Techmeme
May 31, 2019, 1:30 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Sources: Amazon is interested in buying Sprint's prepaid brand Boost Mobile, which T-Mobile and Sprint have already pledged to sell to get their merger approved  —  (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc is interested in buying prepaid cellphone wireless service Boost Mobile from U.S. carriers T-Mobile US Inc …
Christine Fisher / Engadget:
Report: Apple to limit third-party tracking in apps for kids starting next week  —  As tech companies grapple with safety and privacy concerns, Apple will reportedly limit third-party tracking in kids apps starting next week.  While the company hasn't announced the change, a source told The Wall Street Journal that it's in the works.
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
Foursquare buys location analytics service Placed from Snap, raises $150M led by Raine Group; Placed reportedly raised $13.4M before Snap acquired it in 2017  —  Foursquare just made its first acquisition.  The location tech company has acquired Placed from Snap Inc on the heels …
Mehedi Hassan / Thurrott:
Report: Spotify is working on a new “Social Listening” feature that allows users to listen along with their friends and add songs to a shared queue  —  Spotify is taking its Spotify Connect features to the next level with social integration.  The company is working …
BuzzFeed News:
Investigation: US universities, foundations, and retirement plans back funds that invest millions in Chinese surveillance tech companies Megvii and SenseTime  —  Millions of dollars from US university endowments, foundations, and retirement plans have helped fund two billion-dollar Chinese …
Carolyn Said / San Francisco Chronicle:
Kiwibots, the “parallel autonomy” food delivery bots popular with students at UC Berkeley, are remotely piloted by workers in Colombia who are paid $2/hour  —  Karis Tang, age 2½, squealed with excitement when she saw a Kiwibot rolling through Sproul Plaza at UC Berkeley.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Uber reports Q1 revenue of $3.1B, up 20% YoY, gross bookings of $14.65B, up 34%, net loss of $1.01B; Uber Eats revenue grew 31% to $239M, gross bookings up 108%  —  KEY POINTS  — The company reported total revenue of $3.10 billion, at the top end of its preliminary estimates for the quarter.
Dani Deahl / The Verge:
In the age of music streaming, missing, bad, or inconsistent song metadata is estimated to have left billions on the table unpaid to artists and musicians  —  Recently, a musician signed to a major indie label told me they were owed up to $40,000 in song royalties they would never be able to collect.
Kara Swisher / Vox:
Q&A with Mark Cuban and Steve Case on investing in tech startups outside of Silicon Valley, how AI is changing the tech landscape, tech regulation, and more  —  In the short term, learning to code is good for your job prospects.  But on the latest Recode Decode, Cuban explained …
More: CNBCTweets: @voxdotcom, @fmbutt, @woosteredu, @recode, and @went1955
Maria Deutscher / SiliconANGLE:
Intuit says it is acquiring Origami Logic, an Accel-backed marketing analytics startup that has raised over $64M in funding, in a deal expected to close Q4 2019  —  Financial software powerhouse Intuit Inc. today announced that it's buying Origami Logic Inc., an Accel-backed marketing analytics startup.
More: Intuit Inc. and ZDNet
FinSMEs:
BabbleLabs, which wants to use AI to improve speech quality, accuracy, and personalization in voice apps, raises $14M Series A  —  BabbleLabs, a San Jose, Calif.-based speech technology startup, raised $14m in Series A financing.  —  The round was co-led by Dell Technologies Capital and Intel Capital …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says devs can now bring Win32 games to the Microsoft Store, a shift away from the store's previous Universal Windows Platform requirement for games  —  It's been a long time coming  —  Microsoft had a dream with Windows 8 that involved universal Windows apps that would span across phones …
Nick Summers / Engadget:

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