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Techmeme
August 18, 2016, 11:30 PM
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Max Chafkin / Bloomberg:
Uber's first self-driving fleet, supervised by humans in the driver's seat, arrives in Pittsburgh this month with free trips for the time being  —  Near the end of 2014, Uber co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Travis Kalanick flew to Pittsburgh on a mission: to hire dozens of the world's experts in autonomous vehicles.
Cromwell Schubarth / Silicon Valley Business Journal:
Uber acquires self-driving truck startup Otto; report says if targets are met, the deal would be worth around $680M  —  Uber is reportedly paying more than $680 million to buy a self-driving truck startup launched earlier this year by a team of ex-Googlers in San Francisco.
Biz Carson / Business Insider:
Kalanick on self-driving cars as an existential threat, Uber's response to that threat, and how the number of human drivers will go up in the foreseeable future  —  Travis Kalanick has to get Uber's bet on self-driving cars right.  —  “It starts with understanding that the world …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
T-Mobile launches $70 plan with “unlimited” high-speed data on September 6; HD video access costs $25 extra  —  T-Mobile will shift to a single wireless plan offering unlimited data — a surprise move that the company's CEO, John Legere, says he doesn't believe rivals Verizon and AT&T will be able to match.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple planned to add cellular data to Watch this year but is delaying the feature due to battery life concerns; new models launching this year have GPS  —  Battery concerns delay versions with integrated cellular data  —  Models coming this fall improve health tracking with GPS chip
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft open sources PowerShell, brings it to Linux and OS X  —  Microsoft today announced that it is open sourcing PowerShell and bringing it to Linux and OS X.  —  PowerShell is Microsoft's command line shell for Windows power users, as well as an extensible scripting language for automating system tasks.
J.K. Trotter / Gawker:
Gawker.com announces it will shut down next week, after nearly 14 years of operation  —  After nearly fourteen years of operation, Gawker.com will be shutting down next week.  The decision to close Gawker comes days after Univision successfully bid $135 million for Gawker Media's six other websites …
Katie Benner / New York Times:
Twitter says it has suspended 235K accounts since February for promoting terrorism, bringing total to 360K since mid-2015  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Twitter suspended 235,000 accounts that promoted terrorism over the last six months, as part of a continuing effort to keep people from using …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook is building its own Steam-style desktop gaming platform with Unity  —  Facebook may try to compete with Steam, or at least win back revenue lost when casual gaming shifted to mobile.  Today Facebook formally announced it's working with game engine Unity to build a dedicated …
Sydney Ember / New York Times:
The New York Times will retire its NYT Now app starting the week of August 29; at its peak in May 2015, the app had 334K total unique users  —  In early 2014, The New York Times introduced an app called NYT Now that would provide a curated list of stories — for a lower price …
Dave Lee / BBC:
US to hand over control of the Domain Naming System to the nonprofit organization ICANN on October 1  —  The US has confirmed it is finally ready to cede power of the internet's naming system, ending the almost 20-year process to hand over a crucial part of the internet's governance.

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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.

From Mediagazer

Fox News:
Sources: Bari Weiss faced “significant resistance” from CBS News staff after calling Alaska ballot controversy a “scandal”; staff said it was routine politics

Alex Weprin / The Hollywood Reporter:
Filing: Byron Allen sold his 10.7% Starz stake over August and September, netting a bit less than $45M; he acquired it from Steve Mnuchin's Liberty 77 for $25M

Wall Street Journal:
MGM Resorts says talks with People Incorporated are over, after each weighed buying the other; MGM amended its voting deal with People, which owns ~27% of MGM

More News

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
Twitter rolls out quality filter setting to all, letting users filter “lower-quality content” from notifications, but it may not stop targeted non-spam abuse

Earlier Picks

Thomas Fox-Brewster / Forbes:
Cisco And Fortinet Confirm Flaws Exposed By Self-Proclaimed NSA Hackers
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