|
September 18, 2019, 10:40 AM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Josh Constine / TechCrunch: |
Facebook debuts Portal TV, a TV accessory for video calling, streaming, AR gaming, and co-viewing Facebook Watch shows, shipping November 5 for $149 — Facebook wants to take over your television with a clip-on camera for video calling, AR gaming, and content co-watching.
More:
Facebook, VentureBeat, Thurrott, Digital Trends, Wall Street Journal, Telegraph, Bloomberg, CNET, WinBuzzer, Android Central, Financial Times, Mashable, and The Streamable
Tweets: @joshconstine, @rh_brown, @boztank, @tomwarren, @amahnke, @saysdana, and @ow. Thanks:@joshconstine
| Nick Statt / The Verge: |
Facebook unveils second-gen 10-inch Portal for $179, and 8-inch Portal Mini for $129, with WhatsApp call support, picture-in-picture viewing, and Prime Video — The $179 Portal and $129 Portal Mini are Facebook's latest hardware products — Facebook today announced three new products … | Bloomberg: |
Facebook confirms it was collecting Portal audio clips, some of which were transcribed by contractors, says 2nd-gen Portal devices will offer an opt-out option — - Company previously criticized for transcribing Messenger calls — New and old Portal devices will now offer an opt-out option
Tweets: @canterrain, @joshconstine, @the_dools, @business, @vladsavov, and @shiraovide
| Dieter Bohn / The Verge: |
Apple Watch Series 5 review: the best smartwatch with an always-on screen, a beautiful display, and new apps, but its battery life hasn't improved — There's basically no competition — The highest praise I can give the new Apple Watch Series 5 is simply this: it's an Apple Watch.
More:
Daring Fireball, TechCrunch, CNET, Macworld, Digital Trends, MacRumors, BuzzFeed News, USA Today, 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, Wired, MacDailyNews, Cult of Mac, CNBC, iPhone Hacks, Pocket-lint, MobileSyrup, HODINKEE, MacStories, and Fast Company
Tweets: @itsnicolenguyen, @reckless, @backlon, and @tomwarren
| Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: |
Google will start surfacing key moments from videos in search results, highlighting them with direct links to timestamps provided by creators — Google today announced an update to how it handles videos in search results. Instead of just listing relevant videos on the search results page …
More:
The Keyword, Search Engine Land, The Verge, Tubefilter, Search Engine Roundtable, SlashGear, Social Media Today, Android Headlines, and Thurrott
Tweets: @kevin_indig and @googlewmc
| Nilay Patel / The Verge: |
iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max review: its camera system outperforms the Pixel 3 and Note10 in bright light and, with Night mode, usually beats Pixel 3 in low light — And the best camera you can get on a phone — The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max did not arrive at the splashiest Apple event ever.
More:
MacRumors, PCMag, 9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, blog.halide.cam, Refinery29, YouTube, Wired, The Mac Observer, Apple, AppleInsider, O'Grady's PowerPage, iPhone Hacks, Cult of Mac, Softpedia News, Engadget, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacStories, iMore, Macworld, MSPoweruser, and Michael Tsai
Tweets: @llsethj, @joannastern, @tomwarren, @rsgnl, @daringfireball, @pschiller, @saschasegan, @viticci, @verge, @sdw, @sdw, @pierce, @reckless, @michaelbabich, @ow, @happicamp, @nicolasmagand, @reckless, and @reckless
| Chris Velazco / Engadget: |
More:
BuzzFeed News, TechCrunch, Mashable, iPhone Hacks, Cult of Mac, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, CNET, MSPoweruser, TechSpot, The Verge, MacRumors, Tom's Guide, TechRadar.com, and 9to5Mac
Tweets: @stroughtonsmith, @imagemechanics, @reckless, @stroughtonsmith, @rocco_botte, @mikeisaac, and @panzer
| Brian X. Chen / New York Times: |
More:
The Overspill. Tweets: @gruber, @reckless, @reckless, @rdrv3, @nytimesbusiness, @shawnking, @martinsfp, @nytimes, @ndlstrong, @benbajarin, @benbajarin, @dsilverman, @puiwingtam, @rdrv3, @rdrv3, @rdrv3, @alexhern, @shiraovide, and @bxchen
| Makena Kelly / The Verge: |
Facebook shares more on its upcoming Oversight Board for content decisions and how members are picked, says decisions will be binding even if Facebook disagrees — 'The board's decision will be binding, even if I or anyone at Facebook disagrees with it,' says Zuckerberg
More:
Facebook, The Register, BBC, The Atlantic, Rude Baguette, Digital Trends, and Business Insider
Tweets: @daveleebbc, @zephyrteachout, @niemanlab, @facebook, @facebook, and @kellymakena
| Katrina Brooker / Fast Company: |
As Google develops more powerful AI and proliferates it across the tech world, its real-world ethical ramifications become more consequential and murky — Google has more computing power, data, and talent to pursue artificial intelligence than any other company on Earth—and it's not slowing down.| Ryan Tracy / Wall Street Journal: |
Report: ~75 countries are using AI for surveillance and Huawei is providing surveillance tech in 50 countries, far more than its nearest competitor Hikvision — China leads world in facial-recognition and other new surveillance technologies, report says — WASHINGTON—China leads the world …
More:
Quartz, Carnegie Endowment …, and WRAL TechWire
Tweets: @hypervisible, @iwillleavenow, @nlw, @evanselinger, and @hoofnagle
| Tavi Gevinson / The Cut: |
Founder of the Rookie mag reflects on being an early influencer and the effect that Instagram had on her life and career as Instagram's aesthetic keeps evolving — My senior year of high school, I had three Instagram accounts: a public one, a private one for friends and internet friends, and a private one that was just for me.| Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC: |
Sources: after setbacks, Facebook partners with Luxottica to help make “Orion” AR smart glasses designed to replace smartphones, with 2023-2025 launch timeframe — KEY POINTS — Facebook has partnered with Luxottica to develop augmented-reality Ray-Ban glasses, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.
More:
The Verge, Inquirer, Road to VR, Android Central, Firstpost Tech, UploadVR, Engadget, CNET, Business Insider, The Verge, Wareable, TechSpot, Patently Apple, Thurrott, Pocket-lint, PYMNTS.com, Digital Trends, Cult of Mac, VentureBeat, and 9to5Google
Tweets: @alexeheath, @stephennellis, @dariasolo, @david_ingram, @cnbc, @chrismessina, @mattnavarra, @alexqgb, and @thekenyeung. Thanks:@sal19
| Dieter Bohn / The Verge: |
Google Fi debuts a more traditional unlimited plan for $70/mo. for a single line, but “may optimize” video to 480p and will throttle data past 22GB per month — Including some limits on video streaming and 100GB of cloud storage — Google is announcing a new plan for its MVNO Fi cell service: Unlimited.| Will Oremus / OneZero: |
Studies that try to place a monetary value on consumer privacy have such varying results that researchers are beginning to conclude that it's the wrong approach — No one knows. And it might be time to stop asking. — For big tech platforms, this was the year when violating users' privacy got expensive.
Tweets: @privacyproject, @willoremus, @profcarroll, @willoremus, and @lemonsand
| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
Descript, which offers tools for creating podcasts, raises $15M Series A from a16z and Redpoint, and acquires Lyrebird, which built audio transcription tools — The boom in popularity for podcasting has given a new voice to the world of spoken word content that had been largely left for dead with the decline of broadcast radio.| Dan Seifert / The Verge: |
Sonos Move review: loud and full sound that is great indoors or out, reliable wireless connectivity, but too big and heavy for travel, significant setup bugs — Sonos' first portable speaker is more comfortable at home than on the go — For the past week or so, I've been listening to music …
More:
TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, Digital Trends, and Engadget
| Cherlynn Low / Engadget: |
HP debuts 13" Elitebook Dragonfly ultra-light business convertible with Intel Core vPro processor, 2TB storage, 16GB RAM, available Oct. 25, starting at $1,549 — HP is chasing superlatives again. Last year, the company launched the Spectre Folio — the first laptop made out of leather.
More:
The Verge, Gizmodo, Thurrott, ZDNet, Inquirer, VentureBeat, PCWorld, Ars Technica, and Windows Central
| Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Atlantic: |
Instagram's Close Friends feature proves controversial as both an influencer revenue stream and superficial gateway to intimacy — Gabi Abrao, better known as @sighswoon on Instagram, is “developing a language with the invisible.” Her page is half memes, half photos of her—eating fresh fruit …
Tweets: @jake_meador, @jennyearnest, @bluechoochoo, @guptasonali, @megan_nicolett, @adriennelaf, @amandamull, and @paulbisceglio
| Leo Kelion / BBC: |
London's Gatwick to become the UK's first airport to use facial recognition cameras on a permanent basis for ID checks for passenger boarding — Gatwick has become the UK's first airport to confirm it will use facial-recognition cameras on a permanent basis for ID checks before passengers board planes.| Mark Sullivan / Fast Company: |
A look at how Facebook's AI researchers are trying to build smart chatbots using unsupervised training of neural networks for natural language processing — Bots still can't converse like humans. But Facebook's AI researchers are making major inroads—with implications for the company's messaging apps and beyond.| Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: |
IBM unveils a 53-qubit quantum computer, scheduled to arrive next month, making it the largest universal quantum computer available for external use — IBM continues to push its quantum computing efforts forward and today announced that it will soon make a 53-qubit quantum computer available to clients of its IBM Q Network.
More:
CNET, Business Insider, ZDNet, TechRepublic, IBM, and Fortune
| Tim Peterson / Digiday: |
Sources: as Amazon gets ready to add linear TV channels to IMDb TV, partners push back against its plans to sell all ads with 55% revenue share to publishers — Amazon's free, ad-supported streaming video service IMDb TV plans to follow rival services by adding linear channels from TV networks …
Tweets: @tvrev
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Facebook says it has updated its definition of “terrorist organizations” and changed its counterterrorism team's structure to curb white supremacist violence — In a blog post this afternoon, Facebook detailed the progress it's made in combatting terrorists, violent extremist groups …
More:
Facebook, Slashdot, Firstpost Tech, Social Media Today, SiliconANGLE, Quartz, and Gizmodo
Tweets: @megansquire0, @erinsaltman, @angelsdiaz_, @daveyalba, @eileenmcarey, @notthatbigian, and @moonshotcve
| Steve Dent / Engadget: |
HTC names former Orange exec Yves Maitre as its new CEO; HTC had $770M in revenue in 2018, the first time its annual revenue fell below $1B as a public company — HTC announced that it has appointed a former executive from telecom giant Orange, Yves Maitre, as its new CEO.
More:
PR Newswire, BBC, Nasdaq, Reuters, Fudzilla.com, Road to VR, Ausdroid, Android Headlines, and Pocketnow
Tweets: @htc, @benwood, and @urbanstrata
Sponsor Posts
Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Zoho People in 2025: A year in review — As we wrap up 2025, we're taking a moment to look back on a year filled with progress and transformation at Zoho People. Our team has been constantly pushing boundaries …
Zoho People in 2025: A year in review — As we wrap up 2025, we're taking a moment to look back on a year filled with progress and transformation at Zoho People. Our team has been constantly pushing boundaries …
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.
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
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence
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.
Hard Fork:
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song
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.
Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
The new AI growth playbook for 2026: How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year | Elena Verna (Head of Growth)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Neither Side Is Used to Losing." Lucas Shaw on What's Next for Netflix and Paramount in the Battle for Warner Bros.
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.
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 10:40 AM ET, September 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.
From Mediagazer
Paul Glynn / BBC:Ken Vogel / @kenvogel:
Nicholas Henriquez / New Yorker:
Upcoming Tech Events
More News
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
More:
PYMNTS.com, Globe and Mail, Biometric Update, The Paypers, Wall Street Journal, and Crunchbase News. Tweets: @willoremus
Earlier Picks
| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
More:
VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, and Engadget
Tweets: @martenroorda, @dtunkelang, @ryancraigap, @frankcatalano, @michaelbhorn, @ingridlunden, @darcyjcarroll, and @wongmjane
| U.S. Department of Justice: |
More:
ACLU, Threatpost, NPR, ZDNet, CNBC, New Yorker, Trustnodes, CCN.com, Blockonomi, Engadget, New York Post, Gizmodo, The Register, Salon, Slate, and Cointelegraph
Tweets: @snowden, @snowden, @minipetite, @fightfortheftr, @aclu, @lorenzofb, @snowden, @zackwhittaker, @usaterwilliger, @jeffstone500, @nickdmiller, @zackwhittaker, and @dnvolz
| Joshua Franklin / Reuters: |
More:
Financial Times, Bloomberg, Financial Times, marker.medium.com, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, TechCrunch, and CNBC
Tweets: @hblodget, @financialtimes, @carlquintanilla, @tbraithwaite, @medium, @seldo, @wsjrealestate, @reuters, @carnage4life, and @rationalwalk