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January 23, 2019, 1:45 PM
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Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Day One: |
Amazon says it is field testing Amazon Scout, a small autonomous six-wheeled delivery robot, in Snohomish County, Washington — Delivery ,Washington,Technology,Innovation — At Amazon, we continually invest in new technologies to benefit customers. We've been hard at work developing a new …
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Engadget, TechCrunch, GeekWire, VentureBeat, Business Insider, The Verge, CNBC, and iPhone Hacks
Tweets: @shiraovide, @davechensky, @olivercameron, @jyarow, and @davegershgorn
| Chris Welch / The Verge: |
Google launches YouTube TV in 95 new US markets, says it now covers 98% of US households — 98 percent of US households are covered as of today, with the rest coming soon — YouTube TV is finally nearing nationwide availability. The streaming TV service first launched in February 2017 …
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YouTube Blog, Engadget, Thurrott, Android Authority, 9to5Google, Android Police, Engadget, Mashable, Geek News Central, VentureBeat, PYMNTS.com, TechCrunch, Neowin, TechSpot, Droid Life, CNBC, and OnMSFT.com. Tweets: @backlon
| Reuters: |
Waymo to invest $13.6M in a factory for level 4 autonomous cars in Michigan, partnering with Magna to install Waymo's self-driving system in cars made by others — (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Waymo self-driving vehicle unit said on Tuesday it plans to build a plant in Michigan to transform vehicles …
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Waymo, Engadget, Detroit Free Press, Axios, Associated Press, Silicon Valley Business …, SiliconANGLE, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Neowin, 9to5Google, SlashGear, VentureBeat, The Verge, CNET, MIT Technology Review, Forbes, Mashable, and Detroit News
Tweets: @waymo and @tombamonte
| Chris Welch / The Verge: |
After Netflix price hikes, Hulu will lower the price of its base, ad-supported subscription plan to $5.99/mo, down from the current $7.99/mo, starting Feb. 26 — The core service is getting cheaper, but live TV now costs more — Hulu just announced that it will lower the price of its base …
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TechCrunch, USA Today, TechCrunch, Android Authority, 9to5Mac, Recode, Fast Company, Neowin, and Fortune
Tweets: @isaiahhickland, @benbajarin, @mgsiegler, and @epro
| Jim Waterson / The Guardian: |
Microsoft is automatically installing NewsGuard, a plug-in that guides users on which news websites can be trusted, on mobile versions of its Edge browser — Mail Online rated one out of five for credibility by new feature to fight fake news — Microsoft's internet browser is warning users …
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The Verge, CNET, Thurrott, GeekWire, The Drum, BBC, BetaNews, Inquirer, Engadget, OnMSFT.com, MacRumors, and TechSpot
Tweets: @bbctech, @shoaibmkhan, @stopfundinghate, and @adrianweckler
| Liz Alderman / New York Times: |
Despite Bitcoin's dive, thousands of Georgians have sold cars to buy computers to mine Bitcoin; ~10% of the country's energy output goes into mining Bitcoin — Tax breaks, land deals and cheap energy have spurred cryptocurrency mining in Georgia, which wants to be a digital data leader.
Tweets: @nytimesbusiness, @nytimesbusiness, @nytimesbusiness, and @dealbook
| Steven T. Wright / Ars Technica: |
A look at the history of LiveJournal, the early blogging platform that boasted 10M+ accounts at its height but faltered after questionable business decisions — George RR Martin's platform switch reminds us of an early blogging giant greatly changed. — Last April, famed writer …
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Silicon Florist and Boing Boing
Tweets: @alicetiara, @mightyodango, @sparklystuff, @q0rtz, @anildash, @curacosmica, @ohthatflo, @szechuan, and @jmatwood
| GSMArena.com: |
Meizu announces Zero, a smartphone with no ports, physical buttons, or SIM card slot; instead it has eSIM support and 18-watt fast wireless charging — The Meizu Zero is here - the world's first phone without physical buttons, speaker cutout and even without a USB port for conventional wired charging.
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CNET, 9to5Google, The Verge, Digital Trends, Android Authority, Engadget, PhoneArena, Gizmochina, and Gizchina
| Shona Ghosh / Business Insider: |
Candy Ventures acquires AR startup Blippar, which went into administration last month after raising $130M+, and will reform it as a new business with same CEO — - British property tycoon Nick Candy has bought Blippar, the augmented reality startup which collapsed late last year.
