Techmeme
July 31, 2019, 11:05 PM

Top News

Tim Ingham / Music Business Worldwide:
Spotify reports 108M paying subscribers in Q2, up 31% YoY, revenue of €1.67B, up 31% YoY, and an operating loss of €3M  —  Spotify closed its second calendar quarter this year with 108m paying subscribers and 232m total Monthly Active Users (MAUs).
Alex Heath / The Information:
Sources: Facebook is working on a new TV device that can stream video and make video calls using its Portal tech, and has approached Netflix, Disney, and others  —  Facebook has approached Netflix, Disney and other media companies about putting their streaming services on a new Facebook device …
Wall Street Journal:
Four major broadcast networks sue Locast, which is funded by AT&T, to try to stop it from freely retransmitting the signals of their local TV stations  —  CBS, ABC, NBCU and Fox say AT&T-funded Locast is retransmitting their signals without permission and in violation of copyright law
Raymond Zhong / New York Times:
Trump's ongoing trade war with China has been a boon for Vietnam, as some tech companies, like Apple and Nintendo, consider shifting production there  —  Samsung already assembles half of its handsets in the country, which got a big lift from U.S. tariffs on Chinese goods.  Now Apple is homing in.
New York Times:
Cisco to pay $8.6M to settle government claims for selling video surveillance tech with a security flaw, reported in 2008, to government agencies until 2013  —  WASHINGTON — Cisco Systems agreed on Wednesday to pay $8.6 million to settle claims that it sold video surveillance technology …
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
After 6 months of fact-checking for Facebook, Full Fact published 96 fact-checks, was paid ~$171k, wants Facebook to share more data with fact-checkers  —  In December 2016, Facebook enlisted a handful of U.S.-based news organizations (ABC News, Snopes, PolitiFact, FactCheck.org, and the AP) …
Sarah Scoles / The Verge:
Newly-released documents on Sentient, the NRO's ambitious analysis tool meant to guide spy satellites to areas of interest, raise more questions than answers  —  Meet the classified artificial brain being developed by US intelligence programs  —  At the final session of the 2019 Space Symposium …
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
Qualcomm misses with Q3 revenue of $4.9B, down 13% YoY, and licensing revenue of $1.29B, down 10% YoY; stock down 4%+ after hours  —  Qualcomm says it is well positioned for the 5G ramp to come in early 2020.  —  Qualcomm published its third quarter financial fiscal 2019 results on Wednesday …
More: Qualcomm, CNBC, and Macworld
Rebecca Aydin / Business Insider:
Sex tech startups protest outside Facebook's NYC offices, saying it bars them from running ads, and launch site to show alleged double standard of ad approvals  —  - The women's wellness companies say Facebook has not allowed them to run ads for their products on Facebook or Instagram.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Apple joins Google, Facebook, and Twitter in the open-source Data Transfer Project, will develop interoperable systems to bring data in and out of iCloud  —  Just over a year after its official launch, the Data Transfer Project is announcing a new set of partners and features.

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More News

Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Anna Baydakova / CoinDesk:

Earlier Picks

Cho Mu-Hyun / ZDNet:
Megan Scudellari / IEEE Spectrum:
Apple:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Steve Dent / Engadget: