Techmeme
November 12, 2020, 2:05 AM

Top News

Jay Peters / The Verge:
YouTube, YouTube TV, and Google TV are back online after suffering video playback issues worldwide  —  There were issues loading videos during the outage  —  YouTube has recovered from a seemingly worldwide outage that prevented videos from loading for roughly an hour.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google will end its free unlimited Photos storage on June 1, 2021, imposing a 15GB cap, but photos and documents uploaded before then will not count against cap  —  After 15 gigs, you'll need to pony up for Google One  —  After five years of offering unlimited free photo backups at …
Hannah Murphy / Financial Times:
Facebook and Google have extended their planned one-week bans on political ads, as Trump and GOP continue their claims of voter fraud  —  Blackouts continue as pro-Trump US election narratives persist  —  Facebook and Google have quietly extended their bans on political advertising beyond …
Karl Bode / VICE:
With Ajit Pai likely out as chairman when FCC reverts to Democratic control, experts say Pai's likely to leave and his controversial decisions will be reversed  —  You can expect most of his more controversial decisions, like the repeal of net neutrality, to be reversed.  —  His trademark grin.
New York Times:
Claiming they're censored by Twitter and Facebook, some conservatives say they're moving to alternatives like Parler, which has 8M users, up from 4.5M last week  —  Since the election, millions have migrated to alternative social media and media sites like Parler, Rumble and Newsmax.
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Amazon unveils Alexa Care Hub, which helps people care for aging relatives, offering an activity feed caregivers can review, and an emergency contact feature  —  - More seniors than ever are choosing to remain at home and live independently.  — Amazon wants to make it easier for caregivers to check in on their aging relatives.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Amazon says Alexa for US English-language users will infer goals implicit in requests, like asking to set a timer after being asked “How long to steep tea?”  —  Amazon today announced a new Alexa feature for U.S.-based English-language users that enables devices powered …
David Craddock / Shacknews:
Interview with Xbox boss Phil Spencer on volunteering to take over the division, launching a console during a pandemic, and Microsoft's gaming ambitions  —  The ‘Xboss’ of Xbox reflects on his early years at Microsoft, the circumstances that led to him volunteering to lead Microsoft's Xbox division …
Bijan Stephen / The Verge:
Twitch apologizes to streamers for its mishandling of music copyright, saying it was unprepared for a surge of copyright takedown notices that started in May  —  In a blog post, the platform explained why it sent that weird email last month  —  Twitch published a blog post today …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Google patches two Chrome zero-days that were exploited in the wild, after tips from anonymous sources; Google has patched five Chrome zero-days in three weeks  —  Google has now patched five Chrome zero-days in three weeks.  —  Google has released today Chrome version 86..4240.198 to patch …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources detail how Elliott Management helped Masayoshi Son save SoftBank from financial ruin in the spring; sources say Elliott now owns $5B+ in SoftBank shares  —  The world's most unpredictable technology investor was coached out of the crisis by hedge fund Elliott Management, a major shareholder
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
From 2020's Singles' Day sale, which was extended to 12 days from 24 hours previously, Alibaba and JD.com report around $115B in sales across their platforms  —  - Alibaba set a new sales record for the annual Singles Day shopping event.  — Singles Day is typically a 24-hour shopping event …
Samantha Cole / VICE:
Non-consensual porn images and videos, filmed by groups now facing legal action, can live on forever in machine learning datasets used to create deepfake porn  —  Non-consensual porn videos, like many of those shot by Czech Casting and Girls Do Porn, can live on forever in machine learning datasets.
Apple:
Apple says its new M1-equipped Mac mini, MacBook Air, and MacBook Pro are available to order today, arriving as early as next week  —  A new MacBook Air, 13-inch MacBook Pro, and Mac mini powered by M1, Apple's breakthrough chip for the Mac  —  Cupertino, California — On a momentous day for the Mac …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Sources: Snap is acquiring Voca.ai, a startup that builds AI-based voice assistants for customer support services, for $70M in cash plus $50M in stock  —  Snapchat is the quintessential consumer app: with an array of fun filters, it encourages people to send fun, disappearing messages to friends and has a large base of younger users.

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More News

Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Antonia Timmerman / Rest of World:

Earlier Picks

Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Rishi Iyengar / CNN:
Sara Fischer / Axios: