Techmeme
December 1, 2020, 10:15 AM

Top News

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Amazon launches EC2 Mac instances bringing the Intel-based Mac mini to its cloud for $1.083 per hour billed by the second  —  AWS today opened its re:Invent conference with a surprise announcement: the company is bringing the Mac mini to its cloud.  These new EC2 Mac instances, as AWS calls them, are now available in preview.
Reuters:
Sources: Samsung may discontinue its premium Galaxy Note phone next year, reflecting the sharp drop in demand for high-end smartphones due to the pandemic  —  SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd may discontinue its premium Galaxy Note phone next year, sources with knowledge of the matter said …
Eric Geller / Politico:
SCOTUS worries about CFAA's sweeping nature, with Justice Gorsuch saying that the US government's view of the law risks “making a federal criminal of us all”  —  The Supreme Court on Monday indicated serious reservations about the ambiguity and scope of the nation's only major cybercrime law …
Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Facebook to launch Facebook News in the UK in Jan. 2021, says it will pay publishers for news not already on its platform; most big UK publishers have signed up  —  Facebook is to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, as the social network faces …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Databand, a developer of AI-based observability software for data pipelines, raises $14.5M Series A led by Accel. bringing its total raised to ~$18.5M  —  DevOps continues to get a lot of attention as a wave of companies develop more sophisticated tools to help developers manage increasingly complex architectures and workloads.
More: FinSMEs and Geektime
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Scale, which helps companies label data for use in artificial intelligence models, raises $155M led by Tiger Global at a $3.5B+ valuation  —  - Start-up Scale helps companies label data for use in artificial intelligence models.  — It has had trouble keeping up with one of its customers …
Thanks:@emmkrem
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Ajit Pai, the Trump-appointed Republican chairman of the FCC, announces he will leave the agency on Jan. 20, when president-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office  —  Aji Pai, the Trump-appointed Republican chairman of the FCC, announced that he will leave the agency on Jan. 20, 2021, when president-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple hires Josh Elman, former VC at Greylock Partners and ex-VP of product at Robinhood, to work on app discovery at the App Store  —  Apple Inc. hired Josh Elman, a former venture capitalist at Greylock Partners who led early investments in Discord and the precursor to TikTok, to work on the App Store.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
GoSite, which helps small and medium enterprises build websites and run other business functions online, raises $40M Series B led by Left Lane Capital  —  There are 12 million small and medium businesses in the US, yet they have continued to be one of most underserved segments of the B2B universe …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it has agreed to acquire Kustomer, which specializes in customer service tools and chatbots, reportedly for $1B+  —  Facebook Inc. has acquired Kustomer Inc., a New York-based software company that helps businesses manage customer conversations from multiple services on one dashboard.
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Alphabet's DeepMind says it has solved the key “protein folding problem”, cutting the job down from months to hours, which could speed up drug discovery  —  Researchers at DeepMind say they have solved “the protein folding problem,” a task that has bedeviled scientists for more than 50 years.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control  —  Picture this: It's Monday morning.  You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box 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 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
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:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
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.
Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:15 AM ET, December 1, 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

Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Ana Swanson / New York Times:
Surojit Chatterjee / The Coinbase Blog:
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Scott Pelley / CBS News: