Techmeme
June 6, 2019, 11:15 PM

Top News

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Google to buy data analytics startup Looker for $2.6B in cash, Google Cloud's first major acquisition under new CEO Thomas Kurian  —  KEY POINTS  — The acquisition of Looker is the first major acquisition under former Oracle executive Thomas Kurian  —  Thomas Kurian, CEO of Google Cloud …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Google Stadia details: pre-order now, coming in Nov. with $130 Founder's Edition, subscription costs $10/month not including extra games, and free tier in 2020  —  Today, Google has revealed the key details that were conspicuously missing from its March announcement of the new Stadia game streaming service.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: WarnerMedia abandons plan for a three-tiered streaming service, will likely package HBO, Cinemax, and the Warner Bros. library together for $16-$17/mo  —  New package is expected to include HBO, Cinemax and Warner Bros. content for barely more than HBO's current streaming service
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
FCC votes unanimously to let carriers block robocalls by default and advances proposed rule for carriers to adopt SHAKEN/STIR caller ID system  —  The FCC voted to give cell providers explicit permission to do stop the madness  —  The FCC voted unanimously today to allow carriers …
Samantha Cole / VICE:
Ring is using a video captured by one of its doorbell cameras of a woman, whom cops suspect is a petty thief, in Facebook ads that ask users to identify her  —  Ring, Amazon's doorbell company, posted a video of a woman suspected of a crime and asked users to call the cops with information.
Steven Zheng / The Block:
New York Times:
US election laws, which prohibit companies from providing candidates services at a discount, are hampering cybersecurity work, a weakness for 2020 campaigns  —  One year out from the 2020 elections, presidential candidates face legal roadblocks to acquiring the tools and assistance necessary …
Ian Sherr / CNET:
How YouTube gaming commentators use anger to gain views on their videos, which researchers and some YouTubers say are amplified by YouTube's recommendations  —  How to make a successful video on one of the internet's most popular sites:  —  Step 1: Find something to be angry about.
Financial Times:
A close look at Russia's plan for a “sovereign internet”, which aims to use deep packet inspection for censorship and a backup domain name system  —  Thousands of protesters had gathered outside government headquarters in Magas, the capital of the heavily Muslim republic of Ingushetia in Russia's north Caucasus.
More: Wired
Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:
Microsoft has pulled its facial recognition database, MS Celeb, which contained 10M+ images of ~100K individuals scraped under the Creative Commons license  —  Microsoft has quietly pulled from the internet its database of 10m faces, which has been used to train facial recognition systems around the world …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Barack and Michelle Obama's company, Higher Ground Productions, strikes a multiyear deal with Spotify to produce exclusive podcasts for the platform  —  NY Digital Editor @https://twitter.com/xpangler FOLLOW  — YouTube Says It's Reviewing Harassment Policies, After It Condoned Sustained Attacks on Gay Latino Journalist
Shivani Vora / New York Times:
Uber debuts Uber Copter, a helicopter service starting July 9 in New York, to ferry customers between Lower Manhattan and JFK for $200-$225 per person  —  For an 8-minute, one-way flight, the average ride will cost between $200 and $225 per person and include private ground transportation on both ends of the trip.
Del Harvey / Twitter:
Twitter simplifies the language for its rules and reorganizes them into three high-level categories: safety, privacy, and authenticity  —  Our rules exist to help keep everyone using Twitter safe and ensure they can participate freely in the public conversation.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
YouTube updates guidelines to ban videos that promote the superiority of any group to justify discrimination, resulting in the removal of thousands of channels  —  YouTube is trying to reduce the prevalence of extremist content on the platform  —  YouTube is changing its community guidelines …
YouTube Blog:
Kelly Weill / The Daily Beast:

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
We can build it.  Can we judge it?  —  As agentic AI shortens the path from idea to shipped code, journey evaluation becomes a critical design skill.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Map My Client Location for Zoho CRM  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
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

Big Technology Podcast:
Google's Potential, AI Money Spigot Shutting?, PHP Bug & Cybersecurity's "Black October"
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.
Machine Gods:
Fired OpenAI Safety Researchers Speak Out + We Look Inside Pandora's Box
The official podcast of the singularity, from Casey Newton and Kevin Roose. Twice-weekly news, analysis, and interviews with the people who are building the future.
Subscribe to Machine Gods.
The Upstarts Podcast:
The Parking Startup That Swallowed A 100-Year-Old Giant | Metropolis CEO Alex Israel
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Great Chat:
AI's Spooky Season
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.
Sources:
Sundar Pichai on what's next for Google Gemini, Waymo, and data centers in space
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Netflix in Turmoil + Derek Thompson on AI & The Antisocial Century
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:15 PM ET, June 6, 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

Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic: