Techmeme
November 19, 2018, 10:05 PM

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram says it will use machine learning to find and remove inauthentic likes, follows, and comments from accounts using third-party apps to boost popularity  —  Instagram is fighting back against automated apps people use to leave spammy comments or follow then unfollow others in hopes of growing their audience.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Apple reduced production orders for all new iPhone models in recent weeks; iPhone XR production was slashed by up to one third of the initial 70M  —  In recent weeks, Apple slashed production orders for all three iPhone models that it unveiled in September
Margaret Sullivan / Washington Post:
Zuckerberg should give up his dual role as Facebook CEO and chairman, stepping down as chairman and appointing an independent director to oversee the board  —  Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg once set out a bit of digital-world wisdom that became his company's informal motto: “Move fast and break things.”
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Microsoft acquires Atlanta-based app provisioning and virtualization startup FSLogix, to improve Office 365 performance in “multi-user virtual environments”  —  Another day, another profitable exit for a well-regarded startup.  Microsoft today announced that it has acquired Atlanta …
Tom Dotan / The Information:
Sources: Evan Spiegel spends most board meetings looking at his phone and messaging on Snapchat, seemingly dismissive of some members' “short term” concerns  —  Until a few months ago, Snap's board meetings could be tense affairs.  Benchmark partner Mitch Lasky …
Julie Bort / Business Insider:
Inside Uber before its self-driving car killed a pedestrian: sources describe infighting, “perverse” incentives, and questionable decisions  —  Samantha Lee/Business Insider; Natalie Behring/REUTERS  — On March 18 one of Uber's self-driving cars killed a pedestrian …
Ina Fried / Axios:
Tim Cook says some government regulation of Silicon Valley is inevitable, defends deal to make Google Apple's default search engine despite privacy concerns  —  If Apple is so big on users' privacy, why does the company take billions of dollars from Google in exchange for letting the search giant …
Edmund Lee / New York Times:
BuzzFeed CEO Jonah Peretti suggests the site could eventually merge with rival publishers to negotiate better terms with companies like Facebook and Google  —  Jonah Peretti, the chief executive, says his company could eventually merge with other online publishers in order to negotiate better terms with tech platforms like Facebook.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it is bringing Skype calling to Alexa-enabled devices this week, including SkypeOut which lets users call mobile and landline phones  —  Microsoft and Amazon's partnership continues  —  Microsoft is bringing its Skype calling service to Amazon's Alexa-enabled devices this week.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
SubQ Snap 1.1: the first long-context decision model for real enterprise work  —  Tied for #1 on the AA Decision Index, Snap is a multimodal model with a 384k-token context window for fast reasoning and agentic decisions.
Zoho:
Labels that build themselves: Simplified Label Automation in Zoho Writer  —  Anyone who ships every day knows this feeling.  Forty orders, each with a different number of items, and every item needs its own label.
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.
WebBrain:
WebBrain: an open-source AI agent for your browser  —  Read pages, fill forms and automate tasks in Chrome or Firefox.  Use local models or your preferred AI provider.  Get started free.

Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
How Ramp Built A $60B AI Product Factory Off A Corporate Card | Co-CEO Eric Glyman
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.
Great Chat:
Would you let a robot do it?
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.
Training Data:
A Model For Everyone: How Ronak From Trajectory Is Building Products For Continual Learning
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Big Technology Podcast:
Can AI Keep Going After The Democrats' Big Win? — With Teddy Schleifer
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.
Machine Gods:
Crypto's Biggest Heist Ever + The Spy Who Loved Nvidia + Hacktober's Unsolved Mysteries
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Barry Diller on Big Bets, AI, and Knowing When to Walk Away
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 10:05 PM ET, November 19, 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

Earlier Picks

Sam Byford / The Verge:
Aaron van Wirdum / Bitcoin Magazine:
Andrew Liptak / The Verge: