Techmeme
November 12, 2019, 10:20 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Facebook unveils Facebook Pay, which will work on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to let users shop, donate to causes, send money to friends, more  —  Facebook Pay arrives just weeks after payment companies dropped out of Libra  —  Facebook is launching a new payments system today, appropriately named Facebook Pay.
Alfred Ng / CNET:
Facebook's iOS app accesses the camera as users scroll their feeds; a workaround is to revoke the app's camera permissions; a patch is “already rolling out”  —  Some people have complained their cameras got turned on while they were looking through Facebook's app.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple to debut its 16-inch MacBook Pro with a redesigned keyboard as soon as Wednesday; expected to go on sale this week, starting at ~$2,400  —  Apple Inc. plans to debut a new MacBook Pro laptop with a larger screen and revamped keyboard as soon as Wednesday, according to people familiar with the situation.
ACLU:
A district court rules the government's “suspicionless” searches of international travelers' phones and laptops at airports and US border violate 4th Amendment  —  In a major victory for privacy rights, a federal court in Boston today ruled that the government's suspicionless searches …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram debuts Reels, a TikTok-style video remix feature, which lets you make 15-second video clips set to music and share them as Stories, in Brazil  —  Instagram is launching a video-music remix feature to  —  finally fight back against Chinese social rival TikTok.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Intel has been slow to address information-leaking chip bugs, issuing an incomplete fix for “ZombieLoad” in May and another series of microcode patches today  —  Speculative execution attacks still haunt Intel, long after researchers told the company what to fix.
Frank Pallotta / CNN:
Disney+ spokesperson acknowledges service issues on launch day, saying consumer demand exceeded “high expectations”, as users complain that they can't connect  —  New York (CNN Business)Disney+ launched to much fanfare on Tuesday, and then immediately hit some bumps.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget:
Snap Spectacles 3 review: stylish, sturdy, comfortable, with clever and fun filters, but not water resistant and expensive at $380, ~3x the first-gen's price  —  In case you've forgotten, Snap makes video-recording sunglasses called Spectacles.  The first two iterations didn't do very well …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Automattic partners with Stripe to debut Recurring Payments for WordPress.com and Jetpack-powered sites, to let content creators collect repeat contributions  —  The subscription model is today sustaining a number of businesses, including artists, creators, news publishers, game developers, entertainment providers and more.
Enoch Yiu / South China Morning Post:
Sources: Alibaba's IPO application approved by the Hong Kong stock exchange; shares to be priced on Nov. 20 with expected trading in the week of Nov. 25  —  The nod clears the way for Hangzhou-based Alibaba to start a weeklong roadshow from November 13 to garner interest from global investors Shares …
More: Bloomberg
Jake Bright / TechCrunch:
Interswitch, a Nigeria-based digital payments startup, says Visa has acquired a minority stake, reportedly for $200M, at a $1B valuation, plans IPO in H1 2020  —  Nigerian digital payments firm Interswitch confirmed today it has reached unicorn status after Visa acquired a minority equity stake in the firm.
Aamir Siddiqui / XDA Developers:
Chrome OS now shows a Chromebook's end-of-life date in the device's settings  —  Chromebooks, or laptops that run ChromeOS as the operating system, have a fixed support lifespan, during which Google regularly provides for updates that keep the OS running smoothly and relatively risk-free.
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
A look at @BallerBusters, an Instagram account that calls out people who pretend to be wealthier than they are to hawk dubious mentorship or online classes  —  It's easy to look successful on Instagram.  Now, getting caught out is easy too.  —  In February, an Instagram account called …

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