Techmeme: A historic drop in releases of pirated content has followed a US-led bust targeting SPARKS and other piracy communities, with dozens of topsites taken down (Ernesto Van der Sar/TorrentFreak)

Top News

Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:

Report: Apple has hired Tim Connolly, a former executive at Hulu and Quibi, to work on Apple TV+, as the company explores bundling content — In addition to expanding the amount of content on the service, Apple has shown an interest in bundling Apple TV+ with other properties.

Source: Telegraph. More: iMore, MacRumors, New.blicio.us, and AppleInsider. Tweets: @annemariebridy

See also Mediagazer

Steven Levy / Wired:

Qualcomm founder Irwin Jacobs on the “Holy Wars of Wireless” and why there is no US equivalent to Huawei that is pioneering next gen wireless infrastructure — Plus: Wireless at the turn of the century, a highly anticipated question, and a surprise in the stratosphere.

More: New.blicio.us and Beyond Search. Tweets: @jaygoldberg

Patrick McGee / Financial Times:

How iOS app developers draw on behavioral psychology to design user ratings pop-ups that appear at opportune times, like after a high score or on payday — Rating an iPhone app takes just a second, maybe two. “Enjoying Skype?” a prompt will ask, and you click on a 1-5 star rating.

More: Tom's Guide and Slashdot

Tweets: @bzamayo, @joshspero, @ftopinion, @financialtimes, @carnage4life, @daveleeft, @patrickmcgee_, and @faktoider

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Italy's antitrust authority says it has opened an inquiry into Google, Apple, and Dropbox over cloud computing services, including “unfair clauses in contracts” — Italy's competition authority has opened an investigation into cloud storage services operated by Apple …

More: SiliconANGLE, Reuters, AppleInsider, Thurrott, 9to5Mac, Tech Xplore, Engadget, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacRumors, CNBC, and Cult of Mac

Maureen Dowd / New York Times:

Interview with Reed Hastings, on the future of Hollywood, the US election and social media, his new book about Netflix's aggressive company culture, and more — Netflix started with sending DVDs — remember them? — through the mail, but now the streaming pioneer sits atop a Hollywood it has thoroughly upended.

More: New.blicio.us. Tweets: @mwanikih, @nytimes, @nytimesbusiness, @harper4nc, @sub8u, @shannon_liao, @nuitseracalme, @mbrandolph, @morganhousel, @maureendowd, and @ericliptonnyt

Andreessen Horowitz:

Traditional tabletop games are being reinvented by digital tools such as live-streaming, UGC, and audio to provide new experiences and reach larger audiences — Dungeons & Dragons, the granddaddy of all role-playing games, has never been more popular than it is today.

Tweets: @a16z

Sohee Kim / Bloomberg:

Samsung Electronics says it has won a $6.6B order to provide 5G wireless solutions to Verizon in the US — - It's one of Samsung's largest so far in 5G networking — Samsung is pushing hard to compete with Nokia and Ericsson — Samsung Electronics Co. won a 7.9 trillion won …

More: International Business Times, Wall Street Journal, CNET, Reuters, Nikkei Asian Review, Light Reading, ZDNet, Reuters, Financial Times, Coinspeaker, Android Headlines, South China Morning Post, Neowin, and ajudaily.com

Tweets: @lanceulanoff, @vijayshekhar, and @adrianweckler

Ernesto Van der Sar / TorrentFreak:

A historic drop in releases of pirated content has followed a US-led bust targeting SPARKS and other piracy communities, with dozens of topsites taken down — Every day, millions of people download or stream pirated content including movies, TV-shows, games, MP3s, and books.

More: BBC and TorrentFreak. Tweets: @campuscodi

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

Apple says it stores Hong Kong users' iCloud data in US and that HK authorities' data requests go through DOJ, after saying it was “assessing” HK's security law — After Beijing unilaterally imposed a new national security law on Hong Kong on July 1, many saw the move as an effort …

Tweets: @zackwhittaker

FinSMEs:

Seattle-based Cloudentity, which offers cloud application security and identity-aware authorization services, raises $13M Series A led by ForgePoint Capital — Cloudentity, a Seattle, WA-based provider of cloud application security and identity-aware authorization solutions, raised $13M in Series A funding.

Jeanne Whalen / Washington Post:

US government is considering putting export restrictions on SMIC, which would block US companies from selling SMIC tech without a license; stock down 20%+ — Pentagon says the Trump administration is weighing possible trade sanction on SMIC — The Trump administration …

More: BBC, Wall Street Journal, Financial Times, Engadget, CNBC, Reuters, MSPoweruser, Softpedia News, MediaNama, XDA Developers, Bloomberg, Android Headlines, Coinspeaker, Interconnected, CNBC, Bloomberg, Digital Trends, and TheStreet

Tweets: @benktallmadge, @danrdimicco, @markseibel, and @jchengwsj

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

London-based ThoughtRiver, which uses AI to speed up legal contract pre-screening, announces $10M Series A led by Octopus Ventures — ThoughtRiver, a London-based legaltech startup that's applying AI to speed up contract pre-screening, has announced a $10 million Series A round of funding led by Octopus Ventures.

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:

Introducing Leaderboard in Zoho Publish — Managing one business location is straightforward. Managing ten, fifty, or hundreds? That's where clarity disappears.When multiple locations operate under the same brand or business …

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:

Why OpenAI Killed Sora, Did Apple Just Save Siri?, Meta's Big Loss

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:

The Ezra Klein Show: How Fast Will A.I. Agents Rip Through the Economy?

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.

Great Chat:

Bubble talk

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.

Access:

AI takes over meetings, the SF vs London tech scene, and ethics in media

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

The Upstarts Podcast:

Harvey's Winston Weinberg: From Law Associate To $11 Billion Legal AI Startup CEO

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.

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.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:00 PM ET, September 7, 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.