Techmeme
August 3, 2020, 10:45 AM

Top News

The Official Microsoft Blog:
After Satya Nadella and Trump spoke, Microsoft says it will continue discussions to explore a TikTok acquisition in US, ending on Sept. 15 if no deal is reached  —  Following a conversation between Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and President Donald J. Trump, Microsoft is prepared to continue discussions …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft acquiring TikTok lets it access younger users growing up with iOS and Android, expand AR and Xbox offerings, and collect data  —  At first glance, a Microsoft acquisition of TikTok seems a little unusual.  Microsoft has spent years walking back consumer plays like the Groove Music service …
Reuters:
Sources: President Trump gave Microsoft only 45 days to negotiate its acquisition of TikTok  —  NEW YORK/WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Donald Trump only agreed to allow Microsoft Corp (MSFT.O) to negotiate the acquisition of popular short-video app TikTok if it could secure a deal in 45 days …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: behind TikTok's progress toward making a Microsoft deal, with weeks of talks that included US officials, nearly derailed by Trump's public opposition  —  Covert talks began weeks ago.  After the software giant's CEO and Trump spoke Sunday, Microsoft said an agreement could include …
Aime Williams / Financial Times:
Wall Street Journal:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Google says it will invest $450M in smart home security company ADT, which will sell and install Nest smart home products, for a 6.6% stake  —  Google is investing $450 million in ADT to acquire a 6.6% stake in the Florida-headquartered firm that provides security and smart home solutions, the two said today.
New York Times:
Profile of Twitter hack mastermind Graham Clark, a troubled teen who allegedly went from scamming on Minecraft to joining hacker forum OGUsers and SIM swapping  —  The teenage “mastermind” of the recent Twitter breach, who had a difficult family life, poured his energy into video games and cryptocurrency.
Liza Lin / Wall Street Journal:
Apple faces a $1.4B lawsuit from Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology, a Chinese AI firm that was recently awarded a patent for a voice assistant similar to Siri  —  Shanghai Zhizhen Network Technology's suit could prevent Apple from selling many of it products in China
Reuters:
Report: Apple removed 26K+ games from its Chinese app store on Saturday, about a month after a deadline for developers to have a government-issued game license  —  SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Apple Inc AAPL.N removed 29,800 apps from its Chinese app store on Saturday, including more than 26,000 games …
Josh Constine / Constine's Moving Product newsletter:
Escalating threats to ban TikTok push creators and users to apps like Triller, which has now topped the US App Store multiple times, plus Byte, Reels, others  —  100 million users are at stake.  Trump says he's going to ban TikTok, sending creators into a panic, begging their fans to follow them on YouTube …
David Roberts / Vox:
A deep dive into Microsoft's work on climate change, how big a deal it is among tech companies, what influence it may have, and where it falls short  —  The company plans to wipe out all of its carbon emissions — and keep going.  —  You could be forgiven for missing it, given the surplus of news …

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Earlier Picks

Ben Smith / New York Times:
Tim Bradshaw / Financial Times:
Sam Chambers / The Sunday Times: