Techmeme
August 24, 2019, 3:45 AM

Top News

Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:
Academics are still waiting to receive key data originally promised in 2018 from Facebook, which has declined to provide some of the data citing privacy fears  —  In 2018, Facebook announced a partnership to provide data to academics to “help people better understand the broader impact …
Marlize van Romburgh / Silicon Valley Business Journal:
Trump's tweets “ordering” US companies to start looking for an alternative to China rattle tech stocks, with Apple closing down 4.6%, Amazon 3.1%, and AMD 7.4%  —  Shares of Apple and Silicon Valley's semiconductor companies were pummeled on Friday as President Trump responded …
Wall Street Journal:
Investigation finds 4,152 items on Amazon that were declared unsafe by federal agencies, are deceptively labeled, or are banned by regulators  —  Just like tech companies that have struggled to tackle misinformation on their platforms, Amazon has proven unable or unwilling to effectively police third-party sellers on its site
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Netflix says it is testing “Collections” on iOS that are curated by experts on the company's creative teams based on factors like genre, tone, and story line  —  Netflix is testing a new way to help users find TV shows and movies they'll want to watch with the launch of a …
Edgar Alvarez / Engadget:
A first look at the Disney+ app that Disney says will offer a heavily curated and personalized experience for users with a combination of human editors and AI  —  Disney isn't holding anything back at its D23 Expo.  The company kicked off the event on Thursday with a couple of major reveals …
Matt Kim / IGN:
Riot Games has settled for an undisclosed sum a class action lawsuit alleging gender discrimination, sexual harassment, and retaliation for speaking out  —  The suit alleged targeted discrimination against women who worked at Riot.  —  Riot Games has settled the class action lawsuit …
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
In a leaked letter from members of Twitter's Trust and Safety Council, formed in 2016 to provide outside advice on policy, some say they're being ignored  —  AT THE BEGINNING of 2016, Twitter announced some good news: the formation of the Trust and Safety Council, comprised of more than 40 outside groups …
Ayanti Bera / Reuters:
Seven top US publishers sue Audible, aiming to block the planned rollout of Captions, a new feature that shows text on screen as a book is narrated  —  (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc's (AMZN.O) Audible was sued by some of the top U.S. publishers for copyright infringement on Friday …
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Sources: Uber's $1 Safe Rides Fee, introduced in 2014, was devised primarily to add $1 of pure margin to each trip; court documents: the fee brought in ~$500M  —  The once-swaggering company is losing more money and growing more slowly than ever.  What happened?
Emma Grey Ellis / Wired:
Seattle Police Department has maintained an anti-swatting registry since last October, allowing people who fear being swatted give the police advance warning  —  SWAT TEAMS, IN full military protective gear and armed with assault rifles, are being deployed against innocent, unsuspecting citizens all over the United States.
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.
Tony Wan / EdSurge:
Educational robotic toymaker Sphero acquires littleBits, a maker of electronics building kits and instructional resources for kids  —  When Sphero laid off 45 employees in early 2018, the Boulder, Co.-based company explained the difficult decision as an effort to return its focus …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Strategy Analytics: US users upgrade smartphones after 33 months, 7% plan to spend over $1K on their next purchase, biggest barrier to 5G phones will be price  —  Several reports in the past have linked the increasing prices of smartphones to lengthening iPhone upgrade cycles.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google Photos can now search for text that appears in user images with its optical character recognition filter  —  Google Lens has a powerful optical character recognition (OCR) filter that can pull text from any image.  Available in Google Photos, the backup service this month is adding the ability to search for text in images.

Sponsor Posts

Clay:
Turn any GTM idea into reality  —  Clay helps GTM teams combine AI agents, enrichment, and intent data to move faster and turn insights into action.
Soxton:
AI-powered law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho:
Pro tips: 5 ways to simplify invoicing and payments in Zoho Books  —  Many businesses still rely on manual processes to collect payments and reconcile invoices.  This often results in delayed payments …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
The Moltbook Uprising, NVIDIA's OpenAI Pullback, Apple's Conundrum
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Lenny's Podcast:
A child psychologist's guide to working with difficult adults | Dr. Becky Kennedy
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'Flush a Radar', With Brent Simmons
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Access:
Where we'll go when the bots take over, with Sublime's Sari Azout
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Hard Fork:
Tech Grapples With ICE + Casey Tries Clawdbot, a Risky New A.I. Assistant + HatGPT
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Special Edition: Key findings from the Microsoft AI Diffusion Report
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:45 AM ET, August 24, 2019.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Annie Palmer / CNBC:
Financial Times:

Earlier Picks

Lauren Debter / Forbes:
James Loke Hale / Tubefilter:
Johana Bhuiyan / Los Angeles Times:
Wall Street Journal:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Washington Post:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: