Techmeme: Peloton prices its IPO at $29/share, at the top of the range, raising $1.16B at ~$8.1B valuation; Peloton was reportedly valued at ~$4.15B in its latest round (Joshua Franklin/Reuters)

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September 25, 2019, 10:15 PM

Top News

Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:

Amazon announces a new line of Alexa-enabled wearables equipped with mics and speakers, including the $180 Echo Frames eye glasses and $130 Echo Loop ring — Amazon is rolling out a new line of wearables that work with Alexa today including the Echo Frames eyeglasses and the Echo Loop smart ring.

More: Day One, TechCrunch, Washington Post, The Verge, Vox, Engadget, MacRumors, CNET, TechCrunch, The Verge, Engadget, The Verge, The Verge, Engadget, CNET, and Thurrott

Tweets: @alexqgb, @mcwm, @neilcybart, @caseynewton, @benedictevans, @joannastern, @neilcybart, and @backlon

Dami Lee / The Verge:

Amazon announces high-end Echo Studio, available for pre-order today for $200, with five speaker drivers and 3D audio support — It supports 3D audio from Dolby Atmos — Amazon announced its first high-end smart speaker at its annual hardware event today, called the Echo Studio.

More: Amazon.com, Inc., The Verge, TechHive, Android Police, Ars Technica, CNET, CNET, VentureBeat, Thurrott, Mashable, TechSpot, BetaNews, Digital Trends, Engadget, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, The Streamable, Engadget, and Axios

Tweets: @stshank, @benbajarin, @caseynewton, @markgurman, and @bretkinsella

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:

Amazon unveils Echo Buds, $129.99 Alexa-enabled wireless earbuds that track steps, with claimed battery life of five hours and 20 hours with the charging case — Preorders start today, with shipping in time for the holidays — Amazon just announced its first foray into the headphone space …

More: 9to5Mac, VentureBeat, TechHive, TechCrunch, CNET, Engadget, Eater, TechCrunch, BuzzFeed News, VentureBeat, Mashable, iPhone Hacks, Business Insider, iDownloadBlog.com, Bloomberg, and Digital Trends

Tweets: @tomwarren, @johnpaczkowski, @benedictevans, @benedictevans, @voice_beyond, and @neilcybart

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Amazon unveils the $25 Echo Flex, an Echo smart plug with modular accessories that cost $15, like a motion sensor and night light, available for pre-order today — Alexa now has its own smartplug with modular accessories — Amazon is introducing another way to get Alexa into your home, the Echo Flex.

More: GeekWire, The Verge, CNET, CNBC, CNN, Engadget, Thurrott, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @greene and @tomwarren

The Verge:

Amazon Echo Buds first impressions: comfortable, sound good, and are great at noise reduction, but their case is significantly larger than AirPods'

Tweets: @dangraziano, @backlon, and @kantrowitz

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Amazon announces Echo Show 8, sitting between the standard 10.1-inch and smaller 5.5-inch Echo Show models, available for pre-order today for $130

More: TechCrunch, CNET, Thurrott, TechCrunch, and iDownloadBlog.com

See also Mediagazer

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Amazon announces third-generation Echo for the same $100 price, improving its audio quality with stronger bass and adding a “twilight blue” color

More: CNET, TechHive, Digital Trends, Engadget, and Mashable

Molly Price / CNET:

Amazon announces Echo Dot with Clock, available for pre-order today for $60; original Echo Dot will still be available

More: The Verge, The Verge, Amazon.com, Inc., The Verge, SiliconANGLE, Android Headlines, Thurrott, 9to5Google, Engadget, ZDNet, 9to5Toys, and TechCrunch. Tweets: @mattrosoff

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook unveils Horizon, a VR massive multiplayer world coming in 2020, and will shut down existing VR platforms Facebook Spaces and Oculus Rooms on Oct. 25 — Facebook today announced a virtual reality sandbox game where you can build your own environments and games, socialize with friends, and more.

More: Oculus Blog, Engadget, VentureBeat, Windows Central, and CNET

Tweets: @benasmith, @stocksharks_, @alexeheath, @joshconstine, @joshconstine, @mahalis, @thejeremyhaynes, @imcatnoone, and @joshconstine. Thanks:@joshconstine

Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:

Oculus Quest will be updated in Nov. to be able to wire up directly to PCs, like the Rift, and in 2020 will get support for hand tracking, no controllers needed — Just before the annual VR/AR conference Oculus Connect 6, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg released a teaser video hinting …

More: Oculus Blog, Engadget, Ars Technica, Engadget, The Verge, SlashGear, Oculus Blog, Ars Technica, SiliconANGLE, Android Central, Facebook, GameSpot, Digital Trends, Android Headlines, PC Gamer, VRFocus, TechCrunch, PCWorld, CNET, Destructoid, IGN, Variety, The Verge, The Verge, Windows Central, Road to VR, and UploadVR

Tweets: @appleidinesh, @merryh, @chriswade__, @jason_rubin, and @jank0

Scott Stein / CNET:

Interview with Mark Zuckerberg on cracking social in VR, updates to the Quest headset, and how the future of Oculus' AR ambitions are grounded in its VR efforts — I'm led down a staircase by a small team of Facebook communications people, into a high-ceilinged, wide-open office …

More: The Next Web, TechCrunch, Telegraph, GameSpot, Windows Central, Nikkei Asian Review, VentureBeat, Kotaku, ZDNet, Gizmodo, and IGN. Thanks:@iansherr

Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:

Oculus says it's surpassed $100M in revenue in the Oculus store, with Zuckerberg noting that 20% of that revenue was for Quest titles sold in past four months

More: Engadget and PCWorld

Tweets: @urgamingtechie, @bertaroo, and @jordannovet

Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:

Facebook is making a “new social layer”, arriving on Oculus headsets in 2019; one feature, Destinations, lets players broadcast what they're doing inside games

More: VentureBeat

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:

Amazon announces a new Eero mesh router with Alexa voice controls, available today in the US for $99 each or $249 for a three pack — Amazon has just announced a brand-new $99 Eero router at its big hardware event, marking the first new product from the mesh networking company since Amazon bought it earlier this year.

More: TechCrunch, CNET, Digital Trends, VentureBeat, Android Headlines, Engadget, The Verge, and CNET

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Amazon announces updates to Alexa: a new multilingual mode, celebrity voices for $0.99 each, starting with Samuel L. Jackson, frustration detection, and more

More: TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Engadget, The Verge, Engadget, Android Headlines, BBC, Digital Trends, IGN, Gizmodo, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @willoremus, @ow, @max_read, @mcwm, and @mcwm

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:

GM says it will add Alexa to the infotainment systems on its Chevrolet, Buick, GMC and Cadillac vehicles from 2018 onwards, rolling out in first half of 2020

More: The Verge, The Verge, PYMNTS.com, Engadget, and CNET

Russell Brandom / The Verge:

Amazon debuts new privacy settings for Alexa, including the ability to easily delete specific recordings and automatically delete them after three or 18 months

More: Gizmodo, The Daily Dot, CNET, TechCrunch, VentureBeat, Engadget, Thurrott, TechRepublic, Android Headlines, and Digital Trends. Tweets: @benthompson

Andrew Gebhart / CNET:

Amazon launches the “Certified for Humans” program for simple-to-use devices that are able to be set up and controlled within the Alexa app

More: The Verge and Amazon. Tweets: @johnpaczkowski

Ashley Carman / The Verge:

FTC sues Match Group, alleging Match.com connected daters with accounts known to be fake to get them to subscribe, leading to 499,691 new subscriptions — The FTC says more than 400,000 people subscribed because of these fraud messages — Match.com may have connected non-paying daters …

More: Federal Trade Commission, Match.com, Engadget, The Register, The Hill, Gizmodo, New York Times, BuzzFeed News, and Reuters

Tweets: @tonyromm, @ashleyrcarman, and @tonyromm

Matthew Prince / The Cloudflare Blog:

Cloudflare launches Warp VPN for iOS and Android for optimizing and securing traffic, with a faster tier for $5/mo., after its bug-ridden limited debut in April — Today, after a longer than expected wait, we're opening WARP and WARP Plus to the general public.

More: Wired, The Cloudflare Blog, XDA Developers, Android Police, BleepingComputer, 9to5Mac, BetaNews, and The Mac Observer

Tweets: @dok2001 and @rustlibhunt

Greg Bensinger / Washington Post:

Interviews with 20 people show Uber's 80-strong Special Investigations Unit, which deals with severe incidents, often puts Uber's interests ahead of riders' — Investigators say drivers get three “strikes” for bad behavior — and may just end up driving for Lyft.

More: Business Insider, Digital Trends, and The Verge

Tweets: @drewharwell, @dmac1, @brynstole, @byheatherlong, @goldfarb, @gregbensinger, @laurastevens, @elizabeth_joh, @reggievaitz, @johnpaczkowski, @robertfaturechi, and @lam_barrett

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google says Android 10 (Go edition), aimed at low-end devices with less than 1.5GB RAM, will launch this fall with speed and security improvements — Last year, Android (Go edition) launched with Pie, and Google today is detailing the latest version of its OS for entry-level smartphones with less than 1.5GB of RAM.

More: The Keyword, SlashGear, Android Headlines, Android Police, Softpedia News, and Thurrott

Laura Kayali / Politico:

Google refuses to pay publishers in France, first to apply EU's copyright law, will only show headlines and thumbnails, unless publisher asks to add previews — The announcement pours cold water on publishers' hopes of getting more money from Google after an EU reform of online copyright law.