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Financial Times, Tech.eu, TechCrunch, Business Insider, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, and Telegraph
| Alex Konrad / Forbes: |
Confluent, the company behind open source streaming data project Apache Kafka, raises $125M Series D led by Sequoia Capital, source says at a $2.5B valuation — Open source software has produced a new multi-billion-dollar company - one that has some of Silicon Valley's best-known venture firms jockeying …
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SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, Business Wire, Confluent, and Index Ventures
| Josh Constine / TechCrunch: |
Anchorage, which holds and safeguards crypto assets for institutions, comes out of stealth after raising $17M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz — I'm not allowed to tell you exactly how Anchorage keeps rich institutions from being robbed of their cryptocurrency, but the off-the-record demo was damn impressive.| Jon Fingas / Engadget: |
Twitter begins limited rollout of a new web interface with a two-column layout, keyboard shortcuts, a dedicated emoji button, and a revised trends section — Don't be surprised if Twitter looks very different on the web in the near future. The social network has started rolling … | Alex Hern / The Guardian: |
Consumer finance journalist Martin Lewis drops his lawsuit against Facebook over scam ads, after the company agrees to donate £3M to set up an anti-scam project — Consumer finance journalist drops action as firm agrees to give £3m to anti-scam project
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MoneySavingExpert and TechCrunch
| Jordan Crook / TechCrunch: |
Electric.ai, the NYC startup that helps companies automate their IT support services via a chat-based service, has raised $25M Series B round led by GGV — Electric.ai, the NY-based startup that offers chat-based IT support, has announced the close of a $25 million Series B round led by GGV.
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FinSMEs, VentureBeat, and Crunchbase News
| Sam Levin / The Guardian: |
US DoL files complaint against Oracle for discrimination against women and people of color, seeks $400M+ for workers who have suffered pay inequities — US labor department accuses company of rampant exclusion of black and Hispanic people in hiring and higher pay for white men
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Bloomberg Law, CNBC, TechCrunch, SiliconANGLE, CNET, Associated Press, Wired, Silicon Valley Business …, Axios, Fortune, and Mercury News
Tweets: @usatodaymoney, @nitashatiku, @ekp, @wired, @terencehyland, @hassankanu, @boxall, @wired, @emilychangtv, @scottthurm, @scottthurm, and @nitashatiku
| Anthony D'Alessandro / Deadline: |
The Motion Picture Association of America has added Netflix as a member, the first internet-based service to be added — UPDATED with Netflix officially joining: It's official, Netflix is a member of the MPAA. The Washington, DC-based organization just dropped the following release:
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MPAA, Hollywood Reporter, The Mac Observer, MediaNama, Engadget, SlashGear, The Verge, CNBC, TechSpot, TechCrunch, and Politico
Tweets: @lucas_shaw, @pameladaym, @charlierivkin, @great_katzby, @great_katzby, @politico, and @politico
| Janko Roettgers / Variety: |
Patreon says it has 3M+ patrons, up by 1M+ in 2018, who support 100K+ creators; the company will pay creators $500M in 2019, reach $1B paid since launch in 2013 — Membership services platform Patreon now has more than 3 million patrons who pay to support any of its over 100,000 creators every month, the company announced Wednesday.
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Engadget, VentureBeat, Patreon Blog, Tubefilter, Fast Company, and Mashable. Tweets: @caseynewton
| Paresh Dave / Reuters: |
Google spent $21.2M on US govt lobbying in 2018, up from $18.04M in 2017; Facebook spent $12.62M, up from $11.51M; and Microsoft spent $9.52M, up from $8.5M — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google disclosed on Tuesday that it spent a company-record $21.2 million on lobbying …
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MacRumors, GeekWire, Engadget, Gizmodo, Bloomberg, Fortune, and The Mac Observer. Tweets: @jillianiles
| Joshua Brustein / Bloomberg: |
Andela, which trains and places African programmers to work remotely for US companies, raises $100M Series D from Al Gore's Generation Investment Management — Outsourcing isn't generally seen as the most high-minded of industries. But when the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative …
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PR Newswire, FinSMEs, TechCrunch, Financial Times, The Guardian Nigeria Newspaper, Quartz, PC Tech Magazine, Andela, Concise News, and PE Hub Blog. Tweets: @celestocalculus
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Alexa AI scientists describe in a paper a technique that uses millions of unannotated interactions with Amazon's voice assistant to reduce NLP error rate by 8% — Developing an AI system capable of understanding natural language isn't just time-consuming — it's really expensive.| Anthony Ha / TechCrunch: |
Uplift, which works with airlines and sites like Kayak to offer travelers vacation financing, raises $123M Series C, expects to drive nearly $1B in loans in '19 — Travel financing startup Uplift is announcing that it has raised $123 million in Series C funding.
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PhocusWire
| Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security: |
New research details how two widely received spam email campaigns over the past few months were made possible by a previously detailed weakness at GoDaddy.com — Two of the most disruptive and widely-received spam email campaigns over the past few months — including an ongoing sextortion email scam … | Kim Zetter / Motherboard: |
Q&A with the ACLU's Jon Callas, formerly of Apple, on the need for tech expertise in policymaking, the biggest challenges for the security industry, and more — Apple security expert Jon Callas, who helped build protection for billions of computers and smartphones against criminal hackers …
Tweets: @kimzetter, @lorenzofb, and @kimzetter
| Dan Primack / Axios: |
Desktop Metal, a maker of 3D metal printing systems for commercial and industrial use, raises $160M led by a subsidiary of Koch Industries at a ~$1.5B valuation — Why it matters: The Massachusetts startup has now raised more venture capital ($438m total) than any other 3D printing company in history …
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FinSMEs, TechCrunch, and Forbes
Sponsor Posts
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