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August 19, 2020, 5:45 AM
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| Adi Robertson / The Verge: |
Oculus will soon require all of its VR headset users to sign up with a Facebook account, removing support for new separate Oculus accounts in October — Support for separate Oculus accounts will end in 2023 — Oculus will soon require all of its virtual reality headset users to sign up with a Facebook account.
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Oculus, Gizmodo, VGC, International Business Times, ZDNet, UploadVR, Tom's Hardware, Social Media Today, USgamer.net, New World Notes, Twinfinite, Digital Trends, PC Gamer, Kotaku, SlashGear, MSPoweruser, Engadget, GamesIndustry.biz, KnowTechie, The Next Web, Android Central, VRFocus, GameSpot, CNET, VentureBeat, and Road to VR
Tweets: @oculus, @chetfaliszek, @oculus, @starfire2258, @quinnypig, @calbucci, @joabaldwin, @inkblitzer, @melt_dem, @adultswimnocon, @slasher, @jason, @tojiro, @samfbiddle, @accursedfarms, and @willoremus
| Tim Wu / New York Times: |
A ban on TikTok is overdue as the US confronts China's asymmetrical “net nationalism” and fights for the future of the open internet — Critics say we shouldn't abandon the ideal of an open internet. But there is such a thing as being a sucker.
More:
Bloomberg, CNBC, AdExchanger, Financial Times, Softpedia News, The Information, New.blicio.us, The Overspill, TechSpot, The Guardian, SiliconANGLE, Daring Fireball, Input, and The Daily Dot
Tweets: @financialtimes, @sherman4949, @lmatsakis, @marygao, @jgebbia, @nytopinion, @wesyang, @msmelchen, @zhonggg, @yaqiu, @hotlinejosh, @mala, @kantrowitz, @lanceulanoff, @onlyyoontv, and @alantsen
| Chance Miller / 9to5Mac: |
Report: a look at the narrowing regulatory exemptions Apple has been operating under in China, such as running an App Store without a local partner — Amid continued tension between the United States and China, a new report from The Information details how Apple could be impacted by Chinese retaliation.
Source:
The Information. More:
The Verge, PYMNTS.com, and iPhone Hacks
Tweets: @markdistef, @zhugeex, @amir, @_danielsinclair, @greatfirechina, and @sarthakgh
| Jon Porter / The Verge: |
Google Maps says it's rolling out more detailed maps with improved street designs for SF, NYC, and London, and with more accurate natural features worldwide — Making natural features easier to see and streets easier to navigate — Google Maps is being redesigned to make it easier …
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The Keyword, Android Central, SiliconANGLE, Ubergizmo, Gizmodo, Digital Trends, The Next Web, Android Headlines, XDA Developers, Pocketnow, Android Police, International Business Times, Android Authority, CNET, Neowin, MacRumors, iDownloadBlog.com, Droid Life, SlashGear, Mashable, VentureBeat, and Engadget
Tweets: @sounderbruce, @backlon, @googlemaps, @gregbensinger, and @brchastain
| Steven T. Dennis / Bloomberg: |
Senate Intelligence Committee concludes Putin ordered the 2016 hacking of Democratic Party accounts and the release of emails to harm Hillary Clinton's campaign — - Manafort described as a ‘grave counterintelligence threat’ — Report details plan to hurt Clinton, finds no Trump collusion| Ashley Carman / The Verge: |
Instagram starts rolling out QR codes for user profiles globally, a feature that it had first launched in Japan last year; Instagram is deprecating Nametags — Don't open Instagram to find a profile — Instagram is bringing QR codes to the app. Users can now generate QR codes that'll …
More:
The Next Web, 9to5Mac, and Engadget
| Kris Holt / Engadget: |
Google updates its activity cards feature to provide more personalized results for recipes, jobs, and shopping — Google is making its activity cards feature — which helps you pick up where you left off in Search on mobile — more useful. Let's say you're looking for iPad accessories.
More:
The Keyword, 9to5Google, Pocket-lint, SlashGear, Neowin, and Pocketnow
Tweets: @searchliaison and @google
| Matthew Handrahan / GamesIndustry.biz: |
Take-Two Interactive has agreed to acquire NYC-based mobile game developer Playdots for $192M in cash and stock; Playdots had raised $10M Series A in 2014 — New York-based studio's entire team will join Take-Two in cash and stock deal — Take-Two Interactive has acquired the mobile developer Playdots in a deal worth $192 million.
More:
TechCrunch, Gamasutra, Hollywood Reporter, Digital Trends, Pocket Gamer.biz, GameSpot, and VentureBeat
| Nick Corasaniti / New York Times: |
Inside the work of the DNC and RNC digital teams for the conventions: building a robust network, ensuring a livestream, producing a broadcast, and more — Making sure livestreams don't lag. Sending out remote video kits. Showing speakers how to avoid microphone mishaps.
