Techmeme
June 19, 2018, 7:45 PM

Top News

Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
Sen. Wyden, whose probe led Verizon to shun sending location data to aggregators, rebukes AT&T, Sprint, T-Mobile for weak stances; all have now pledged to stop  —  The scandal erupted after one company claimed to be able to track any cell phone in the US “within seconds.”
Frank Bajak / Associated Press:
Verizon pledges to stop selling customers' location data to aggregators, like LocationSmart and Zumigo, which it says passed along the info to ~75 other firms  —  Verizon is pledging to stop sales through intermediaries of data that pinpoints the location of mobile phones to outside companies, the Associated Press has learned.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook debuts game show platform that lets creators add quizzes, polls, and more to live and on-demand video; Facebook tests ability to award prize money  —  Rather than build its own HQ trivia competitor, Facebook is launching a gameshow platform.  Today the company announced a new set …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Google Podcasts launches for Android with personalized recs and listening progress auto-sync; closed captions and language translation features are planned  —  Finally taking podcasts seriously  —  Google today is introducing its first standalone podcast app for Android.
Kurt Wagner / Recode:
Facebook is testing autoplay video ads inside Messenger, after it started selling static ads in the service 18 months ago  —  The big question: Do users want to see video ads next to their private messages?  —  Facebook found a new place to sell video ads: Inside Messenger …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Amazon is rolling out Alexa for Hospitality, a version of Alexa for hotels that can help order room service, request housekeeping, and more, by invite  —  Order room service, request housekeeping, or play some tunes  —  Amazon is today introducing Alexa for Hospitality …
Ben Fox Rubin / CNET:
Amazon officially announces Hub, its package delivery lockers, and says over 500,000 have access to them as more roll out across US  —  Amazon on Tuesday talked up some of the early successes of its new delivery lockers for apartments, called Hub.  —  The e-commerce giant last July launched the program …
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
Oppo announces Find X with 6.4-inch display and front and rear cameras housed in slide-up section above the display to avoid a notch; price and release TBD  —  The latest volley in the war against notches is a motorized camera  —  Photography by Amelia Holowaty Krales; video by Phil Esposito, Alix Diaconis
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Anchor brings its free suite of mobile podcasting tools to the iPad, following its relaunch earlier this year as a podcast creation platform  —  Following its relaunch earlier this year as a podcast creation platform, Anchor today is bringing its suite of mobile podcasting tools to the iPad.
Sheera Frenkel / New York Times:
In internal open letter to CEO Satya Nadella, more than 100 Microsoft employees protest the firm's work with ICE and ask that it stop working with the agency  —  SAN FRANCISCO — In an open letter posted to Microsoft's internal message board on Tuesday, more than 100 employees protested …
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
San Francisco-based Peek raises $23M Series B and inks partnership with Google in push to digitize travel activities  —  Peek, a U.S. startup aiming to digitize the travel activities industry, has pulled a $23 million Series B round of financing and uncorked a partnership with Google that will help increase its visibility.
Gideon Lewis-Kraus / Wired:
Inside the crypto world's biggest scandal: how the Tezos story unfolded into a fiasco after raising $232M in what was the largest ICO at the time  —  Arthur and Kathleen Breitman thought they held the secret to building a new decentralized utopia.  On the way, they plunged into a new kind of hell.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Yahoo updates Yahoo Mail for mobile web and releases an app for Android Go, as it seeks new users on lower-end devices  —  The days for Yahoo Messenger are now numbered, but Yahoo and its parent Oath (which also owns TC) are still counting on growth for other communications services, specifically Yahoo Mail.
Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:
HPE announces ARM-based supercomputer for US government, with 5,184 28-core processors, as it seeks to compete with x86-based machines  —  Astra will deliver over 2.3 peak petaflops of performance, which should put it well within the top 100 supercomputers ever built.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
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:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
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:
Code red: our favorite tech rivalries
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:
How An AI Model Learned To Be Bad — With Evan Hubinger And Monte MacDiarmid
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:
PBS Lost a Billion Dollars. Now what? With CEO Paula Kerger
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:45 PM ET, June 19, 2018.

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

K.G Orphanides / WIRED UK:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Matt Zapotosky / Washington Post:
Jennifer Bisset / CNET:
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
Swati Khandelwal / The Hacker News: