Techmeme
October 2, 2020, 3:20 PM

Top News

Karissa Bell / Engadget:
After criticism of racial bias, Twitter says its automated image cropping showed “salient” areas of the image, but will change it to give users more control  —  Twitter will change its automated image cropping feature after users complained that it was biased.
Mirko Ranieri / The Keyword:
Google Maps' Live View AR feature now includes notable landmarks in ~25 cities around the world, and gets location sharing, improved accuracy, and more  —  Live View in Google Maps helps you keep your bearings so you can find your way around.  With new ways to use Live View …
Arnold Kim / MacRumors:
YouTube restores Picture in Picture functionality to everyone on its mobile website on iOS 14, after limiting its availability to Premium users a few weeks ago  —  Tonight, the YouTube website has started allowing iOS 14 devices to use the built-in Picture in Picture functionality for its videos even without a Premium account.
Dan Whateley / Business Insider:
Six former Triller employees say the 13M MAUs it announced in Oct. 2019 was over 5X what they were seeing on internal metrics, as a screenshot shows ~2M MAUs  —  - Short-form-video app Triller, a TikTok rival, touted massive user growth last year that some former employees believe was inflated.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Amazon says that of its 1.37M frontline workers, 19K+ contracted COVID-19 between March 1 and Sept. 19, with an infection rate lower than general US population  —  - Amazon on Thursday released comprehensive data into the spread of the coronavirus across its workforce.
Stu Woo / Wall Street Journal:
As QAnon presence on LinkedIn grows, the network is taking steps to limit the spread but does not sanction members for displaying support on their profiles  —  As more users show support for the conspiracy theories, the website reacts to those who break its guidelines
Stephanie Chan / Sensor Tower Blog:
Global app revenue grew 32% YoY in Q3 2020 to $29.3B, with spending in the App Store growing 31% to $19B and in the Play Store growing 33.8% YoY to $10.3B  —  Worldwide consumer spending in mobile apps reached $29.3 billion and their installs climbed to 36.5 billion across Apple's App Store …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Netflix support document says 4K streaming will work only on Macs that have a T2 security chip and run macOS 11.0 Big Sur with the latest Safari browser  —  Macs without a T2 chip can't watch 4K Netflix  —  macOS Big Sur, Apple's upcoming release of its Mac operating system …
The Verge:
Facebook moderators at Accenture say they were told to return to the office despite the pandemic; Facebook says their work can't be done remotely  —  Employees are concerned about COVID-19 now that they're being told to return starting October 12th  —  Facebook moderators employed …
The Verge:
HP debuts 14-inch Spectre x360 laptop with a 3:2 aspect ratio, 11th-gen Intel processors, Thunderbolt 4, and AI-based noise removal features, starting at $1,199  —  Plus updates for Spectre x360 13 and HP's Envy lineup  —  HP has just announced several new laptops, including …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google says it will turn off face retouching by default and avoid references to “beauty” in its Camera app, starting with the Pixel 4a, 4a 5G, and 5  —  When Digital Wellbeing launched, it was initially used to manage how often people use their phones.
CNBC:
Sources: Airbnb is aiming to raise around $3B in its upcoming IPO, planned for some time in December  —  - Home rental company Airbnb is aiming to raise around $3 billion in its upcoming initial public offering, people familiar with the matter said on Friday.
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Amazon third-party sellers are using Facebook and WeChat groups to find users who write fake reviews; Facebook removed three US groups linked to such schemes  —  Third-party sellers are evading detection by hopping between tech platforms  —  The halloween cat collar (three pack …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Portland-based Eclypsium, which helps detect, analyze, and prevent security threats at the firmware level, raises $13M, bringing its total raised to $25M  —  Portland, Ore.-based startup Eclypsium raised $13 million to help expand its enterprise hardware security technology.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Google will pay publishers $1B+ through 2023 to create and curate high-quality journalism for the new Google News Showcase, starting in Germany and Brazil  —  Google will pay publishers more than $1 billion over the next three years to create and curate high-quality journalism for a new set …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
The Senate Commerce Committee votes to subpoena CEOs of Facebook, Google, and Twitter to testify before the panel about concerns over Section 230  —  The Senate Commerce Committee Thursday voted on a bipartisan basis to subpoena the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter to testify before the panel …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Zoho WorkDrive named a Leader in the Nucleus Research CSC Technology Value Matrix 2026  —  Enterprise content management is evolving rapidly with about 80% of the data unstructured.  The growing challenge is not about storing information anymore.
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

Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Bots Break Containment and Hack Hugging Face Autonomously — With Alex Stamos
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.
Great Chat:
Too big to laugh: how tech lost its sense of humor
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Substack Wants To Become A Social Network; Beehiiv Wants To Stay Invisible
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Training Data:
Factory's Matan Grinberg: The Coming 'Dark Factory' Where Software Builds Itself
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Matthew Smith — Natural Gas: The Next Bottleneck
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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 3:20 PM ET, October 2, 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

TechCrunch:
Elizabeth Dwoskin / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Michael McSweeney / The Block:
Gordon Corera / BBC:
Tom Warren / The Verge: