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January 23, 2019, 10:00 AM
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| Chris Welch / The Verge: |
Google launches YouTube TV in 95 new US markets, says it now covers 98% of US households — 98 percent of US households are covered as of today, with the rest coming soon — YouTube TV is finally nearing nationwide availability. The streaming TV service first launched in February 2017 …
More:
9to5Google, Engadget, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, YouTube Blog, CNBC, and Mashable
| Jon Fingas / Engadget: |
Twitter begins limited rollout of a new web interface with a two-column layout, keyboard shortcuts, a dedicated emoji button, and a revised trends section — Don't be surprised if Twitter looks very different on the web in the near future. The social network has started rolling … | Sam Levin / The Guardian: |
US DoL files complaint against Oracle for discrimination against women and people of color, seeks $400M+ for workers who have suffered pay inequities — US labor department accuses company of rampant exclusion of black and Hispanic people in hiring and higher pay for white men
More:
SiliconANGLE, Bloomberg Law, CNET, TechCrunch, Associated Press, Wired, Axios, CNBC, Silicon Valley Business …, Fortune, and Mercury News
Tweets: @scottthurm, @nitashatiku, @emilychangtv, @terencehyland, @hassankanu, @boxall, @scottthurm, @nitashatiku, @ekp, @wired, and @wired
| Shona Ghosh / Business Insider: |
Candy Ventures acquires AR startup Blippar, which went into administration last month after raising $130M+, and will reform it as a new business with same CEO — - British property tycoon Nick Candy has bought Blippar, the augmented reality startup which collapsed late last year.
More:
VentureBeat, Tech.eu, TechCrunch, Business Insider, and Telegraph
| Steven T. Wright / Ars Technica: |
A look at the history of LiveJournal, the early blogging platform that boasted 10M+ accounts at its height but faltered after questionable business decisions — George RR Martin's platform switch reminds us of an early blogging giant greatly changed. — Last April, famed writer …
More:
Boing Boing. Tweets: @mightyodango, @sparklystuff, @q0rtz, @anildash, @curacosmica, @ohthatflo, @szechuan, and @jmatwood
| Louise Matsakis / Wired: |
Google announces it will contribute an additional $3.1M to Wikimedia and give Wikipedia editors free access to Custom Search API and Cloud Vision API — GOOGLE IS POURING an additional $3.1 million into Wikipedia, bringing its total contribution to the free encyclopedia over the past decade … | Liz Alderman / New York Times: |
Despite Bitcoin's dive, thousands of Georgians have sold cars to buy computers to mine Bitcoin; ~10% of the country's energy output goes into mining Bitcoin — Tax breaks, land deals and cheap energy have spurred cryptocurrency mining in Georgia, which wants to be a digital data leader.
Tweets: @nytimesbusiness, @nytimesbusiness, @nytimesbusiness, and @dealbook
| Anthony D'Alessandro / Deadline: |
The Motion Picture Association of America has added Netflix as a member, the first internet-based service to be added — UPDATED with Netflix officially joining: It's official, Netflix is a member of the MPAA. The Washington, DC-based organization just dropped the following release:
More:
Hollywood Reporter, MPAA, MediaNama, Engadget, SlashGear, CNBC, The Verge, TechSpot, Publishing Perspectives, iPhone in Canada Blog, IGN, TechCrunch, and Politico
Tweets: @charlierivkin, @great_katzby, @pameladaym, @lucas_shaw, @great_katzby, @politico, and @politico
| Sean Lyngaas / CyberScoop: |
DHS issues rare “emergency” directive ordering federal agencies to secure credentials for DNS records; sources: six agencies have seen malicious DNS activity — The Department of Homeland Security has issued a rare “emergency” directive ordering federal civilian agencies to secure …
More:
ZDNet, SiliconANGLE, BleepingComputer, SecurityWeek, The Hacker News, The Register, Boing Boing, Federal Computer Week, and CircleID
Tweets: @alexstamos, @gossithedog, and @alex_lanstein
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Google will retire classic Hangouts for G Suite customers in October, after its previous announcement that Hangouts would be split into Hangouts Chat, Meet apps — Google announced in March 2017 that it would split Hangouts, its cross-platform messaging service, into two core apps …
More:
G Suite Updates Blog, Inquirer, Ars Technica, The Verge, MSPoweruser, TechSpot, ZDNet, 9to5Google, TechCrunch, Droid Life, and 9to5Google. Tweets: @mgsiegler
| Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security: |
New research details how two widely received spam email campaigns over the past few months were made possible by a previously detailed weakness at GoDaddy.com — Two of the most disruptive and widely-received spam email campaigns over the past few months — including an ongoing sextortion email scam … | Jim Waterson / The Guardian: |
Microsoft is automatically installing NewsGuard, a plug-in that guides users on which news websites can be trusted, on mobile versions of its Edge browser — Mail Online rated one out of five for credibility by new feature to fight fake news — Microsoft's internet browser is warning users …
More:
The Verge, Engadget, MacRumors, TechSpot, and Good e-Reader
Tweets: @stopfundinghate and @adrianweckler
| Wall Street Journal: |
Analysis of millions of Glassdoor reviews finds 400+ companies, including SpaceX and Slack, have unusual single-month increases in mostly positive posts — Employers flood the ranking site with 5-star postings requested from enthusiastic staffers, leading to unusual spikes, a WSJ investigation found
More:
Fortune, Mercury News, and Notes from Silicon Valley
| Paresh Dave / Reuters: |
Google spent $21.2M on US govt lobbying in 2018, up from $18.04M in 2017; Facebook spent $12.62M, up from $11.51M; and Microsoft spent $9.52M, up from $8.5M — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google disclosed on Tuesday that it spent a company-record $21.2 million on lobbying … | Pushkala Aripaka / Reuters: |
IBM beats with Q4 revenue of $21.76B, down 3% YoY, vs. $21.71B analyst estimate, and full-year cloud revenue of $19.2B, up 12% YoY; stock up 6%+ after hours — (Reuters) - IBM Corp reported a smaller-than-expected 3.5 percent drop in fourth-quarter revenue on Tuesday, as higher sales … | Sara Fischer / Axios: |
Viacom to acquire Pluto TV, a free, ad-supported streaming service, for $340M in cash; Pluto TV to operate as an independent subsidiary when the deal closes — Viacom announced Tuesday that it has agreed to buy Pluto TV — one of the fastest-growing free, ad-supported TV streaming services in the U.S. — for $340 million in cash.
More:
Engadget, Reuters, Hollywood Reporter, Android Police, The Verge, Variety, Deadline, Wall Street Journal, CNET, Ad Age, Los Angeles Times, Deadline, CNBC, 9to5Mac, and TechCrunch
| Rebekah Valentine / GamesIndustry.biz: |
NPD Group: US video game revenue in 2018 reached a record $43.4B, up 18% YoY, with software earning $35.8B, up 18% YoY, and hardware earning $7.5B, up 15% YoY — Red Dead Redemption 2 crowned best-selling game of 2018; Super Smash Bros. Ultimate takes December
More:
VentureBeat, VentureBeat, GameSpot, Engadget, IGN, and TechCrunch
| Alex Konrad / Forbes: |
Confluent, the company behind open source streaming data project Apache Kafka, raises $125M Series D led by Sequoia Capital, source says at a $2.5B valuation — Open source software has produced a new multi-billion-dollar company - one that has some of Silicon Valley's best-known venture firms jockeying … | Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google says 30M Chromebooks are used in education, up 5M from May 2018, and that 80M people use its G Suite for Education platform — Kicking off tomorrow is BETT, an annual conference and show for education. Several companies have already announced the latest Chrome OS devices for the market …
More:
The Keyword, The Verge, and Thurrott
| Jonathan Peters / Columbia Journalism Review: |
In Colorado, over two dozen law enforcement agencies statewide have encrypted their radio communications, making it hard for crime reporters to cover their beat — Colorado journalists on the crime beat are increasingly in the dark. More than two-dozen law enforcement agencies statewide …
Tweets: @jonathanwpeters, @hollyzachariah, @awinston, and @mattsebastian
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
Microsoft unveils Microsoft Classroom Pen, optimized for the Surface Go and sold in packs of 20 to schools, and 7 new PCs from Acer, Dell, Lenovo from $189-$320 — Microsoft unveiled a big education push exactly a year ago today, and for 2019, the software maker is equally committed to challenging Chromebooks in a variety of ways.
More:
Microsoft EDU, Inquirer, UploadVR, Digital Trends, Softpedia News, CNBC, Patently Apple, Ars Technica, The Next Web, Neowin, EdSurge, MSPoweruser, Thurrott, CNET, ZDNet, BetaNews, Windows Central, OnMSFT.com, OnMSFT.com, Engadget, and GeekWire
Tweets: @satyanadella, @microsoftedu, @justinchando, @tomwarren, @tomwarren, and @tomwarren
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Alexa AI scientists describe in a paper a technique that uses millions of unannotated interactions with Amazon's voice assistant to reduce NLP error rate by 8% — Developing an AI system capable of understanding natural language isn't just time-consuming — it's really expensive.| Kim Zetter / Motherboard: |
Q&A with the ACLU's Jon Callas, formerly of Apple, on the need for tech expertise in policymaking, the biggest challenges for the security industry, and more — Apple security expert Jon Callas, who helped build protection for billions of computers and smartphones against criminal hackers …
Tweets: @kimzetter, @lorenzofb, and @kimzetter
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