Techmeme
August 9, 2018, 1:40 PM

Top News

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Samsung announces Galaxy Note9, shipping August 24, with a 6.4" display, Snapdragon 845, 4,000mAh battery, dual rear cameras, DeX, 128GB/512GB storage for $950+  —  After months of rampant speculation (and plenty of leaks and rumors), it's finally here: the Samsung Galaxy Note9 …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Hands-on with the Galaxy Note9: a solid refinement over the Note8 with a similar design and the same camera as the Galaxy S9+; microSD slot is a nice addition  —  A refinement of last year's model with incredibly powerful hardware  —  Samsung is coming off of a disappointing launch for its Galaxy S9 …
Sean Wolfe / Business Insider:
Jack Dorsey defends Twitter on Sean Hannity's radio show for not taking action against Alex Jones, denies Twitter “shadow bans” users based on politics  —  - Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey briefly called in to right-wing commentator Sean Hannity's radio show on Wednesday.
Kara Swisher / New York Times:
Twitter needs a code of values requiring it to make tough calls on high-profile and malevolent figures like Alex Jones  —  The platform won't ban the dangerous liar Alex Jones because he “hasn't violated our rules.”  Then what's the point of these rules?  —  This week, Alex Jones …
BuzzFeed News:
Brian Crecente / Variety:
Gaming chat app Discord launches a games store in beta, available to 50,000 randomly selected customers in Canada, and says it has 150M users  —  Discord, the online chat and video service used by 150 million gamers, drops into the video game sales business Thursday with the launch …
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Samsung announces Galaxy Home, a Bixby-based smart speaker with a built-in subwoofer, six speakers, and eight-microphones; pricing and availability TBA  —  Samsung has announced its entry into the smart speaker market with the Galaxy Home.  It's a high-end speaker meant to go head-to-head …
Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:
Samsung announces Galaxy Watch with 42mm and 46mm options, Tizen OS, “several days” of battery life, available from August 24 for $329.99+  —  Samsung is officially saying goodbye to the “Gear” smartwatch brand in favor of a new name — Galaxy Watch.
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Anchor announces Listener Support, a Patreon-style service that lets listeners pledge $0.99, $4.99, or $9.99 a month to podcasters  —  Anchor's been gaining a fair bit of steam lately with its dead simple mobile podcast editing app.  The New York startup has also been branching out in some interesting ways …
Sean Captain / Fast Company:
Anki unveils Vector home robot that can detect your face, answer questions, and play games, shipping in October for $249.99, says it has sold 1.5M robots  —  If there's a robot uprising anytime soon, it seems unlikely to start in our living rooms.  Robotic vacuums like Roomba sell well because they are so handy.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Facebook officially announces Mentorships, a free service that pairs people in Groups  —  Facebook — under fire for the role it has played in helping spread misinformation through its social media platform — has been turning its attention to more positive applications of its tools …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Roku brings The Roku Channel, its free ad-supported streaming video offering, to the web and updates navigation on devices to add Featured Free section  —  Roku's homepage also expanded to include ‘Featured Free’ content  —  Roku is today bringing its free, streaming entertainment destination …

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Thomas Claburn / The Register:
Wall Street Journal:
Justin Lynch / Fifth Domain: