Sources: Apple is building an advertising network for live television as part of its deal to stream Major League Soccer games from February 2023 (Bloomberg)

Peter White / Deadline:
Apple plans to launch its Major League Soccer Season Pass on February 1 for $15/month or $99/season and $13/month or $79/season for Apple TV+ subscribers  —  Apple has unveiled more plans for its launch of Major League Soccer (MLS).  —  The streamer has revealed the pricing and launch details …

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
Hands-on with Matter devices at an official launch event; Matter has a long way to go before it delivers on a promise of an interoperable and simple smart home  —  At the official launch event for Matter this week, I saw a lot of exciting things: a Google Nest Hub controlling an Eve Energy smart plug …

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Internal memo: Amazon saw the “biggest three hours for US Prime signups ever” in its first exclusive stream of Thursday Night Football  —  Amazon is already seeing some fruits from its massive investment in live NFL streaming.  —  The company reported the “biggest three hours …

Vas Panagiotopoulos / Wired:
A look at the use of biometric surveillance tech in European soccer stadiums; 15,000+ cameras will monitor fans in eight stadiums at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar  —  Stadiums around the world, including at the 2022 World Cup in Qatar, are subjecting spectators to invasive biometric surveillance tech.

Jennifer Pattison Tuohy / The Verge:
The Connectivity Standards Alliance releases the Matter 1.0 standard for smart homes and opens its certification program  —  The smart home standard is open for certification at last.  We could see Matter devices in our homes as soon as this month. … The Connectivity Standards Alliance …

Mike Truppa / The Block:
Matter Labs, which develops the Ethereum scaling protocol zkSync, raised a $200M Series C led by Blockchain Capital and Dragonfly, bringing its funding to $458M  —  – Matter Labs has raised $200 million in a Series C round led by Blockchain Capital and Dragonfly.