Tweets: @ericdavismiddvt, @aaronemyers, @nytpolitics, and @ofirahy
| Joanna Nelius / Gizmodo: |
Nvidia's cloud gaming service GeForce Now is now available in beta on Chromebooks, but lacks the ability to automatically adjust for poor network conditions — Nvidia's cloud gaming service, GeForce Now, officially hit beta on ChromeOS today and it's helping to make the gaming PC obsolete faster than you'd expect.
More:
The Official NVIDIA Blog, TalkAndroid.com, PC Gamer, Tom's Guide, TechSpot, and 9to5Google
| The New Indian Express: |
India's main opposition party asks Facebook to investigate favorable treatment of BJP by Facebook's India team, and to replace the team during this probe — The Congress and other opposition parties have attacked the social media giant after a US media report alleged that Facebook did not apply its hate speech rules on BJP leaders.| Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: |
Ukraine, helped by Binance's internal investigations, arrests three men who allegedly ran 20 crypto exchanges and laundered more than $42M for ransomware gangs — Gang is believed to have laundered more than $42 million in criminal proceeds. — Law enforcement in Ukraine has announced today …
More:
Binance, HackRead, CryptoGlobe, and Decrypt
| Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch: |
Samsung launches its Pay Card in the UK, a digital-first card powered by London-based Curve, which consolidates existing credit and debit cards into one — Samsung Pay Card, a new Mastercard debit card from the mobile handset giant, has launched in the U.K. today.| Cody Toombs / Android Police: |
Android 11 to remove the camera picker, often seen in 3rd-party apps, defaulting instead to the built-in camera; Google says it's to protect privacy, security — Android may have started with the mantra that developers are allowed to do anything as long as they can code it …
More:
XDA Developers, Android Authority, 9to5Google, Android Headlines, Neowin, and Trusted Reviews
| Tsering D. Gurung / Rest of World: |
India's ban on WeChat has inconvenienced Tibetan refugees in the country, who despite censorship risk, relied on the app to stay in touch with family back home — Navigating China's censorship and India's apps ban, Tibetan refugees rethink their dependence on WeChat. — • KATHMANDU, NEPAL
Tweets: @barbarademick, @anupkaphle, @clara111, @f_potkin, @restofworld, @telliotter, and @tsering_
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
Reliance Retail, India's largest retail chain, has acquired a 60% stake in online pharmacy Netmeds' parent firm Vitalic for about $83.2M — Reliance Retail has bought a 60% stake in pharma marketplace Netmeds' parent firm Vitalic for about $83.2 million, it said today …
More:
MediaNama, The Economic Times, and PYMNTS.com
| Victoria Turk / WIRED UK: |
In the pandemic era, QR codes have seen a huge uptick in adoption as the perfect touch-free medium, used to order food and drinks, book rooms, and more — QR codes have been dismissed as a marketing gimmick - but in our touch-free world, they're proving their worth — Venture outside and you'll soon see them.| Benedict Evans: |
E-commerce penetration in the UK went from 20% to over 30% in the past two months and from 17% to 22% in the US according to official statistics — Both the UK and (today) the USA have given official statistics on how ecommerce and retail have changed during lockdown. The headline numbers are pretty dramatic.
More:
Bloomberg
| Michael Simon / PCWorld: |
Samsung promises three generations of Android updates for many Galaxy S, Note, foldable, and A series devices, rivaling Google's three-year promise for Pixel — When Samsung launched the Galaxy Note 20 earlier this month, the biggest surprise wasn't the faster screen, smoother S Pen, or more powerful processor.
More:
Samsung Global Newsroom, XDA Developers, Ubergizmo, TechSpot, CNET, Droid Life, SlashGear, TechRadar, and Gizmodo. Tweets: @propernig
| Manish Singh / TechCrunch: |
India-based FPL Technologies, which has built a mobile-first credit card and an app for helping people find and understand credit scores, raises $10M Series A — A 20-month-old startup in India founded by a group of banking veterans that has built a mobile-first credit card and is improving … | Livemint: |
Indian online pharmacy PharmEasy has proposed a merger with its smaller rival Medlife, to create a combined entity likely to be valued at $1.15B — The proposed merger indicates early signs of consolidation in the e-pharmacy segment, which along with edtech platforms outperformed most startups during the lockdown period.
More:
Moneycontrol, DealStreetAsia, and Business Standard
| Ryan Gallagher / Bloomberg: |
Sources say the Twitter breach in 2015 involving access of internal data by employees yielded information that led to the disappearance of Saudi dissidents — Access of internal data by Twitter employees in 2015 presaged the disappearance of Saudi dissidents
Tweets: @rprose and @middleeast
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