Techmeme
November 14, 2019, 10:25 AM

Top News

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Motorola announces new Razr phone with a 6.2" touchscreen display that folds like a clamshell for $1,500, launching in January on Verizon in the US  —  The Razr returns  —  The Razr is back, but now it's an Android smartphone that can fold in half.  Motorola has officially announced its much-rumored …
Roger Cheng / CNET:
How Motorola created the foldable-screen Razr and why it claims it solved the problems faced by Samsung's Galaxy Fold, by focusing on a hinge design  —  Exclusive: Motorola, in need of a comeback, wants to reignite the excitement over foldables with a phone that's equal parts retro and cutting edge.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is considering bundling News+, Apple TV+, and Apple Music as soon as 2020 to attract subscribers, meaning less money for News+ publishers  —  - Company keeps rights to bundle News+ service with TV+, Music  — Move may woo more subscribers, but lower publishers' News+ cut
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple Research app is now available to download for iPhone and Apple Watch; US users can enroll in three health studies  —  Following the announcement at the September event, the Apple Research app is now available to download for iPhone and Apple Watch.  Users in the United States can sign …
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Oculus CTO John Carmack says he is stepping down but will remain as a “consulting CTO”, will work on an artificial general intelligence, as a personal project  —  One of the driving forces behind Facebook's virtual reality efforts is leaving his post: Oculus CTO John Carmack …
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
Toronto-based password manager 1Password raises $200M Series A led by Accel, its first external round of funding in its 14-year history  —  1Password, a Toronto-based password manager, announced today it has raised $200 million in a massive Series A funding round that was led by Accel.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
GitHub announces improvements to code search and notifications and unveils its first native mobile app, available in beta for iOS, with Android app coming soon  —  At its annual Universe conference today, Microsoft -owned GitHub announced a couple of new products, as well as the general availability …
New York Times:
How startups around the world, using SoftBank funds, got contractors like drivers and hoteliers to commit via unsustainable incentives, and then cut them off  —  SoftBank poured money into start-ups that use armies of contractors.  That has upended the lives of drivers, hotel operators and real estate agents around the world.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple Music launches Replay, letting subscribers look back at their favorite music in 2019, similar to Spotify's year-end review, Wrapped, but updated each week  —  Apple Music is taking on Spotify with the launch of a new feature, Apple Music Replay, that will allow subscribers to take a look back at their favorite music from 2019.
Samantha Cole / VICE:
Pornhub says PayPal is no longer supporting payments for Pornhub, affecting over a hundred thousand performers using the site as a source of income  —  \u003Cp\u003E Late Wednesday night, Pornhub announced that PayPal is no longer supporting payments for Pornhub—a decision that will impact thousands …
George Anadiotis / ZDNet:
Siren, which helps build knowledge graphs from enterprise data, raises $10M Series A led by Atlantic Bridge  —  Siren promises the benefits of knowledge graphs, without the hassle of reinventing your existing data management and infrastructure  —  Graph databases are amazing, but the knowledge graph is in your data already.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Facebook says requests from governments for user data in H1 2019 were up 16% over H2 2018 to 128,617, the highest on record, led by 50,741 demands from the US  —  Facebook's latest transparency report is out.  —  The social media giant said the number of government demands for user data increased …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Report: Google is planning to offer checking accounts to users, in partnership with banks and credit unions, starting as early as next year  —  Google is the latest big tech company to make a move into banking and personal financial services: The company is gearing up to offer checking accounts to consumers …
Roger Cheng / CNET:
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Adele Peters / Fast Company:
AMP Robotics, which makes robots that recognize and sort recyclables, raises $16M Series A led by Sequoia Capital  —  The global recycling system is collapsing largely because it's been difficult for recyclers to accurately separate different materials.  Robots can help.
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Apple says the updated Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR will ship in December, but does not provide an exact date  —  Apple has officially announced that its long-awaited Mac Pro and Pro Display XDR will be available starting in December.  —  Apple also announced that the new ‌Mac Pro‌ …

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More News

Ashlee Vance / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Aliya Chaudhry / The Verge:
Financial Times:
Bloomberg: