Techmeme: Palantir unveils a $150M joint venture with Japanese financial services firm Sompo Holding, with an initial focus on health and cybersecurity clients in Japan (Bloomberg)

Top News

Todd Haselton / CNBC:

Apple announces press event on December 2 in NYC, says the event will be focused on “honoring our favorite apps and games of 2019” — Apple just announced a press event that it will hold a special press event at 4 p.m. ET on Dec. 2 in New York City.

More: MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Gizchina, SiliconANGLE, The Next Web, Pocket-lint, Thurrott, iMore, Cult of Mac, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, Engadget, Firstpost Tech, CNET, MacStories, MSPoweruser, Patently Apple, MacDailyNews, and Slashdot

Tweets: @neilcybart, @bmetrock, @caseynewton, @markgurman, @bzamayo, @tomwarren, and @markgurman

Sean Hollister / The Verge:

Google Stadia review: works well and has a clearer picture than early rivals but 4K games do not look 4K, tons of features are missing, and it feels like a beta — Google Stadia works. — That's what you came here to find out, and I won't bury the lede: on Tuesday, November 19th …

More: New York Times, Wired, Eurogamer.net, VentureBeat, The Next Web, Ars Technica, Engadget, Forbes, Polygon, IGN, CNET, Android Police, VentureBeat, dexerto.com, TweakTown News, 9to5Google, KnowTechie, Wccftech, The Guardian, Variety, Android Authority, OnMSFT.com, Fortune, PCWorld, PC Gamer, CNBC, Android Central, Gizmodo, and USgamer.net

Tweets: @textfiles, @spawnwavemedia, @benkuchera, @chillmage, @glassbottommeg, @alexhern, @alexhern, @sai, @tomwarren, @vicious696, @backlon, @genepark, @tomwarren, @bxchen, @alexhern, and @alexhern

CNBC:

Google buys Microsoft-backed CloudSimple to help its customers run VMware workloads on the Google Cloud Platform, after partnering with the company in July — - CloudSimple makes it easier for large companies to run applications in public clouds like Google's.

More: Google Cloud Blog, VentureBeat, Business Insider, WebProNews, Silicon Valley Business …, Cloud Simple Blog, SiliconANGLE, ZDNet, Bloomberg, and Computer Business Review

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

T-Mobile President and COO Mike Sievert to succeed John Legere as CEO on May 1, 2020 — - T-Mobile President and COO Mike Sievert will succeed John Legere as CEO on May 1, 2020, the company announced Monday. — CNBC's David Faber reported in July that Sievert was expected …

Craig Lloyd / iFixit News:

16" MacBook Pro teardown shows a new thermal system, keyboard similar to the standalone Magic Keyboard, a six-speaker system, and a high-performance mic array — A beloved old feature returns to the MacBook Pro, and it starts with M-a-g. If you guessed MagSafe, we have disappointing news …

More: Ars Technica, Pocket-lint, Engadget, SlashGear, Gizmodo, iMore, The Verge, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac, MacRumors, and Patently Apple

Tweets: @ifixit and @ifixit

William Feuer / CNBC:

Evan Spiegel says Snapchat has a team that fact checks all political advertising on the platform, in stark contrast to Facebook — - Snap's policy represents a middle ground in a debate that has been largely defined by extremes as Facebook pushes for no regulation and Twitter grapples with removing political ads altogether.

More: The Verge, Business Insider, Tubefilter, Firstpost Tech, Mashable, and Engadget

Tweets: @fabiochiusi, @awallenstein, @megancgraham, and @burr86

Tim Ingham / Music Business Worldwide:

Amazon expands its free ad-supported version of Amazon Music to its mobile apps, FireTV, and the web, with access to select playlists and radio-like stations — Watch out Spotify: Amazon Music has widened the net of its ‘free’ music streaming platform. — Amazon Music customers without …

More: Day One, Reuters, Digital Trends, Android Police, SlashGear, Variety, and Engadget

Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:

Uber Chief Product Officer Manik Gupta, who joined from Google in 2015, says he is leaving the company — Uber Chief Product Officer Manik Gupta announced today he is leaving the company. Gupta's last day will be December 13, he wrote in a note to Uber's product team today.

More: Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @jonrussell, @docolumide, @nachkari, and @bizcarson

Sam Machkovech / Ars Technica:

Facebook launches Oculus Link software for Oculus Quest in beta, allowing users to access Rift PC games using a USB-C cable — Beta for this wired-VR update is now live; official Oculus Link cable coming soon. — Oculus Quest owners, your chance to dive into the world of PC-VR gaming has begun.

More: Oculus Blog, Engadget, Windows Central, VentureBeat, MSPoweruser, VRFocus, Road to VR, The Verge, and Neowin

Tweets: @boztank and @c_pruett

Margaret Harding McGill / Axios:

GOP Sen. Josh Hawley debuts a bill targeting Apple and other US tech companies that prohibits them from storing user data or encryption keys in China and Russia — Republican Sen. Josh Hawley, a prominent big tech critic, will introduce legislation Monday meant to protect Americans' online data …

More: BuzzFeed News, TechNode, The Hill, Senator Josh Hawley, SiliconANGLE, 9to5Mac, Engadget, and Cult of Mac

Tweets: @hawleymo and @kadiagoba

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Home insurance startup Luko raises $22M Series A led by Accel for its home protection tech that monitors doors, pipes, and meters, using AI to detect anomalies — Luko, a France-based insurance tech startup that's using sensors, data, and machine learning to circumvent the need to make a claim …

More: FinSMEs, EU-Startups, Tech.eu, and Yahoo Finance

Jason Hovet / Reuters:

Czech government approves a proposal for a 7% digital tax covering revenue from large companies gained via targeted ads, user data sales, and more — PRAGUE (Reuters) - The Czech government approved a 7% digital tax proposal on Monday aimed at boosting state coffers by taxing advertising …

More: The Next Web

Bloomberg Law:

A look at Facebook and Google's funding of nonprofits shaping the privacy debate; together they gave $960K+ to Center for Democracy and Technology alone in 2018 — Few companies have more riding on proposed privacy legislation than Alphabet Inc.'s Google and Facebook Inc. To try to steer the bill their way …

More: Slashdot. Tweets: @blaw and @privacyproject

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