Techmeme
June 30, 2020, 12:45 PM

Top News

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.
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 …
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.
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 …
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.
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 …
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 …
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.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Memo: Microsoft suspended its ads on Facebook and Instagram in the US in May and has since expanded the pause globally, over concerns of “inappropriate content”  —  Microsoft suspended its advertising on Facebook and Instagram in the U.S. in May and recently expanded that to a global pause …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Despite pretending to be a free speech alternative to Twitter, Parler is taking down content and shutting down accounts  —  Well, that did not take long at all.  On Friday we predicted that just like every other social media platform out there, the new favorite among people who falsely …

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