Techmeme
June 30, 2020, 1:05 PM

Top News

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Google says it is acquiring Canadian smart glasses company North, which is winding down Focals 1.0 hardware and canceling its plans to ship Focals 2.0  —  Google confirmed today via blog post that it has acquired Canadian smart glasses company North, which began life as human interface hardware startup Thalmic Labs in 2012.
Rahul Shrivastava / India Today:
Cara Lombardo / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Uber in talks to buy Postmates for ~$2.6B in a deal that could be announced next week if not sooner  —  A deal between Uber and the San Francisco-based food-delivery company could be announced next week if not sooner  —  Uber Technologies Inc. is in discussions to buy Postmates Inc …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook will change its News Feed algorithm to prioritize news stories with original reporting and demote ones that are not transparent about their authors  —  Beginning today, Facebook will be updating the way news stories are ranked in its News Feed to prioritize original reporting, executives tell Axios.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Spotify will launch real-time lyrics in 26 markets across Southeast Asia, India, and Latin America in partnership with Musixmatch, starting June 30  —  Last November, Spotify confirmed it was testing real-time lyrics synced to music in select markets.  Tomorrow, the company will announce …
Abram Brown / Forbes:
Chat app Discord raises $100M led by Index Ventures at a $3.5B valuation, up from $2.05B 18 months ago, and says it has ~100M MAUs, up 50% YoY  —  By shutting out white supremacists and reinventing itself to be more accessible, Discord has added millions of more diverse users—teachers …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon launches Watch Party on Amazon Prime Video, a desktop feature for US Prime members to watch content together and chat with up to 100 viewers  —  Amazon Prime Video is beginning to roll out a co-viewing feature to Amazon Prime members in the U.S., the company announced today.
Steve Lohr / New York Times:
Leading universities and tech firms back a new project to give scientists access to the data centers of tech giants and to public data sets for AI research  —  A proposal to give scientists access to huge data sets and powerful computers.  —  Leading universities and major technology companies agreed …
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Lululemon says it plans to acquire home fitness startup Mirror for $500M; Mirror was last valued at $300M  —  Lululemon today announced plans to acquire home exercise startup Mirror, for $500 million.  The fitness apparel company noted its plans by way of a press release …
Matthew J. Belvedere / CNBC:
Netflix says it will put 2% of its cash holdings, currently ~$100M, toward financial institutions and organizations dedicated to helping Black communities  —  - Netflix announced plans to start putting 2% of its cash holdings into financial institutions and organizations to “directly support Black communities in the U.S.”
Jeff Hunter / AnyList Blog:
AnyList CEO details customer support challenges arising from implementing Sign In With Apple, which it won't support, complicated by its Hide my Email feature  —  Starting June 30th, Apple will be enforcing a new rule in the App Store requiring many apps to support Sign in with Apple.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Introducing Microsoft-Decision-1, our model for fast decision-making  —  Our new model delivers top performance in latency and quality on structured decision tasks to outperform other models.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Zoho Books now supports CT600 & Final Accounts Filing as an add-on in the FREE plan  —  Managing end-of-year filing for limited companies in the UK is often expensive and multi-layered.
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

Big Technology Podcast:
Meta & Microsoft's Claude Slowdown, His Agent Leaked His Banking Info, Don't Bully Your AI
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.
Sources:
Qualcomm's CEO on the coming AI phone supercycle
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Bringing Back Mammoths And Building Noah's Ark 2.0 | Colossal's Ben Lamm
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.
Great Chat:
The launch industrial complex
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Larry Ellison's Media Ambitions & Kevin Roose on AI's Biggest Gamble
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.
Training Data:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:05 PM ET, June 30, 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

River Davis / Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Casey Newton / The Verge: