Techmeme
April 3, 2019, 2:00 PM

Top News

Damien Wilde / 9to5Google:
Google rolling out Duplex AI restaurant booking assistant to non-Pixel devices and iOS in the US  —  Get ready, the ability to get your Google Assistant to call your local eateries to make reservations is now rolling out to non-Pixel devices and iOS in the United States.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Facebook says it will stop asking for email passwords to verify new accounts; previously, it used them to verify accounts whose email addresses didn't use OAuth  —  Responding to criticism, Facebook says it will stop asking users for their email passwords as a means of verifying some new accounts.
Ted Johnson / Variety:
DOJ warns the group behind the Oscars that potential rule changes limiting the eligibility of Netflix and other streaming services could raise antitrust issues  —  WASHINGTON — The Justice Department has warned the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences that its potential rule changes limiting …
Issie Lapowsky / Wired:
Inside the DNC's plan to replace its aging data repository Vertica with the Data Warehouse, a more powerful BigQuery-based system, before the 2020 election  —  IN JULY OF 2017, as Raffi Krikorian settled into his new office at the Democratic National Committee, Hillary Clinton's words were still ringing in his ears.
Mike Butcher / TechCrunch:
Wayve claims its autonomous car uses only AI, cameras, and GPS, unlike others, like Waymo, that need HD maps, sensors, and hand-coded rules  —  Projects like Google's Waymo, Uber, Cruise and Aurora are developing autonomous vehicles by throwing engineers at the problem …
More: Engadget and Wayve
Jon Porter / The Verge:
In January, Huawei patched a bug in its PCManager software, discovered by Microsoft, which acted like NSA-style malware and affected some MateBook laptops  —  The bug was patched back in January  —  Huawei has patched a bug in some of its MateBook laptops that could have allowed an attacker to take control of the system.
Emily Birnbaum / The Hill:
Google will require contracting firms to give US workers health care benefits, parental leave, $15/hr min. wage, more, by 2022, following activism from Googlers  —  Google said on Tuesday it will require its contracted and temporary workforce to receive full benefits, including comprehensive health care …
New York Times:
Singapore introduces draft bill that requires sites to take down fake news raising concerns among human rights advocates over repression  —  HONG KONG — Singapore introduced draft legislation on Monday that it said would combat false or misleading information on the internet …
Eugene Kim / CNBC:
Sources: in recent weeks Amazon has been quietly removing or relocating promotional spots on its site that gave special treatment to its private label products  —  - Amazon has significantly scaled down or relocated promotions of its private label products in recent weeks.
More: ClickZThanks:@mattrosoff
Edmund Lee / New York Times:
Sources: more than 200,000 people subscribed to Apple News+ in its first 48 hours, more than Texture had at its peak  —  Executives have been burned by their previous dealings with big tech companies.  But Apple's promise of a billion devices worldwide was too good to pass up.  Even for Rupert Murdoch.

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More News

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Chris Welch / The Verge:
Ian Cutress / AnandTech:
Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:
Manish Singh / VentureBeat:
Matthew Boyle / Bloomberg: