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.

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