Techmeme
October 8, 2019, 5:45 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Blizzard bans player from Hearthstone competition for a year and rescinds $10K prize money, after he publicly supported Hong Kong's pro-democracy protestors  —  - Expressing sympathy for Hong Kong democracy push proves costly  — Hearthstone player won't be allowed to compete for a year
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
As China exports its domestic standards, the US should treat China's leveraging of market access into self-censorship by US companies as trade violations  —  It all started with a tweet:  —  “It” refers to the current imbroglio surrounding Daryl Morey, the General Manager for the Houston Rockets …
Jeremy Burge / Emojipedia:
Peter Rubin / Wired:
Sony announces PlayStation 5 will launch in time for “holiday 2020”, featuring a new controller with haptic technology and triggers with varying resistance  —  Now that the name is official, we've got more details about Sony's next-gen console—from the haptics-packed controller to UI improvements.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Twitter says it has unintentionally used some email addresses and phone numbers provided for account security purposes for ad targeting  —  Twitter disclosed Tuesday that it “unintentionally” used some mail address and phone numbers for advertising even though the information was provided for account security.
Washington Post:
Bipartisan Senate report makes recommendations to prevent Russian election interference in 2020, saying Russia sowed social media discord to help Trump in 2016  —  GOP-led panel endorses finding that Russia interfered to help Donald Trump  —  A bipartisan panel of U.S. senators Tuesday called …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Robinhood unveils Cash Management, which earns 2.05% APY interest on uninvested money in users' accounts, after 2018's botched roll out of its checking product  —  This time it actually has insurance.  Zero-fee stock trading app Robinhood is launching Cash Management, a new feature …
John Voorhees / MacStories:
In-depth Catalina review: iTunes breakup is a success and Catalyst disappoints but it is the first step to integrate macOS into an unbroken computing continuum  —  Ironically, Apple chose to name this year's update to macOS after an island.  Since the iPhone and iOS took off …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
David Canellis / The Next Web:
Report on Dapp's across six blockchains, including ETH, EOS, TRON: total transaction volume was $2.03B in Q3, down 40% QoQ, dapp user retention from Q2 was 36%  —  GAMBLING IS STILL THE NUMBER ONE USE-CASE  —  The total transactional volume of blockchain apps (dapps) across …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Arm announces consortium for autonomous vehicle tech, with General Motors, Nvidia, Denso, Toyota, Bosch, Arm, Continental, and NXP on board  —  Autonomous vehicles are exceedingly complex to develop, so Arm announced a consortium today to tackle the various safety and computing probles in a collaborative way.
More: TechCrunch and Arm
Austin Carr / Bloomberg:
Interviews with 36 people shed light on Quintillion, a fiber internet company working in the Arctic whose co-founder, Elizabeth Pierce, forged $1B in contracts  —  When he discovered that the ship's underwater plow was stuck at the bottom of the Arctic Ocean, 50 miles off Alaska's coast, Frank Cuccio thought of Ernest Shackleton.
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Opera 64 desktop browser launches with inbuilt tracking protection using the EasyPrivacy Tracking Protection List, a powerful screenshot tool, and more  —  Opera doesn't want to miss the browser privacy bandwagon, and it's taking an unusual angle to sell it: it's promising a speed boost.
Michael Hayes / OneZero:
Leaked docs show Cellebrite has sold tech that can let NYC police “unlock and extract data from all iOS and high-end Android devices” on their own since 2018  —  Previously, if law enforcement wanted to get into newer devices, they had to send the phones to one of Cellebrite's …
Reuters:
Samsung projects operating income of $6.4B for Q3, beating analyst estimates, but down 56% YoY amid continued weakness in memory chip price and demand  —  SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korean tech giant Samsung Electronics on Tuesday reported its third-quarter operating profit likely tumbled 56% …
New York Times:
The Trump administration is inserting CDA 230-like protections into international trade deals that shield online platforms from lawsuits related to user content  —  WASHINGTON — The Trump administration has begun inserting legal protections into recent trade agreements that shield online platforms …
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Norwegian e-paper tablet startup Remarkable raises $15M Series A from Spark Capital  —  Remarkable, the Norwegian startup behind the digital paper tablet of the same name, has raised $15 million in a series A round of funding from Spark Capital.  —  Founded out of Oslo in 2013 …
More: TechCrunch
iFixit:
iFixit's new teardown of the Galaxy Fold shows Samsung's durability improvements but suggests that the main display and folding mechanism are still fragile  —  Introduction Teardown Update: After Samsung tried to make our initial teardown disappear from the internet five months ago …
Neha Malara / Reuters:
Sensor Tower: Tencent's Call of Duty: Mobile had 100M game downloads in first week, breaking prior record of 26M set by PUBG, has yet to launch in China  —  (Reuters) - The mobile version of videogame franchise “Call of Duty” racked up 100 million downloads in its first week …

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