Techmeme
November 15, 2016, 7:15 PM

Top News

Nathan Ingraham / Engadget:
Google debuts PhotoScan app for iOS and Android, which makes it easy to digitize old print photos; Google Photos updated with more advanced image editing tools  —  On the surface, Google Photos has a simple mission: to store all your pictures.  Specifically, Google says it wants the service …
New York Times:
Adware in over 100K US Android phones made by BLU sent the full contents of text messages, contact lists, call logs, and location information to Chinese firm  —  WASHINGTON — For about $50, you can get a smartphone with a high-definition display, fast data service and, according to security contractors …
Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
Twitter debuts an updated mute filter with ability to filter phrases and more, muted tweet threads, and new “hateful conduct” reporting option to combat abuse  —  At a pivotal moment, the company is introducing a mute filter, muted conversation threads, and user report infrastructure …
Reuters:
Sources: Snap Inc. has filed confidentially for its IPO  —  Messaging app Snapchat has filed confidentially for an initial public offering (IPO), sources familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.  —  The Venice, California-based company is in the process of planning one of the biggest technology IPOs …
Jordan Novet / VentureBeat:
Google announces new AI group, to be headed by former head of Stanford's Artificial Intelligence Lab Fei-Fei Li and former head of research at Snapchat, Jia Li  —  During a media briefing at a Google office in San Francisco today, Google announced that it will launch virtual machine (VM) …
Ben Popper / The Verge:
DJI's new Inspire 2 drone for professional filmmakers has two cameras and starts at $2,999  —  More drone than most of us will ever need  —  DJI has a chokehold on the consumer drone market, and it's leveraging that dominance to try and establish itself as the clear leader for commercial drones used by professionals as well.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Apple releases $299 hardcover book “Designed by Apple in California” dedicated to the memory of Steve Jobs, chronicling 20 years of Apple design with 450 photos  —  A book like this takes courage  —  Running out of Christmas ideas for that diehard Apple fan in your life?
Brian Crecente / Polygon:
Super Mario Run launches on iPhone and iPad on December 15, will be free to download but unlocking full game will cost $10; Android release info not announced  —  Cost $9.99, but there's a free option too  —  Nintendo's Mario makes his grand appearance on the iPhone and iPad …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Report: after Apple's promise to purge outdated apps, 47K+ iOS apps were removed from App Store in Oct., 3.4x more than Jan. through Sept.'s average of 14K  —  Earlier this year, Apple promised it would clean up its iOS App Store by removing outdated, abandoned apps, including …
April Glaser / Recode:
Benioff on why he prodded FTC on Microsoft-LinkedIn deal after Salesforce lost bid: regulators should examine mergers resulting in monopolistic control of data  —  The FTC has never challenged a merger based on the anticompetitive acquisition of data.  —  Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
GE acquires Wise.io, an analytics firm that uses machine learning to help businesses find patterns in data, as the company expands its software divisions  —  GE Digital today announced that it has acquired Wise.io, a machine-learning powered service that helps businesses find patterns and trends in their vast data stores.
Alex Hern / Guardian:
Google says it is going ahead with delayed plans to build London campus for 7K employees, signalling confidence in the UK after Brexit  —  Tech giant announces it is going ahead with delayed plans to build a campus for 7,000 employees with Olympic cauldron designer Heatherwick Studio on board
Cade Metz / Wired:
Elon Musk and Sam Altman's OpenAI partners with Microsoft, will use Azure for majority of its cloud computing needs  —  To build OpenAI—a new artificial intelligence lab that seeks to openly share its research with the world at large—Elon Musk and Sam Altman recruited several top researchers from inside Google and Facebook.
Matthew Lynley / TechCrunch:
Pinterest launches an Explore section for trending topics and ideas; app now has native video player and auto-play videos in Explore section  —  Pinterest today is launching a new section of the app that is geared around surfacing trending and top ideas that'll get additional new content in front of users.
Steven Musil / CNET:
WhatsApp is rolling out free video calling on iOS, Android, and Windows phones to all users in the coming days  —  The popular messaging and voice app adds video call option, joining a crowded field.  —  FaceTime and Skype have a new rival in the video-chat market: WhatsApp.

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.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Pro Tips: 4 tips to overcome data problems in your CRM  —  Most CRM data problems don't look like problems.  At a glance, your CRM looks fine: records exist, fields are filled, and reports run.
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

Big Technology Podcast:
Meta's Muse Revival, Frontier AI Under Threat, The Rise Of Dopamine Sites
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.
Sources:
Satya Nadella on Microsoft's agent bet and AI's trust problem
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Meta's New $1300 Glasses and the Fight to Control AI
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.
Great Chat:
Doomers at Dreamforce
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Gabe Stengel - Building Investing Superintelligence
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
Inside the AI Startup Making Customer Support 65% Cheaper
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:15 PM ET, November 15, 2016.

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

Earlier Picks

New York Times:
Bloomberg: