Techmeme
February 5, 2020, 9:50 AM

Top News

Charlie Warzel / New York Times:
Shadow's Iowa failure was a dangerous combination of techno-utopianism and laziness, which led to slapdash software engineering, procurement, and deployment  —  Democrats desperately need to win the internet to beat Trump.  Their first big test was a massive failure.  —  Mr. Warzel is an opinion writer at large.
@rabble:
HuffPost:
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Spotify Q4: 271M total MAUs, up 31% YoY, paying users up 29% YoY to 124M, overall revenue $2B, up 24% YoY  —  Streaming music now accounts for more than 80% of all music consumption in key markets like the US, and one of the big leaders in the field is reaping some of the rewards.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Amid coronavirus fears, ZTE cancels its MWC 2020 press conference, LG Electronics says it is withdrawing from exhibiting and participating in the Barcelona expo  —  The second big company to cancel its MWC appearance  —  LG Electronics, the division of LG Corporation responsible for mobile phones …
Twitter:
Twitter says users “may not deceptively share synthetic or manipulated media” likely to cause harm; such tweets will be labeled or removed  —  It's our responsibility to create rules on Twitter that are fair and set clear expectations for everyone on our service.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Researchers discover a now patched vulnerability in Philips Hue smart light bulbs that could have let hackers infiltrate users' home or corporate networks  —  Might want to check if you've got firmware 1935144040  —  Four years ago, security researchers showed how a flying drone could hack …
Wall Street Journal:
Justice Department Ramps Up Google Probe, With Heavy Focus on Ad Tools  —  Antitrust enforcers have reached out to more than a dozen publishers, ad tech rivals and ad agencies  —  The Justice Department has reached out to more than a dozen companies in its antitrust probe of Google …
Danish Khan / The Economic Times:
India's premium smartphone segment grew 29% YoY in 2019; Apple was the fastest growing brand with 41% YoY growth, OnePlus maintained its No. 1 position  —  Apple was the fastest growing premium smartphone brand in 2019 with 41% yearly growth even as China's OnePlus maintained its leadership …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: NYSE owner Intercontinental Exchange has made a takeover offer for eBay that could value the marketplace at more than $30B; eBay stock closes up 8.78%  —  A deal could value the online marketplace at more than $30 billion  —  New York Stock Exchange owner Intercontinental Exchange Inc …
Emily McCormick / Yahoo Finance:
Disney beats analyst expectations for Q1, reporting $20.86B in Q1 revenue, up 36% YoY, 26.5M subscribers for Disney+, and 30.4M for Hulu, up 33% YoY  —  DIS) posted better than expected results in the company's first report since the launch of its eponymous streaming service.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researcher details a backdoor in Huawei-owned HiSilicon chips used in millions of smart devices, including security cameras, that has been active since 2013  —  Researcher said he did not notify HiSilicon due to a lack of trust in the hardware vendor to adequately fix the issue.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Instagram generated ~$20B in advertising revenue in 2019, making up more than a quarter of Facebook's revenue  —  - Unit brought in about $20 billion in 2019, people familiar say  — Photo-sharing app has gained in importance since 2012 purchase
Mary Ann Azevedo / Crunchbase News:
The Zebra, which runs an insurance comparison site, raises $38.5M Series C led by Accel, bringing its total raised to $101.5M  —  The Zebra, which operates an insurance comparison site, announced today that it's raised a $38.5 million Series C led by Accel.  —  Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Q&A with the general manager of Microsoft Game Stack, the cloud gaming services for developers, on how games are changing, the problem of discoverability, more  —  James Gwertzman started PlayFab to provide cloud-based tools and services for game developers, offloading …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: MessageWhiz SMS for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
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.

Featured Podcasts

Channels with Peter Kafka:
The $12.5 Billion Lakers, the NFL's TV Fight, and Sports Media's Big Split
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Nick Bostrom: Worries About AI Existential Risk Just Became More Concrete
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.
Training Data:
Rich Sutton and Khurram Javed: Why AI Models Stop Learning, and How to Start It Again
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Ben Thompson on Big Tech, China, and the AI Boom Running Out of Money
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI's Head of Design: This is the best time in history to be a designer | Ian Silber
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.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:50 AM ET, February 5, 2020.

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.

More News

Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

David McCabe / New York Times:
Wall Street Journal:
Davey Alba / New York Times:
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Michael Santoli / CNBC:
Abner Li / 9to5Google: