Techmeme
March 2, 2020, 5:20 PM

Top News

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Waymo raises $2.25B from Silver Lake, Andreessen Horowitz, parent-company Alphabet, and others to scale up its autonomous vehicles operations  —  Waymo, the autonomous vehicles division of Google parent company Alphabet, just got a massive capital infusion from a coterie of investors.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
AT&T TV launches across the US after rolling out in over a dozen markets last year, with prices that start at $49.99/month but go up dramatically after a year  —  AT&T's next big TV play has a problem: pricing  —  AT&T TV is launching nationwide today after initially rolling out to over a dozen markets last year.
Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
Behind Facebook's rewrite of Messenger, going live today, that has shrunk the iOS app's size from 130MB to 30MB and its codebase from 1.7M to 360K lines of code  —  To make its iPhone messaging app run better—especially on older phones—Facebook rewrote it from the ground up.  The new version is going live now.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Verge survey of 1,123 US adults: 72% said Facebook has too much power; 51% said Google and YouTube should be split up into separate companies  —  Ahead of the election year, we polled Americans about which big tech companies they trust with their personal information …
Olivia Carville / Bloomberg:
Sources: Airbnb's long-planned IPO, previously scheduled for March or April, has been derailed by the coronavirus fallout and could be pushed back to 2021  —  - Startup was targeting first half to kick off the process  — Shares of rivals dive as travel bookings canceled globally
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Frank McShan / MacRumors:
Hartley Charlton / MacRumors:
Report: Apple and its suppliers are among the 83 big companies benefitting from China's abusive labor transfer programs for Uyghur Muslims and other minorities  —  A report by the Australian Strategic Policy Institute think-tank has named Apple among 83 other major companies benefiting …
Bloomberg:
Robinhood says it has been experiencing a “system-wide outage” today that it is affecting “all functionalities” on the platform  —  - Issue has been identified and fix is under way, company says  — Some customers of online broker couldn't access their accounts
Financial Times:
Analysis: one-third of donations from employees at big tech firms went to Sens. Warren and Sanders, despite a lack of enthusiasm from tech executives  —  Progressive Democratic candidates receive most cash from tech workers ahead of Super Tuesday  —  Democratic presidential candidates Bernie Sanders …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
US sanctions two Chinese nationals for allegedly laundering cryptocurrency for North Korea's Lazarus Group, which has hacked two crypto exchanges since 2018  —  Two Chinese men laundered funds from two hacked cryptocurrency exchanges.  —  The US Treasury Department imposed sanctions today …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Rajeev Suri to step down as Nokia CEO after over half a decade; Pekka Lundmark, outgoing President and CEO of energy firm Fortum appointed as President and CEO  —  Rajeev Suri, the chief executive of Nokia, is stepping down from his leadership role after overseeing the Finnish networking giant for more than 10 years.
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Study: YouTube has reduced recommendations of some conspiracy theories like flat earth and QAnon but has let others flourish for topics like climate change  —  A new study examines YouTube's efforts to limit the spread of conspiracy theories on its site, from videos claiming the end times are near to those questioning climate change.
Lucas Shaw / Bloomberg:
Spotify is making a big push for artists and record labels to pay to promote their music in its app, complicating talks over long-term music rights  —  - Music service needs ad revenue source to reach profitability  — The three major record labels are balking at Spotify's plans

Sponsor Posts

Niantic Spatial:
World models need real-world data  —  Scaniverse is the gateway to spatial services — self-serve and built for AI and robotics.  Large-area 3D reconstruction from 360° cameras and precise localization, anywhere machines operate.
Zoho:
Meet Zoho Books MCP: Bring AI-powered accounting to your business  —  Isn't change the only constant?  And that holds true for accounting too.  For years, accounting software has helped businesses manage their finances …
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.
Anuma:
The Private AI That Remembers  —  Anuma is the all-in-one AI platform with private, portable memory.  Chat, text, create, build, and solve across every model.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
What happens when AI runs a store
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Why Blockbuster Failed
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Mark Cuban: AI Hype vs. Reality, OpenAI's Wasting $1 Trillion, Lebron vs. Jordan
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.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Tarek Mansour from Kalshi
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
AI Can Make Software Now. That Changes Everything, with Paul Ford
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:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
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 5:20 PM ET, March 2, 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

Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Ben Gilbert / Business Insider: