Techmeme: Inside the small teams at Spotify, Google, and Apple that make tens of thousands of playlists listened to by tens of millions of people around the world (Reggie Ugwu/BuzzFeed)

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July 17, 2016, 9:15 PM

Top News

Georgia Wells / Wall Street Journal:

Facebook shows little progress in diversity report, blames lack of available talent — Many observers say talent pipeline isn't primary factor — Facebook Inc. said Thursday that it made meager increases in the number of women and minorities working at the social-network giant …

More: Facebook, Wired, EdTech, thejournal.com, Tech Times, USA Today, Engadget, AOL, NewCo Shift, Bo Ren, Recode, The Daily Dot, Quartz and Vanity Fair

Tweets: @georgia_wells, @usatoday, @mipsytipsy, @ekp, @puffins, @shanley, @mipsytipsy, @morgandebaun, @kthomas901, @jguynn and @ericajoy

Dare Obasanjo:

How ingrained hiring practices at companies like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook hinder their efforts to diversify their workforces — In the past week or so I've had three instances to reflect on how three major tech companies talk about diversity hiring and their actions.

More: TechCrunch, Dice Insights and SocialTimes

Tweets: @zellyn, @dgolumbia, @rezendi and @anildash

Lizzie Plaugic / The Verge:

Google's diverse emoji for women at work approved by Unicode Consortium — Back in May, Google proposed 13 new emoji meant to better represent women in professional fields, and now 11 of those emoji have been approved by the Unicode Consortium. The new emoji, including a chef, a graduate …

the grugq:

Attempted coup's failure to block internet in Turkey allowed President Erdogan and civilians to organize resistance through FaceTime, Periscope, Facebook Live — Rewriting the rulebook on coups, time to add cyberpower — Mere hours after the putsch in Turkey has failed, it is still too early to understand exactly what went on.

More: BuzzFeed, Reuters, The Register, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Telegraph, Boing Boing and Mashable

Tweets: @sweis, @swiftonsecurity, @buzzfeedben, @swiftonsecurity, @buzzfeednews, @csoghoian, @zeynep, @zeynep and @digiphile

Thanks:@ravichandrans25. See also Mediagazer

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube were temporarily blocked or slowed in Turkey during military coup attempt

Issie Lapowsky / Wired:

Clinton has assembled a tech team of over 50 engineers and developers for her presidential campaign, while Trump just focuses on using social media — Giving up Google wasn't easy for Stephanie Hannon, if it's easy for anyone. A person can get used to the big salary, cushy perks …

Tweets: @davidgaliel

Aaron Souppouris / Engadget:

Sources: Google is working on a headset with a display that will offer AR features and does not require a phone or computer to power it — Yesterday Recode published an article suggesting Google has killed a VR project that would have directly competed with high-end headsets like the Oculus Rift.

More: The Verge and Digital Trends. Tweets: @espiers

Mark Bergen / Recode:

Google recently shut down project to create high-end standalone VR headset with non-Android OS

More: Pocketnow, Digital Trends, Tech Times, Ubergizmo, SlashGear, ResearchBuzz, ZDNet, 9to5Google, Android Central, Road to VR, PhoneDog.com, Engadget, Android Authority, UploadVR and Android and Me

Keith Naughton / Bloomberg:

Civil Maps, a startup that uses AI software to convert data from sensors on self-driving cars into detailed 3D maps, raises $6.6M seed from Ford and others — Automaker is among participants in $6.6 million seed funding — Civil Maps' system aggregates data from sensors on vehicles

More: VentureBeat, Tech Times, Wired, CNET, Business Wire, Inverse, San Francisco Business Journal, Silicon Valley Business …, Fortune, PE Hub Blog and TheStreet.com

Wall Street Journal:

Obama administration working with foreign governments to let them to serve US tech firms with warrants for email searches and wiretaps — Internet companies could face overseas demands for email searches, wiretaps — The Obama administration is working on a series of agreements …

Tweets: @ijurisdiction and @mbrauchli

Reggie Ugwu / BuzzFeed:

Inside the small teams at Spotify, Google, and Apple that make tens of thousands of playlists listened to by tens of millions of people around the world — When he's choosing your music for you, Carl Chery, 37, is in Culver City, California, sitting at his desk in an office with no signage …

More: NPR. Tweets: @johnpaczkowski, @gkjohn, @trengriffin, @culturite, @marissagmuller, @jingw, @ddoff, @marksussman, @uugwuu and @pocket. Thanks:@johnpaczkowski

Vindu Goel / New York Times:

As Yahoo puts itself up for sale, early employees known as “surfers” recall building the company's directory — SUNNYVALE, Calif. — Back in the mid-1990s, before Google even existed, the world's best guides to the internet sat in Silicon Valley cubicles, visiting websites and carefully categorizing them by hand.

Tweets: @jeffjarvis, @nytimesbits and @nytimesbits

Ben Sisario / New York Times:

In a non-public filing with the US Copyright Royalty Board, Apple proposes simplified flat rate of 9.1¢ per 100 streams in songwriting royalties — In the music industry's streaming battles, the fight extends to even the minutiae of copyright. — Apple, in a government filing on Friday …

More: Pocketnow, Insanely Great Mac, Digital Trends, PhoneArena, Billboard, iPhone in Canada Blog, iMore, MacRumors, BetaNews, iPhone Hacks, The Verge, Engadget, AppleInsider and TechnoBuffalo

Tweets: @pt and @sisario

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