Techmeme
July 22, 2020, 11:25 PM

Top News

Ian Sherr / CNET:
Apple hires economists to help prove its App Store commissions aren't anti-competitive  —  Ahead of an antitrust hearing on Capitol Hill next week, Apple is fighting back against the perception that its App Store charges onerous commission rates to developers.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Q4: revenue up 13% YoY to $38B, net income of $11.2B, down 15% YoY, Intelligent Cloud revenue of $13.4B, up 17%, and Azure revenue up 47%  —  Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year:
Bloomberg:
Sources: Nvidia expressed interest about a potential deal for ARM as SoftBank explores a sale; Apple declined to pursue a bid after being approached by SoftBank  —  - Graphics chipmaker expressed interest in recent weeks  — SoftBank approached Apple to gauge its interest in Arm
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Twitter says hackers accessed the DM inbox for up to 36 of the 130 high profile accounts targeted in last week's attack  —  Last week's hack of over 100 very high-profile Twitter accounts did in fact expose the direct messages of many of those accounts, the company admitted today …
Javier Espinoza / Financial Times:
Slack files EU antitrust complaint against Microsoft, accusing it of unfairly bundling its rival app Teams with its Office 365 tools  —  Workplace messaging app says it is unfair for tech group to bundle Teams with Office 365  —  The workplace messaging app Slack has filed a formal antitrust complaint …
Manuel Vonau / Android Police:
AT&T told some customers their phones are not compatible with its new network, without explicitly saying the issue may not affect them until February 2022  —  Amid an economy-crushing pandemic, AT&T has decided that now is the best time to send a scaremongering email to some customers …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Apple starts giving “hacker-friendly” iPhones with a custom and more accessible iOS version to vetted researchers in the iOS Security Research Device program  —  For the past decade Apple has tried to make the iPhone one of the most secure devices on the market.
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Sources: Facebook is preparing to limit the reach of QAnon content, with an announcement next month, and has been coordinating with Twitter and other companies  —  The company permanently suspended thousands of accounts associated with the fringe conspiracy theory movement.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Facebook Messenger updates with a new App Lock feature with Face ID or Touch ID authentication on iPhone and iPad, as well as a new Privacy section in settings  —  There's a new Privacy section in settings  —  Facebook now lets you add an extra layer of security when opening Messenger on an iPhone or iPad.
Michael McSweeney / The Block:
US bank regulator grants national savings banks and federal savings associations the authority to provide cryptocurrency custody services to their customers  —  The U.S. Office of the Comptroller of the Currency (OCC) has opened the door for federal savings associations and national savings banks …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Amazon unveils new Alexa developer tools including Alexa for Apps, to let Alexa apps trigger actions like searches within phone apps, and Alexa Conversations  —  Today during Alexa Live, a virtual event for Alexa vendors and developer partners, Amazon unveiled tools and resources designed to enable new Alexa voice app experiences.
Bryan Walsh / Axios:
Facebook VP of AI Jerome Pesenti says OpenAI's GPT-3 can “easily output toxic language that propagates harmful biases”, as some critics point out issues of bias  —  While GPT-3 has earned ecstatic reviews from many experts for its capabilities, some critics have pointed out clear issues around bias.
Karen Weise / New York Times:
Casey Newton / The Interface:
Sources: Kevin Roose's tweets on Facebook stories with the highest engagement per CrowdTangle worry the News Feed team, which favors “reach”-focused metrics  —  What news should people see when they come to Facebook?  —  In the old days, your answer might have been “whatever they want to see,” or even “who cares?”
Amy Thomson / Bloomberg:
Ubisoft lays out an anti-harassment plan including a confidential third-party “listening and alert” system and the appointment of a head of workplace culture  —  Ubisoft Entertainment SA, the French video-gamemaker, laid out several steps it's taking to address a sexual-harassment controversy at the company.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
NY legislature passes a bill pausing use of facial recognition and other biometric ID tech in schools until 2022, the first such regulation in the US if signed  —  The New York legislature today passed a moratorium banning the use of facial recognition and other forms of biometric identification in schools until 2022.
More: WGRZ-TV
Christine Hall / Crunchbase News:
Fintech startup Meemo emerges from stealth with $10M seed investment from Greycroft and others and launches its social finance app  —  Fintech startup Meemo came out of a year-long stealth period Tuesday to launch its social finance app with a seed investment of $10 million.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
US Rep. Jim Jordan writes Democratic House leadership to call on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify at Monday's antitrust hearing with CEOs of tech giants  —  - Republicans have called on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify at the upcoming antitrust hearing featuring CEOs of Amazon, Apple …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Sensor Tower: NBCU's Peacock streaming service was downloaded ~1.5M times across the US App Store and Google Play in its first six days, 25% more than Quibi  —  NBCU's Peacock appears to be having a somewhat better launch than Quibi did, based on data from app store intelligence firm Sensor Tower.
Nick Greenhalgh / AmericanInno:
Propeller, a 3D mapping and data analytics company for construction, aggregates, mining, and waste management worksites, raises $18M Series B  —  Denver's Propeller, a 3D mapping and worksite analytics company, announced today that it has raised $18 million in Series B funding to more rapidly scale its operations.
More: FinSMEs

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