Techmeme
May 25, 2016, 2:30 PM

Top News

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Microsoft is laying off 1,850 to “streamline” its smartphone business, takes $950M charge  —  Following last week's news of Microsoft selling off its feature phone business for $350 million, today Microsoft turned its attention to smartphones: the company announced it would lay off 1,850 staff …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Report: Microsoft to announce a basic Chromecast-like Xbox streaming device and a more advanced option at E3  —  Microsoft is said to be planning to unveil new Xbox streaming devices at E3 next month.  The software giant has been considering an “Xbox TV” device for at least three years …
Kotaku:
Sources: Microsoft is planning a cheaper, smaller Xbox One for E3 and a more powerful model in 2017; possible partnership with Oculus in the works  —  Microsoft is preparing at least two new Xbox models for release in the next two years, sources tell Kotaku.
Forbes:
Sources: Peter Thiel has played a lead role in bankrolling Hulk Hogan's lawsuits against Gawker Media  —  One of Silicon Valley's best-known investors has been footing a former wrestler's legal bills in lawsuits against a shared enemy.  —  Peter Thiel, a PayPal cofounder and one of the earliest backers …
David Muller / MLive.com:
Google to open a 53K square foot self-driving car development center in Novi, outside of Detroit  —  DETROIT - Google's self-driving car project will open a technology development center in Novi, John Krafcik, who heads the technology giant's autonomous vehicle program, announced on social media Wednesday.
Mark Scott / New York Times:
EU proposes new rules to protect minors, combat hate speech, and mandate that video streaming services have 20% European content  —  How do you say “House of Cards” in French?  Under new European proposals, you may soon find out.  —  That's because European officials announced on Wednesday …
Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Twilio launches Notify API to unify delivery of SMS, app, and messenger push notifications  —  Twilio isn't quite done sharing news at its SIGNAL conference.  The company has introduced a new API that gives developers a single way to orchestrate notification delivery across SMS, iOS and Android apps, and even messaging applications.
Billy Steele / Engadget:
LG G5's VR headset, 360 camera and other accessories hit the US  —  When LG announced its modular G5 phone last month, it also revealed a line of “Friends” companion devices to go along with it (See what it did there?).  Included in the lineup are the 360 VR headset, 360 Cam …
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
E Ink develops Advanced Color ePaper, an EPD display that shows up to 32K colors, for digital signage  —  There's a small glimmer of hope for the seemingly doomed dream of color electronic paper.  E Ink, which helped pioneer ePaper by providing the technology for Amazon's Kindle …
Amir Efrati / The Information:
Source: Apple opening Siri to third-party apps, preparing a Siri SDK for release at WWDC, and developing an Amazon Echo rival  —  Apple is upping its game in the field of intelligent assistants.  After years of internal debate and discussion about how to do so, the company is preparing to open up Siri to apps made by others.

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More News

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Eric Newcomer / Bloomberg:
Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
Katie Roof / TechCrunch: