Techmeme: Facebook reorganized AR and VR team from a divisional structure focused around products to a functional structure focused around technology areas of expertise (TechCrunch)

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Sources: Amazon in late-stage talks with several cities including Crystal City, Va., Dallas, New York for HQ2, may place smaller operations in runner-up cities — The tech giant's decision, which may be announced in November, could include multiple locations involving smaller sites

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Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:

Source: Apple will launch an iPhone with Intel's 8161 5G modem chip in 2020; Intel will likely be the sole modem supplier for that year's iPhones — Apple's 5G iPhone will come to market in 2020, a source with knowledge of Apple's plans says. — Apple plans to use Intel's 8161 5G modem chip in its 2020 phones.

More: TechCrunch, Firstpost, BetaNews, TechSpot, SlashGear, Engadget, The Verge, Gizmodo, MSPoweruser, Mashable, iPhone in Canada Blog, VentureBeat, iPhone Hacks, MacRumors, Neowin, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Redmond Pie, and Digital Trends

Tweets: @witeken and @stevesi

Katharine Schwab / Fast Company:

A look at Unfold, whose templates app for Instagram Stories has 11M+ users including celebs like Selena Gomez, as it launches a design agency focused on Stories — Alfonso Cobo saw the potential in Stories early on. Today, his template app has 11 million users, and he's launching a design agency focused on Stories alone.

More: The Verge. Tweets: @fastcodesign and @fastcompany

TechCrunch:

Facebook reorganized AR and VR team from a divisional structure focused around products to a functional structure focused around technology areas of expertise — Facebook is again looking to whip Oculus into shape for its 10-year journey towards making virtual reality mainstream.

More: Engadget, Blue's News, and UploadVR

Tweets: @joshconstine and @lucasmtny

James Vincent / The Verge:

New research from OpenAI shows how an AI agent with a sense of curiosity outperformed its predecessors playing the classic 1984 Atari game Montezuma's Revenge — This question is perhaps too broad to yield a single answer, but if you had to sum up why you accept that next quest …

More: The Register, OpenAI Blog, and Simon Willison's Weblog

Tweets: @gdb, @quasimondo, and @gdb

Bloomberg:

A look at a Bancor-funded pilot program in Kenya that aims to transition paper vouchers used as credit in local commerce to blockchain-based digital tokens — At the Sifa Children's Center, shacks made of corrugated metal serve as classrooms for some 300 pupils, circling an expanse of dusty …

More: Crypto Briefing. Tweets: @business, @crypto, and @clairlemon

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

PropertyGuru, which operates real estate rental and sale listing sites in Southeast Asia raises $144M Series D from KKR bringing the total raised to ~$320M — Global investment giant KKR is warming up to Southeast Asia after it made a third high-profile investment.

More: Reuters, Bloomberg, Law360, DealStreetAsia, Singapore Business Review, The Business Times, and Tech in Asia

Sahil Patel / Digiday:

Programming on Facebook Watch has evolved as it focuses on sports, news, and high-profile stars/creators and funding for shows by digital publishers dries up — Facebook says it wants Facebook Watch programming that's unique to its platform — with big names and built-in distribution, if possible.

Tweets: @maxwillens, @billsimmons, and @mattnavarra

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