Techmeme
March 5, 2019, 9:50 AM

Top News

Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Google's 2018 pay equity analysis found that it was underpaying more men than women among software engineers, and it paid $9.7M in adjustments to 10K+ Googlers  —  SAN FRANCISCO — When Google conducted a study recently to determine whether the company was underpaying women and members of minority groups …
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
Alphabet startup Chronicle launches Backstory, a “Google Photos for network security” that makes network history easy to search and draw insights from  —  It's been a year since Alphabet, Google's parent company, announced a moonshot cybersecurity company called Chronicle.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple acquired the patent portfolio of failed smart home security startup Lighthouse AI, including those related to visual authentication, late last year  —  Apple has recently acquired a handful of patents from Lighthouse AI, a defunct home security camera company.
Charlie Savage / New York Times:
Senior GOP congressional aide claims the NSA has shut down a program that collects domestic phone and text records, whose scope was revealed by Snowden in 2013  —  WASHINGTON — The National Security Agency has quietly shut down a system that analyzes logs of Americans' domestic calls and texts …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Comedian Miel Bredouw's fight with Barstool Sports after they posted her video without credit shows how Twitter's copyright system can hurt creators  —  “It's insane to me that the platform is allowing them to do this.”  —  Earlier today, Los Angeles-based writer and comedian Miel Bredouw claims …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
The servers running social robot Jibo, which had raised ~$76M in total and shipped to the public in 2017 for $899, are being shut down forever  —  RIP, Jibo  —  The servers running Jibo, a connected home robot, are about to be shut down, and the robot has started informing its owners with a bittersweet message.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Sources: Microsoft is prioritizing Windows Lite to run on dual-screen devices for new hardware that could launch as early as late 2019  —  Microsoft is making a Chrome OS-like version of Windows  —  Microsoft is preparing a new lightweight version of Windows for dual-screen devices and Chromebook competitors.
Brian Armstrong / The Coinbase Blog:
Following outcry, Coinbase says Neutrino staff members who previously worked at Hacking Team “will transition out of Coinbase”  —  We recently announced the acquisition of Neutrino, a blockchain analytics company.  I'd like to share a bit of the back story on this acquisition, and a decision we've made going forward.
Ben Collins / NBC News:
On Amazon, a book pushing QAnon conspiracy theories climbs the charts, aided by Amazon's algorithmically generated recommendations  —  The book is currently No. 9 in all books about politics and No. 1 in all books about “Censorship,” one slot ahead of Ray Bradbury's “Farhenheit 451,”
Megan Wollerton / CNET:
August View wireless video doorbell unveiled with 1440p recording, 24/7 live video streaming, and rechargeable battery, available for $230 from March 28  —  August just introduced a new device to its lineup — the $230 August View.  Available in the United States beginning March 28 …
Saqib Shah / Engadget:
Messenger is the first Facebook app to get dark mode, now available on iOS and Android  —  Days after Facebook Messenger's dark mode was outed on Reddit, the social network has made the update official for iOS and Android.  For now, you can only enable it by sending the crescent moon emoji in an existing chat thread or new message.
Manish Singh / VentureBeat:
RackTop Systems, which provides network-attached storage products with built-in security and compliance features, raises $15M Series A  —  As companies get more serious about their security and make investments in protecting their networks, wouldn't it make more sense to protect data exactly where it lives and rests: the data centers?
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Roblox tries to make the kid's game safer through a digital civility initiative, moderators, more, after a character was virtually sexually assaulted last year  —  Roblox has more than 80 million monthly players on its Lego-like virtual world platform for teens, and it only takes a few bad apples to ruin the fun.
Nicholas Thompson / Wired:
Q&A with the assistant secretary of the US Air Force on signing contracts for new tech within a day of a startup's pitch, Project Maven, AI use in combat, more  —  WILL ROPER, ASSISTANT secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics, is something like Q for the Defense Department.
Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
Google and Facebook, a major presence at CPAC last year, were nowhere to be seen this year amid claims of anti-conservative bias on their platforms  —  OXON HILL, Md. — A year ago, attendees at the Conservative Political Action Conference, the annual jamboree of the political right …
Tweets: @grynbaum
Ryan Gallagher / The Intercept:
Google employees believe the company is still working on Dragonfly, after finding recent code changes associated with the censored search engine and more  —  Google employees have carried out their own investigation into the company's plan to launch a censored search engine for China …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Facebook has urged users to enable phone number-based 2FA, but the numbers are used in a user lookup feature with no opt out and to target ads, sparking outcry  —  Users are complaining that the phone number Facebook hassled them to use to secure their account with two-factor authentication …

Sponsor Posts

Okara:
Meet Okara, the AI platform that doesn't train on your data  —  Chat with 30+ open-source models (Llama, Kimi, Qwen, DeepSeek) through encrypted infrastructure.  Used by teams handling proprietary code and strategy.
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
ERP software from the builders of world-class products  —  Every business starts with a vision.  Sustaining it is a more rigorous and complex pursuit.It lives in reconciled books, accurate inventory, and predictable cash flow.
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

Lenny's Podcast:
5 questions to ask when your product stops growing | Jason Cohen (2x unicorn founder)
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's $50 Billion Fundraise, AI Advertising Game Theory, Apple's AI Wearable Pin
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.
Hard Fork:
Will ChatGPT Ads Change OpenAI? + Amanda Askell Explains Claude's New Constitution
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Home robots are coming faster than you think, with Sunday's Tony Zhao
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
An Intro to Data Centers
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:50 AM ET, March 5, 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

Janko Roettgers / Variety:

Earlier Picks

New York Post:
Yuan Yang / Financial Times:
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat: