Techmeme
September 21, 2018, 1:05 PM

Top News

GeekWire:
A roundup of all the major announcements from Amazon on Thursday, from a new microwave to a subwoofer to new Alexa skills and developer tools  —  Microwave.  Subwoofer.  Smart plug.  In-car device.  —  Those are just a handful of the new devices Amazon debuted on Thursday …
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Amazon unveils Echo Auto, a $49.99 dash mounted in-car accessory that puts Alexa in any car with an aux jack and gives directions using Waze  —  As Amazon noted at today's event, the company has already been working with a number of car companies bring Alexa to vehicles.
Alex Heath / Cheddar:
Sources: Facebook plans to unveil its “Portal” video chat device for home with Alexa support next week; it will come in two screen sizes for ~$400 and ~$300  —  Facebook plans to finally unveil its Portal video chat device for the home next week, Cheddar has learned.
Wall Street Journal:
In letter to Congress, Google confirms it continues to allow third-party apps to scan and share data from Gmail accounts, though Google itself stopped doing so  —  Lawmakers had asked company to explain policy in wake of WSJ report  —  WASHINGTON—Google Inc. told lawmakers it continues …
Sara Salinas / CNBC:
Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya appears unconcerned about the string of exits from the firm and says it will no longer raise outside capital  —  - Chamath Palihapitiya told his employees he would be diverting much of the “carry” — the portion of investment returns traditionally given …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Sources: Instagram was testing a way for users to reshare posts from other accounts to their own feeds; Instagram says it's not building or testing such feature  —  Will it revive the feed — or break it?  —  After years of resistance, Instagram is now testing a way for you to reshare posts from other accounts to your own feed.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Timothy J. Seppala / Engadget:
PlayStation Now announces subscribers can download PS4 and remastered PS2 games, as the service becomes more like Xbox Game Pass  —  The biggest hindrance to Sony's PlayStation Now streaming service is lag.  Because the game isn't stored locally, whatever device you're playing on has to send …
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Adobe says it is acquiring the marketing automation company Marketo for $4.75B  —  A week ago rumors were flying that Adobe would be buying Marketo, and lo and behold it announced today that it was acquiring the marketing automation company for $4.75 billion.
Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft says Skype is coming to Amazon Alexa devices later this year, letting Alexa users make outgoing voice and video calls, accept incoming calls, and more  —  Microsoft and Amazon are working together to bring Skype calling to Alexa-powered devices, which brings into question, again, where Microsoft is going with Cortana.
Ashlee Clark Thompson / CNET:
Amazon launches a $59.99 AmazonBasics-branded microwave that works with Alexa-enabled speakers, has built-in WiFi, and an Amazon Dash Replenishment  —  Amazon will begin to sell its own brand of Wi-Fi-connected microwaves that will respond to voice commands, the company announced Thursday at its headquarters in Seattle.
Laura Stevens / Wall Street Journal:
Daniel Palmer / CoinDesk:
Bitmain announces its next generation, 7 nm BM1391 ASIC to power its cryptocurrency miners  —  The bitcoin mining industry is having an exciting couple of days.  —  Just a day after Bitfury revealed a new 14nm mining chip called the Bitfury Clarke, Bitmain has upped the ante with the announcement …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Trucking and freight-booking startup Convoy raises $185M Series C led by CapitalG at a $1B valuation, bringing its total raised to $265M  —  After serving 14 years for the Royal Canadian Navy, Ira Lawrence was ready for a new adventure.  He and his wife decided to start a trucking company in 2017 …
CNN:
Google confirms the personal Gmail accounts of an unspecified number of US senators and Senate staff have been targeted by foreign government hackers  —  Foreign hackers target Senators' Gmail accounts  —  (CNN)The personal Gmail accounts of an unspecified number of US senators and Senate staff …
Josh Ye / Abacus:
Twitch website is currently not accessible in China and its app has disappeared from the App Store, indicating that Twitch may have been blocked in the country  —  Gaming service's site is inaccessible and its app is no longer on China's iOS App Store  —  Last month, Twitch downloads surged …

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