Techmeme
February 6, 2018, 5:20 PM

Top News

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Apple HomePod review: looks great, has best-in-class sound for $349 and above, but voice controls only work with Apple Music, no third-party service support  —  It sounds amazing.  Is that enough?  —  Photography by James Bareham; Video by Phil Esposito, Becca Farsace, Andrew Marino, and William Joel
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
HomePod review roundup: sounds great, but Siri is very limited, despite iCloud and iPhone integration, as it can't tell voices apart and recognizes few commands  —  Apple seeded HomePod review units to a number of websites, embargoed for today, and the first reviews are landing.  —  There are quibbles.
Snap Investor Relations:
Snap reports Q4 revenue of $285.7M, up 72% YoY, as DAUs rise 8.9M to 187M, up 18% YoY; net loss of $350M, up 106% YoY; stock up 19%+ after hours  —  02/06/18 VENICE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)— Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) today announced financial results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2017.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
A pollster Facebook hired in April '17, who quit after 6 months, says his role was to gauge public opinion of Zuckerberg, his appearances, speeches amid US tour  —  Why Tavis McGinn quit after six months  —  Tavis McGinn applied for a job at Facebook last year hoping to work in market research.
Eric Zimmerman / The Keyword:
Google begins rolling out ability to book flights and hotels directly from search results  —  Planning a trip involves lots of searching for flights, hotels, things to do, itineraries and more.  The process is often cumbersome because we have to use multiple tools to gather everything we need—especially on a mobile phone.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Amazon says it will begin removing lock screen ads on its discounted Prime Exclusive Phone program on February 7 but will reportedly raise phones' prices by $20  —  New devices will drop the ads starting tomorrow  —  Amazon has announced that starting tomorrow, February 7th …
Reuters:
In letter to US lawmakers, Apple says it sees “strong demand” for replacement iPhone batteries and is considering refunding consumers who paid full price  —  WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has seen “strong demand” for replacement iPhone batteries …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Home design platform Houzz acquires IvyMark, which raised ~$3M and offers a platform for interior and home designers; sources say deal is worth $30M-$40M  —  Houzz, the platform now valued at $4 billion where people plan and help find people to complete home design projects …

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More News

Timi Cantisano / Neowin:

Earlier Picks

David Ingram / Reuters:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Johana Bhuiyan / Recode: