Techmeme
March 14, 2019, 11:15 AM

Top News

New York Times:
Sources: Facebook's data-sharing deals under federal criminal investigation; an NY grand jury subpoenaed at least two device-makers who partnered with Facebook  —  Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of the world's largest …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Emma Haruka Iwao / Google Cloud Blog:
Google breaks world record for the most accurate value of pi, first time using cloud computing, calculating 31.4T digits after a ~112-day computation  —  Try GCP  —  Get $300 free credit to spend over 12 months.  —  Free Trial  —  TM title , and the first time the record  …
Aaron Tilley / The Information:
Apple has acquired Laserlike, a small Silicon Valley-based ML startup, likely to strengthen its AI efforts; Laserlike had raised $24M+, per Crunchbase  —  Apple has acquired Laserlike, a small Silicon Valley-based machine learning startup, which could help strengthen the company's artificial …
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Google is shutting down its Spotlight Stories VR film studio, part of Google's ATAP group, according to an email from the studio's executive producer  —  Google is shutting down its Spotlight Stories immersive entertainment unit, according to an email sent out by Spotlight Stories executive producer Karen Dufilho Wednesday evening.
Shannon Liao / The Verge:
Facebook says it is working to bring its services back online as users around the world report issues with Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, Oculus, and WhatsApp  —  While you can open the apps, they're missing major functions  —  Facebook and Instagram appear to be partially down for some users around the world today.
Maureen Farrell / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: a consortium that includes SoftBank and at least one automaker is in late-stage talks to invest $1B or more into Uber's self-driving vehicle unit  —  A consortium that includes SoftBank Group is in late-stage talks to invest $1 billion or more into Uber Technologies' self-driving vehicle unit.
Parmy Olson / Forbes:
Profile of Peter Szulczewski, co-founder of Wish, the most downloaded shopping app worldwide with a valuation of $8.7B+, and a revenue of $1.9B last year  —  n a sun-filled San Francisco afternoon, Peter Szulczewski is climbing the stairs to the top of a Sansome Street skyscraper …
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Spotify files an anti-trust complaint against Apple with the European Commission, claiming App Store rules limit choice and stifle competition  —  Spotify is filing a complaint against Apple with the European Commission, accusing the latter company of anticompetitive behaviour in the way it manages …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Twitter's mobile app is rolling out a Snapchat-style camera designed to promote sharing photos, videos, and live footage when users swipe left on their timeline  —  Twitter is rolling out the redesign to its camera feature TechCrunch reported on a month ago that's designed to let you capture photos …
Li Tao / South China Morning Post:
Huawei says it has developed its own OS for both smartphones and computers in case those developed by US companies are no longer available  —  Huawei Technologies, the largest smartphone vendor in China, said it has developed its own operating systems (OS) for both smartphones and computers …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Adthena, which offers an AI-driven search marketing intelligence platform, raises $14M Series A, says it has over 250 customers including Volvo and HSBC  —  Marketers are increasingly using AI to streamline workflows and automate monotonous tasks.  According to an Adobe survey …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Polarr, which develops a hardware-agnostic AI stack to enable computational photography on a range of devices, raises $11.5M Series A led by Threshold Ventures  —  Polarr, a six-year-old San Francisco computer vision startup cofounded by Stanford graduate and Google veterans Borui Wang and Derek Yan …
More: TechCrunch

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Earlier Picks

Tom Simonite / Wired:
Bloomberg:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Tom Warren / The Verge: