Techmeme
August 5, 2020, 10:50 AM

Top News

The Verge:
Live blog of Samsung's “Unpacked” event, where new Note devices, Galaxy Buds, Galaxy Watch, Tab S7 and S7 Plus, and more were announced  —  There are going to be a lot of devices  —  Samsung is holding an online-only “Unpacked” event to announce its latest products.
YouTube:
Livestream of Samsung's Galaxy “Unpacked” event  —  Witness power like never before.  The #SamsungEvent is LIVE.  Learn more: http://smsng.co/GalaxyNote20 To view the YouTube streams on a desktop or laptop computer you'll need:  • Most recent version of Google Chrome, Firefox, MS Edge or Safari
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Samsung announces 6.7" Galaxy Note 20 and 6.9" Note 20 Ultra with Android 10, Snapdragon 865+, and more, starting at $999 and $1,299  —  Samsung's Galaxy Note lineup has evolved over the years, but always remained a series for power users.  Today, Samsung is launching the Galaxy Note 20 series …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook launches Instagram Reels, its TikTok competitor that lets users create and publish 15-second videos, in 50+ countries, including the US, UK, and Japan  —  Instagram Reels, the company's significant effort in challenging TikTok on short-form creative content, is launching globally, starting today.
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Source: Microsoft could buy TikTok for as much as $30B, or as low as $10B, and plans to finish acquisition talks within the next three weeks  —  - Microsoft and TikTok plan to finish acquisition talks within the next three weeks, ahead of the Sept. 15 deadline, CNBC's David Faber reported Wednesday.
Zheping Huang / Bloomberg:
Dan Primack / Axios:
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Disney says Disney+ has grown to 60.5M subscribers, up from 54M in May, and 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.
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 …
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.
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 …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Files by Google adds a PIN-encrypted folder to protect sensitive files on Android  —  It's aimed at users who share devices, Google says  —  The Files by Google app, which primarily gives Android users an easy way to manage files and free up space on their phone, is getting a new PIN-protected “Safe Folder” feature.
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
TechCrunch:
Anthony Levandowski, ex-Uber self-driving head, was sentenced to 18 months in prison as he 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, the former Google engineer …
Geoffrey Fowler / Washington Post:
Review of Amazon's Echo Frames, $180 Alexa-enabled glasses that debuted last year: their internet connectivity is flaky and Alexa is too chatty and disruptive  —  You have to really love Amazon's Alexa to let the Echo Frames whisper in your ear all day.  —  What do you call it when there's …
Bloomberg:
Square reports Q2 total net revenue of $1.92B, up 64% YoY, with Cash App generating $875M in bitcoin revenue, gross profit up 167% YoY; stock up 13%  —  - Online payment volume jumped more than 50% year over year  — Square's Cash App has more than 30 million monthly customers

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Deep dive into SalesIQ's Summer '26 release: 40+ features for the agentic era  —  We've already introduced you to Zoho SalesIQ's Summer '26 release, our annual release, and the one where SalesIQ enters a new territory: the era of agentic intelligence.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

The Upstarts Podcast:
Blitzy's Brian Elliott: Cursor And Claude Code Are Looking At Your Enterprise Code 'Through A Straw'
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.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Re-Release: The Death of Hollywood? W/ Allan Loeb
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Great Chat:
Maybe Twitter isn't real life
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Plan To Merge Chat And Agents — With Greg Brockman
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Encore: Inside Joe Weisenthal's brain
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.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:50 AM ET, August 5, 2020.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / VICE:

Earlier Picks

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Apple:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge: