Techmeme
January 9, 2019, 1:25 PM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google makes over a dozen announcements for Google Assistant at CES, including Google Assistant Connect for third-party developers and flight check-ins  —  Today, Google is showing off auto-translation on smart display speakers, letting you naturally talk to each other with the speaker acting as the translator automatically.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Lauren Goode / Wired:
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Managed by Q, which develops a platform for managing offices, adds $25M to its Series C round, led by RRE and GV, bringing the total for the round to $55M  —  Managed by Q, the office management platform that launched back in 2013, has today revealed that it raised an additional $25 million …
More: Managed
Tom Krazit / GeekWire:
Square launches an in-app payments SDK for iOS, Android, and the Flutter mobile development platform  —  Betting that users of its in-store payments hardware and web services want to use Square across their mobile apps as well, the company is launching a mobile software development kit Wednesday …
Kim Zetter / Politico:
Sources: Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab helped the US government catch NSA contractor Harold Martin, who was accused of stealing a trove of classified data  —  The U.S. has accused Kaspersky Lab of working with Russian spies.  But sources say the company exposed a massive breach that U.S. authorities missed.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Jeff and MacKenzie Bezos announce they are divorcing after 25 years of marriage; MacKenzie worked at Amazon from the beginning  —  Jeff Bezos and his wife, MacKenzie Bezos, announced this morning via the Amazon CEO's personal Twitter account that they've decided to divorce after 25 years of marriage.
Elizabeth Gurdus / CNBC:
Tim Cook says revenue for Apple's wearables is 50% more than iPod at its peak, with the Watch and AirPods generating 4-6x more in sales than iPod over same time  —  - Apple CEO Tim Cook says that the revenue from his company's wearable products, namely the Apple Watch and the AirPods, has already topped that of the iPod at its peak.
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Vietnam accuses Facebook of failing to take down “slanderous content” in violation of cyber security law that took effect on January 1  —  Well, that didn't take long.  We're less than ten days into 2019 and already Vietnam is aiming threats at Facebook after it violating …
Stefan Etienne / The Verge:
Yale and Emtek announce new smart locks that integrate with August's software, the first locks to do so without additional hardware  —  Using its sister company's software on new smart locks  —  Yale and Emtek, two smart lock companies under the umbrella of the lock conglomerate Assa Abloy …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google says Chrome's ad blocker, which adheres to Coalition for Better Ads' guidelines, is rolling out globally on July 9  —  Google today announced that Chrome's ad blocker is expanding across the globe starting on July 9, 2019.  As with last year's initial ad blocker rollout, the date is not tied to a specific Chrome version.
Vlad Savov / The Verge:
Royole unveils FlexPai, a hybrid device that measures 7.8 inches in tablet form and becomes two Android phones when closed; available now in China for ~$1,320  —  You asked for this  —  The Royole FlexPai is the sort of device that companies rush out when they feel the absolute imperative to be first with some new technology.
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Customers have been annoyed by Samsung's deal to pre-install Facebook on devices, including Galaxy phones, because the app can only be disabled, not deleted  —  - Galaxy owners take to Twitter to complain about permanent app  — Pre-install deals are common, but privacy concerns are rising

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
The 90-day recognition cliff: Why praise programs fade, and what keeps them alive  —  Recognition programs often start with enthusiasm.  Employees participate, managers share shoutouts, and teams have a new way to celebrate achievements.
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.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next
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.
Sources:
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
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.
Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:25 PM ET, January 9, 2019.

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

Edgar Alvarez / Engadget:
Mark Zuckerberg:

Earlier Picks

Joseph Cox / Motherboard:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Todd Spangler / Variety: