Techmeme
August 4, 2020, 1:35 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
With a TikTok sale, China would lose control of its first global internet sensation, hardening suspicions that the US is sabotaging its tech growth  —  Washington's push for Chinese company to sell American operations hardens suspicions in China that the U.S. aims to sabotage its technology
Dan Primack / Axios:
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
The Official Microsoft Blog:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple announces a refresh for its 21.5" and 27" iMacs, including 10th-generation Intel CPUs, a 1080p webcam, and SSDs as standard, shipping from next week  —  But the design remains the same  —  Apple is announcing updates for both the 27-inch and 21.5-inch iMacs.
European Commission:
The European Commission opens an in-depth investigation into Google's proposed acquisition of Fitbit over concerns about vast amounts of data Google could use  —  The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Fitbit by Google under the EU Merger Regulation.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft's xCloud game streaming service will launch on September 15 on Android in 22 countries, bundled with the Xbox Games Pass Ultimate subscription  —  Available in 22 countries, but no iOS support at launch  —  Microsoft will launch its game streaming service, known as Project xCloud …
Apple:
Greg Joswiak will replace Phil Schiller as SVP of Worldwide Marketing; Schiller becomes an Apple Fellow and will continue to lead the App Store and Apple Events  —  Greg Joswiak joins Apple executive team as senior vice president of Worldwide Marketing  —  Cupertino, California …
Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:
Sony beats estimates with quarterly profit of $2.15B and says its PlayStation Plus subscription service added 3.4M users, for a total of 44.9M  —  - Company had delayed issuing firm full-year forecast on virus  — The Last of Us 2 was a record-breaking PS4 exclusive debut
Caleb Potts / Android Police:
Facebook adds a search tool in WhatsApp to help check viral messages for misinformation, rolling out today in Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, UK, and US  —  WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, but that also means a lot of misinformation and rumors are shared on the platform.
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Fawkes, a tool developed by researchers at the University of Chicago, disguises photos with pixel-level changes that confuse facial recognition systems  —  Researchers at the University of Chicago want you to be able to post selfies without worrying that the next Clearview AI will use them to identify you.
Bloomberg:
As tech giants renew vows to diversify their workforces, a look at why their efforts have fallen short, especially in retaining new Black and Latinx employees  —  Quora Inc., which runs the eponymous questions and answers website, couldn't figure this one out: Why were so many Black …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google launches Nearby Share on Android, an AirDrop-style tool, rolling out to Pixel and Samsung devices; support for Chromebooks will arrive in coming months  —  It only took Google nine years to catch up to AirDrop  —  It will finally be slightly easier to share files, images, links, and other content between Android devices.
Matthew Haag / New York Times:
Facebook agrees to lease all the office space in NYC's 730,000 sq. ft. James A. Farley Building; it's added 2.2M sq. ft. in NYC office space over the past year  —  Despite the pandemic, the social media giant leased all the office space in the former main post office at Penn Station in Midtown.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Bringing local models and sandboxed tools to Windows and GitHub Copilot  —  GitHub Copilot will soon determine when a task is best handled by on-device AI and when it needs cloud-scale models.
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Featured Podcasts

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.
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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.
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Big Technology Podcast:
Can AI Keep Growing Exponentially? Let's Ask SemiAnalysis — With Dylan Patel and Jordan Nanos
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
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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.
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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.
 

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Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Donie O'Sullivan / CNN: