Techmeme
August 21, 2017, 11:00 PM

Top News

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google's Android O is named Oreo, rolls out soon to Nexus/Pixel devices; update includes background activity limits, picture-in-picture, notification channels  —  Timed with the total solar eclipse today, Google revealed Android O stands for Android 8.0 Oreo.
David Ruddock / Android Police:
Source: Google plans to launch a new Pixel-branded Chromebook and a mini version of the Google Home alongside new phones this fall  —  According to a source familiar with the company's plans, Google will launch not just two new Google Pixel phones at a hardware event this fall …
Peter Bright / Ars Technica:
Intel unveils first 8th gen processors, dubbed “Kaby Lake refresh”, based on an updated Kaby Lake architecture, claims 40% performance increase over 7th gen  —  No Coffee Lake or Cannonlake here; these are doubled up Kaby Lake parts.  —  The first “8th generation” …
John Herrman / New York Times:
After wave of neo-Nazi bans, tech firms' censorship policies were shown again to be arbitrary, not derived from moral awakening or newfound sense of civic duty  —  White supremacist marchers had not yet lit their torches when the deletions began.  The “Unite the Right” Facebook page …
Ashley Cowburn / The Independent:
UK's Crown Prosecution Service says it will pursue online hate crime as diligently as offline offenses, expects rise in prosecutions for social media attacks  —  Changes 'will remind the trolling brigade that there are real consequences for hitting the button' and will ‘undoubtedly lead to an increase in prosecutions’
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
HTC cuts Vive VR headset's price by $200, to $599, to remain competitive with Oculus Rift  —  You knew HTC wouldn't let the Oculus Rift's price cut go unanswered for long.  As of today, HTC has permanently lowered the price of the Vive headset by $200, to $599.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Facebook launches a dedicated tab for Safety Check, where it lists crises from around world, rolling out over the coming weeks  —  Facebook has made a permanent page for Safety Check, its feature for letting others know that you're safe during an emergency.  —  The results are pretty eerie.
More: Ubergizmo, The Next Web, and EngadgetFacebook: Facebook
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
WhatsApp adds colorful text status updates, just like Facebook  —  WhatsApp today began to roll out Status updates you can make by writing text on a colorful image background, a company spokesperson has informed VentureBeat.  While Status debuted as a text-only feature, it grew to include photos and videos.
Ellen Pao / The Cut:
An excerpt from Ellen Pao's book “Reset”: This is how sexism works in Silicon Valley. My lawsuit failed. Others won't.  —  In December 2010, Sheryl Sandberg gave a talk about women's leadership in which she mentioned “sitting at the table.”  Women, she said, have to pull up a chair …
Lindsey O'Donnell / CRN:
IoT security firm ZingBox raises $22M Series B led by Dell Technologies Capital and Tri Ventures  —  Pages  —  ZingBox, which makes technology that helps secure Internet of Things devices in vertical markets including health care and retail, said Thursday it has raised $22 million in a Series B funding round.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Automate your scheduling workflows with Zoho Calendar  —  Your calendar can do more than schedule meetings Creating a calendar event takes only a few seconds.  But scheduling is rarely just about creating the event.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Grit:
Inside the AI Startup Making Customer Support 65% Cheaper
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
90 minutes of unfiltered product advice from Snap and Discord's product chief | Peter Sellis
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Doom Backlash Arrives, Anthropic & OpenAI IPO Outlook, Frontier Business Momentum Slows
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
AI Wants to Shop for You. What Could Go Wrong?
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Invest Like the Best:
Michael Moritz - Lessons From 40 Years of Investing and Writing
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Sources:
Baseten's CEO on why every company will want to own its AI
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:00 PM ET, August 21, 2017.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Earlier Picks

Brian Heater / TechCrunch: