Techmeme: Imax closes its New York City VR center, bringing VR center closures to three; company says it won't spend on VR projects in 2019 (Janko Roettgers/Variety)

Top News

Taylor Hatmaker / TechCrunch:

Twitter told a user that pipe bomb suspect did not violate its rules when she reported his threats weeks ago; Twitter now says it made a mistake, apologizes — Taylor Hatmaker @tayhatmaker / 14 hours — At least two Twitter accounts linked to the man suspected of sending explosive devices …

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google introduces its “.new” domain for instantly creating new docs, slides, sheets, and forms across its productivity apps — Sarah Perez @sarahintampa / 7 hours — Google Docs just rolled out a time-saving trick that's sure to be welcomed by heavy users of Docs …

More: TIME, The Verge, Gizmodo, Lifehacker, CNET, Search Engine Journal, Domain Name Wire, KnowTechie, Engadget, The Next Web, Android Police, and 9to5Google

Tweets: @googledocs, @jsnell, and @_patmurray

Janko Roettgers / Variety:

Imax closes its New York City VR center, bringing VR center closures to three; company says it won't spend on VR projects in 2019 — Imax continues to scale down its virtual reality (VR) ambitions: The company closed its New York-based VR Center in recent days, bringing the total number of such closures up to 3.

Tweets: @rafat

Joshua Topolsky / The Outline:

Mainstream adoption of VR hasn't happened because there's no “killer app” for VR and no one has made a simple headset that lets a novice user engage casually — We were promised better worlds, and all we got was this lousy headset. — Joshua Topolsky Oct—25—2018 01:56PM EST

More: GamesIndustry.biz. Tweets: @outline

Monica Nickelsburg / GeekWire:

Addressing employee concerns, Microsoft explains why it won't pull out of Pentagon's $10B JEDI contract bidding and will sell AI and other technologies to DOD — Microsoft will not pull out of the competition for a $10 billion cloud contract for the Department of Defense …

More: Microsoft on the Issues, New York Times, BetaNews, Wall Street Journal, Neowin, Business Insider, CNET, VentureBeat, MSPoweruser, Fedscoop, Nextgov, TechCrunch, and Axios

Tweets: @paul_scharre, @tonitwhitley, and @bradsmi

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sources: at Oct. 30 event, Apple to reveal new iPad Pros with nearly edge-to-edge screens, a USB-C port, and Face ID, a successor to the MacBook Air, and more — - Company to unveil biggest iPad Pro overhaul since 2015 debut — Mac sales dipped to lowest point since 2010 in third quarter

More: Mashable, ZDNet, Ars Technica, Neowin, MacRumors, CNET, Engadget, iPhone Hacks, and The Verge

Tweets: @markgurman and @markgurman

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Report: Twitch continues to dominate live streaming with 2.5B hours watched in Q3, but YouTube Live has seen a 10% increase to ~25% of the market since January — Sarah Perez @sarahintampa / 7 hours — Twitch continues to dominate the live streaming market, with approximately 2.5 billion hours watched …

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Twitch says it has 1M viewers at any given time, announces Squad Streaming to allow up to four people to broadcast at once, Twitch Sings game, and more

More: Twitch Blog, Variety, SludgeFeed, The Next Web, Silicon Valley Business …, Neowin, PC Gamer, IGN, Polygon, Dot Esports, Shacknews, VentureBeat, and The Verge

Tweets: @twitch, @twitch, @gassymexican, @cbenni_o, and @brgaming

Brendan Koerner / Wired:

An in-depth look at how a swatting prank led to a deadly shooting in Wichita; Tyler Barriss, the serial swatter responsible, is facing federal and state charges — THE TYPICAL WICHITA City Council meeting is a dull affair, dominated by bureaucrats droning on about street repairs, zoning codes, and general obligation bonds.

More: Wired, GamesIndustry.biz, Engadget, and Longreads

Tweets: @aaschapiro, @bobmcmillan, @mjb_sf, and @briankrebs

Casey Newton / The Verge:

Snap launches Snap Camera app for Mac and Windows, brings Snapchat filters to apps including Twitch, YouTube, and Skype on the desktop — The conference call is going to be lit, fam — Snap, which likes to call itself a camera company, is bringing that camera to the desktop.

iFixit:

iFixit: iPhone XR is the spiritual “iPhone 9” with an inside that looks like a hybrid between the iPhone 8 and X; modular SIM card reader is an iPhone first — Tools Featured in this Teardown — Video Overview Introduction — Don't want to spend $1,000 on a smartphone?

More: 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, TechSpot, iFixit, iPhone Hacks, CNET, SlashGear, Engadget, MacRumors, iMore, and iPhone in Canada Blog

Benjamin Wofford / Vox:

Interviews with government officials, analysts, and tech experts reveal severe vulnerabilities in many levels of the US election system, ahead of midterms — An investigation into the US election system reveals frightening vulnerabilities at almost every level.

Tweets: @selectedwisdom, @fawfulfan, @ezraklein, @ezraklein, @ezraklein, and @dangillmor

Financial Times:

Waymo has begun charging some passengers in Arizona for rides in its autonomous cars, Alphabet CFO Ruth Porat revealed during Thursday's Q3 earnings call — Waymo has begun charging passengers in Arizona for rides in its autonomous cars, making it the first self-driving car developer to launch commercial services.

More: CNET

Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:

Microsoft plans to bring its Xbox Game Pass subscription service to PC, Satya Nadella revealed on Wednesday's Q1 earnings call — Few details offered during off-handed earnings call announcement. — Microsoft says PC players will be able to access a version of its all-you-can-download …

More: Eurogamer.net, Neowin, Variety, Tom's Hardware, Engadget, GameSpot, and Polygon

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:

Fast, affordable law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

Equals:

Stop vibe coding analytics — Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards. Build once, iterate for years.

Zoho:

Zoho Mail MCP: Make your inbox work for you — Maya is the head of operations at a 500-person B2B software company. She's sharp, she's busy, and she starts every morning the same way-with her coffee, laptop, inbox.Not to work.

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Grit:

Airwallex's Jack Zhang on Fintech, Failure, and Growth

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin

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.

Lenny's Podcast:

OpenAI Codex lead on the new shape of product work | Andrew Ambrosino

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:

Anthropic's Mythos is Back, OpenAI Releases GPT 5.6, Apple's Price Increases

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.

Hard Fork:

'The Daily' and 'The Opinions': How A.I. Is Changing Loneliness and Taste

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

The Upstarts Podcast:

Writer's May Habib: Building AI Tools For Corporate 'Normal People' The Labs Leave Behind

Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.

Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:15 PM ET, October 27, 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.