Techmeme: Sources: Google agreed to refund advertisers that paid for ads displayed in an ad fraud scheme discovered in 2017, following lawsuit over back-payments (Patience Haggin/Wall Street Journal)

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft announces Minecraft Earth, a real-world AR version of Minecraft, available in closed beta on iOS and Android this summer — Alex Kipman, Microsoft's HoloLens and Kinect creator, is always enthusiastic about the future of computing. As he stands in front of me inside …

More: Minecraft.net, Minecraft.net, TechCrunch, CNET, Engadget, Slashdot, SlashGear, PCWorld, Droid Life, KnowTechie, Polygon, GameSpot, Neowin, Mashable, iPhone Hacks, 9to5Mac, Pocket-lint, WinBuzzer, USgamer.net, OnMSFT.com, IGN, iPhone in Canada Blog, Thurrott, Bloomberg, Digital Trends, PhoneDog, Financial Times, MSPoweruser, TechSpot, Windows Central, and Kotaku

Tweets: @usgamernet, @notch, @satyanadella, @tomwarren, @klobrille, @mims, @_masterg_, @tomwarren, @theothertracy, and @caro_milanesi

Ashley Carman / The Verge:

Spotify to start testing Car Thing, a voice-controlled smart assistant device that connects to your car and phone over bluetooth, with some Premium users in US — To learn how people consume audio in their car — Spotify will begin publicly testing its first hardware today …

More: Spotify, TechCrunch, Engadget, Cult of Mac, TechSpot, BGR, Fast Company, and Mashable

Tweets: @chriswelch, @oaktree_dave, @ashleyrcarman, and @caseynewton

See also Mediagazer

New York Times:

Profile of Facebook CTO Mike Schroepfer, who admits AI alone may not be enough to deal with toxic content and chokes up when discussing the issue — Facebook has heralded artificial intelligence as a solution to its toxic content problems. Mike Schroepfer, its chief technology officer, says it won't solve everything.

More: Gizmodo and Mashable

Facebook: Mike Schroepfer. Tweets: @cademetz, @yoavgo, @jason_kint, @aifdn, @drdrasko, @johnolilly, @cademetz, @vboykis, @mikeisaac, @puiwingtam, and @fraying

Arjun Panchadar / Reuters:

Hewlett Packard Enterprise to buy supercomputer maker Cray in a deal valued at $1.3B, or $35 per share, which represents a premium of 17.4% to Cray's last close — (Reuters) - Supercomputer manufacturer Cray Inc said on Friday it would be bought by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co in a deal valued at about $1.30 billion, net of cash.

More: Bloomberg, Business Wire, Xconomy, The Register, CNET, Neowin, SiliconANGLE, ZDNet, TechCrunch, MarketWatch, TechSpot, Petri, Forbes, GeekWire, Engadget, Beyond Search, Silicon Valley Business …, Inquirer, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @profmatsuoka, @mattlfinn, @ron_miller, @djspry, and @antonioneri_hpe

Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:

Sheryl Sandberg: there is concern in US “with the size and power of Chinese companies, and the realization that those companies are not going to be broken up” — KEY POINTS — Sandberg said breaking up Facebook does not address the underlying issues people have with tech companies.

More: CNET, Business Insider, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @reckless, @mattzeitlin, @reckless, and @jamesallworth

Bradley Tusk / Financial Times:

The key value of Uber was its relentless innovation and promise to change the world, which the board forgot when it focused on stability in replacing Kalanick — When Uber hired Dara Khosrowshahi in 2017, the company board was solving the wrong problem. — The ride-hailing app was in the midst …

Tweets: @mhdempsey, @stevecheney, @bradleytusk, @carnage4life, and @hshaban

Louise Matsakis / Wired:

After exploding bear repellent sent 20+ workers to the hospital, Amazon is building special warehouses for hazardous items, with first set to open this summer — JUST BEFORE 8AM one Wednesday last December, a can of bear repellent exploded in an Amazon warehouse in New Jersey, sending two dozen workers to the hospital.

More: Business Insider, Engadget, and TechSpot

Tweets: @dlberes and @lmatsakis

Google Online Security Blog:

Study: adding a recovery phone number to a Google Account can stop up to 100% of bot hijacking attempts, 96% of bulk phishing attacks, 76% of targeted attacks — Every day, we protect users from hundreds of thousands of account hijacking attempts. Most attacks stem from automated bots …

More: Gizmodo and 9to5Google. Tweets: @rdrv3

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Alphabet's Wing says it will start drone deliveries in Helsinki, Finland, in the coming weeks with a gourmet supermarket and a restaurant as launch partners — Alphabet X Labs graduate Wing announced late last year that it'd soon begin piloting autonomous deliveries in Helsinki, Finland …

More: Wing Blog, Engadget, SlashGear, and The Verge. Tweets: @wing

Chloe Taylor / CNBC:

Deliveroo announces that Amazon is leading a $575M funding round for the UK-based food delivery service, bringing the total raised to $1.53B — KEY POINTS — Deliveroo is a British company that allows users to order food deliveries from nearby restaurants using an app.

More: Deliveroo Foodscene, The Verge, GeekWire, TechCrunch, Reuters, Telegraph, SiliconANGLE, Inquirer, PaymentsSource, Thurrott, PYMNTS.com, The Guardian, New York Times, Engadget, VentureBeat, Sky News, The Times & The Sunday Times, BBC, ZDNet, and Telegraph

Tweets: @benwood, @tomwarren, @sohear, @markkleinmansky, and @whatthebit

Brenna Hughes Neghaiwi / Reuters:

Filing: Facebook has set up a new company in Switzerland, Libra Networks, that will focus on payments, financing, identity management, blockchain, and more — ZURICH (Reuters) - Facebook has set up a new financial technology company in Switzerland focusing on blockchain and payments …

More: CNET, CoinDesk, The Block, and Seeking Alpha

Dan Woods / The Register:

Sources shed light on Amazon's Away Team model inside AWS, where one team's service may be implemented by another team who needs the enhanced capability — Cloud giant's structure, staff practices revealed — Deep dive Companies inside and out of Silicon Valley have found their own ways …

Tweets: @timfoster, @simonw, and @cote

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile, and Verizon say they've stopped selling customer geo-location data to third parties, according to letters they all sent the FCC — Reports emerged a year ago that all the major cellular carriers in the U.S. were selling location data to third party companies …

More: The Verge, Gizmodo, Ars Technica, Engadget, Gizmodo, BGR, The Mac Observer, Cult of Mac, 9to5Mac, and The Hill

Michael Hytha / Bloomberg:

CDN provider Fastly closes up 50% on its first day of trading after raising $180M in its IPO, is now valued at about $2.2B — Software provider Fastly Inc. closed its trading debut Friday up 50% after raising $180 million in its U.S. initial public offering.

More: CNBC, Crunchbase News, Barron's Online, Seeking Alpha, MarketWatch, GlobeNewswire News Room, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @tsantero, @carlquintanilla, and @anildash

Dennis Schaal / Skift:

Amazon launches flight bookings in India for a variety of carriers, offers Amazon Prime customers up to 2,000 rupees ($28.50) cash back on bookings — A shoe just dropped. Amazon is stepping into travel again. It may offer travel products in all sizes once it really gets going.

More: TechCrunch, The Points Guy, Entrackr, Inc42 Media, PYMNTS.com, and Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @skift

South China Morning Post:

Huawei has been stockpiling critical US components and investing in its own supply chain to prepare for disruptions like the one created by Trump's crackdown — US Commerce Department added Huawei and 70 affiliates to its Entity List, saying the company was engaged in activities 'contrary …

More: Reuters, South China Morning Post, Windows Central, Abacus, Phandroid, Bloomberg, Android Authority, KrASIA, Pocketnow, and TechNode. Tweets: @jc_mittelstadt

Jonathan Hillman / Axios:

Trump's actions against Huawei limit its 5G tech in US, but Huawei continues to build or improve ~100 undersea cables; ~380 cables carry most international data

More: Reuters, Mashable, Washington Post, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @buzzfeednews and @sunchartist

Financial Times:

Rural US broadband carriers, of which about 25% reportedly use Huawei equipment, say Huawei ban will hinder rural high-speed internet rollout

More: Vox and Axios

Tweets: @nfergus, @bensasse, @njtmulder, @cstross, @henryfarrell, and @shashj

Amir Efrati / The Information:

Sources: DoorDash is finalizing a major round that would value the food delivery app at $10B-$12B, just three months after it raised at a $7B valuation — DoorDash is finalizing a fundraising round likely to value the U.S. food delivery app between $10 billion to $12 billion after the investment …

More: Forbes. Tweets: @teddyschleifer, @gavinsbaker, @ldrogen, and @xamat

Patience Haggin / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Google agreed to refund advertisers that paid for ads displayed in an ad fraud scheme discovered in 2017, following lawsuit over back-payments — Google has agreed to refund advertisers for ads purchased through its ad marketplaces that ran on websites with fraudulent traffic …

More: Marketing Land and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @patiencehaggin, @craigsilverman, and @dinasrinivasan

Sponsor Posts

Clay:

Turn any GTM idea into reality — Clay helps GTM teams combine AI agents, enrichment, and intent data to move faster and turn insights into action.

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:

Event-driven document automation using webhooks in Zoho Writer — Instantly generate and send documents based on triggers from any form builder, business app, or automation workflow.We are excited …

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Great Chat:

No one won the AI Bowl

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Big Technology Podcast:

Who's Winning The AI Race? + Software's Future — With Sridhar Ramaswamy

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.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

How Odd Lots' Joe Weisenthal Turned Curiosity Into a Career, and a Hit Podcast

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Access:

OpenAI's Fidji Simo on why ads are coming to ChatGPT

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Invest Like the Best:

Alex Behring and Daniel Schwartz - Inside 3G Capital

The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.

Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.

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.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:35 PM ET, May 17, 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.