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September 30, 2020, 7:05 PM
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Nathan Ingraham / Engadget:
Google unveils Pixel 5 with a 6-inch 90Hz OLED display, ultrawide rear-facing camera instead of zoom lens, 5G, 8GB RAM, and fingerprint sensor on back for $699  —  It's October, so despite the weird year we're having, Google is hosting a (virtual) event to show off its latest smartphone, the Pixel 5.
Nikkei Asian Review:
Sources: Google is planning to produce as little as ~800,000 Pixel 5 handsets, taking total production of Pixel 4a, 4a 5G, and 5 to 3M units
Damien Wilde / 9to5Google:
Google unveils Pixel 4a 5G with a 6.2" display, 6GB of RAM, 128GB storage, Qualcomm's 765G chipset, and 18W USB-C fast charging for $499
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Palantir closed at $9.50 following its direct listing on the NYSE, after opening at $10, giving it a market cap of roughly $20.9B  —  - Palantir's public market debut on Wednesday comes 17 years after the company was created.  — In pursuing a direct listing, Palantir is following the path …
Sharon Weinberger / New York Magazine:
Former US military and intel officials express concerns about Palantir, arguing its success is largely down to its software having a friendlier UI than rivals  —  Back in 2003, John Poindexter got a call from Richard Perle, an old friend from their days serving together in the Reagan administration.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook unveils cross-app communication between Messenger and Instagram, which works even for users without accounts on the other service, rolling out now  —  Facebook announced today it will begin rolling out new functionality that will allow Instagram and Messenger users to communicate across apps …
Harry McCracken / Fast Company:
A look at how Facebook is weaving Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, and WhatsApp together even as it comes under increasing scrutiny from watchdogs and regulators
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google Chromecast (2020) review: excellent value for a 4K device and Google TV is great, but performance sometimes dips and home screen isn't customizable  —  The new Google TV software makes it easy to find something to watch  —  The new Chromecast is a much different product …
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Google announces a new Google TV service that brings streaming apps, a unified search, and live TV, through YouTube TV, into a single interface  —  Not to be confused with the smart TV platform of the same name (2010-2014, RIP) or the Android TV platform it's built on top of, Google has just taken the wraps off the new Google TV.
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Google announces Chromecast with Google TV streaming dongle and remote, available in the US today for $50
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Brian Armstrong's apolitical goal for Coinbase is wishful thinking, limiting its politics to what he deems acceptable during a time of strife in America  —  At a highly polarized time, Brian Armstrong's controversial blog post is an act of wishful thinking  —  This story is part of a group of stories called
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Coinbase offers an exit package with four to six months severance pay and six months COBRA for employees who are not comfortable with its apolitical mission
Reuters:
Sources: China is considering an antitrust probe into Google, after allegations by Huawei that Google leveraged the dominance of Android to stifle competition  —  BEIJING/SINGAPORE/SHENZHEN, China (Reuters) - China is preparing to launch an antitrust probe into Alphabet Inc's Google …
NBC News:
Interviews with 40 Amazon employees and government documents: Amazon's COVID-19 response lacks oversight and transparency with inadequate worker safety policies  —  On the evening of Sunday, Aug. 9, workers at the MKE1 Amazon fulfilment center in Kenosha, Wisconsin, received an alert …
Natalia Drozdiak / Bloomberg:
Internal docs: EU may ban big tech companies from preferencing their own services or exclusively pre-installing their own apps as part of Digital Services Act  —  - Gatekeeper platforms could also have to share data with rivals  — EU to unveil regulatory proposal for platforms in December
Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:
Google announces Nest Audio, a revamp to its discontinued Google Home speaker, available today for $99  —  During Launch Night In, Google unveiled Nest Audio, a major revamp of the original Google Home speaker, and it's available on October 5 for $99.  —  At last year's Made by Google event …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Twitter says it is expanding voice tweets to more iOS users and plans to add transcriptions to voice tweets to improve accessibility  —  Voice tweets will come to Android and the web in 2021  —  Twitter has just expanded its voice tweets feature, which lets you record a snippet of audio to include with a tweet, to more users on iOS.
Max Weinbach / Android Police:
Xiaomi announces a range of new flagship devices: €499 Mi 10T, €599 Mi 10T Pro, and €279 Mi 10T Lite, all with 6.67-inch displays, and €99 Mi Watch  —  Xiaomi is known for its cheap phones, whether they come under its own brand name or its Redmi and Poco sub-brands.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitch launches Soundtrack by Twitch, which lets creators add licensed music to streams from an initial lineup of partners including SoundCloud  —  Twitch today is introducing a new tool, Soundtrack by Twitch, that will allows it creators to add licensed music within their streams.
Te-Ping Chen / Wall Street Journal:
Women founders of AI startups talk about gender disparity in tech, how they are trying to build diverse workplaces, and addressing potential biases in AI  —  They see gender diversity in their companies as crucial in making sure the technology doesn't penalize the underrepresented
Sophia Kunthara / Crunchbase News:
Golden, which aims to map all human knowledge using AI alongside humans to collect public information, raises $14.5M Series A led by a16z  —  Golden, a startup aiming to map all human knowledge, raised $14.5 million for its Series A round, the company announced Wednesday.  —  Subscribe to the Crunchbase Daily
More: Golden Blog and TechCrunch.  Thanks:@jason_rowley
Christopher Harland-Dunaway / The Verge:
Profile of Tron founder and BitTorrent CEO Justin Sun, whose controversial reputation is built on a non-traditional leadership style and marketing stunts  —  When Chinese millionaire Justin Sun acquired BitTorrent, was he trying to skirt the trade war?  Or fly right in the face of it, no matter the cost?
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Papaya Global, which offers cloud-based payroll and HR services, raises $40M Series B led by Scale Venture Partners, following $45M Series A in 2019  —  Workforces are getting more global, and people who work day in, day out for organizations don't always sit day in, day out in a single office, in a single country, to get a job done.

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From Mediagazer

Michael M. Grynbaum / New York Times:
The White House TV pool remained suspended as of Thursday evening, as networks awaited a formal White House agreement to let CNN participate again in the pool

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: MGM Resorts is weighing a bid to purchase Barry Diller's People Incorporated, after Diller withdrew People's bid to buy MGM; People holds ~27% of MGM

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Paramount says it is raising another $7.5B in debt to pay for its WBD acquisition and pay down other debt, bringing the total debt it intends to raise to $44.4B

More News

Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Google says merchants globally can list items on Google Shopping for free starting in mid-October, after bringing free listings to US merchants in April

Earlier Picks

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