Techmeme
August 5, 2020, 6:00 AM

Top News

Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
In a letter to staff, ByteDance founder and CEO Zhang Yiming says a forced sale of TikTok to a US buyer is “unreasonable” and the real goal of the US is a ban  —  - U.S. doesn't really want to see a sale to American buyers  — Founder Zhang Yiming issues second letter in two days
Dan Primack / Axios:
New York Times:
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 …
TechCrunch:
Anthony Levandowski, ex-Uber self-driving head, was sentenced to 18 months in prison as Levandowski files a new lawsuit against Waymo and Uber  —  Maverick self-driving car engineer will not need to report until threat of COVID-19 pandemic has passed  —  Anthony Levandowski …
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Disney says Disney+ has grown to 60.5M subscribers, up from 54M in May, says it has 100M+ paid subs for streaming services including Disney+, Hulu, and ESPN+  —  Disney+ had more than 60.5 million paying subscribers as of yesterday, according to The Walt Disney Company's CEO Bob Chapek.
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Google says Google Play Music shutdown starts this month, global streaming will shut down in October, and music collections will be deleted in December  —  August begins the four-month Google Music shutdown.  —  Google Play Music has been given the death sentence by Google …
Kate Clark / The Information:
HeadSpin to return ~$95M to investors and has replaced its CEO after an internal review of financial irregularities; its valuation now down from $1.16B to $250M  —  HeadSpin, a mobile app testing company recently valued at $1.16 billion, plans to return up to $95 million in funding to investors …
Bill Kisliuk / UCLA:
UCLA and Apple launch a study to see whether iPhones, Watches, and Beddit sleep monitors can help in understanding how daily routines impact depression symptoms  —  Researchers from the Depression Grand Challenge collaborate with Apple  —  Researchers from the Depression Grand Challenge collaborate with Apple
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple refreshes 27" iMacs with 10th-gen Intel CPUs and a 1080p webcam, shipping this week, and makes SSDs standard across its iMac lineup  —  But the design remains the same  —  Apple is announcing updates for both the 27-inch and 21.5-inch iMacs.  It's updating the processors inside …
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.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:
Profile of Mohamed Al-Sharifi, aka GamerDoc, a volunteer who has spent two years hunting cheaters in Overwatch and Valorant, getting ~50K-70K cheaters banned  —  This 24-year-old Iraqi who lives in London has spent two years hunting cheaters in Overwatch and Valorant, getting thousands …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
A hacker has posted a list of usernames, passwords, IP addresses and SSH keys of 900+ Pulse Secure VPN enterprise servers on a Russian-speaking hacker forum  —  EXCLUSIVE: The list has been shared on a Russian-speaking hacker forum frequented by multiple ransomware gangs.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Analysis of the questions asked by Democrats and Republicans during the House antitrust hearing and what it reveals about their partisan priorities  —  The only thing more predictable than members of Congress using hearings to make statements instead of ask questions, and when they do ask questions …
Financial Times:
Chinese investments into India's tech startups are showing signs of drying up amid geopolitical tensions, opening the door to US investors to fill the void  —  As political tensions dominate India's relations with China, US companies see an opportunity  —  Just days after 20 Indian soldiers …
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.
Jason Parham / Wired:
Interviews with 29 Black TikTok creators highlight issues of muted posts, in-app harassment, and incidents of racism, even as users lionize Black culture  —  On the app, users drape themselves in the trappings of Black culture—and steal the viral spotlight.  It's exploitation at its most refined and disturbing.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
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Will Reed:
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Zoho:
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Featured Podcasts

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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.
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Invest Like the Best:
Andrew Huberman - The Frontier of Neurotechnology
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Big Technology Podcast:
Who Wins The AI Assistant Wars? + Why Didn't Google Build Muse?
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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Sources:
Reflection's founders on building a DeepSeek of the West
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.
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Grit:
How Vercel Is Rethinking Go-to-Market With AI | COO Jeanne Grosser
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
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More News

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Earlier Picks

Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Tim Copeland / Decrypt:
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Tom Warren / The Verge: