Techmeme: Short-form looping video app Byte, developed by the creator of Vine, sends first 100 invites to its closed beta, says it will expand to more testers soon (Josh Constine/TechCrunch)

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April 23, 2019, 12:10 PM

Top News

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Facebook hires Jennifer Newstead, a legal advisor for the US State Department who helped craft the Patriot Act, as its general counsel, replacing Colin Stretch — 'Jennifer is a seasoned leader whose global perspective and experience will help us fulfill our mission,' says Sheryl Sandberg

More: The Verge, Facebook, The Hill, CNBC, Financial Times, CNET, Wall Street Journal, Fortune, Silicon Republic, PYMNTS.com, Politico, The Daily Dot, Beyond Search, Bloomberg, Business Insider, and Axios

Tweets: @rmac18, @lfdodds, @genepark, @kantrowitz, @rmac18, @thechiiium, @reckless, and @kantrowitz

See also Mediagazer

James Thorne / GeekWire:

Facebook names John Pinette, a former Vulcan and Gates Ventures exec, as its VP of global communications, replacing Caryn Marooney, who is leaving after 8 years

More: Silicon Valley Business … and VentureBeat

Tweets: @lfdodds, @lfdodds, @lfdodds, @harpersnotes, @lfdodds, @lfdodds, @lfdodds, @lfdodds, @lfdodds, @lfdodds, @lfdodds, and @joshconstine

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

The EU has voted to interconnect border control, migration, and law enforcement systems into a searchable biometrics database of 350M+ EU and non-EU citizens — EU Parliament green-lights the creation of the Common Identity Repository (CIR), a gigantic biometrics database.

More: Business Insider, Gizmodo, and Boing Boing

Tweets: @qhardy, @ron_miller, @tobdea, and @aparanjape

Law360:

AT&T and Sprint say they have settled a lawsuit over AT&T's “5G Evolution” branding; source: AT&T will continue to use the branding in its ads and marketing — Law360 (April 22, 2019, 3:41 PM EDT) — Sprint and AT&T said Monday they have agreed to settle Sprint's lawsuit seeking …

More: Dallas Business Journal, XDA Developers, Android Authority, The Register, The Verge, CNET, FierceWireless, Pocketnow, Telecoms.com, Engadget, The Verge, Neowin, AppleInsider, Android Police, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, ZDNet, and Cult of Mac

Tweets: @reckless, @karlbode, and @mcwm

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Twitter Q1 beats with revenue of $787M, up 18% YoY and net income of $191M, reports MAUs of 330M, up 9M QoQ but down 6M YoY; stock up 16%+ — Social networking and media platform Twitter today reported its results for the first quarter of the year, and it's a strong one.

More: AdExchanger, 9to5Mac, The Verge, Bloomberg, Telegraph, CNET, ZDNet, VentureBeat, CNBC, and Financial Times

Tweets: @carnage4life, @carnage4life, @twitterir, @anthony, @reformedbroker, @twitterir, @twitterir, @twitterir, and @twitterir

Kate Clark / TechCrunch:

KeepTruckin, which develops hardware and software that helps truck drivers manage their vehicles and cargo, raises $149M Series D at a $1.25B valuation — KeepTruckin, a developer of hardware and software that helps truck drivers manage their vehicles and cargo, has raised $149 million in Series D funding.

More: VentureBeat, FinSMEs, SiliconANGLE, and PE Hub Blog

Ben Fox Rubin / CNET:

Amazon launches Key in-garage delivery service and expands Key to 13 more US cities — Amazon Key faced a bumpy start in late 2017, with plenty of folks mocking the program's concept of delivering packages inside people's homes. — But, a year and a half later and following a slight name change …

More: ZDNet, The Verge, Digital Trends, TechCrunch, Android Police, Engadget, VentureBeat, Business Wire, SlashGear, and Fast Company

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Short-form looping video app Byte, developed by the creator of Vine, sends first 100 invites to its closed beta, says it will expand to more testers soon — Twitter shut down Dom Hoffman's app Vine, giving away the short-form video goldmine to China's TikTok.

More: Gizmodo, CNET, 9to5Google, Digital Information World, MSPoweruser, 9to5Mac, Engadget, Digital Trends, Business Insider, and Social Media Today

Tweets: @dhof and @byte_app

Ben Munster / Decrypt:

Interviews with contractors who write crypto white papers reveal startups routinely force them to fabricate business models, inflate funding budgets, and more — We dive into this murky industry to find out who writes these things, what goes into the research and how much it really costs to get one written.

More: Cointelegraph and CoinGeek

Tweets: @notsofast, @dcsilver, @ben_munster, and @mdudas

Ian Cutress / AnandTech:

Intel debuts 9th Gen Core chips: 34 desktop CPUs with minor enhancements and more cores at the high end, as well as 45W H-Series, best suited for gaming laptops — How Intel has launched its range of ninth generation processors has been an odd and awkward one.

More: Engadget, The Verge, Windows Central, Gizmodo, and PCWorld. Thanks:@iancutress

Alan Levin / Bloomberg:

Alphabet's drone delivery business, Wing, is the first drone operator to get FAA approval as an airline — - Google offshoot becomes only drone firm approved as an airline — Wing's new status clears way for others seeking drone commerce — An offshoot of Alphabet Inc.'s Google …

More: Mashable and WRAL TechWire

ProPublica:

How Turbotax uses dark patterns on its website to trick lower-income Americans, who are eligible to file taxes for free, into paying for its filing service — Did you know that if you make less than $66,000 a year, you can prepare and file your taxes for free? — No? That's no accident.

More: CNET and Slashdot

Tweets: @repkatieporter, @justinelliott, @propublica, @lhwaldron, @chichiwu8, @meghanemorris, @megancgraham, @propublica, @propublica, @propublica, @propublica, and @propublica

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:

After ditching Nvidia, Tesla unveils its own custom chip for enabling “full self-driving” features, says all newly made Model S, 3, and X vehicles include it — The Tesla computer, a new custom chip designed to enable full self-driving capabilities, is now in all new Model 3 …

More: The Verge, Bloomberg, Android Authority, Reuters, The Next Web, Bloomberg, MarketWatch, SiliconANGLE, Telegraph, Engadget, PYMNTS.com, Axios, MarketWatch, and VentureBeat

Tweets: @kirstenkorosec and @aapltree

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

A look at Tesla's first self-driving chip, manufactured by Samsung, which can be installed into existing Teslas, but the cost to do so is unknown

More: MIT Technology Review, Inquirer, The Verge, Business Insider, Gizmodo, Wall Street Journal, New York Times, USA Today, Fortune, Inc42 Media, Neowin, Reuters, CNN, GeekWire, and Telegraph

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Harness, a continuous app delivery and release platform for engineering and DevOps teams, raises $60M Series B co-led by IVP, GV, and ServiceNow Ventures — Harness, a San Francisco startup developing a continuous app delivery and release platform for engineering and DevOps teams …

More: FinSMEs, TechCrunch, PE Hub Blog, and SiliconANGLE

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:10 PM ET, April 23, 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.

From Mediagazer

Washington Post:

CBS airs 60 Minutes' CECOT segment, which Bari Weiss shelved in December as it lacked an on-camera interview with a Trump official, without such an interview

Financial Times:

Prince Harry and celebrities including Elton John prepare for a roughly 10-week trial against Daily Mail publisher Associated Newspapers for “unlawful activity”

Matthew Keys / TheDesk.net:

Study: local broadcast TV supported 1.5M+ US jobs in 2025 and had a $748B annual GDP impact, with advertising accounting for the largest share at $628B

More News

Ian Allison / CoinDesk:

Coinbase shuts down Coinbase Markets, its Chicago-based high-speed crypto trading division opened a year ago, eliminating 30 jobs

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: billionaire SoftBank founder Masayoshi Son made a huge personal bet on bitcoin just as prices peaked and lost more than $130M when he sold out

More: Business Insider and CNBC

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

India-based ZestMoney, a company that helps consumers with no credit history get loans to buy items online, raises $20M Series B, bringing total raised to $42M

More: The Economic Times. Tweets: @jonrussell. Thanks:@suniljamboor

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:

Coinbase has filed to shut down its PAC, which did not raise any funds or back any candidates during its 10-month lifespan, according to public filings

Yueqi Yang / Bloomberg:

Tencent-backed DouYu, a Chinese video game live-streaming platform, files for a US IPO; DouYu reported net revenue of $531.5M and a net loss of $127.4M in 2018

More: SEC, TechCrunch, Crunchbase News, SludgeFeed, MarketWatch, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @badpak, @zhugeex, and @sallyshin

Paige Leskin / Business Insider:

DataCamp, which hosts online data science courses, said that an unnamed exec made “uninvited physical contact” with an employee; sources say the exec is the CEO

More: DataCamp and Motherboard

Tweets: @stevetweedie, @farbandish, @paigeleskin, @businessinsider, and @reallygordon

Crayton Harrison / Bloomberg:

Jacobs Engineering, a Dallas-based engineering firm with over 80,000 employees, acquires KeyW, a US government cybersecurity contractor, for about $603M

Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:

Sources: Sets, Microsoft's Windows-management feature which allowed users to organize their workflow in tabs, is gone and not expected to return in Windows 10

More: Thurrott, How-To Geek, The Register, Computerworld, Softpedia News, The Verge, AskWoody, TechSpot, Inquirer, SlashGear, Ars Technica, OnMSFT.com, Engadget, gHacks Technology News, and PCWorld

Tweets: @carmencrincoli, @sbisson, @mattbirchler, @palombo, @kenhes, and @daniel_rubino

Earlier Picks

Carole Cadwalladr / The Guardian:

TED talk details the targeted disinformation on Facebook ahead of Brexit and the dark money that likely funded it, as Zuckerberg keeps refusing to testify in EU

Tweets: @oliviasolon, @cortney_dc, @caseynewton, @caseynewton, @carolecadwalla, @carolecadwalla, @johnwilson14, @catfelstead, @sharkyl, @atomless, @ananny, @azeem, @corinne_podger, @bsdphk, and @juliettekayyem