|
November 20, 2019, 5:15 PM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| New York Times: |
Google has hired IRI Consultants, an anti-union consulting company, in a sign the feud between Google and some activist employees has escalated — After nearly two years of unrest, the company appears to be cracking down on employee activism. — Google has hired an anti-union consulting firm …
More:
Wired and CNBC
Tweets: @josheidelson, @laurengoode, @wired, @sarahnemerson, @hshaban, @daiwaka, @carnage4life, @kateconger, and @paulg
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
PayPal to acquire Honey, a comparison shopping and rewards platform that has 17M MAUs, for ~$4B — PayPal announced today it has agreed to acquire Honey Science Corporation, the makers of a deal-finding browser add-on and mobile application, for $4 billion, mostly cash.| Nathaniel Popper / New York Times: |
On-demand transcription service Rev faces backlash from its contractors after cutting their take to 30 cents for each dollar spent on some jobs, from 45 cents — Rev was just a small start-up offering online transcriptions. Now it's the latest symbol of a gig-economy company whose workers are fed up.| Joel Marcey / Facebook Developers: |
Facebook details how it's moving from Nuclide to Visual Studio Code for its internal default development environment and contributing remote development tools — History — Facebook engineers have written millions of lines of code. There is no mandated development environment. Some developers use vim.
More:
Windows Central, Neowin, WinBuzzer, MSPoweruser, OnMSFT.com, and Seeking Alpha
Tweets: @johnbristowe and @thosjleeper
| Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer: |
Researchers find bugs in Google and Samsung camera apps from before July 2019 that could record video, take pictures, and extract GPS data without permission — A new vulnerability has been found in the Camera apps for millions, if not hundreds of millions, of Android devices that could allow …
More:
Checkmarx, Ars Technica, Computerworld, BGR, CNN, Gizmodo, The Daily Dot, Gizchina, Dark Reading, Tech Xplore, International Business Times, TalkAndroid.com, Android Central, SamMobile, XDA Developers, Phandroid, The Hacker News, ZDNet, and CNET
Tweets: @0xmatt, @rvawonk, @arunsub, @scmagazine, and @lukolejnik
| Janko Roettgers / Variety: |
Sonos has acquired voice assistant startup Snips for $37M, says it has sold 6.1M speakers in 2019, reports fiscal Q4 revenue of $294.2M, up 8% YoY — The company grew its 2019 revenue by 11%, but saw losses rise in Q4 due to increased R&D spending — Smart speaker maker Sonos is getting ready … | Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac: |
Apple says it has begun construction of its $1B Austin, Texas campus, opening in 2022, as Trump is scheduled to tour the nearby Mac Pro production plant — Apple has announced that it has begun construction of its new Austin, Texas, campus, on the day that President Trump is due to tour …
More:
The Verge, MacRumors, SiliconANGLE, Business Wire, TechSpot, Silicon Valley Business …, MacRumors, CNN, Apple Must, MSPoweruser, iDownloadBlog.com, Bloomberg, CNBC, Business Insider, and Mashable
Tweets: @tim_cook, @ivankatrump, @westonloyd45, @pinboard, @stevenportnoy, @johnpaczkowski, and @caseynewton
| Jay Peters / The Verge: |
Google launches Google Earth tools that let users create and present virtual tours, with attached text, images, and videos, for specific places — It's like a homemade guided tour — Today, Google is adding new tools to Google Earth on the web that let you build your own tour of a place right on top of the Google Earth map.
More:
The Keyword, Engadget, Android Police, Digital Trends, Ars Technica, Yahoo Finance, Neowin, 9to5Google, Fast Company, MSPoweruser, and Mashable
Tweets: @bmcclendon and @googleearth
| Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac: |
Apple launches Apple Music for Business, letting businesses play music in retail locations with Apple providing human-curated playlists and recommendations — Apple Music is now partnering with businesses to play music at retail stores. In a partnership with PlayNetwork … | Washington Post: |
The US says it has begun processing businesses' applications for licenses to sell tech to Huawei, approving those that do not pose national security risks — Commerce Department confirms it's granted “limited” exceptions to the ban on sales to the Chinese tech giant
More:
Reuters, Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg, Wccftech, and Android Central
| Bloomberg: |
Alibaba has raised ~$11.2B in its Hong Kong share sale, after pricing 500M new shares at HK$176, in one of the largest equity offerings this year — - Company priced 500 million new shares at HK$176 each — Alibaba's share sale is among the world's largest this year
More:
Business Wire, Wall Street Journal, CNN, Financial Times, Alizila.com, Axios, CNBC, Financial Times, and Moneycontrol
Tweets: @jonrussell and @lisaabramowicz1
| Jane Zhang / South China Morning Post: |
A profile of Baidu Bake, an encyclopedia with 16 times more Chinese entries than Wikipedia, written by 6.9M+ users comprising about 340 core contributors — Sign in/up — Channels — SCMP Editorials — Harry's View — SCMP — Channels — Economics — Lifestyle & Culture| Megan Graham / CNBC: |
Facebook begins rolling out new “brand safety” tools to let advertisers control the content their ads appear around, including white-listing publishers — - Facebook announced a slate of new “brand safety” tools for advertisers Wednesday, a way to let advertisers have more control over the content where their ads appear.| Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch: |
Starburst, which is seeking to modernize data analytics with the open source Presto distributed query engine, raises $22M led by Index Ventures — Starburst, the company that's looking to monetize the open-source Presto distributed query engine, today announced that it has raised … | Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
Apple launches $129 Smart Battery Cases for the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, now with a physical button that launches the camera app — Apple today launched new battery cases for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, with the new cases available for $129.
More:
9to5Mac, 9to5Mac, The Verge, Business Insider, iMore, Engadget, CNET, and iDownloadBlog.com
| Ron Miller / TechCrunch: |
Gravitational raises $25M Series A, led by Kleiner Perkins, to help developers with cloud deployment using Kubernetes — As we move into an increasingly multi-cloud world, there is a portability problem moving applications between clouds. Gravitational wants to fix that, and today it announced a $25 million Series A.
More:
GlobeNewswire News Room, FinSMEs, GitLab, and PE Hub Blog
| VICE: |
Anonymous users, on Reddit, Patreon, and other websites, are making and selling 3D likenesses of celebrities and real people to fulfill their sexual fantasies — \u003Cp\u003EYou can buy a belly button online. It can be an innie, outtie, twisted to the left or the right, and placed on a virtual body.| Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: |
Uber says user data requests in 2019 from the US and Canada rose 27% YoY, with 3,825 US requests for 21,913 user accounts; Uber shared data 72% of the time — Uber says the number of legal demands for riders' data made by U.S. and Canadian authorities has risen sharply in the past year.| Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech: |
Q&A with Intel SVP and Chief Architect Raja Koduri on upcoming chips, the company's Xe architecture, and an all-encompassing SDK for Intel's stack called oneAPI — Ever since Raja Koduri left AMD and joined Intel, I have been continuously asking for a 1-on-1 interview, as I'm sure a number of my peers in the industry have also.| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Spotify says its free tier will now stream across Alexa-powered devices in the US, Australia, and New Zealand, and smart speakers from Sonos and Bose globally — Spotify has worked with Amazon Echo since 2016, but only for premium subscribers. Today, that changes as Spotify says its free tier …
More:
Spotify, The Verge, Business Insider, KnowTechie, and Engadget
| Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: |
Vayyar, which builds radar-imaging chips, sensors, and software, for auto and IoT applications, raises $109M Series D led by Koch Disruptive Technologies — The future of the connected home, connected car and connected everything will have a lot of imaging technology at the center of it …
More:
VentureBeat, SiliconANGLE, The Robot Report, FinSMEs, PE Hub Blog, Tech.eu, Reuters, and NoCamels. Tweets: @ingridlunden. Thanks:@ingridlunden
Sponsor Posts
Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Shopify's new AI commerce stack — Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Zoho People in 2025: A year in review — As we wrap up 2025, we're taking a moment to look back on a year filled with progress and transformation at Zoho People. Our team has been constantly pushing boundaries …
Zoho People in 2025: A year in review — As we wrap up 2025, we're taking a moment to look back on a year filled with progress and transformation at Zoho People. Our team has been constantly pushing boundaries …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Hard Fork:
Why Roomba Died + Tech Predictions for 2026 + A Hard Forkin' Xmas Song
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Betting on reality with Kalshi CEO Tarek Mansour
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
The new AI growth playbook for 2026: How Lovable hit $200M ARR in one year | Elena Verna (Head of Growth)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Neither Side Is Used to Losing." Lucas Shaw on What's Next for Netflix and Paramount in the Battle for Warner Bros.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:15 PM ET, November 20, 2019.
The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.
From Mediagazer
Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:Paul Glynn / BBC:
Ken Vogel / @kenvogel:
Upcoming Tech Events
Earlier Picks
| Drew Harwell / Washington Post: |
More:
U.S. Senator Ed Markey …, The Next Web, Gizmodo, The Intercept, Business Insider, Engadget, The Verge, CNBC, Fight for the Future, The Daily Dot, KnowTechie, MediaNama, and Axios
Tweets: @drewharwell, @counternotions, @oknox, @encthenet, @ranimolla, @indiescent, @senmarkey, and @lam_barrett
| Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: |
| Dieter Bohn / The Verge: |
| Jordan Novet / CNBC: |
More:
Thurrott, GeekWire, OnMSFT.com, CCN.com, cloudpro.co.uk, GeekWire, SiliconANGLE, Barron's Online, MarketWatch, TheStreet, Microsoft 365 Blog, TechSpot, Reuters, Business Insider, Wccftech, Crunchbase News, Reuters, MSPoweruser, ZDNet, Windows Central, Slashdot, and Seeking Alpha. Tweets: @lauriepottmeyer. Thanks:@oliviaandrus