Techmeme
August 30, 2018, 2:45 PM

Top News

Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple announces a product launch event on September 12 at the Steve Jobs Theater in Cupertino where updated iPhones, iPads, and more are expected  —  It's official: Apple will hold its next big event on September 12.  Apple issued media invites with the tagline ‘Gather round’ as a teaser today.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google updates Assistant to support two languages simultaneously, letting users pair English, German, French, Spanish, Italian, or Japanese, with more to come  —  The Google Assistant just got more useful for multilingual families.  Starting today, you'll be able to set up two languages …
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Apple confirms it has acquired Akonia Holographics, a Colorado-based startup that is making lenses for smart glasses  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc has acquired a startup focused on making lenses for augmented reality glasses, the company confirmed on Wednesday, a signal Apple has ambitions …
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Edits made to Mapbox data changed the name of New York City to “Jewtropolis” for 4+ hours, affecting Snap Maps, The Weather Channel, CitiBike, and others  —  New Yorkers who opened up Snapchat, The Weather Channel, CitiBike or a number of other apps and services this morning found …
BuzzFeed News:
Trump tweets video claiming Google didn't promote his State of the Union address on its homepage; Google says it did, confirmed by screenshot posted on Reddit  —  “Google promoted president Obama's State of the Union on its homepage.  When President Trump took office, Google stopped," a video shared by Trump falsely claimed.
Kara Swisher / New York Times:
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Google's Titan Security Key set, including a USB key, a Bluetooth key, and various connectors, is now available to all for $50, shipping immediately  —  Google's Titan Security Key is finally available to anyone who wants one.  The two-factor token went live today in the Google store …
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
Microsoft says companies with 50+ employees seeking contracts will need to offer 12+ weeks of paid maternity leave, to be phased in over the next 12 months  —  Companies that provide temporary workers to the software giant will have to offer 12 weeks paid  —  Companies that want to staff …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Twitter says some organizations that purchase ads related to political issues, like abortion or immigration, will need to disclose more info about themselves  —  Twitter said Thursday that it would begin requiring some organizations that purchase political ads on topics such as abortion …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Chinese startup Anker unveils a $130 smart speaker and $300 smart vacuum cleaner, both with Alexa integration  —  An emerging theme of IFA 2018 is smart speakers.  Bose announced one (the Bose Home Speaker), followed by Bang & Olufsen (the BeoSound 1 and 2) and Sony (the HT-FZ9).
Will Oremus / Slate:
Twitter confirms that it ran a limited test for a feature that recommended accounts to unfollow that users rarely engage with  —  A well-established feature of Twitter is “Who to Follow.”  Drawing on data about what accounts you follow and interact with, Twitter's software automatically recommends …
Sahil Patel / Digiday:
CoinDesk has formed a new business unit called CoinDesk Productions to develop long-form documentaries and TV shows “rooted in crypto and blockchain technology”  —  CoinDesk is well-known as a news site covering everything happening with the blockchain and cryptocurrencies.

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Earlier Picks

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
William Denniss / Google Cloud Blog:
Jack Ellis / Tech in Asia:
Robert Mitchell / Variety: