Techmeme
October 10, 2019, 12:10 PM

Top News

Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Apple removes app from the App Store that tracked Hong Kong police and protests after pressure from China, says it “violates our guidelines and local laws”  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Apple removed an app on Wednesday that enabled protesters in Hong Kong to track police …
Mark Kern / @grummz:
[Thread] Former World of Warcraft developer lead denounces Blizzard, says Chinese investment in game companies is silencing voices for freedom and democracy  —  This hurts. But until Blizzard reverses their decision on @blitzchungHS I am giving up playing Classic WoW, which I helped make and helped convince Blizzard to relaunch. There will be no Mark of Kern guild after all. Let me explain why I am #BoycottBlizzard
Lauren Strapagiel / BuzzFeed News:
Verna Yu / The Guardian:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Grammarly, which provides AI-based grammar and spell-checking tools, raises $90M led by General Catalyst at a $1B+ valuation, bringing its total raised to $200M  —  While attention continues to be focused on the rise and growing sophistication of voice-based interfaces …
Bloomberg:
Sources: workers in India and Romania review clips captured by customers' Amazon Cloud Cams, which are then used to train AI algorithms to detect threats  —  In a promotional video, Amazon.com Inc. says its Cloud Cam home security camera provides “everything you need to monitor your home, day or night.”
Anna Baydakova / CoinDesk:
Michael del Castillo / Forbes:
UNICEF's Office of Innovation launches crypto fund for bitcoin and ether donations, becoming the first UN agency to hold and make transactions in cryptocurrency  —  When Christina Lomazzo was a teenager, she used to hop back and forth across the U.S. Canada border for fun.
CNBC:
Shooting in Halle, Germany was livestreamed on Twitch; ~5 people watched the 35-minute video live and about 2,200 watched before it was removed in ~30 minutes  —  09 October 2019, Saxony-Anhalt, Landsberg: Police officers walk along a hedge with machine guns in their hands near Wiedersdorf/Landsberg.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook's choice to allow political ads with misinformation, while making ad details public, is not a perfect decision but it is a sensible and democratic one  —  It's a problem that needs more than a technical solution  —  If you see an ad on Facebook, should the contents of that ad be true?
Cecilia Kang / New York Times:
Mitchel Broussard / MacRumors:
Apple starts selling Microsoft's Xbox Wireless Controller on its online store for the first time  —  Apple has added the Xbox Wireless Controller to Apple.com, although the accessory is currently unavailable to purchase at the time of writing.  Apple sells a few different gaming controllers …

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