Techmeme
December 13, 2018, 3:05 PM

Top News

Ina Fried / Axios:
Apple announces a $1B Austin campus initially for 5,000 workers, new offices in Seattle, San Diego, and Culver City, and expansions in several other US cities  —  Apple plans to build a new $1 billion campus in Austin, Texas, adding thousands of jobs, while also setting up new large offices in Seattle …
Arielle Pardes / Wired:
Postmates announces Serve, an autonomous rover launching soon in LA, and says it now averages 4M deliveries per month in 550+ cities  —  HANGING ON THE wall of Postmates' stealth R&D laboratory, there's a framed photo of an iconic scene from Star Wars, Luke Skywalker bent down beside R2D2.
Ryan Randazzo / Arizona Republic:
Police in Chandler, AZ have documented 20+ incidents in the past two years where people vandalized Waymo's autonomous vehicles and harassed their test drivers  —  Police have responded to dozens of calls regarding people threatening and harassing Waymo vans.  —  CONNECT
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Robinhood launches checking and savings accounts in the US with a 3% interest rate and no minimum balance or fees for overdrafts or foreign transactions  —  Robinhood is undercutting the big banks by forgoing brick-and-mortar branches with its new zero-fee checking and savings account features.
Corbin Davenport / Android Police:
Amazon starts selling the Chromecast Ultra and third-gen Chromecast, nearly a year after it promised to sell Chromecast devices again  —  Amazon pulled the Chromecast from its online store in 2015, after it instated a new rule that only streaming devices that supported Prime Video could be sold.
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
YouTube's annual Rewind video received 10M dislikes in about eight days, overtaking Justin Bieber's Baby to be the most disliked video  —  Creators help explain why  —  To say that this year's YouTube Rewind didn't go over well with the YouTube community would be quite an understatement.
Amy Gesenhues / Marketing Land:
Facebook says it is rolling out Watch globally on desktop and Facebook Lite and expands availability of Ad Breaks, 15-second in-stream ads, to 14 more markets  —  Says more than 75 million daily Watch visitors spend, on average, more than 20 minutes on the video platform.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Brave ad-blocking browser moves to Chromium codebase, now supports Chrome extensions but says it won't integrate any Google-based features  —  Brave replaces ambitious Muon interface and goes full Chromium.  Gets 22 percent speed boost in the process.  —  Privacy-focused browser Brave …
J. David Goodman / New York Times:
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
South African fintech startup Jumo, which specializes in microloans, savings, and insurance, adds $12.5M to $52M round from September as it expands into Asia  —  Months after a big round, African fintech startup Jumo has pulled in a fresh $12.5 million to add more fuel for its expansion into Asia Pacific.
More: jumo.world
Joshua Goldman / CNET:
Samsung upgrades its two-in-one Notebook 9 Pen with a new 15-inch option, updated S Pen, and a promise of 15 hours of battery life, coming in 2019  —  With its updated Notebook 9 Pen two-in-one laptop, Samsung is targeting creative professionals who want the flexibility of both a laptop …
Gillian Brockell / Washington Post:
Tech companies should automatically turn off irrelevant ads based on info users share, such as ads for baby gear when a pregnant person has a stillborn child  —  Dear Tech Companies:  —  I know you knew I was pregnant.  It's my fault, I just couldn't resist those Instagram hashtags — #30weekspregnant, #babybump.
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Square says Appointments, its service for SMBs like salons to schedule appointments and take payments in advance, will now integrate with Instagram and Google  —  Square is perhaps better known for its core payments product that allows any merchant to accept card payments through a mobile device.
Kate Clark / TechCrunch:
Online design marketplace Minted, which sells stationery, art, and home decor, raises $208M Series E led by Permira, bringing total raised to $300M  —  Minted, a company we've been covering on this site for a decade-plus, plans to double down on its wholesale and licensing business …

Sponsor Posts

Clay:
Turn any GTM idea into reality  —  Clay helps GTM teams combine AI agents, enrichment, and intent data to move faster and turn insights into action.
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
Pro tips: 5 ways to simplify invoicing and payments in Zoho Books  —  Many businesses still rely on manual processes to collect payments and reconcile invoices.  This often results in delayed payments …
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

Lenny's Podcast:
A child psychologist's guide to working with difficult adults | Dr. Becky Kennedy
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.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Flush a Radar', With Brent Simmons
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Big Technology Podcast:
The Anthropic Rocketship, AI's Spending Limits, SpaceX IPO
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.
Access:
Where we'll go when the bots take over, with Sublime's Sari Azout
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Hard Fork:
Tech Grapples With ICE + Casey Tries Clawdbot, a Risky New A.I. Assistant + HatGPT
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
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 3:05 PM ET, December 13, 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

Michael del Castillo / Forbes:
New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Holly Brockwell / Gizmodo UK:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:
Peter Bright / Ars Technica: