Techmeme
December 3, 2020, 1:05 PM

Top News

Brian Barrett / Wired:
A sophisticated global phishing campaign is targeting the companies involved in the cold chain necessary to the distribution of the COVID-19 vaccine  —  As vaccines await US approval, a sophisticated global phishing campaign has tried to harvest credentials from companies involved in their distribution.
Casey Newton / Platformer:
Slack's struggles to succeed as a standalone company mirror the fortunes of other one-time innovators in enterprise productivity who struggled with distribution  —  And why the era of worker-centered work tools may be over  —  Slack's life as an underdog darling of Silicon Valley ended on November 2, 2016.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Google will let users with ARCore-compatible Android phones submit Street View imagery, starting in Toronto, NY, Austin, Nigeria, Indonesia, and Costa Rica  —  No special equipment required  —  Google Maps is getting a new update that lets you create Street View photos using just a phone.
Peter Rudegeair / Wall Street Journal:
Stripe launches Treasury to let its customers offer checking accounts and other business-banking services; Shopify will offer the services from early next year  —  Shopify, a Stripe customer, will begin offering the service to its merchants early next year  —  Stripe Inc. is teaming …
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Three Democratic lawmakers introduce a bill that would require stablecoin issuers to obtain a banking charter, approval from the Federal Reserve and FDIC, more  —  A new U.S. Congressional bill would require stablecoin issuers to secure bank charters and secure regulatory approval prior to circulating any stablecoins.
Washington Post:
Leaked docs: Facebook to start policing anti-Black hate speech more aggressively than anti-White comments, reversing years of “race-blind” practices  —  The company is overhauling its algorithms that detect hate speech and deprioritizing hateful comments against Whites, men and Americans.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
PhonePe is partially spinning off, reducing Flipkart's stake from 100% to 87%, and raises $700M led by Walmart at a post-money valuation of $5.5B  —  PhonePe, the crown jewel in Flipkart's acquisition by Walmart, is “partially” spinning off, the financial services firm said on Thursday.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Alphabet transitions its navigation system for its fleet of Loon high-altitude balloons to one controlled by AI, a first for commercial aerospace systems  —  The company's new AI flight control system outperforms its human-made one  —  Alphabet's Loon, the team responsible for beaming internet …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
A look at MANRS, a group of ~600 participants including Google, which aims to add safeguards to the Border Gateway Protocol, improving internet routing security  —  Efforts to secure the Border Gateway Protocol have picked up critical momentum, including a big assist from Google.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
Facebook says it will start removing false claims about coronavirus vaccines that have been debunked by public health experts  —  - Facebook's policy has been to remove false claims about Covid-19 that it says could lead to “imminent physical harm.”  — Now, Facebook said it will …
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
SF-based Shop-Ware, which offers a cloud-based management software for independent repair shops, raises $15M Series A led by Insight Partners  —  Shop-Ware has been waiting for a year like 2020 since 2015.  —  The startup, which sells software to neighborhood automotive shops to digitize their operations …
More: FinSMEs
Caitlin Dewey / OneZero :
How Americans are using Cash App and Venmo to practice direct giving to one another in a new way, as an alternative to giving through charitable institutions  —  In 2020, Venmoing total strangers in need became a radical act of support — and trust  —  aised in a six-bedroom mansion …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Amazon introduces a feature that lets users text Alexa on iOS to ask for things instead of only using their voice, now available in public preview  —  Type with Alexa is available now as a ‘public preview’  —  Amazon is testing a new feature for its iOS Alexa app: the ability to type out Alexa commands …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Amazon adds webcam support to the 2nd-gen Fire TV Cube, enabling video calls with Alexa-enabled devices, rolling out in the coming weeks in US, UK, elsewhere  —  Call any Alexa-enabled device with a screen, including smartphones, Fire tablets, and the Echo Show

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.
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Grow Payments for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
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

Access:
The AI writing app fighting AI slop
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Adam Mosseri: AI is a tailwind for authenticity
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.
Great Chat:
SPVs have a brand problem
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Meta CTO Andrew Bosworth: Our Path To Frontier AI, Renting Models, Consumer AI's Struggles
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
"We're in a Race Against Time," Joe Kahn on Running the New York Times in the Age of AI Slop
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.
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 1:05 PM ET, December 3, 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

Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

Chris Velazco / Engadget:
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Mike Wuerthele / AppleInsider: