Techmeme
October 23, 2019, 7:00 PM

Top News

Cade Metz / New York Times:
Google claims “quantum supremacy” breakthrough: its quantum computer performed a mathematical calculation at a speed inconceivable with today's technology  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Google said on Wednesday that it had achieved a long-sought breakthrough called “quantum supremacy,” …
IBM Research Blog:
IBM says Google's experiment is an excellent demo of quantum computing progress, but not proof that quantum computers are “supreme” over classical computers  —  Quantum computers are starting to approach the limit of classical simulation and it is important that we continue …
Microsoft:
Microsoft reports Q1 revenue of $33.1B, up 14% YoY, as net income rises 21% YoY to $10.7B; Intelligent Cloud revenue rose 27% YoY to $10.8B, driven by Azure  —  REDMOND, Wash. — October 23, 2019 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended September 30 …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft's Q1 Surface revenue declined by 4% YoY, which was blamed on the lack of new or refreshed products, as gaming revenue declined by 7% YoY  —  No new Surface or Xbox hardware in recent quarter  —  Microsoft posted the first quarter of its 2020 financial results today …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
At a hearing on Libra, Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by House lawmakers from both parties on the proposed cryptocurrency, privacy, diversity, and misinformation  —  The social media giant's chief executive took an early lashing Wednesday over the company's policies to spot and prevent the spread disinformation.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Leaked presentation shows Comcast is lobbying US lawmakers against Google and Mozilla's plan to encrypt DNS data, making it harder for ISPs to track users  —  Motherboard has obtained a leaked presentation internet service providers are using to try and lobby lawmakers against a form of encrypted browsing data.
Alexi McCammond / Axios:
Memo from a departing chief of White House security lays out how an ongoing reorg under the Trump administration has left its networks more vulnerable to attack  —  An internal memo on cybersecurity, obtained by Axios, warns that “the White House is posturing itself to be electronically compromised once again.”
eMarketer:
Apple Pay overtook Starbucks as the top mobile payment app in US in 2018 with 27.7M users, will grow to 30.3M users in 2019 representing a 47.3% market share  —  Nearly 30% of US smartphone users will use a mobile payment app … For the first time, a generic mobile payment app is more popular …
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends:
Huawei says the Mate X foldable phone will launch in China next month for ~$2,400, and has shipped 200M smartphones so far in 2019, 64 days faster than 2018  —  Though times are turbulent for Huawei, it has still managed to ship 200 million smartphones already this year, beating a previous record …
Sarah Emerson / VICE:
Documents show how Facebook uses Menlo Park's police department, which includes a Facebook-funded unit for campus patrol duties, amid racial profiling concerns  —  Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by Motherboard show how Facebook is using the Menlo Park Police Department to reshape the city.
Wall Street Journal:
Investigation: Amazon sells cheap clothes made in dozens of Bangladeshi factories, most of which are deemed too dangerous for workers by other big retailers  —  After a deadly 2013 factory collapse, most big U.S. apparel companies agreed to steer clear of dangerous plants in Bangladesh.  Not Amazon.
CNBC:
WeWork says SoftBank will provide $5B in new financing and buy up to $3B in shares from existing shareholders, which would give SoftBank an 80% stake in WeWork  —  - CNBC's David Faber previously reported that SoftBank was seeking to take control of WeWork through a financing package.
Kerry Flynn / CNN:
A look at LinkedIn's efforts to curate news using human editors, with a 65-strong team globally, as it seeks to boost engagement  —  New York (CNN Business)In Dan Roth's dream world, members of LinkedIn, where he has served as editor in chief since 2011, would habitually read the LinkedIn Daily Rundown with their morning cup of coffee.
Emily Bary / MarketWatch:
PayPal reports Q3 revenue of $4.38B, up 19% YoY, and profits of $462M, beating analyst estimates, as it adds 9.8M new accounts, bringing the total to 295M  —  PayPal Holdings Inc. shares were up sharply in after-hours trading Wednesday after the company beat estimates across the board with its third-quarter numbers.
Ferris Jabr / New York Times:
A deep dive into the debate surrounding video game addiction, as the scientific understanding of what it means to be addicted continues to evolve  —  The latest research suggests it's not far-fetched at all — especially when you consider all the societal and cultural factors that make today's games so attractive.
Financial Times:
Interviews with 30+ former employees of UK cloud computing company UKFast surface allegations claiming its founder, Lawrence Jones, sexually assaulted employees  —  There are two sides to Lawrence Jones, MBE, one of Britain's wealthiest technology entrepreneurs with an estimated £700m fortune.

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Earlier Picks

Makena Kelly / The Verge: