Techmeme
April 2, 2019, 11:15 AM

Top News

Matthew Boyle / Bloomberg:
Walmart will let customers order groceries by voice through Google Assistant beginning this month, expanding the service to other platforms in the coming months  —  - Prior purchase data will help identify preferred brands, size  — Retailer to expand service to more platforms in coming months
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
a16z raises new $2B fund and says the firm's 150 employees are being registered as financial advisors, so they can go deeper on riskier bets, like buying crypto  —  merging from the financial crisis in 2009, Marc Andreessen and Ben Horowitz laid out their campaign to take on Silicon Valley.
Abhimanyu Ghoshal / The Next Web:
WhatsApp launches a fact-checking service in India to combat fake news, will work with startup Proto to help review text, photos, links, and video sent by users  —  WhatsApp has launched its next weapon in the fight against misinformation on its platform in India: a tip line to which you can send forwards …
Adrian Zmudzinski / Cointelegraph:
Report: data provided by TokenData shows about $118M has been raised via ICOs in Q1 2019, compared to $6.9B raised during the same period in 2018  —  About $118 million has been raised via initial coin offerings (ICOs) in Q1 of 2019, over 58 times less than $6.9 billion …
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
1,300+ Googlers sign a petition demanding Google remove Kay Coles James, president of the conservative Heritage Foundation, from its external AI advisory board  —  ‘They think that some of our colleagues either do not or should not exist’  —  When Google announced an external advisory board …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils new mid-range 13-inch Surface Book 2 with Intel quad-core i5 processor, 256GB storage, and 8GB RAM for $1,499  —  Microsoft is quietly refreshing its Surface Book 2 base model today.  The software giant is introducing Intel's latest 8th Gen quad-core i5 processor …
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
Sources: YouTube execs ignored internal warnings, concerns about the spread of toxic videos, and proposals to change recommendations, in favor of engagement  —  A year ago, Susan Wojcicki was on stage to defend YouTube.  Her company, hammered for months for fueling falsehoods online …
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Valve confirms its Index VR headset with integrated headphones and new controllers will ship on June 15, plans full reveal for May 1  —  You won't have to wait until May to learn more about Valve's Index VR headset.  Valve briefly posted (and promptly removed) unfinished pages for the Index …
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
Intel Capital says it's invested $117M in 14 startups, the majority of which create products and services related to AI  —  Intel Capital today announced an investment of $117 million in 14 startups doing things like making AI inference faster, helping manufacturers deploy AI systems …

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

Channels with Peter Kafka:
"Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw
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.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
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.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:15 AM ET, April 2, 2019.

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

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Earlier Picks

Joe Pompeo / Vanity Fair:
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Klint Finley / Wired:
Cory Doctorow / Boing Boing:
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat: