Techmeme
October 30, 2019, 2:05 PM

Top News

New York Times:
Will Cathcart / Washington Post:
WhatsApp sues NSO Group after investigating an attack from last year that sent malware to 1,400 devices and targeted 100+ human rights defenders and journalists  —  Will Cathcart is head of WhatsApp, which is owned by Facebook.  —  In May, WhatsApp announced that we had detected and blocked …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Spotify launches a dedicated Spotify Kids app available in a beta test period in Ireland for its Spotify Premium Family plan subscribers  —  Spotify is trying to sell more multi-account family-plan subscriptions — by setting up a special “playground of sound” just for kids.
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Report: Apple will use Qualcomm's X55 5G modem in all three 2020 iPhones  —  Apple's 2020 iPhones will all use Qualcomm's newest and fastest 5G-capable modem chip, claims a new report out of Asia today.  —  Apple is expected to launch three iPhones next year in 5.4-inch, 6.1-inch, and 6.7-inch sizes.
BBC:
Facebook agrees to pay a £500K fine to the UK for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal but makes no admission of liability  —  Facebook has agreed to pay a £500,000 fine imposed by the UK's data protection watchdog for its role in the Cambridge Analytica scandal.
Peter Kafka / Vox:
HBO Max to launch in May and cost $15 a month, same as the existing HBO; AT&T plans to bundle free subscriptions for some customers of its other services  —  HBOMax, WarnerMedia's new streaming service, will feature all of HBO's shows, like Game of Thrones, plus new programing.  HBO
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Student subscribers to Apple Music, which costs $4.99 per month, will get Apple TV+ at no extra charge  —  In a surprise announcement, Apple has announced its first bundle deal for Apple TV+.  For subscribers to Apple Music on the student plan, $4.99 per month, Apple will giveaway Apple TV+ at no additional charge.
Judd Legum / Popular Information:
Facebook says it won't remove Pages promoting Daily Wire content because they're “run by real people”, but at least two are owned by Daily Wire's parent company  —  This is the online version of the Popular Information newsletter.  You can get independent accountability journalism in your inbox every week.
Stan Schroeder / Mashable:
Xiaomi's first high end smartwatch looks a lot like the Apple Watch, with a button and twisting control knob on the right side  —  Xiaomi's November 5 event is shaping up to be a pretty big one.  —  On Monday we wrote about the company's upcoming 108-megapixel phone, but now the company …
Chris Krycho:
The current state of Apple's developer documentation, in which many parts of the ecosystem are entirely undocumented, is shocking  —  If you want developers to love your platform, then you need to take this seriously.  If it isn't documented, it isn't done.
Jason Gurwin / The Streamable:
Sony says it will shut down its PlayStation Vue live TV subscription service on January 30  —  After much reports about trying to find a buyer, it seems that PlayStation Vue has decided to shut down the service instead.  The service, which launched in 2015, was one of the first Live TV Streaming Services …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
Generate Sample Data the Way You Want It Using AI, for Free  —  Finding good sample data is harder than it should be.If you've ever tried to test a dashboard, build a demo, or train a team on an analytics tool, you know the drill.
IDrive:
IDrive Autonomy: low-cost L2+ driver assistance with AI  —  L2+ driver assistance with a scalable AI stack built for automotive companies and laying the foundation for the autonomous future.

Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
The A.I. Mob That Attacked Hugging Face + METR's Ajeya Cotra
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Cloudflare CEO: We're Ready To Block Millions of Websites From AI — With Matthew Prince
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Data Centers, Elon Musk, and the New Politics of Tech, with David Weigel
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Sam Altman on OpenAI's next model and the AI backlash
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Brian Singerman from GPx
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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 2:05 PM ET, October 30, 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

Emily Stewart / Vox:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Alfred Ng / CNET:
Brendan Sinclair / GamesIndustry.biz: