Techmeme River
Techmeme River
Wednesday, October 23, 2019
9:20 PM
Facebook to unveil news tab at an event Friday with News Corp's Robert Thomson; sources: direct payments to 200 publishers will go up to millions of dollars
Washington Post
9:10 PM
Samsung unveils Exynos 990, its new flagship SoC that's 20% faster overall and 2x faster on AI-specific tasks, and a new 5G modem, both made with a 7nm process
CNET
9:05 PM
Sarah Lacy and Paul Carr sell Pando, seven years after launching it, to ad-tech company BuySellAds, which bought Digg in 2018
Pando
8:40 PM
Google employees accuse the company of making an internal tool to monitor attempts to organize meetings; Google says it's only to prevent calendar spam
Bloomberg
7:50 PM
Industrial IoT company PTC to acquire Onshape, maker of a SaaS product development platform for CAD, for $470M; Onshape has received over $150M in VC funding
ZDNet
7:45 PM
Microsoft Azure Q1 revenue growth has slowed down to 59%, compared to 64% in Q4, and 73% in Q3
Bloomberg
6:30 PM
Amazon has acquired Health Navigator, which provides online symptom checking and triage tools to companies that are looking to route patients to the right place
CNBC
5:30 PM
eBay reports Q3 revenue of $2.65B, flat YoY, meeting analyst estimates, says it grew active buyers by 4% across its platforms, for a total of 183M globally
ZDNet
5:20 PM
PayPal reports Q3 revenue of $4.38B, up 19% YoY, and profits of $462M, beating analyst estimates, as it adds 9.8M new accounts, bringing the total to 295M
MarketWatch
4:35 PM
Microsoft's Q1 Surface revenue declined by 4% YoY, which was blamed on the lack of new or refreshed products, as gaming revenue declined by 7% YoY
The Verge
4:30 PM
Memo from a departing chief of White House security lays out how an ongoing reorg under the Trump administration has left its networks more vulnerable to attack
Axios
4:25 PM
Republicans made a spectacle of storming into the secure room where a closed-door impeachment hearing was taking place, known as the SCIF, some with cell phones
Ars Technica
4:15 PM
At a hearing on Libra, Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by House lawmakers from both parties on the proposed cryptocurrency, privacy, diversity, and misinformation
Washington Post
4:05 PM
Microsoft reports Q1 revenue of $33.1B, up 14% YoY, as net income rises 21% YoY to $10.7B; Intelligent Cloud revenue rose 27% YoY to $10.8B, driven by Azure
Microsoft
2:10 PM
Tinder says it will roll out its “Swipe Night” choose-your-own adventure series globally in February, after messages rose 12% compared to a typical Sunday night
CNN
1:45 PM
Documents show how Facebook uses Menlo Park's police department, which includes a Facebook-funded unit for campus patrol duties, amid racial profiling concerns
VICE
1:25 PM
Interviews with 30+ former employees of UK cloud computing company UKFast surface allegations claiming its founder, Lawrence Jones, sexually assaulted employees
Financial Times
12:55 PM
A look at LinkedIn's efforts to curate news using human editors, with a 65-strong team globally, as it seeks to boost engagement
CNN
12:30 PM
Investigation: Amazon sells cheap clothes made in dozens of Bangladeshi factories, most of which are deemed too dangerous for workers by other big retailers
Wall Street Journal
11:55 AM
Leaked presentation shows Comcast is lobbying US lawmakers against Google and Mozilla's plan to encrypt DNS data, making it harder for ISPs to track users
VICE
11:38 AM
WeWork says SoftBank will provide $5B in new financing and buy up to $3B in shares from existing shareholders, which would give SoftBank an 80% stake in WeWork
CNBC
11:15 AM
How McDonald's is using AI and experimenting with voice recognition tech for new ways to lure customers, as fast-food sales decline across the US
New York Times
10:40 AM
EV Connect, which develops a cloud-based platform to manage electric vehicle charging, raises $12M Series B, bringing its total raised to $25M
TechCrunch
10:00 AM
Livestream of Mark Zuckerberg's testimony before the House Financial Services Committee on the Libra cryptocurrency
YouTube
9:30 AM
Profile of São Paulo-based Nubank, which is disrupting the region's banking sector with 14M customers, $245M revenue in 1H 2019, and a valuation of $10B
Stanford Graduate School of Business
9:15 AM
Viz.ai, which uses AI to help medical professionals spot early signs of stroke, raises $50M Series B led by Greenoaks, bringing its total raised to ~$80M
VentureBeat
8:55 AM
Huawei says the Mate X foldable phone will launch in China next month for ~$2,400, and has shipped 200M smartphones so far in 2019, 64 days faster than 2018
Digital Trends
8:40 AM
IBM says Google's experiment is an excellent demo of quantum computing progress, but not proof that quantum computers are “supreme” over classical computers
IBM Research Blog
8:20 AM
A deep dive into the debate surrounding video game addiction, as the scientific understanding of what it means to be addicted continues to evolve
New York Times
7:45 AM
Israel-based Fabric, formerly called CommonSense Robotics, which helps retailers with on-demand fulfillment, raises $110M Series B led by Corner Ventures
Tech.eu
7:30 AM
Apple Pay overtook Starbucks as the top mobile payment app in US in 2018 with 27.7M users, will grow to 30.3M users in 2019 representing a 47.3% market share
eMarketer
7:20 AM
Report: France's AI startup scene grew 38% in 2019 with government and investor backing; from 2014 to 2019 French AI startups raised $1.27B vs. $1.24B in the UK
VentureBeat
7:10 AM
Interview with Sundar Pichai on achieving “quantum supremacy” and why quantum computing could be as important for Google as AI
MIT Technology Review
5:48 AM
Google claims “quantum supremacy” after its Sycamore processor completed a calculation in 3 min 20 sec that would take 10K+ years on today's supercomputers
New York Times
4:35 AM
Profile of Colin Yao, head of Tencent's game development subsidiary TiMi Studios, responsible for building some of the most played games in China
Fortune
2:55 AM
Q&A with Steve Roddy, Arm VP of machine learning group, on challenges in getting neural nets to work in embedded devices, competing with Nvidia and Intel, more
VentureBeat
2:10 AM
A deep dive into the debate whether the Americans with Disabilities Act should apply to websites and apps, and what lies in the future for accessibility
Ars Technica
1:30 AM
Cision, a media monitoring firm and parent of PR Newswire, to go private after being acquired for $2.74B by an affiliate of PE firm Platinum Equity
PRWeek
12:50 AM
GoPro Max review: the most accessible 360 camera with durable hardware, great audio and display, but stabilization is jittery and non-fisheye footage is grainy
The Verge
12:15 AM
Researchers: China's state sponsored hackers have switched tactics over the last few years, focusing increasingly sophisticated attacks on its ethnic minorities
New York Times
Tuesday, October 22, 2019
11:20 PM
Amazon debuts a free, ad-supported news aggregation app for Fire TV in the US, letting users watch clips and live feeds from nearly 20 outlets like Reuters, CBS
TechCrunch
11:10 PM
Trend Micro acquires Cloud Conformity for $70M, says the acquisition will help it address security issues caused by cloud infrastructure misconfigurations
ZDNet
10:30 PM
Calgary-based Benevity, a platform helping employees of companies like Apple and Google give donations, raises $40M Series C from JMI Equity, General Atlantic
BetaKit
9:20 PM
SkyWater, a Minnesota-based chip maker spun off from Cypress Semiconductor, receives up to $170M from DOD to make radiation-hardened chips that work in space
Reuters
7:50 PM
Defense Secretary Esper recuses himself from JEDI contract decisions to avoid conflict of interest with his son's employer IBM, an original contract bidder
Nextgov
7:30 PM
US lawmakers debut a bipartisan bill that would force tech giants to make user data portable and interoperable via an API-like interface for secure transfers
The Verge
6:45 PM
PeerNova, a blockchain-based platform for financial institutions to synchronize data internally and externally, raises $31M, bringing the total raised to $74M
Cointelegraph
5:30 PM
Former SAP CEO Bill McDermott has been named chief executive of cloud automation platform ServiceNow; he replaces John Donahoe, who will become CEO of Nike
ZDNet
5:05 PM
Task management app Todoist gets a major update to its mobile, desktop, and web apps, adding sections inside projects for better organization, and more
Engadget
4:15 PM
Snap reports it added 7M DAUs in Q3 to hit 210M, up 13% YoY, revenue of $446M, up 50% YoY, and a net loss of $227M, down from $325M a year ago
TechCrunch
2:50 PM
A look at HireVue's controversial AI-driven face and voice scanning “employability” assessment tool, used by 100+ employers including Hilton and Goldman Sachs
Washington Post
2:40 PM
London-based Disperse raises $15M Series A for its service that uses computer vision to track construction site progress
VentureBeat
2:32 PM
Rob Goldman, Facebook VP of advertising, says he's leaving the company after more than seven years
CNBC
2:05 PM
The FTC issues its first-ever ban on “stalkerware” as it bars Retina-X from selling apps that monitor mobile devices unless a legitimate use for them is shown
VICE
1:45 PM
Facebook announces a pledge of $1B in a package of grants, loans, and land as part of a partnership with California to help build more affordable housing
New York Times
1:40 PM
Browser-based UI design and prototyping tool Figma gives users public profiles to share design files and works in progress, as part of a new Community platform
The Verge
1:20 PM
In prepared remarks for Congress, Mark Zuckerberg argues Libra “will extend America's financial leadership” and that China is pursuing similar projects
CNBC
1:09 PM
Databricks raises $400M Series F at a $6.2B valuation led by a16z, with Microsoft and others participating, up from its $2.75B post-money valuation in February
VentureBeat
12:55 PM
Medium says it will now pay its Partner Program writers based “primarily” on reading time, not claps; the platform has paid $6M+ to 30,000+ writers since 2017
TechCrunch
12:45 PM
Slack improves app discoverability with new store-like UI, says there are 1,800 apps, and now lets apps use overlay windows and a home tab to showcase features
The Verge
12:35 PM
Sources: Facebook hasn't offered money to wire services Reuters and AP for being featured on its news page, as Bloomberg and Dow Jones land seven-figure deals
Financial Times
12:15 PM
Aurora Insight, which offers an AI-powered “dynamic” global map of wireless connectivity, emerges from stealth with $18M across Series A and seed rounds
TechCrunch
11:50 AM
Firefox 70 arrives with social tracking blocked by default, a personalized privacy report to show how many trackers have been blocked, and performance gains
VentureBeat
11:35 AM
Verizon is giving away Disney+ for free for one year to all of its wireless customers on unlimited-data plans and to FiOS and 5G home internet customers
Variety
11:28 AM
New York State's attorney general says 46 attorneys general have joined its antitrust probe into Facebook, separate from DOJ and FTC investigations
Washington Post
11:15 AM
Sources: MPC, pitched as a privacy-focused smartphone vendor, was run by a violent UK gang and shut down after multiple investigations into it developed
VICE
9:50 AM
Roku to buy ad tech platform Dataxu, which provides software for managing ad campaigns programmatically across digital platforms, for $150M in cash and stock
CNBC
9:35 AM
IonQ, which uses “trapped ions”, or charged particles in a vacuum, for its quantum computing hardware, raises $55M led by Mubadala Capital and Samsung
Fortune
9:25 AM
Google Duplex to launch a limited pilot in New Zealand to confirm holiday store hours of some local businesses during the Labor Day public holiday on October 28
VentureBeat
9:10 AM
The Pixel 4 and 4 XL support fast wireless charging on any Qi charger, unlike the Pixel 3, which needed Google's own Pixel Stand for fast charging
Android Central
8:50 AM
Mark Zuckerberg's proposal of social media as a “Fifth Estate” highlights that the world is fundamentally changing; the sooner we realize that, the better
Stratechery
7:55 AM
Signal AI, formerly Signal Media, which offers AI-backed media monitoring and market intelligence services, raises $25M Series C led by Redline Capital
TechCrunch
5:40 AM
A look at the revival in digital music sales, which have grown from $14.3B in 2014 to $18.1B in 2018, mainly thanks to paid streaming services like Spotify
Fortune
2:40 AM
Google's Nest Mini is a great-sounding upgrade over the Home Mini, its ability to be mounted to a wall is nice, but it still lacks a 3.5mm jack, unlike Echo Dot
The Verge
Monday, October 21, 2019
11:05 PM
Devumi settles FTC charges that it sold fake followers and likes; cosmetics firm Sunday Riley also settles with FTC for allegedly posting fake online reviews
CNET
11:00 PM
Facebook now requires some page owners to disclose the orgs running them and if they're tied to state-owned media, will add labels to pages run by state media
TechCrunch
9:25 PM
IAB and PwC: US online ad spending reached $57.9B in H1 2019, up 16.9% year-over-year but lower than the 23.1% growth in the same period last year
Marketing Land
8:00 PM
Researchers find open database that leaked 179GB+ of customer, US government, and military records from Best Western's travel reservation system Autoclerk
vpnMentor
6:40 PM
Sources: Adobe will preview Illustrator for iPad at its Max conference in November before launching it in 2020
Bloomberg
6:10 PM
EU says preliminary results of its probe into software used by EU institutions raises “serious concerns” over Microsoft's compliance with data protection rules
TechCrunch
5:45 PM
Instabase, which sells app making tools to enterprise, raises $105M Series B at a $1.05B valuation
Bloomberg
5:25 PM
SAP has struck a three-year deal where Microsoft will sell a bundle of SAP cloud services directly to customers who run SAP on Azure
GeekWire
5:00 PM
Self-driving car startup Zoox raises $200M in convertible note funding that will be folded into a Series C, its first raise since firing CEO Tim Kentley-Klay
Axios
4:40 PM
Verizon's rollout of 5G to three NBA arenas and over a dozen NFL stadiums only covers some of the seating areas in each facility
Ars Technica
4:25 PM
Google hires Javier Soltero, Acompli co-founder and former head of Microsoft Outlook, to run G Suite
Axios
3:46 PM
Sources: SoftBank to take control of WeWork, spending $4B-$5B on new funding and existing shares in The We Company, valuing it between $7.5B and $8B
CNBC
3:20 PM
Tim Cook becomes chairman of the advisory board of China's Tsinghua University School of Economics and Management, a 3-year position; he joined the board in '13
MacRumors
2:50 PM
Hackers breached the internal network of Avast likely aiming for another supply chain attack on CCleaner; Avast says it didn't find malicious changes to the app
BleepingComputer
1:35 PM
Facebook bans networks, three originating in Iran and one in Russia, running “inauthentic” accounts, Pages, and Groups misleading US and Latin American users
Facebook
1:15 PM
Sources: Founders Fund is raising ~$3B for two funds, and the bulk of it is intended for more mature startups like Stripe and existing investments
Wall Street Journal
1:04 PM
Facebook says it will more prominently label content that fact-checkers deem false on Facebook and Instagram, will ban ads suggesting voting is pointless
Facebook
1:02 PM
Facebook takedowns show new Russian activity targeted Biden, praised Trump
Washington Post
12:40 PM
Nielsen's SVOD Content Ratings now tracks Amazon Prime Video, two years after launching with ratings for Netflix
TechCrunch
12:30 PM
Microsoft acquires Edmonton-based Mover to bolster its cloud migration solutions, just weeks after acquiring Movere, another cloud migration company
VentureBeat
12:20 PM
Surface Laptop 3 (15") review: great keyboard and trackpad, AMD config performs well for productivity tasks, but GPU struggles, and has only two USB ports
The Verge
11:55 AM
Microsoft announces Secured-core PCs, which will come from many vendors like Dell and adhere to security best practices for better firmware attack protection
VentureBeat
11:35 AM
Online influencers are expected to make $4.1B-$8.2B in 2019, but with no good way to measure sales, some advertisers are questioning whether it's worth it
Wall Street Journal
11:15 AM
Sources: Google's attempt to cancel and reschedule an employee-led talk about unionization at its Zurich office drew attention to it and riled up rank-and-file
Vox
10:46 AM
NordVPN confirms it found out a few months ago that one of its datacenters was hacked in March 2018, leaving it vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks
TechCrunch
10:40 AM
Facebook is rolling out a new web interface, which it announced at F8 2019, with a new dark mode option, to some users
Android Police
10:00 AM
Upstream Security, which provides a centralized security and analytics platform for connected vehicles, raises $30M Series B led by Alliance Ventures
VentureBeat
9:17 AM
Google Pixel 4 and 4 XL review: fast face unlock, smooth display, and great still camera, but average video recording and battery life, and no ultrawide camera
The Verge
9:15 AM
Microsoft Surface Pro 7 review: great performance, is cool and quiet, resumes quickly, and has USB-C, but no Thunderbolt 3, design is dated, and lacks LTE
The Verge
8:45 AM
Mark Zuckerberg and his wife have privately recommended several potential hires to Pete Buttigieg's presidential campaign, two of whom were hired
Bloomberg
8:15 AM
Commercetools, which offers an e-commerce platform for enterprises to sell to consumers, raises $145M led by Insight Partners, source says at a ~$300M valuation
TechCrunch
7:40 AM
Joint UK and US probe finds that a Russian cyber espionage unit hacked the tools of a hacker group linked to Iran's government to lead attacks in 35+ countries
Financial Times
7:10 AM
Gojek CEO and co-founder Nadiem Makarim resigns to join Indonesia's new cabinet, the other co-founder Kevin Aluwi and president Andre Soelistyo to be joint CEOs
Reuters
6:45 AM
How The Last Mile, a program to teach coding in prison at 15 facilities in five states, helped one man go from a life sentence to a $100K+ engineering job
The Hustle
5:45 AM
Researchers show how malicious voice apps for Alexa or Google Home eavesdrop on users, as Amazon and Google take a lax approach to vetting the platforms
ZDNet
4:30 AM
The Indian government is trying to tempt cellphone manufacturers with lower taxes, incentives, and less red tape, to make the country a major source of exports
Wall Street Journal
2:45 AM
A look at the Tsunami Democràtic Android app, which uses geolocation and friend-to-friend technologies to organize protests and avoid the police in Barcelona
WIRED UK
1:30 AM
Comparing Hong Kong with Kashmir shows that manipulating social media by flooding it with propaganda may better tackle unrest than shutting down the internet
Bloomberg
1:05 AM
SpaceX submits paperwork for 30K more Starlink low-earth-orbit satellites, on top of the 12K already approved by the FCC
SpaceNews.com
12:40 AM
A deep dive into music licensing in games, where the wrong type of licenses or expired ones may force developers to stop sales or game releases on new platforms
GamesIndustry.biz
Sunday, October 20, 2019
10:50 PM
As Amazon regularly fails to prevent expired food from being sold by merchants, concerned brands are often compelled to police marketplace listings on their own
CNBC
9:30 PM
Google says it will update the Pixel 4 “in the coming months” with an option that requires open eyes for the phone's face unlock to be successful
The Verge
8:05 PM
Travel reservations giant Sabre acquires Radixx, which sells passenger service systems to small and budget airlines, in a deal worth ~$110M
Skift
6:35 PM
Google says it's aware iPhones can back up original quality HEIC photos to Google Photos for free, says it's a bug, after users wanted Pixel 4 to offer the same
Android Police
5:45 PM
Amid growing skepticism about Libra, David Marcus says the group may consider stablecoins pegged to national currencies, instead of the coin it has proposed
Reuters
5:25 PM
Inside “Rebble Alliance”, an unofficial group that documented Pebble APIs and created replacement web services that have helped keep ~200K smartwatches running
iFixit News
2:20 PM
Twitch CEO Emmett Shear talks about company's approach to content moderation and changes announced at TwitchCon, including new tools for moderators, and more
The Verge
11:15 AM
Comparing Trump and Democratic 2020 presidential campaigns online: it's “like a supercar racing a little Volkswagen Bug”, with Democrats being the Volkswagen
New York Times
8:10 AM
eMarketer: Google will take 37.2%, or $48.05B, of all US digital ad spend this year, down from 38.2% in 2018, while Amazon will take 8.8%, up from 6.8% in 2018
MediaPost
5:05 AM
Twitch is testing Watch Parties, a feature that allows streamers to screen Prime Video content that their viewers can watch along if they have Amazon Prime
Polygon
2:00 AM
ESET details a hacking campaign, active for the past 6 years, by the Russia-linked group the Dukes or Cozy Bear, which was thought to be dormant since DNC hack
Wired
1:40 AM
David Sacks' Craft Ventures, which led Bird's Series A round, has closed its second fund with $500M, up from the $350M it had closed for its debut fund
TechCrunch
1:10 AM
AT&T raises the price of its streaming service AT&T TV Now, with the basic Plus package up $15 to a $65/month; the move follows a similar increase in March
Bloomberg
12:55 AM
Lively, a Health Savings Account platform for employers and individuals to track healthcare spending, raises $27M Series B, bringing its total raised to $40M
FinSMEs
12:21 AM
Filing: Flipkart to enter the food retail business in India through a new subsidiary called Flipkart Farmermart, will invest $258M in the new venture
TechCrunch
Saturday, October 19, 2019
11:45 PM
Radius Networks, which enables location-based transactions like curbside and in-store pickup, raises $15M Series A
FinSMEs
11:10 PM
Realtime Robotics, which is developing hardware and software to allow robots to move freely in dynamic environments like factory floors, raises $11.7M Series A
TechCrunch
7:40 PM
Y Combinator partners talk about its online Startup School program, which has enlisted 30K+ startups, as the institution tries to overcome its insular image
CNET
6:15 PM
TikTok launches an education program in India, partners with local edtech startups to create and promote educational content
TechCrunch
5:10 PM
Havenly, which connects interior designers with clients for $99 virtual full-room makeover sessions, raises $32M Series C, bringing its total raised to $57.8M
Architectural Digest
3:55 PM
How TikTok is making inroads into US schools, as students create TikTok clubs to riff on the latest memes, and shoot videos on Newton's Laws for extra credit
New York Times
2:00 PM
A look inside a community of hackers who tinker with Kindle e-readers to disable Amazon's tracking, circumvent file format restrictions, install games, and more
OneZero
12:05 PM
Researchers find malware operators are now using steganography techniques to hide malicious code in WAV audio files
ZDNet
10:10 AM
A game made with a real world dataset of defendants shows the shortcomings of COMPAS, an AI-powered risk assessment tool used in the US criminal legal system
MIT Technology Review
7:05 AM
A behind-the-scenes account of a cyberattack that disrupted the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics, which was tied to a specific unit of Russia's GRU
Wired
2:00 AM
Inside Intuit's 20-year fight to make it harder to file taxes for free, including a pact with the IRS that kept a US-run service from competing with TurboTax
ProPublica