Techmeme
August 20, 2019, 11:05 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is planning to roll out Apple TV+, its subscription service, by November and is considering $9.99/month pricing after a free trial  —  - Company builds array of new services to augment hardware sales  —  Apple Inc. plans to roll out the Apple TV+ movie and TV subscription service …
Financial Times:
Sources: Apple has committed $6B+ for original shows and movies, many featuring huge names, ahead of Apple TV+'s launch, expected within the next two months  —  Apple has committed more than $6bn for original shows and movies ahead of the launch of its new video streaming service …
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:
After a tip from Twitter, Facebook removes 7 Pages, 3 Groups, 5 accounts originating in China “involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior” regarding Hong Kong  —  Today, we removed seven Pages, three Groups and five Facebook accounts involved in coordinated inauthentic behavior …
Twitter:
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
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.
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.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Yubico launches USB-C and Lightning-compatible Yubikey 5Ci, with native support for iOS apps like LastPass and 1Password out of the box, for $70  —  But it won't work with USB-C iPad Pros  —  If you've wanted to just plug a physical security key into your iPhone to log into apps securely …
Maria Deutscher / SiliconANGLE:
Microsoft acquires jClarity, which provides performance tuning tools for Java developers, to help optimize Java workloads on Azure  —  Microsoft Corp. today divulged that it has acquired jClarity Ltd., a British provider of tools for Java software projects.
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Without evidence or any attempt at further explanation, Trump accuses Google of manipulating millions of votes in 2016's election, says Google “should be sued”  —  The President this morning lashed out at Google on Twitter, accusing the company of manipulating millions of votes …
Samit Sarkar / Polygon:
Sony Interactive Entertainment says it is acquiring Insomniac Games, developer of PS4 hit Marvel's Spider-Man; Insomniac to join PlayStation's Worldwide Studios  —  Developer of Ratchet & Clank, Spyro, and Marvel's Spider-Man joins the PlayStation family  —  Sony is buying Insomniac Games …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Starship Technologies, which builds autonomous sidewalk delivery robots, raises $40M Series A led by Morpheus Ventures, says it has crossed 100K deliveries  —  Starship Technologies invented the category of rolling autonomous sidewalk delivery robots, and to date, the company …
TechCrunch:
A roundup of the 84 companies that launched at Y Combinator's Summer 2019 Demo Day 1, including education, finance, AI, and AR/VR startups  —  It's that time of year, Silicon Valley's investor technocrati and advice-giving Twitter celebrities descended upon Pier 48 in San Francisco to judge …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
H2O.ai, which provides an open source machine learning platform to build smart applications, raises $72.5M led by Goldman Sachs and Ping An Global Voyager Fund  —  AI and machine learning can be complicated stuff to the layperson, yet surveys show this hasn't deterred enterprises from adopting it in droves.
More: TechCrunch and FinSMEs
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Reputation.com, formerly known as ReputationDefender, which helps businesses track and improve online reviews, raises $30M led by Ascension Ventures  —  Reputation.com (formerly ReputationDefender) is a Redwood City, California-based company that provides solutions for tracking …
More: TechCrunch
Aaron Tilley / The Information:
Bill Stasior, former longtime Apple exec who oversaw Siri, has joined Microsoft as corporate VP of technology, reporting to CTO Kevin Scott  —  Bill Stasior, the longtime former Apple executive overseeing its Siri digital assistant, has joined Microsoft, continuing a reshuffling …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Nvidia says that its GeForce Now game streaming service, which is in public beta for Mac, PC, and Shield TV, will be coming to Android later this year  —  Ahead of the next Stadia Connect livestream where Google will announce more games, Nvidia revealed that its competing GeForce Now streaming service will be coming to Android.

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