Techmeme
September 21, 2018, 1:52 PM

Top News

GeekWire:
A roundup of all the major announcements from Amazon on Thursday, from a new microwave to a subwoofer to new Alexa skills and developer tools  —  Microwave.  Subwoofer.  Smart plug.  In-car device.  —  Those are just a handful of the new devices Amazon debuted on Thursday …
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Wall Street Journal:
In letter to Congress, Google confirms it continues to allow third-party apps to scan and share data from Gmail accounts, though Google itself stopped doing so  —  Lawmakers had asked company to explain policy in wake of WSJ report  —  WASHINGTON—Google Inc. told lawmakers it continues …
Alex Heath / Cheddar:
Sources: Facebook plans to unveil its “Portal” video chat device for home with Alexa support next week; it will come in two screen sizes for ~$400 and ~$300  —  Facebook plans to finally unveil its Portal video chat device for the home next week, Cheddar has learned.
Sara Salinas / CNBC:
Social Capital CEO Chamath Palihapitiya appears unconcerned about the string of exits from the firm and says it will no longer raise outside capital  —  - Chamath Palihapitiya told his employees he would be diverting much of the “carry” — the portion of investment returns traditionally given …
Timothy J. Seppala / Engadget:
PlayStation Now announces subscribers can download PS4 and remastered PS2 games, as the service becomes more like Xbox Game Pass  —  The biggest hindrance to Sony's PlayStation Now streaming service is lag.  Because the game isn't stored locally, whatever device you're playing on has to send …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Sources: Instagram was testing a way for users to reshare posts from other accounts to their own feeds; Instagram says it's not building or testing such feature  —  Will it revive the feed — or break it?  —  After years of resistance, Instagram is now testing a way for you to reshare posts from other accounts to your own feed.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Christopher Mims / Wall Street Journal:
Rob Price / INSIDER:
How Facebook is turning M Suggestions, its AI virtual assistant in Messenger, into a real-time conversation translator, currently supporting Spanish and French  —  - It's using M Suggestions, its virtual assistant in Messenger, to translate real-time conversations, and has just added support for French.
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Adobe says it is acquiring the marketing automation company Marketo for $4.75B  —  A week ago rumors were flying that Adobe would be buying Marketo, and lo and behold it announced today that it was acquiring the marketing automation company for $4.75 billion.
Daniel Palmer / CoinDesk:
Bitmain announces its next generation, 7 nm BM1391 ASIC to power its cryptocurrency miners  —  The bitcoin mining industry is having an exciting couple of days.  —  Just a day after Bitfury revealed a new 14nm mining chip called the Bitfury Clarke, Bitmain has upped the ante with the announcement …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft says Skype is coming to Amazon Alexa devices later this year, letting Alexa users make outgoing voice and video calls, accept incoming calls, and more  —  Microsoft and Amazon are working together to bring Skype calling to Alexa-powered devices, which brings into question, again, where Microsoft is going with Cortana.
Ashlee Clark Thompson / CNET:
Amazon launches a $59.99 AmazonBasics-branded microwave that works with Alexa-enabled speakers, has built-in WiFi, and an Amazon Dash Replenishment  —  Amazon will begin to sell its own brand of Wi-Fi-connected microwaves that will respond to voice commands, the company announced Thursday at its headquarters in Seattle.
Laura Stevens / Wall Street Journal:

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.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
Announcing Zoho POS for South Africa—expanding our commitment to the MEA  —  We're happy to announce that Zoho POS is now available for South African retail businesses, supporting the region's VAT requirements.
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:
How The AI Bet Pays Off + AI Lab Strategy Game — With David Cahn
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:
Oliver Darcy on Status, Bari Weiss, and Why Media Reporters Are Too Soft
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.
Training Data:
Chai Discovery's Bitter Lesson: Drug Design Is Another Scaling Problem
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Gavin Baker - AI Market Jitters
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:52 PM ET, September 21, 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

Bloomberg:
Motherboard:

Earlier Picks

Josh Ye / Abacus:
John Falcone / CNET:
Dani Deahl / The Verge: