Techmeme: Sources: Apple buys Spectral Edge, a UK startup whose tech improves the colors in photos by taking infrared shots and blending them with standard photos (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft's next-gen Xbox, once-codenamed Project Scarlett, is officially called Xbox Series X, and looks more like a PC than past consoles — Xbox now looks like a PC — Microsoft's next-generation Xbox is officially called Xbox Series X. Microsoft revealed the name and console design on stage at the Game Awards today.

More: Xbox Wire, GameSpot, YouTube, Fortune, The Verge, Business Insider, Windows Central, GeekWire, The Verge, Engadget, CNN, Windows Central, PCWorld, TheStreet, VICE, Tom's Hardware, LaptopMag, NBC News, TechCrunch, CNET, New York Post, Liliputing, Engadget, Pureinfotech, KnowTechie, BetaNews, International Business Times, VG247, Tom's Guide, iPhone in Canada Blog, Inquirer, WinBuzzer, Wccftech, Coinspeaker, The Register, Techweez, PC Gamer, The Guardian, Firstpost Tech, Android Central, Bloomberg, CNET, Kotaku, Pocket-lint, USA Today, Thurrott, East Bay Times, Neowin, BGR, Variety, Ars Technica, The Next Web, Forbes, CNET, Kotaku, The Verge, Mashable, GameSpot, VentureBeat, Polygon, Gamasutra, MSPoweruser, Seeking Alpha, Gearburn, IGN, and Yahoo Finance

Tweets: @tomwarren, @tamoorh, @nuttybluerice, @cyberbeaner, @jeffrubenstein, @klobrille, @loudmouthjulia, @crecenteb, @tomwarren, @jetscott, @duckomcfli, @viticci, and @agentbizzle

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Sources: Apple buys Spectral Edge, a UK startup whose tech improves the colors in photos by taking infrared shots and blending them with standard photos — - Spectral Edge technology improves colors in smartphone photos — Photograph is a key differentiator in the smartphone market

Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:

Unencrypted hard drives with payroll data, including names, bank account numbers, compensation info of 29,000 Facebook employees, stolen in a car break-in — - Some 29,000 current, former employees impacted by theft — Unencrypted hard drives were stolen from payroll worker's car

More: Business Insider and Axios

Tweets: @thekenyeung, @moonalice, @ow, and @sarahfrier

Wall Street Journal:

Trump agrees to a limited trade deal with China that could result in Apple and others avoiding a 15% tariff on their products set to begin on Dec. 15 — Plan would prevent new tariffs planned for Sunday and roll back some existing tariff rates — President Trump has agreed …

Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:

Sources: YouTube's premium services have 800K+ subscribers in India and are growing faster than rival paid services including Spotify, Gaana, and JioSaavn — - YouTube said to sign up more than 800,000 users in the country — India is home to the video service's most-subscribed channel

More: 9to5Google. Tweets: @lucas_shaw, @lucas_shaw, @sushubh, and @bloombergquint

Richard Nieva / CNET:

Google says it has captured more than 10M miles of Street View imagery, and, via Google Earth, mapped out the parts of the world where 98% of people live — If Google were to have a mascot, it might be the Street View car, with its towering camera rig and corporate logo exterior. There's good reason for that.

More: The Keyword. Tweets: @whatthebit and @richardjnieva. Thanks:@akwired

Lauren Thomas / CNBC:

Bonobos founder Andy Dunn to leave Walmart in early 2020, two years after selling his menswear brand to Walmart for $310M — KEY POINTS — The founder of Bonobos, Andy Dunn, is leaving Walmart, roughly two years after the company acquired the money-losing online apparel retailer …

More: Vox, TechCrunch, Wall Street Journal, and Financial Times

Tweets: @laurenthomas and @philwahba

Bloomberg:

Inside Google's culture war as some employees and managers describe a “climate of fear” and the erosion of transparency that once defined the company — Restive workers see a culture in ‘total collapse.’ — Each morning, workers at Google get an internal newsletter called the “Daily Insider.”

Tweets: @rj_gallagher, @alistairmbarr, and @ericnewcomer

Bloomberg:

A look at the rise of Roku, which is valued at $17B and whose stock is up 300% this year, amid escalating competition from Amazon, Google, and others — More than 30 million people use a Roku device to navigate the constellation of streaming TV services. The company's portfolio includes the …

More: Mashable. Tweets: @conviva

Reuters:

German food delivery company Delivery Hero to buy its South Korean rival Woowa Brothers for $4B — SEOUL (Reuters) - German food delivery company Delivery Hero (DHER.DE) has agreed to acquire its South Korean rival Woowa Brothers for $4 billion, Woowa Brothers said in a statement on Friday.

More: Delivery Hero and Tech.eu

Ron Miller / TechCrunch:

Salesforce promotes Bret Taylor to president and chief operating officer from his role of president and chief product officer; he will report to Marc Benioff — Salesforce announced today that it has named Bret Taylor as president and chief operating officer of the company.

More: ZDNet, PR Newswire, and InfotechLead

Ron Miller / TechCrunch:

DataRobot, a company creating automated machine learning models, announces that it intends to acquire Paxata, a data prep platform that previously raised $90M — DataRobot a company best known for creating automated machine learning models known as AutoML, announced today that it intends to acquire Paxata …

More: SiliconANGLE, ZDNet, FinSMEs, and DataRobot

BuzzFeed News:

Facebook has filed more lawsuits against scammers this year than in all previous years combined, a legal strategy that could help it stave off regulation — When Facebook caught the New Zealand-based company Social Media Series Limited selling likes from fake users on Instagram, the tech giant did something out of character.

Tweets: @newsalliance, @scottlucas86, @scottlucas86, @sivavaid, and @sivavaid

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:

Fast, affordable law for startups — Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!

Equals:

Stop vibe coding analytics — Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards. Build once, iterate for years.

Zoho:

Deep dive into SalesIQ's Summer '26 release: 40+ features for the agentic era — We've already introduced you to Zoho SalesIQ's Summer '26 release, our annual release, and the one where SalesIQ enters a new territory: the era of agentic intelligence.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:

Blitzy's Brian Elliott: Cursor And Claude Code Are Looking At Your Enterprise Code 'Through A Straw'

Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.

Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.

The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:

Re-Release: The Death of Hollywood? W/ Allan Loeb

Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.

Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.

Great Chat:

Maybe Twitter isn't real life

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's Plan To Merge Chat And Agents — With Greg Brockman

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.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

Encore: Inside Joe Weisenthal's brain

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:

Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin

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.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:40 PM ET, December 13, 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.