Techmeme
April 11, 2019, 9:05 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources describe Amazon Alexa's AI-training process, where workers transcribing voice clips see customer account numbers and hear private conversations  —  Tens of millions of people use smart speakers and their voice software to play games, find music or trawl for trivia.
Shannon Liao / The Verge:
Google says any Android device running 7.0 or later can now be used as a security key for two-factor authentication  —  An advanced form of two-factor authentication  —  Google announced today that any phone running Android 7 or higher can now be used as a physical security key …
Tom Krazit / GeekWire:
Tom Krazit / GeekWire:
Vlad Savov / The Verge:
In his annual shareholder letter, Jeff Bezos challenges retail rivals to match or raise their minimum wage above Amazon's $15 per hour  —  Target plans to move to $15 per hour by end of 2020 while Walmart lags behind at $11 an hour  —  In his annual letter to shareholders …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram says it will demote posts that are “inappropriate” but do not go against its Community Guidelines by not showing them in Explore or hashtag pages  —  Instagram is home to plenty of scantily-clad models and edgy memes that may start to get fewer views starting today.
Wired:
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Coinbase launches Coinbase Card, a Visa debit card for UK customers to spend cryptocurrencies in-store and online, will expand to other EU countries in months  —  When you buy cryptocurrencies on Coinbase, many users simply don't know what to do with them.  Customers in the U.K …
Karen Weise / New York Times:
The Pentagon says Amazon and Microsoft are the final candidates for its $10B JEDI contract and that IBM and Oracle didn't meet the minimum requirements  —  The Pentagon said Wednesday that Amazon and Microsoft were the final candidates for a hotly contested $10 billion contract to bring modern cloud computing to the Defense Department.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Democratic senators propose the Algorithmic Accountability Act, which would require large companies to audit machine learning-powered systems for bias  —  US lawmakers have introduced a bill that would require large companies to audit machine learning-powered systems — like facial recognition or ad targeting algorithms — for bias.
CNN:
MIT grad student Katie Bouman helped develop the imaging algorithm for the Event Horizon Telescope that captured the first picture of a black hole  —  (CNN)Imagine trying to take a photo of an orange that's on the moon with your smartphone.  It seems impossible.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Gartner and IDC estimate PC shipments of 58.5M in Q1 2019, with Gartner reporting shipments down 4.6% YoY, and IDC reporting them down 3% YoY  —  The PC market is still in decline, according to research firms Gartner and IDC.  That's nothing new for the duo to agree on, but coincidentally they also …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple Podcasts on the web gets an overhaul, with a new design, support for web playback, individual episode details, dedicated podcasts.apple.com URLs, and more  —  Apple this week has overhauled the web interface for Apple Podcasts.  The new design is much cleaner and easier to navigate …
Karen Weise / New York Times:
Over 4,200 Amazon employees publicly call on the company to give clear commitments on tackling climate change, the largest staff-driven movement thus far  —  SEATTLE — Employees at big tech companies have pushed back against their employers for working with the military and law enforcement offices …
Apple:
Apple says it now has 44 suppliers, including Foxconn and TSMC, that have committed to run their Apple production on 100% clean energy  —  Company Spends $2.5 Billion in Environmental Initiatives  —  Cupertino, California — Apple today announced it has nearly doubled the number of suppliers …

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:
Do you need a Zoho Partner?  Here's why working with one can benefit you.  —  Zoho offers over 60 applications, each one built for a unique use case.  From sales and marketing to finance, HR, and customer support …
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

The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'What's in Louie's Wallet', With Louie Mantia
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:
Leopold Blows Up, OpenAI Drastically Cuts Prices, Microsoft's Best Day
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.
Hard Fork:
Open Model Wars + Claire Stapleton's Dishy Google Memoir + Substack's Slop Fight
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.
Great Chat:
Tech's short-term era
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.
Access:
Meet the most AI-pilled CEO on Earth
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
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 9:05 AM ET, April 11, 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

Earlier Picks

Pew Research Center:
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Steve Blank:
Financial Times:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Eugene Kim / CNBC: