Techmeme
January 23, 2019, 12:35 PM

Top News

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 …
Reuters:
Waymo to invest $13.6M in a factory for level 4 autonomous cars in Michigan, partnering with Magna to install Waymo's self-driving system in cars made by others  —  (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Waymo self-driving vehicle unit said on Tuesday it plans to build a plant in Michigan to transform vehicles …
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 …
Sean Scott / Day One:
Amazon says it is field testing Amazon Scout, a small autonomous six-wheeled delivery robot, in Snohomish County, Washington  —  Field testing a new delivery system with Amazon Scout.  —  At Amazon, we continually invest in new technologies to benefit customers.
More: CNBC
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 …
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 …
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
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:
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 …
Joshua Brustein / Bloomberg:
Andela, which trains and places African programmers to work remotely for US companies, raises $100M Series D from Al Gore's Generation Investment Management  —  Outsourcing isn't generally seen as the most high-minded of industries.  But when the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative …
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.

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More News

Pushkala Aripaka / Reuters:
Sean Lyngaas / CyberScoop:

Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Apple:
Carolyn Said / San Francisco Chronicle: