Techmeme
February 5, 2019, 11:15 AM

Top News

Mark Zuckerberg:
Vox:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: Facebook to allow unified messaging for businesses so they can access and manage messages from Instagram Direct alongside Facebook Messenger  —  Facebook is building a unified messaging for businesses feature that will let businesses access and manage Instagram Direct Messages alongside …
Alphabet:
Alphabet Q4: revenue of $39.3B, up 22% YoY, net income of $8.9B, CPC down 29%, and paid clicks on Google properties up 66% YoY; stock down 3%  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - February 4, 2019 - Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2018.
Bloomberg:
In a Russian filing, Apple says it stores user data including names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers on Russian servers to comply with a local law  —  - User information limited to customer names and contact details  — Apple made similar agreement in China last year for iCloud
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Facebook says it has banned four armed groups in Myanmar and will remove all “related praise, support, and representation”  —  Facebook is taking action in Myanmar, the Southeast Asian country where the social network has been used to incite racial tension and violence, after it banned four armed groups from its service.
The Keyword:
Google launches Password Checkup, a Chrome extension that alerts users to breaches and prompts resets, and Cross Account Protection for apps with Google Sign in  —  Editor's note: Today is Safer Internet Day, but we'll be talking about it all week with a collection of posts from teams from across Google.
Alex Heath / Cheddar:
Sources: Facebook hires the team behind Chainspace, a startup building tech for decentralized “smart contracts”, its first blockchain acquisition  —  Facebook has made its first acquisition in the blockchain space.  —  The social network has quietly hired the team behind Chainspace …
Paul Tassi / Forbes:
EDM artist Marshmello held two in-game concerts in Fortnite this weekend, with the first reportedly having 10M+ concurrent players watching  —  I'm still trying to process just how cool yesterday's live Marshmello concert in Fortnite was, and I found myself wondering just how many people were actually “in attendance,” so to speak.
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Ike, the autonomous trucking startup founded by three veterans of Apple, Google, and Uber ATG, raises $52M Series A led by Bain Capital Ventures  —  Redpoint Ventures, Fontinalis Partners, Basis Set Ventures, and Neo also participated in the round.  Bain Capital Ventures partner Ajay Agarwal has joined Ike's board.
Chris Pearce / Mozilla Hacks:
Beginning with the upcoming release of Firefox 66, Firefox for Android and desktop will block auto-playing audio and video by default  —  Isn't it annoying when you click on a link or open a new browser tab and audible video or audio starts playing automatically?
Erik Schatzker / Bloomberg:
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
After the death of a British teen, Instagram head announces plans to debut “sensitivity screens” to blur images of self-harm unless users click to reveal them  —  Facebook-owned app promises changes to better shield users from self-harm images  —  Instagram will introduce …
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple's iOS 12.2 beta has a new Motion & Orientation Access toggle in Privacy settings, off by default, that limits gyroscope and accelerometer access in Safari  —  Last month, Apple released iOS 12.2 in beta with several new features, including the Apple News app in Canada …

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More News

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

Earlier Picks

Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Jez Corden / Windows Central: