Techmeme: Profile of Jay Carney, formerly Obama's press secretary, who is now a member of Jeff Bezos' elite S-team, in charge of PR and policy at Amazon (Eugene Kim/CNBC)

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June 30, 2019, 7:25 PM

Top News

Golnaz Esfandiari / Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty:

Iran's Energy Ministry says that power consumption jumped 7% in June, largely due to Bitcoin mining, making the power grid unstable, seizes 1,000 Bitcoin miners — Iran has blamed an “unusual” spike in electricity consumption in the country on cryptocurrency miners, while warning …

More: Reuters, BBC, The Verge, CryptoGlobe, Forbes, The Next Web, Bitcoin News, The Block, Messari Crypto, NewsBTC, and The Merkle Hash. Tweets: @arawnsley

Alyssa Bereznak / The Ringer:

How TikTok users are supplanting the traditional functions of record labels, like talent scouting and publicity, for new artists — Lil Nas X's ‘Old Town Road’ is both a chart-topping phenomenon and a turning point for the music business. Here's what happens when a social media platform becomes a label.

Tweets: @alyssabereznak

Wall Street Journal:

Source: Bytedance spent ~$1B advertising TikTok in 2018, heavily promoting its short video app on Facebook and Instagram, and becoming Snap's biggest advertiser

Tweets: @mtatsis, @jeremysliew, @peterpham, and @karolcummins. Thanks:@varun_mathur

Nicky Woolf / Tortoise Media:

Profile of 8chan founder Fredrick Brennan, who sold the site in 2015, and says he has soured not just on 8chan, but on the whole idea it represented — How a childhood of anger led the founder of 8chan to create one of the darkest corners of the internet — On 27 April, before he burst …

Tweets: @xtophercook, @cerithomas01, @tortoise, and @nickywoolf

Eugene Kim / CNBC:

Profile of Jay Carney, formerly Obama's press secretary, who is now a member of Jeff Bezos' elite S-team, in charge of PR and policy at Amazon — KEY POINTS — Jay Carney is running public relations and policy at Amazon, which is the target of an increasing number of political attacks.

Tweets: @jordannovet, @mattrosoff, @matthewstoller, and @stevekovach

Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:

Google launches Fuchsia OS developer website with official documentation about developing for its open source operating system — As was repeatedly made plain to see during this year's Google I/O, developers are eager to learn more about Google's Fuchsia OS.

More: Thurrott, MSPoweruser, and Android Police

Facebook:

Facebook says it will treat 2020 US Census like an election and will have “people, policies and technology in place to protect against census interference” — Civil rights are the foundation of a free and just society — and something we care deeply about as a company.

More: TechCrunch, Engadget, CNN, and CNET

Tweets: @baekdal, @kellymakena, @ylecun, and @hansilowang

Lauren Goode / Wired:

Interview with Google's Matías Duarte on his smartphone notification designs while at Danger between 2000-2005 and what can be done to make notifications better — NOTIFICATIONS ARE, AT the most basic level, a method of alerting people to some piece of information, often with some element of urgency.

Tweets: @wired, @wired, and @laurengoode

Rita Liao / TechCrunch:

China-based robotic process automation startup Laiye, whose product UiBot gained 6,000 enterprise users after launching in January, raises $35M Series B — For many years, the boom and bust of China's tech landscape have centered around consumer-facing products.

Andrew Dickson / OneZero:

How tech like ground-penetrating radar, drones, lidar, hyper-accurate 3D mapping, and more is changing archaeology by enabling cheaper noninvasive site surveys — Lidar, drones, and more are helping field researchers uncover hidden worlds — eal Spencer likes to travel light.

Andrew Liptak / The Verge:

Ex-Equifax CIO Jun Ying sentenced to four months in prison for insider trading; he pleaded guilty to selling Equifax shares prior to 2017's breach announcement — Four months of jail time — The Justice Department announced this week that former Equifax CIO Jun Ying has been sentenced to four months in prison for insider trading.

More: U.S. Department of Justice, CNET, TechSpot, BankInfoSecurity, Atlanta Journal-Constitution, NEWS 1130, HousingWire, Dark Reading, and Associated Press

Tweets: @counternotions, @reuvenim, @sherrod_im, @ericgarland, @alyssam_infosec, and @mattaparker

Wall Street Journal:

Trump says he will allow sales of US equipment to Huawei, where there are no national security issues, for now; US will not impose new tariffs on China — U.S. agrees to halt additional tariffs on Chinese goods for now — OSAKA, Japan—President Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping agreed …

More: Bloomberg, CNBC, South China Morning Post, TechCrunch, Forbes, Bloomberg, iAfrikan, Wall Street Journal, Thurrott, Business Insider, Tom's Hardware, Android Central, ZDNet, Gizmodo, AppleInsider, Mashable, CNBC, CNET, Softpedia News, Pocketnow, Engadget, Android Police, The Verge, Axios, SlashGear, Associated Press, MyBroadband, PCWorld, BBC, Al Arabiya, PhoneArena, Android Headlines, The National Interest, Telegraph, Forbes, Fox Business, Techweez, iPhone Hacks, Gizchina, Android Beat, Android Authority, International Business Times, Light Reading, Pocket-lint, Firstpost Tech, 9to5Google, FutureSin, XDA Developers, Phandroid, The Next Web, MSPoweruser, Slashdot, and Politico

Daina Beth Solomon / Reuters:

Walmart de Mexico says it is now offering grocery delivery via WhatsApp, charging ~$2.55 for a delivery within 90 minutes and ~$2.03 for longer waits — MEXICO CITY (Reuters) - Walmart's Mexico unit has begun offering grocery delivery from its Superama stores via messaging service WhatsApp …

Tweets: @dainabethcita

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From Mediagazer

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Trump says Stephen Colbert is a “pathetic trainwreck” and “CBS should, ‘put him to sleep,’ NOW”, after CBS aired a Late Show rerun in which Colbert mocked Trump

Zachary Leeman / Mediaite:

White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller calls for CBS staff who “revolted” over Bari Weiss' decision to postpone 60 Minutes' CECOT segment to be fired

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Comcast extends Mike Cavanagh's contract through January 1, 2029, and grants a ~$35M performance-based stock package; he's set to become co-CEO in January 2026

Upcoming Tech Events

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More News

Celia Chen / South China Morning Post:

Profile of Foxconn's new chairman Liu Young-way, who joined the firm as a special assistant to Gou in 2007 and was named head of semiconductor business in 2017

Rachel Premack / Business Insider:

Amazon Air has started operations in Anchorage, Alaska, which could allow Amazon to expand its in-house logistics to moving goods to and from Asia

Tweets: @rrpre

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Booster, which enables fuel delivery directly to cars via an app in more than 20 US cities, raises $56M Series C, bringing total raised to $88.5M

More: GeekWire, PR Newswire, CSP Daily News, FreightWaves, Auto Rental News, Dallas Innovates, PE Hub Blog, Xconomy, and Crunchbase News

Tweets: @zoe_samuel, @zoe_samuel, @billcaphill, @jthomasalbert, @soaog, and @bgoochy

Andrii Degeler / Tech.eu:

Creative Group, which offers mobile phone top-ups and e-vouchers for iTunes, Google, Spotify, Xbox, PlayStation, and other online services, raises €22M

More: PitchBook

Bloomberg:

EU-based IT-consultant Capgemini to buy Altran for $4.1B, to fill the gap in its services competing with rivals like Accenture for IoT, 5G, and AI contracts

More: Capgemini and Reuters

Patience Haggin / Wall Street Journal:

Data mining and ad targeting company LiveRamp, formerly known as Acxiom, to acquire Data Plus Math, which helps advertisers analyze TV viewer data, for $150M

Tweets: @simonjharris

Earlier Picks

Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:

A look at the challenges, downsides, and huge costs of 5G rollout in the US, which may take a decade or more to complete

More: AVC. Tweets: @trengriffin, @techqn, @scott_bot, @rishad, @robert_spalding, and @mims

Jon Russell / TechCrunch:

Splyt, which wants to bring international roaming to ride-hailing apps and already allows Alipay users to book Grab rides, raises $8M Series A from Grab, others

More: PYMNTS.com and Reuters

Reuters:

Chinese Netflix equivalent iQiyi announces it has reached 100M subscribers; senior exec says it intends to expand into other Asian countries and North America

Lulu Yilun Chen / Bloomberg:

Profile of Beijing-based PingCAP which is replacing IBM and Oracle as the enterprise software provider of choice for Chinese startups, amid US trade tensions

Tweets: @redgenkosi

Susan Adams / Forbes:

Cloud computing, AI, and low-cost sensors have given rise to a slew of weather forecasting startups that think incumbents are vulnerable to new business models

Tweets: @energizevc, @ajblum, @accuweather, @forbes, and @forbes

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Report: multiple publishers have been unimpressed with revenue from Apple News+; one said revenue has been one twentieth of what Apple said it would be

Source: Business Insider. More: Engadget, MSPoweruser, 9to5Mac, and Appleosophy

Tweets: @moorehn, @caseynewton, @reckless, @mdudas, @emily_cohn, @baekdal, @arctictony, @seldo, @whatthebit, @andrewmartonik, @andrewmartonik, @bryanmwolfe, and @lmoses