Techmeme
October 27, 2020, 11:45 AM

Top News

BBC:
UK regulator bans mobile networks from selling locked phones from December 2021  —  The UK's mobile networks are to be forbidden from selling phones locked to their services from December 2021.  —  Regulator Ofcom said unlocking handsets could often be a complicated process …
Patrick Moorhead / Forbes:
AMD says it will buy rival chipmaker Xilinx for $35B in an all-stock deal  —  I talked to AMD CEO Lisa Su last night and got the download on what could be a historic, $35B semiconductor deal to acquire Xilinx.  AMD had a monster Q3 and guide and has been on a growth tear for years …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Ankhi Das, Facebook's public policy director for India, South, and Central Asia, leaves after allegations of content moderation interference for India's BJP  —  Ankhi Das, a top Facebook executive in India, is leaving the company on Tuesday months after she was alleged to interfere …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Tinder is rolling out Face to Face, its opt-in video chat feature, globally  —  Tinder, currently the world's biggest biggest dating app for people to find matches and connect with them, is expanding another feature today to extend the time people spend in the app, and the communications they can have within it.
Frederic Filloux / Monday Note:
A look at VC firm a16z's media and podcast offerings, led by ex-Wired editor Sonal Chokshi, which feature an array of voices across 500+ episodes  —  Andreessen-Horowitz firm has developed a sophisticated podcast system.  Its mission: becoming the go-to place to understand the future.
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Facebook launches free-to-play cloud gaming on desktop and Android but says it is unable to bring games to iOS due to Apple's “arbitrary” policies  —  - Facebook announced the launch of cloud gaming on its desktop website and Android app but not to iOS due to Apple's “arbitrary” policies.
Danny Crichton / TechCrunch:
The rise of “no-code platforms” is helping usher in a new generation fluent in using computers and mobile devices for self-expression, research, and analysis  —  In the distant past, there was a proverbial “digital divide” that bifurcated workers into those who knew how to use computers …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
TikTok partners with Shopify, allowing the latter's merchants to create TikTok ad campaigns and In-Feed video ads from the Shopify dashboard  —  TikTok is further investing in social commerce with today's announcement of a new global partnership with e-commerce platform Shopify.
Michael Sheetz / CNBC:
SpaceX, in emails to interested customers, says the beta of the Starlink satellite internet service will initially cost $99/month plus a $499 upfront cost  —  - SpaceX is expanding the beta test of its Starlink satellite internet service, reaching out via email on Monday to people who expressed interest in signing up for the service.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Serverless search and analytics startup Rockset raises $40M Series B led by Sequoia Capital  —  Real-time analytics startup Rockset today announced a $40 million round.  The company says the funds will be used to grow its workforce and accelerate product development and research while bolstering its go-to-market efforts.
More: SiliconANGLE and ZDNet
David Z. Morris / Fortune:
Zoom adds support for end-to-end encryption, but when it's enabled several features like cloud recording, telephone dial-in, and 1:1 private chat will not work  —  Our mission to help you navigate the new normal is fueled by subscribers.  To enjoy unlimited access to our journalism, subscribe today.
Noam Cohen / Wired:
Wikipedia to protect its main 2020 election page with expanded measures, like stopping new editors from making edits, that it has used to stop COVID-19 misinfo  —  The encyclopedia is determined to emerge from the insanity of a pandemic and a polarizing election with its information and reputation intact.
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
YouTube says it will add a “Results may not be final” label to relevant search queries and videos on Election Day linking to Google's election results feature  —  - YouTube announced Tuesday it will add a label to relevant search queries and videos on Election Day.
Washington Post:
Study of ~200K US Internet users: Facebook users read more polarized news as they spend more time on the service, and the impact is 5X greater for conservatives  —  Steven L. Johnson, Brent Kitchens and Peter Gray are information technology professors at the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
SimilarWeb, which offers an AI-based market intelligence service for sites and apps, raises $120M, bringing its total raised to $240M  —  Israeli startup SimilarWeb has made a name for itself with an AI-based platform that lets sites and apps track and understand traffic not just on their own sites, but those of its competitors.
More: PR Newswire.  Thanks:@ingridlunden

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.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Pro Tips: 4 tips to overcome data problems in your CRM  —  Most CRM data problems don't look like problems.  At a glance, your CRM looks fine: records exist, fields are filled, and reports run.
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

Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Meta's Muse Revival, Frontier AI Under Threat, The Rise Of Dopamine Sites
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.
Sources:
Satya Nadella on Microsoft's agent bet and AI's trust problem
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Meta's New $1300 Glasses and the Fight to Control AI
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.
Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:45 AM ET, October 27, 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.

Upcoming Tech Events

More News

Earlier Picks

Jessica Guynn / USA Today:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
David Ingram / NBC News:
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Bloomberg: