Techmeme
August 21, 2020, 12:10 PM

Top News

Kate Conger / New York Times:
Former Uber CSO Joe Sullivan charged with obstruction of justice for trying to conceal the 2016 data breach of millions of users and drivers from FTC officials  —  Joe Sullivan, who led Uber's security team through the company's most tumultuous period, was fired by the company's newly installed chief executive in 2017.
Kate Conger / New York Times:
An appeals court blocked an order requiring Uber and Lyft to classify drivers as employees, averting an expected shutdown of their services in California  —  The companies, under legal pressure to reclassify their California drivers as employees, said they would halt rides before an appeals court gave them permission to continue.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Epic to host a Fortnite tournament on Aug. 23 where players can win anti-Apple prizes, encourages iOS users to switch and tweet to Apple using #FreeFortnite  —  Fortnite-maker Epic Games and Apple are currently embroiled in a public battle over Apple's App Store policies …
Eric Slivka / MacRumors:
Kuo: Apple is looking to offset cost of new 5G tech in iPhone 12 by using a simpler battery board design that will be 40%-50% cheaper than the one in iPhone 11  —  Apple is looking to put a pricing squeeze on component suppliers for the upcoming iPhone 12 lineup to help offset increased costs …
Abhiman Biswas / Pricebaba.com Daily:
Leaked renders of the Google Pixel 5 show dual main camera, punch-hole front camera, and a fingerprint sensor on the back  —  Google launched the successor to last year's Pixel 3a, the Pixel 4a earlier this month.  At the time, the company announced that the Pixel 4a 5G and Pixel 5 would be released this fall.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Jeff Wilke, Amazon's CEO of Worldwide Consumer, will retire from the company in 2021; senior VP of retail operations Dave Clark will succeed him  —  - Jeff Wilke, CEO of Amazon's worldwide consumer business, will retire from his role in the first quarter of 2021, Amazon said Friday.
Meir Orbach / CTech:
Sources: Apple quietly acquired Israeli AR and computer vision startup Camerai over a year ago for several tens of millions of dollars  —  The AR and computer vision company was purchased a year and a half ago, an example of the tech giant's strategy of silently buying up small tech companies
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
Craft, which uses data from thousands of financial and alternative sources to improve visibility in complex supply chains, raises $10M Series A  —  During the COVID-19 pandemic supply chains have suddenly become hot.  Who knew that would ever happen?  The race to secure PPE, ventilators …
Casey Newton / The Interface:
Facebook says it's piloting an effort to closely watch posts that rapidly gain millions of views to ensure they don't violate community standards  —  Earlier this week, I wrote about how platforms proved they can stop a piece of health-related misinformation in its tracks.
Danny Crichton / TechCrunch:
Leaked Palantir S-1 show the company had 2019 revenue of $742M, up ~25% YoY, and a net loss of $580M, about the same as in 2018  —  Palantir filed an S-1 confidentially to the SEC in early July, but we have so far been waiting for the final doc to be published for weeks now with nary a murmur.
Benjamin Mullin / Wall Street Journal:
A trade body representing NYT, WaPo, WSJ, and other publishers asks Apple for improved deal terms for digital subscriptions sold through the App Store  —  The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal are among companies seeking more favorable terms in Apple's app store
Reuters:
Indian parliamentary panel has summoned Facebook executives on Sept. 2 to question them on regulation of political content on the platform following controversy  —  NEW DELHI (Reuters) - An Indian parliamentary committee will question Facebook (FB.O) executives on how the social media giant …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Facebook confirms Mark Zuckerberg testified before FTC this week, as part of the agency's antitrust probe  —  - Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg this week testified at a Federal Trade Commission investigative hearing related to the federal agency's antitrust investigation into the tech company, the company confirmed to CNBC on Thursday.

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
5 common AI pitfalls in staffing and how to fix them  —  Staffing teams are turning to AI to keep up with growing hiring demands.  It helps recruiters move faster, handle more applications, and stay on top of their pipelines.
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

Lenny's Podcast:
The art of influence: The single most important skill that AI can't replace | Jessica Fain (Webflow, ex-Slack)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Access:
Live @ Nvidia's nerd Super Bowl, poker takes over tech, and the future of AI banking
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Superapp Ambitions, Jensen on Jobs, Bezos's $100 Billion Automation Fund
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.
Hard Fork:
'A.I.-Washing' Layoffs? + Why L.L.M.s Can't Write Well + Tokenmaxxing
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Social Radars:
Paul Graham, Founder, Y Combinator
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Everybody Goes Home: How technology is helping prevent wildfires from spreading
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 12:10 PM ET, August 21, 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

John Kruzel / The Hill:

Earlier Picks

Sam Schechner / Wall Street Journal:
DL Cade / PetaPixel:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: