Techmeme
August 20, 2019, 6:25 PM

Top News

Jeff Benjamin / 9to5Mac:
Hands-on with an early preview of Apple Arcade, which will reportedly cost $4.99/month, and some early-access trial games on macOS  —  Today I was able to go hands-on with an early preview of Apple Arcade, which Apple announced back during its March services-oriented event.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
After announcing the Clear History privacy tool over a year ago, Facebook finally begins rolling it out in Ireland, South Korea, and Spain  —  But the United States isn't one of them  —  It was nearly a year and a half ago that Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, standing onstage …
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Facebook to hire a small team of journalists to curate a Top News section in its upcoming news tab, which it plans to release as a test before the year-end  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has long relied on algorithms to select news stories for its users to see.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook debuts first findings from conservative bias audit led by former GOP senator, says it influenced policy changes like creating a content oversight board  —  Facebook will release the findings of a roughly year-long conservative bias audit Tuesday, along with changes to its advertising policies …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Pre-IPO analysis of WeWork, comparing its huge capital needs and other issues to its bull case, that it can overcome commoditization of its space like AWS did  —  There is a reason — beyond the fact it is August — that WeWork's upcoming IPO has driven so much discussion …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Go, the lightweight search app that takes up only ~7MB of phone storage, launches to Android users worldwide, is optimized to save about 40% on data  —  Google Go, a lightweight version of Google's search app, is today becoming available to all Android users worldwide.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: a group of as many as 20 states will launch a joint antitrust investigation of big tech companies as soon as next month  —  Investigation would put additional scrutiny on an industry already under a federal spotlight  —  WASHINGTON—A group of states is preparing to move forward …
Todd Feathers / VICE:
As ~20 US states use AI to grade standardized test student essays, a look at the problematic practice that has little oversight, misses nuance, introduces bias  —  Fooled by gibberish and highly susceptible to human bias, automated essay-scoring systems are being increasingly adopted, a Motherboard investigation has found
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple announces that Apple Card is now available to all iPhone users in the United States, with a 3% cashback offer for Uber and Uber Eats  —  Apple today announced that Apple Card is available to everyone in the United States from today.  To sign up, simply open the Wallet app on your iPhone and begin the application process.
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Sources: a slew of staff have left Apple's health unit as some feel it could be tackling more ambitious projects but is limited to wellness and prevention goals  —  KEY POINTS  — The company has described health care as one of its focus areas, with CEO Tim Cook noting that he hopes …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Homeis, a social network for immigrant communities and expats, raises $12M Series A led by Canaan and Spark Capital  —  Immigrating to a new country is not easy.  Culture shock is all too common for the hundreds of millions who leave their birthplace each year in search of better opportunities …
More: FinSMEs, CNN, and PE Hub Blog
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
IBM open sources the Power Instruction Set Architecture, which is used for its Power Series chips, and moves its OpenPower Foundation to The Linux Foundation  —  IBM makes the Power Series chips, and as part of that has open sourced some of the underlying technologies to encourage wider use of these chips.
Twitter:
Twitter says it proactively suspended ~200K “spammy” accounts, before they became “substantially active”, alongside its initial ban of 936 China-linked accounts  —  We are disclosing a significant state-backed information operation focused on the situation in Hong Kong …
Nathaniel Gleicher / Facebook:

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