Techmeme
August 22, 2019, 9:30 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is planning to launch Pro iPhones with three-sensor camera systems for better low-light photos and video recording, new iPads, larger MacBook Pro  —  Apple Inc. is readying a clutch of new hardware for the coming weeks and months, including “Pro” iPhones, upgrades to iPads and its largest laptop in years.
Stephen Hall / 9to5Google:
Source: Google is planning an update to the Home Mini, called the Nest Mini, with a similar form factor, wall mount, improved sound, and 3.5mm jack  —  Google plans to launch a followup to 2017's Google Home Mini with a second-generation ‘Nest Mini,’ a reliable source tells 9to5Google.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Assessing the impact of telecoms' poor privacy practices through the story of a woman stalked by a man who obtained her real-time location data from T-Mobile  —  Telecom giants are giving up customers' real-time location data to stalkers and bounty hunters.  Now, Motherboard speaks to a victim.
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Big data analytics service Splunk to acquire cloud monitoring company SignalFx for $1.05B  —  The company announced the deal along with its second quarter financial results, which topped estimates.  —  Splunk delivered better-than-expected second quarter financial results and announced …
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Eminem's publisher Eight Mile Style sues Spotify claiming copyright infringement, challenges the constitutionality of the Music Modernization Act passed in 2018  —  Eight Mile Style alleges “Lose Yourself” and many of the rapper's hits aren't licensed by the streamer.  Now comes a suit eyeing Spotify's billions.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google officially rolls out a redesign for the Play Store, using its Material design language, and creates two distinct destinations for games and apps  —  After months of waiting and temporary appearances, the Play Store Material Theme redesign is now official on Android.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, Baidu, IBM, ARM, Intel, Red Hat, and others form the Confidential Computing Consortium to promote better data security practices  —  A number of big-name tech companies — including Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, Red Hat, IBM, and Intel — are joining forces …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Microsoft contractors say they listened to recordings, including accidentally invoked ones, of Xbox users, many of them children, to improve voice command tech  —  Multiple contractors working for Microsoft explain how they listened to audio captured by Xbox consoles.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Google, Mozilla, Apple to block root certificate issued by Kazakhstan which could be used to monitor users; Microsoft says cert not in its Trusted Root Program  —  Browser makers announced they would block the Kazakhstan government's root certificate, which was designed to spy on citizens' internet usage.
Bloomberg:
Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, who led a heavily criticized unit focusing on practical AI uses, has been placed on leave for unspecified reasons  —  - Mustafa Suleyman is head of applied artifical intelligence  — He led heavily critized unit focusing on AI and healthcare
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researcher who was banned from Valve's HackerOne bug bounty program after submitting a Steam 0-day that Valve downplayed, reveals details of another Steam 0-day  —  Valve gets heavily criticized for mishandling a crucial bug report.  —  A Russian security researcher has published details about a zero-day in the Steam gaming client.
Rose Eveleth / Slate:
A look at the weird and wacky patents filed by tech companies, some seemingly unrelated to the industry, and the reasons behind filing for them  —  Companies are constantly patenting strange things they have no intention of developing.  Here's why.  —  Amazon is putting humans in cages to protect them from machines!
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Fitbit wins a Singapore government contract to provide fitness trackers for free for up to a million citizens who subscribe to the $10/month premium service  —  KEY POINTS  — Fitbit is providing devices for potentially hundreds of thousands of people in Singapore who commit to a monthly subscription.
Brian Merchant / Gizmodo:
Investigation reveals popular on-demand massage app Zeel repeatedly ignored therapists' complaints about sexual harassment and inappropriate client behavior  —  When Ilene Antelman arrived at a client's Manhattan duplex in December of 2016, she was in a good mood.

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Reuters:
John Whitehouse / Media Matters for America:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Ryan Smith / AnandTech:
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Reuters:
Nat Levy / GeekWire:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: