Techmeme
August 18, 2019, 10:00 PM

Top News

Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
IRS sends out letters warning taxpayers that data it received from crypto exchanges shows they owe taxes related to trades over the past several years  —  The U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS) is sending another round of warning letters to cryptocurrency users, this time to taxpayers …
David Nield / TechRadar.com:
Ming-Chi Kuo expects a new Apple Watch Series 5 this year, as watchOS 6 beta code indicates that ceramic and titanium casings may be coming  —  And maybe the Series 4 too  —  You wait all year for some decent Apple Watch Series 5 rumors and then two come along at once …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
23 Texas local governments hit in what appears to be a coordinated ransomware attack  —  Infection blamed on a strain of ransomware known only as the “.JSE ransomware.”  —  Twenty-three local Texas governments have been infected with ransomware last week in what Texas officials have described as a coordinated attack.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Apple's WebKit announces strict anti-tracking policy to prevent covert tracking and all cross-site tracking, credits Mozilla's policy for inspiring its approach  —  WebKit, the open source engine that underpins Internet browsers including Apple's Safari browser, has announced …
Kevin Kwok / kwokchain:
@pinboard:
[Thread] Twitter has been running ads from Chinese state news agency Xinhua that aim to discredit protesters in Hong-Kong  —  Every day I go out and see stuff with my own eyes, and then I go to report it on Twitter and see promoted tweets saying the opposite of what I saw. Twitter is taking money from Chinese propaganda outfits and running these promoted tweets against the top Hong Kong protest hashtags https://twitter.com/...
Itika Sharma Punit / Quartz:
Q&A with Debjani Ghosh, the first woman president of Indian IT industry body Nasscom, on the gender gap and why India is not worried about changes to H-1B visas  —  Being an engineer at an Indian information technology (IT) company today is far removed from what it used to be only five years ago.
Bryan Menegus / Gizmodo:
California Supreme Court rules that online businesses like Square can be sued for discrimination in their TOS, even if a user never signed up for the service  —  Nearly four years ago, a lone bankruptcy lawyer sued Square, the payment processor run by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey …
Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
Ikea says it is creating a new business unit, Ikea Home smart, with end-to-end responsibility for its portfolio of smart devices  —  ‘We are just getting started’  —  Ikea is formalizing what has recently become all too obvious: the company is making a major bet on smart home tech as a source of new revenue.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
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:
Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements  —  2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
Where Is All the A.I.-Driven Scientific Progress?
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Naughty Citizen', With Quinn Nelson
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Big Technology Podcast:
2025 In Review, 2026 Predictions — With Reed Albergotti
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:
Podcast Pioneer PJ Vogt's Second Act: Less Budget, More Control
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.
BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:00 PM ET, August 18, 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.

More News

Caroline McCarthy / Spectator USA:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:

Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal: