much of it to small charities and nonprofits. https://nyti.ms/2Kmx8TU

Cyberpunk 2077 Was Supposed to Be the Biggest Video Game of the Year. What Happened?

Nearly a decade of hype led to a troubled release riddled with glitches, a livid fan base, refunds for potentially millions of players and a possible class-action lawsuit. https://nyti.ms/2J5tL37

How China Censored Covid-19

Thousands of internal directives and reports reveal how Chinese officials stage-managed what appeared online in the early days of the outbreak. https://nyti.ms/2LQi2Xc

Big Tech Should Try Radical Candor

As the power of Google, Apple and other tech giants grows, the companies should do more to explain how they work. https://nyti.ms/3av6Zgt

Sony Removes Cyberpunk 2077 From PlayStation Store After Complaints

The company said it would also offer refunds to gamers while the developer of the much-hyped title works to fix bugs and glitches. https://nyti.ms/3p26azA

More Hacking Attacks Found, Officials Warn of Risk to U.S. Government

Minutes after the government statement, President-elect Joseph R. Biden Jr. warned that his administration would impose “substantial costs” on those responsible. President Trump has been silent on the hacking. https://nyti.ms/3mzCPux

Microsoft’s Lessons for Google

What the Microsoft case teaches us about antitrust and the power of Big Tech today. https://nyti.ms/34o0RT5

In a Big Year for Games, These Players Are Shifting the Culture

Designers, competitors, streamers, voice actors and labor activists have been working to make video games more inclusive. https://nyti.ms/38eIils

Vaccines Need Effective Messengers

How health care professionals and internet companies can help in the fight against misinformation. https://nyti.ms/2WqOyAY

MacKenzie Scott Announces $4.2 Billion More in Charitable Giving

“She’s disrupting the norms around billionaire philanthropy by moving quickly,” an expert on charities said. https://nyti.ms/3gX2fkH

From Voter Fraud to Vaccine Lies: Misinformation Peddlers Shift Gears

Election-related falsehoods have subsided, but misleading claims about the coronavirus vaccines are surging — often spread by the same people. https://nyti.ms/3oVxyPJ

Online Shopping Is Amazing. Or Is It?

So many shower curtains! But with the endless choice comes the risk of being fooled. https://nyti.ms/2Kxd14V

Tech Companies Shift Their Posture on a Legal Shield, Wary of Being Left Behind

Some of the industry’s critics are skeptical, however, about a new flexibility to changes to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. https://nyti.ms/34ey2si

So Jeffrey Toobin Had a Zoom Incident. What Now?

How a leading man of legal journalism lost his sweetest gig. https://nyti.ms/3qXNzGy

To quash vaccine misinformation, this doctor opts for facts over fighting fiction.

https://nyti.ms/3r14nwG

Google’s Apps Crash in Worldwide Outage

The tech giant’s popular services like Gmail, Hangouts, Meet and YouTube went offline, halting work across the globe. https://nyti.ms/3gK5v2R

Google Dominates Thanks to an Unrivaled View of the Web

As regulators seek ways to curb the company’s power, there is more focus on the vast index — hundreds of billion of web pages — behind its search engine. https://nyti.ms/3mfVyLF

Google Delays Return to Office and Eyes ‘Flexible Work Week’

The Silicon Valley company now plans to have employees return to the office in September. It will be different when they get there. https://nyti.ms/3oO92zV

Vaccinated? Show Us Your App

Covid-19 health pass apps could help reopen businesses and restore the economy. They could also unfairly exclude people from travel and workplaces. https://nyti.ms/2W6SdEd

WarnerMedia Chief Has Become a Movie Villain to Some in Hollywood

Jason Kilar’s decision to release 2021 movies simultaneously in theaters and on HBO Max has angered many in the industry, including some of the star filmmakers his company relies on. https://nyti.ms/3oZOuEX

Roblox Delays I.P.O. Until Next Year

After witnessing head-turning results for the initial public offerings by Airbnb and DoorDash, the gaming company said it would wait to test the market. https://nyti.ms/2LvgjX8

Give Virus Alert Apps a Shot

These Google and Apple apps work and aren’t stealing all your data. More people should use them. https://nyti.ms/3gBV7u5

Two Reasons the Texas Election Case Is Faulty

Texas has asked the Supreme Court to reverse the election results, but the case’s legal argument is flawed and its statistical assertion that Joe Biden had a minuscule chance to win is “comical,” experts said. https://nyti.ms/3n8GVv5

Experts Debate How To Tame Big Tech

A group of experts gathered to debate privacy, competition and what to do — if anything — about tech giants’ growing power. https://nyti.ms/3n8Obae

The Facebook Lawsuits Explained

Regulators accuse Facebook of buying up rivals. Here’s what this means for us and Big Tech. https://nyti.ms/2W45U6A

Disney to Reveal Plans to Turbocharge Streaming Offerings

Some big-budget movies will first go to theaters. Other offerings will debut online. All will ultimately strengthen Disney+. https://nyti.ms/3oFai8m

Facebook Accused of Breaking Antitrust Laws

Regulators are accusing the company of buying up rising rivals to cement its dominance over social media. https://nyti.ms/39T5xUJ

Tone Indicators and How to Use Them

We all struggle to communicate on the internet. Now, young people are leading a sincere effort to clear things up. https://nyti.ms/3n29NVG

Uber Jettisons Flying Car Project

A day after handing its autonomous car project to a Silicon Valley start-up, Uber is ridding itself of another expensive operation. https://nyti.ms/37LJDAa