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August 20, 2019, 6:25 PM
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| 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.
More:
9to5Mac, AppleInsider, iMore, MacRumors, Business Insider, iPhone Hacks, Appleosophy, CCN Markets, iDownloadBlog.com, Tom's Guide, and GameSpot
Tweets: @brianmcc and @jeffbenjam
| 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 …
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Facebook, Washington Post, BuzzFeed News, New York Times, Gizmodo, Axios, Reuters, USA Today, Bloomberg, NBC News, Digital Trends, The Next Web, PYMNTS.com, The Hacker News, CNBC, Fortune, Business Insider, Facebook Developers, MSPoweruser, CNET, Engadget, The Hill, Neowin, TechCrunch, AdExchanger, and Mashable
Tweets: @fbnewsroom, @anniegaus, @mikeisaac, @rmac18, @kashhill, @gcluley, @geoffreyfowler, @itsnicolenguyen, and @rmac18
| 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.
More:
Digiday, Axios, TechSpot, Business Insider, Nieman Lab, Fast Company, Digital Trends, Variety, CNBC, Adweek, The Verge, KnowTechie, Engadget, and Business Insider
Tweets: @kerrymflynn, @hshaban, @mikeisaac, @mohammadfarooq_, @elanazak, @alexeheath, @aljwhite, @mattnavarra, @rasmus_kleis, @tonyajoriley, @bilgeebiri, and @ow
| 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 …
More:
Wall Street Journal, Facebook, Digital Trends, Politico, CNBC, Ars Technica, and Gizmodo
| 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 …
Tweets: @stratechery, @mattyglesias, @lessin, @tomgara, @stevecheney, @mattyglesias, @newsmary, @ataussig, and @patio11
| 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.
More:
The Keyword, The Verge, XDA Developers, Android Authority, CNET, Android Police, Search Engine Journal, 9to5Google, VentureBeat, Neowin, Android Beat, and Engadget. Tweets: @sundarpichai
| 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 …
More:
The Verge, Reuters, Engadget, Reuters, New York Times, PYMNTS.com, Vanity Fair, CNBC, WinBuzzer, CNBC, Telecoms.com, Marketing Land, The Register, and MacDailyNews
Tweets: @alfonslopeztena and @mshannahmurphy
| Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: |
Apple Music launches a new chart, the Shazam Discovery Top 50, powered by Shazam data and featuring songs trending in the US and 10+ other countries — Apple continues to make use of Shazam, the music recognition app it acquired for $400 million in 2018. Earlier this month …
More:
Variety, MacRumors, AppleInsider, 9to5Mac, Apple Music, Billboard, Music Business Worldwide, Engadget, Music Ally, and iMore
| Charlie Osborne / ZDNet: |
Adult website Luscious left data of 1M+ users exposed, including user email addresses, location data, the content they uploaded, liked, and shared — An open database provided full access to user emails and the content they uploaded, liked, and shared. — An adult content-sharing website …
More:
Gizmodo, vpnMentor, Forbes, Silicon Republic, and IT PRO
| Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: |
RubyGems staff found backdoors in 11 Ruby libraries, including rest-client, that could leak data and issue commands remotely, say it was abused for cryptomining — RubyGems staff have removed 18 malicious Ruby library versions that have been downloaded 3,584 times since July 8.| 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| Mark Bergen / Bloomberg: |
Sources: to satisfy regulators, YouTube officials are finalizing plans to end targeted advertisements on videos kids are likely to watch — - The solution could impact ad sales for the video giant — Groups that complained to regulators aren't satisfied by fix| Bloomberg: |
Source: the European Commission is “investigating potential anti-competitive behavior” and use of consumer data related to the Libra digital currency project — - EU sends questionnaires to groups tied to Libra proposals — Antitrust regulator cites ‘possible competition restrictions’| 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.
More:
CNBC, Macworld, Mashable, Apple, Ars Technica, MacDailyNews, Gizmodo, Digital Trends, TechCrunch, SlashGear, TidBITS, MacRumors, Market Realist, iDownloadBlog.com, KnowTechie, VentureBeat, CNET, BetaNews, and Engadget
Tweets: @tim_cook, @martinsfp, @chris_ciaccia, @genmon, and @markgurman
| Fanny Potkin / Reuters: |
Sources: WhatsApp is in talks with multiple digital payment firms in Indonesia to integrate their mobile transaction services in the country — JAKARTA (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's (FB.O) messaging service WhatsApp is in talks with multiple Indonesian digital payment firms to offer …
More:
PYMNTS.com and Tech in Asia
| 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 … | Stephen Shankland / CNET: |
Microsoft debuts a new, more stable Edge beta, available for Windows 7, Windows 10, and macOS, says 1M+ people have tried the Chromium-based Edge browser so far — Microsoft released the first beta version of its overhauled Edge web browser Tuesday — and it wants you to help squash its bugs …
More:
Engadget, Microsoft Edge Insider, The Register, Windows Central, MacRumors, MSPoweruser, Gizmodo, and The Verge
| 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.
More:
The Next Platform and SiliconANGLE
| 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 …
More:
Reuters, New York Times, The Intercept, MIT Technology Review, The Verge, Wired, BuzzFeed News, Bloomberg, USA Today, Towards Data Science, Social Media Today, and The Mac Observer
| Nathaniel Gleicher / Facebook: |
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Washington Post, Washington Post, Washington Post, and Digital Trends
Facebook: Senator Chuck Schumer. Tweets: @alexstamos, @rosenbergerlm, @mariecbaca, @repadamschiff, @hawleymo, @lhfang, and @alexstamos
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