Techmeme
November 1, 2016, 5:45 PM

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram to test letting businesses tag products in their posts, so iOS users in the US can tap to learn more about them; 20 brands will participate  —  Instagram wants you to shop without always having to interrupt your scrolling with a browser window.  That's why today it will start …
Mike Jazayeri / The Keyword:
Google's Daydream VR headset is coming to stores in US, UK, Canada, Germany, and Australia on November 10, available to pre-order now  —  Last month, we announced Daydream View, a comfortable and easy-to-use virtual reality headset and controller powered by any Daydream-ready phone.
Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Pinterest makes Instapaper's premium features free, previously $3/month; features include full text search on all articles, speed reading, text-to-speech, more  —  Nearly three months after being acquired by Pinterest, Instapaper is making some changes that will impact its users.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Lenovo starts shipping Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, the first Google Tango phone, for $499  —  The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro is shipping now  —  If it weren't for Pokémon Go, augmented reality might have stayed another forlorn futurist technology the public paid little attention to.
Michael Tsai:
A roundup of the mostly negative reactions to the new MacBook Pros and the current state of the Mac by creative professionals and developers  —  I was really disappointed with today's Apple event.  It seems like Apple has either lost its way, that it has lost touch with what (some of) …
Napier Lopez / The Next Web:
Twitter adds Welcome Messages and Quick Replies to DMs to improve businesses' customer service response times  —  For all the talk of doom and gloom regarding Twitter's future, there are some things the platform does better than anyone.  Recently it's been strengthening its position …
Johana Bhuiyan / Recode:
Uber partners with GM's car-sharing service, Maven, for a 90-day car rental pilot program for drivers in San Francisco  —  The pilot program with Maven, which looks a lot like Lyft's partnership with Maven, will only be available in San Francisco for 90 days.
More: FortuneTweets: @fmanjoo
Matthew Lynley / TechCrunch:
Square beats with Q3 revenue of $439M vs $431M expected, as losses reach $32M, up from $54M last year  —  While Jack Dorsey's other company Twitter might be struggling, Square continues on a roll that's keeping Wall Street happy.  —  There's going to, as always, be a big question mark …
More: ZDNet, VentureBeat and Fortune
Tweets: @squareir and @squareir
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Minecraft: Education Edition launches in 50 countries and 11 different languages; game costs $5 per user annually or less through volume licensing  —  Following months of testing and free trials for early adopters, Microsoft announced this morning that its learning-focused version …
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Self-driving car startup Otonomo founded in Tel Aviv in 2015 raises $12M Series A, led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Stageone Ventures  —  Self-driving car startup Otonomo has closed a $12 million series A round, led by Bessemer Venture Partners and Stageone Ventures, with participation from Maniv Mobility and LocalGlobe.
More: GeekTime, Tech.eu and CNBC
Selina Wang / Bloomberg:
Alibaba creates new digital media company, Alibaba Digital Media and Entertainment Group, to consolidate media assets, announces $1.48B fund for new projects  —  Yu Yongfu, of UCWeb, will become CEO of new group under Zhang  —  Breaking out media assets is part of transparency efforts

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Earlier Picks

Andrew M Harris / Bloomberg:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica UK:
Kurt Wagner / Recode: