Techmeme
March 14, 2019, 4:10 PM

Top News

Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
Facebook says all of its services are now operational, attributes the downtime to a “server configuration change”  —  Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook all appear to be operating normally  —  Facebook is reporting all services operational after a prolonged outage that impacted all of the company's most popular apps.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft launches a new cross-platform mobile SDK that allows game developers to add Xbox Live features to iOS or Android games  —  Microsoft also open to Xbox Live on the PS4 or Switch  —  Microsoft is bringing its Xbox Live network to iOS and Android devices.
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 …
Facebook:
Facebook's Chief Product Officer Chris Cox and VP of WhatsApp Chris Daniels are leaving the company  —  Today Mark Zuckerberg shared the following post with employees.  —  Hey everyone — I want to share some important updates as we organize our company to build out the privacy-focused social platform …
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Dropbox has quietly updated its website to add a three-device limit, including mobile devices, on its free storage plan  —  Dropbox has quietly added a new limitation on free accounts, putting a cap on how many devices can be linked simultaneously.  The cloud storage service offers new users 2GB for free …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Valve announces an early beta of Steam Link Anywhere, a Steam Link extension that allows users to connect to their computers and play games from anywhere  —  Ahead of the Game Developers Conference, Valve is adding a couple of new features for its Steam digital game distribution platform.
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  …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple announces WWDC 2019 will be held June 3-7 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose  —  Apple has officially announced dates and opened registration for its annual developer conference where it will likely unveil iOS 13, macOS 10.15, watchOS 6, and tvOS 13.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google says it removed 2.3B bad ads in 2018, down 28% from 2017 and terminated ~1M bad advertiser accounts, including ~734K publishers and app developers  —  Around this time of year, Google shares how many “bad ads” it killed the year before.  And every year, the number grows.  But not this time.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Slack says it has removed 28 accounts for having a “clear affiliation with known hate groups”  —  Chat competitor Discord has faced similar issues  —  Workplace chat company Slack said today it's removed 28 accounts for having a “clear affiliation with known hate groups.”
Aamir Siddiqui / XDA Developers:
Samsung says it has begun mass production of 10nm 12GB LPDDR4X DRAM chip for smartphones, targets 34.1 GBps data transfer rates  —  Just a few years ago, smartphones launching with 1GB RAM were deemed to be sufficient for mobile computing needs.  After all, we had access to much more computing power …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Rakuten TV, a video on demand service which has 7M users, expands to 30 new countries in Europe, bringing the total countries served to 42  —  Rakuten TV, the Japanese e-commerce giant's effort to take on Netflix and Amazon in the world of video streaming, has been something of a minor player …
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 …
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Twitter appoints a VP of People Experience and Head of Diversity and Inclusion, says its current workforce is now 40.2% female, 4.5% black, and 3.9% Latinx  —  Twitter unveiled its latest diversity report and announced a new vice president of people experience and head of diversity and inclusion.
More: Twitter
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Garmin targets the high-end watch market with a new Marq line of premium smartwatches priced between $1,500 and $2,500  —  Garmin is gunning for mainstays like Rolex, Breitling, and Omega  —  Garmin is taking its fitness-focused smartwatches in a more premium direction with its new Marq line.
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.

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