Techmeme
August 22, 2019, 8:30 PM

Top News

Sameer Samat / The Keyword:
Google stops using dessert-themed names for Android for better worldwide accessibility, names Android Q Android 10, and refreshes Android brand logo and color  —  Over the last decade, Android's open platform has created a thriving community of manufacturers and developers that reach a global audience with their devices and apps.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is planning to launch Pro iPhones with three-sensor camera systems for better low-light, new iPads, and a 16-inch MacBook Pro next month  —  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.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: News Corp is developing a news-aggregation service called Knewz, to address publisher concerns about Google and Facebook  —  Knewz.com will surface articles from hundreds of news sources, using software and human curation  —  News Corp is developing a news-aggregation service meant …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google's Chrome team proposes new privacy and anti-fingerprinting open standard to make it harder for marketers and advertisers to track users across the web  —  Google today announced a new long-term initiative that, if fully realized, will make it harder for online marketers and advertisers to track you across the web.
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Google says it has shut down 210 YouTube channels after it found they had been tied to misinformation about Hong Kong protesters  —  KEY POINTS  — In a blog post Thursday, Google said it axed more than 200 YouTube channels due to misinformation around Hong Kong protests.
ProPublica:
Interviews with 36+ DOD and tech officials shed light on tech giants' fight for $10B Pentagon JEDI cloud contract using backdoor lobbying and an advisory board  —  Tech moguls like Jeff Bezos and Eric Schmidt have gotten unprecedented access to the Pentagon.  And one whistleblower who raised flags has paid the price.
CNBC:
Overstock CEO Partick Byrne has resigned from the e-commerce company after his comments about being involved in a “Deep State” investigation of 2016 election  —  - Overstock CEO Partick Byrne has resigned from the e-commerce company after making controversial comments about his role in the “Deep State.”
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
AT&T, Comcast, Sprint, Verizon, T-Mobile, and seven other US carriers announce an agreement with 51 attorneys general to implement new tech to block robocalls  —  Twelve of the country's largest telephone companies on Thursday pledged to implement new technology to spot and block robocalls …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
DoorDash announces a new tipping policy that will let drivers keep 100% of tips, rolling out next month, and pledges to bump up base pay across the board  —  The changes are arriving a month after DoorDash's CEO promised to address the issue  —  DoorDash today announced more concrete details …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
HP says its CEO Dion Weisler will step down and Enrique Lores, president of HP's imaging, printing, and solutions business, will become new CEO from November 1  —  KEY POINTS  — HP CEO Dion Weisler will step down from the company “due to a family health matter,” HP announced Thursday.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Cities are paying companies like Host Compliance to be “Airbnb Police” and find real addresses of vacation rentals to enforce short term rental legislation  —  In response to a need to enforce short term rental legislation, an industry of companies has popped up tasked with finding …
Nitasha Tiku / Wired:
Girls Who Code study of 1,000 young women highlights the challenges faced when seeking internships, often an unpleasant experience in a male-dominated workplace  —  IN 2018, MEI'LANI Eyre, an 18-year-old computer science student at Cascadia College in Washington state, was in the middle …
Washington Post:
Palantir's revenue from US government contracts under Trump surpassed its total under Obama's second term, as sources describe staff debates about work with ICE  —  After Google dropped a defense contract over employee pressure, Palantir's leaders doubled down on controversial work with the U.S. government
Facebook Technology:
A look at Oculus Insight, Facebook's technology that makes inside-out VR tracking on Oculus Quest and Rift S headsets possible  —  VR hardware was tethered to a PC — until one Facebook engineering team found a way to cut the cord  —  When Anna Kozminski joined Facebook as a software program manager …
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Users whose accounts have been disabled by Facebook say the opaque review process, the endless wait, and the inability to contact an employee can be maddening  —  For a decade, Christopher Reeves, an Uber driver in Seattle, used Facebook for everything: talking with friends, communicating with fellow drivers, meeting singles.
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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Earlier Picks

Joseph Cox / VICE:
Mehreen Khan / Financial Times: