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August 23, 2019, 8:15 PM
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| Wall Street Journal: |
Investigation finds 4,152 items on Amazon that were declared unsafe by federal agencies, are deceptively labeled, or are banned by regulators — Just like tech companies that have struggled to tackle misinformation on their platforms, Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers on its site| Financial Times: |
Sources: at least three of Facebook's Libra backers are discussing how to distance themselves from the project amid increasing regulatory scrutiny — Intensifying regulatory scrutiny of Facebook's Libra digital currency has spooked some of the project's early backers, with at least three privately discussing …
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Gizmodo, CoinDesk, CNBC, TechSpot, Digital Trends, Coinspeaker, CCN Markets, CNET, FutureSin, Telecoms.com, Crowdfund Insider, The Next Web, PYMNTS.com, Cointelegraph, CoinGeek, and CryptoGlobe
Tweets: @somospostpc, @synqio, @oscarwgrut, and @mshannahmurphy
| Abner Li / 9to5Google: |
Google Photos can now search for text that appears in user images with its optical character recognition filter — Google Lens has a powerful optical character recognition (OCR) filter that can pull text from any image. Available in Google Photos, the backup service this month is adding the ability to search for text in images.
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Digital Trends, Engadget, CNET, Android Headlines, Firstpost Tech, SlashGear, Gizchina, TechRepublic, TechSpot, Android Central, Droid Life, XDA Developers, MSPoweruser, Tom's Guide, Gizmodo, KnowTechie, iPhone Hacks, Android Authority, iPhone in Canada Blog, Android Police, Digital Photography Review, Fast Company, and Silicon Republic
Tweets: @googlephotos, @hunterwalk, @gregthegreek, and @acaiijawe
| Marlize van Romburgh / Silicon Valley Business Journal: |
Trump's tweets “ordering” US companies to start looking for an alternative to China rattle tech stocks, with Apple closing down 4.6%, Amazon 3.1%, and AMD 7.4% — Shares of Apple and Silicon Valley's semiconductor companies were pummeled on Friday as President Trump responded …
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TechCrunch, Market Realist, CNBC, Investing.com, CNBC, Fast Company, and New York Post
Tweets: @realdonaldtrump, @philiprucker, @billkristol, and @adamschiff
| Ayanti Bera / Reuters: |
Seven top US publishers sue Audible, aiming to block the planned rollout of Captions, a new feature that shows text on screen as a book is narrated — (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) Audible was sued by some of the top U.S. publishers for copyright infringement on Friday …
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The Verge, Bloomberg, Engadget, SlashGear, GeekWire, and Seeking Alpha
Tweets: @davidgaughran, @nickstatt, @chriseppstein, @ksprior, @lucasmtny, and @scalzi
| Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: |
Strategy Analytics: US users upgrade smartphones after 33 months, 7% plan to spend over $1K on their next purchase, biggest barrier to 5G phones will be price — Several reports in the past have linked the increasing prices of smartphones to lengthening iPhone upgrade cycles.
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Strategy Analytics …, Engadget, Light Reading, BGR, iMore, Geek.com, Android Authority, Phandroid, Android Central, and VentureBeat. Tweets: @mikeddano
| Tony Wan / EdSurge: |
Educational robotic toymaker Sphero acquires littleBits, a maker of electronics building kits and instructional resources for kids — When Sphero laid off 45 employees in early 2018, the Boulder, Co.-based company explained the difficult decision as an effort to return its focus …
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The Verge, Sphero About, TechCrunch, CNET, VentureBeat, Gizmodo, TechSpot, The Robot Report, Fast Company, Engadget, and Crunchbase News
| Mike Isaac / New York Times: |
Sources: Uber's $1 Safe Rides Fee, introduced in 2014, was devised primarily to add $1 of pure margin to each trip; court documents: the fee brought in ~$500M — The once-swaggering company is losing more money and growing more slowly than ever. What happened?
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Gizmodo, Business Insider, and The Verge
Tweets: @caseynewton, @2pasc, @mikeisaac, @mikeisaac, @hatr, @mikeisaac, and @om
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Netflix says it is testing “Collections” on iOS that are curated by experts on the company's creative teams based on factors like genre, tone, and story line — Netflix is testing a new way to help users find TV shows and movies they'll want to watch with the launch of a …
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The Verge, The Next Web, Engadget, Tom's Guide, TechSpot, SlashGear, Variety, iPhone Hacks, and iPhone in Canada Blog. Tweets: @chrisblundell
| Daniel Kuhn / CoinDesk: |
Bitcoin wallet provider Blockchain announces a partnership with BitPay to integrate BitPay's payment architecture into its wallet service — Bitcoin wallet and blockchain explorer provider Blockchain announced a partnership with the largest bitcoin processor, BitPay.
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Blockchain Blog, Cointelegraph, and Decrypt
| Raymond Wong / Mashable: |
Apple Card review: no annual fees, 3% cash back on purchases from Apple, gorgeous app interface but is iOS-only, can't pay bill on the web or from Android phone — Applying for Apple Card couldn't have been easier. All you have to do is sign up to get invited and then open up the Wallet app on your iPhone … | Jennifer Elias / CNBC: |
Google says it has shut down 210 YouTube channels after it found they had been tied to misinformation about Hong Kong protesters — KEY POINTS — In a blog post Thursday, Google said it axed more than 200 YouTube channels due to misinformation around Hong Kong protests.
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Ars Technica, New York Times, The Keyword, New York Times, Business Insider, The Next Web, Tubefilter, Market Realist, Adweek, CyberScoop, Variety, Graham Cluley, The Mac Observer, VentureBeat, The Verge, MediaNama, and Silicon Republic
Tweets: @shanehuntley, @lisackaplan, @rosenbergerlm, @rosenbergerlm, @maryhui, @aaronmcn, @dellcam, @sarafischer, @rmac18, @rmac18, and @sarahfrier
| Crunchbase News: |
Cloud-based app performance monitoring startup DataDog files for IPO, says it had revenue of $198M in 2018, up from $101M in 2017, and a loss of $13M in 1H 2019 — DataDog filed its S-1 with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday, revealing its recent financial results and general health.| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
Identity management company Ping Identity files for an IPO; it was sold to Vista Equity for ~$600M in 2016 and is said to be looking for a $2B to $3B valuation — Some eight months after it was reported that Ping Identity's owners Vista Equity had hired bankers to explore a public listing …
More:
SiliconANGLE, Crunchbase News, and PE Hub Blog
| Annie Palmer / CNBC: |
Google releases new community guidelines for employees, placing new restrictions on talking about politics on internal mailing lists and forums — KEY POINTS — Google on Friday released a new set of community guidelines that are meant to crack down on what employees can say inside the company.
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The Register, New York Times, Washington Post, CNN, Mercury News, Vox, Business Insider, The Verge, The Hill, and Engadget
| James Loke Hale / Tubefilter: |
Report: Facebook has pushed Instagram into doubling the number of ads since last year; Instagram is testing two back-to-back ads in Stories — Instagram is about to get even more ads. — Beginning this week, the platform is running a test with what it told AdWeek is a “small percentage” of users.
Source:
The Information. More:
The Interface, iPhone in Canada Blog, Silicon Republic, MSPoweruser, and KnowTechie
Tweets: @thomashawk, @alexeheath, @mtsw, @nickwingfield, @ashleyrgold, @coryweinberg, @reckless, @amir, and @jessicalessin
| Emma Grey Ellis / Wired: |
Seattle Police Department has maintained an anti-swatting registry since last October, allowing people who fear being swatted give the police advance warning — SWAT TEAMS, IN full military protective gear and armed with assault rifles, are being deployed against innocent, unsuspecting citizens all over the United States.
Tweets: @sventhelost, @caseynewton, and @carolinesinders
| Stephen Nellis / Reuters: |
Appeals court stays an earlier ruling in FTC's suit against Qualcomm that would have required Qualcomm to renegotiate all of its existing chip and patent deals — (Reuters) - Qualcomm Inc won a partial stay against the enforcement of a sweeping antitrust ruling in a lawsuit brought …
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Wall Street Journal, CNET, New York Times, XDA Developers, Mobile World Live, Bloomberg, Law360, Seeking Alpha, and Slashdot
| Louise Matsakis / Wired: |
In a leaked letter from members of Twitter's Trust and Safety Council, formed in 2016 to provide outside advice on policy, some say they're being ignored — AT THE BEGINNING of 2016, Twitter announced some good news: the formation of the Trust and Safety Council, comprised of more than 40 outside groups …
More:
Engadget and Business Insider
Tweets: @karnythia, @jmhodges, @slpng_giants, @matthewkeyslive, @megansquire0, @caseynewton, @sarahfrier, and @lmatsakis
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
India exempts startups from its “angel tax”, a much-criticised 30% tax when raising money at a rate higher than “fair market value” as assessed by tax authority — India today addressed a long-standing challenge that has been affecting the country's booming startup ecosystem.
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The Economic Times, Livemint, Times of India, News18, YourStory.com, The Hindu, NDTV.com, and Zee Business
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