Techmeme
January 2, 2020, 9:05 PM

Top News

Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post:
Former Google exec alleges that he was pushed out in April after he lobbied for a human rights program to formalize Google's free speech and privacy principles  —  Ross LaJeunesse left the tech giant in April after lobbying for a human rights program for two years
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Current and former Googlers share how HR changes and lack of transparency made 2019 a turning point for company culture, as Alphabet grew beyond 100,000 workers  —  - Google employees shared why 2019 was a pivotal year for the company's history.  — Former workers shared why they left the company …
Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:
Dell debuts a new Latitude 9510 laptop with built-in 5G, to launch March 26, and says a spring update to its Mobile Connect software will enable iOS mirroring  —  Ahead of next week's CES in Las Vegas, Dell today announced two PC updates that will improve its appeal to users of mobile devices …
Luke Larsen / Digital Trends:
Dell debuts updated XPS 13 with Intel 10th-gen processors, Intel's Iris Plus graphics, 16:10 screen, larger touchpad, available January 7 starting at $999  —  When you're on top of the world, you have every reason to play it safe.  That's where Dell has been for the past few years with its XPS laptops.
Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:
Imagination Technologies says it has inked a new multi-year IP licensing agreement with Apple, replacing an agreement first announced in February 2014  —  Today Imagination Technologies has announced that Apple the two companies have signed a new multi-year licensing with the company …
Ryne Hager / Android Police:
Google says it is disabling Xiaomi integrations on its devices after a Xiaomi security camera user said his Google Nest Hub showed feeds from random homes  —  So-called “smart” security cameras have had some pretty dumb security problems recently, but a recent report regarding …
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
In its first transparency report, TikTok says it received most requests for user data and content takedowns from India and USA, claims zero requests from China  —  The highest number of requests came from India and the US  —  TikTok released its first transparency report yesterday …
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
Q&A with Jimmy Iovine about music industry's reconciliation with tech in the last decade, why streaming music services are like utilities with low margins, more  —  The record executive who made the leap to Silicon Valley looks back on the decade in the music business, and sees a major problem on the horizon.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
SuperData: digital games and interactive media revenue was up 4% YoY to $120.1B in 2019, with $64.4B for mobile; Fortnite topped with $1.8B, vs. $2.4B in 2018  —  The combined game industry grew 3% to $120.1 billion in 2019, according to market researcher SuperData in its year-end report.
New York Times:
Current and former workers say Oyo's growth in India is fueled by questionable practices like imposing hidden fees, padding listings, and withholding payments  —  Backed by SoftBank, Oyo aims to be the world's biggest hotel chain.  But its growth was fueled by questionable practices, employees said.
Steven Sinofsky / Learning By Shipping:
An inside look at the Windows business at the start of last decade, as PC sales grew at 3% in 2009 vs. historic 10%+, and the disruption of the PC felt imminent  —  As we rang in the new year, 2010 a decade ago, what did the Windows business look like as we planned Windows 8?  An annotated twitter thread.

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Earlier Picks

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