More: Ars Technica, The Keyword, Bloomberg, Financial Times, The Next Web, Search Engine Land, and 9to5Google

Tweets: @laukaya, @glynmoody, @robpegoraro, @jasonfalter, @mehreenkhn, @jason_kint, @ugambini, and @mathewi

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From Mediagazer

Tierney Sneed / CNN:

CNN, MS NOW, and Politico ask a federal judge for a preliminary injunction to keep their White House access restored after a temporary order expires October 8

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: the Trump administration used DHS funds to finance pro-Trump ads, including one that is almost identical to a 2024 Trump campaign ad, calling them PSAs

Deadline:

Disney initiates a third round of layoffs under CEO Josh D'Amaro, reportedly impacting a couple hundred staff, largely in HR and tech

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More News

Joshua Franklin / Reuters:

Peloton prices its IPO at $29/share, at the top of the range, raising $1.16B at ~$8.1B valuation; Peloton was reportedly valued at ~$4.15B in its latest round

Tweets: @jasonfalter

Jasmine Pennic / hitconsultant.net:

Eko raises $20M Series B for its AI powered in-clinic and at-home cardiac monitoring platform which includes devices that combine digital stethoscope and ECG

More: TechCrunch, FierceBiotech, and VentureBeat

Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:

Divvy, which buys and rents homes while setting aside ~25% of monthly payments toward the renter's future down payment for the house, raises $43M Series B

More: TechCrunch and FinSMEs

Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez / The San Francisco Examiner:

San Francisco grants permits to Lime, JUMP, Scoot, and Spin to deploy up to 2,500 electric scooters each, starting from October 15

More: Axios and TechCrunch

Tweets: @zck and @jeff_jordan

Alan Ohnsman / Forbes:

Self-driving truck startup Embark Trucks raises $70M Series C led by Tiger Global Management, bringing its total raised to $117M

More: Embark Trucks and The Robot Report. Thanks:@helenaspopkin

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Amazon unveils Sidewalk, a low-bandwidth, long-range wireless protocol, tested at 700 access points in LA, and says its first Sidewalk product will be a dog tag

More: The Verge, CNET, VentureBeat, and Engadget. Tweets: @markgurman

Jon Lafayette / Broadcasting & Cable:

Samsung: 44% of viewers switch back and forth from streaming to linear TV; 45% of viewing time is spent on streaming, of which 40% is spent on ad-supported VOD

Arman Tabatabai / TechCrunch:

Arceo.ai, a cyber insurance platform for insurers and companies that uses data analytics, raises $37M led by Lightspeed Venture Partners and Founders Fund

More: PR Newswire, FinSMEs, and Business Insider

Earlier Picks

Joseph Marks / Washington Post:

Lawmakers say the White House has been withholding details of its offensive hacking strategy used for cyber warfare for over a year

Danny Crichton / TechCrunch:

Austin-based ZenBusiness, which develops a platform to help entrepreneurs launch companies, raises $15M Series A led by Greycroft

More: Business Wire and FinSMEs

South China Morning Post:

Alibaba unveils its first AI chip, the Hanguang 800, used within Alibaba for product search, translation, and recommendations, not for sale to third parties yet

More: Nikkei Asian Review, ZDNet, and SiliconANGLE

Google AI Blog:

Google has released a dataset of ~3,000 deepfake videos to help researchers develop deepfake detection techniques

More: MIT Technology Review, Engadget, Fast Company, 9to5Google, and The Daily Dot

Tweets: @googleai, @sundarpichai, @yasmind, @valaafshar, @samgregory, @techreview, @r_d, and @jason_kint

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:

Kuo: 2020 iPhones will have a new metal frame structure similar to iPhone 4 to reduce the negative impact of metal on the efficiency of the internal antenna

More: CNET, The Verge, Engadget, Neowin, The Next Web, Firstpost Tech, iDownloadBlog.com, MacDailyNews, TechSpot, Macworld, AppleInsider, Inquirer, Cult of Mac, MSPoweruser, 9to5Mac, Mashable, iPhone Hacks, and iMore. Tweets: @rsgnl

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Report: analysis of ~2,000 malware samples attributed to Russian state-sponsored hacking groups shows that the groups rarely share code with one another

More: Forbes. Tweets: @checkpointsw, @ingridlunden, @miss_cybernaut, @wired, @privacydigest, and @a_greenberg

Alex Hern / The Guardian:

Leaked TikTok content moderation guidelines reveal how it censors videos mentioning Tiananmen Square, Tibetan independence, or Falun Gong

More: Wired, Engadget, The Verge, Reason, Boing Boing, Mashable, New York Post, Financial Times, and Business Insider

Tweets: @wongmjane, @elliottzaagman, @elinor_carmi, @neerajka, @aaronzlewis, @profcarroll, @charlesarthur, @alexhern, @alexhern, @charlesrollet1, @elliottzaagman, and @drewledrew. Thanks:@alexhern