Techmeme
August 30, 2018, 10:55 AM

Top News

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 …
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:
Trump's accusations against Google, Facebook, and Twitter about limiting conservatives have no merit because those platforms have always amplified his messages  —  The idea that Google and Twitter are rigging their platforms against him is patently false.  —  Ms. Swisher covers technology and is a contributing opinion writer.
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 …
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 …
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 …
Joshua Brustein / Bloomberg:
Sources: Uber has begun engineering its own scooter, a project that is being overseen by Jump Bikes, which Uber acquired in April for more than $100M  —  The company is playing catch-up in a market already flush with billion-dollar startups.  —  This spring, Uber moved into a cavernous brick building …
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 …
William Denniss / Google Cloud Blog:
Google to hand over operational control of the Kubernetes project to its community and donates $9M in Google Cloud credits to Cloud Native Computing Foundation  —  Kubernetes, the container orchestrator created and open-sourced here at Google, has experienced incredible development and adoption since it was introduced in 2014.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Q&A with five experts on whether it is time to regulate facial recognition technology and its usage by police, and what needs to be done to overcome racial bias  —  Facial recognition is everywhere — airports, police stations, and built into the largest cloud platforms in the world …
Jason Del Rey / Recode:
A look at the recent $100M+ acquisitions of direct-to-consumer startups, including MVMT and Native, that raised little to no venture capital  —  A new breed of entrepreneurs is creating huge consumer brands — like MVMT and Tuft & Needle — without venture capital, and laughing all the way to the bank.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
Give your projects a “signature” upgrade with the Zoho Sign extension for Zoho Projects  —  Well-orchestrated project management keeps people, priorities, and processes all working in sync toward a shared goal.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
Big Technology Podcast:
AI Is Upending Law. Is That A Sign For The Rest Of Us? — With Melia Russell
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.
[trading places]:
Ben Black Akkadian Ventures🏆 | Secondaries Secrets 💎 | RAISE Conf 🎯 | Vercel $9B 🚀
a very bad podcast about broken unicorns & busted carry hosted by dave mcclure and aman verjee
Subscribe to [trading places].
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:55 AM ET, August 30, 2018.

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

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Catalin Cimpanu / BleepingComputer:

Earlier Picks

John Follain / Bloomberg:
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Robert Mitchell / Variety: