Techmeme
November 4, 2019, 6:45 PM

Top News

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Researchers show that they can use lasers to send commands to smart speakers, tablets, and phones via Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant from far away  —  By pointing lasers tuned to a precise frequency at a smart assistant, researchers could force it to unlock cars, open garage doors, and more.
Antonio Lucio / Facebook:
Facebook debuts logo with text that has context-dependent coloring, says it's to further distinguish the company from the Facebook app, which keeps its branding  —  Facebook started as a single app.  Now, 15 years later, we offer a suite of products that help people connect to their friends and family …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Apple:
Apple announces a $2.5B plan to combat the housing availability and affordability crisis in California  —  Cupertino, California — Apple today announced a comprehensive $2.5 billion plan to help address the housing availability and affordability crisis in California.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft launches Office app on iOS and Android, combining Word, Excel, PowerPoint functionality into one app, expanding from initial debut with Galaxy Note10  —  Microsoft is looking for new ways to encourage people to use Office apps on their mobile phones by combining lightweight versions of the core apps into a single app.
Imran Hussain / Wccftech:
Photoshop for iPad is now available in the App Store, with full PSD editing, layers, context-aware tools, and more, for $9.99 per month and a 30-day free trial  —  Adobe has finally released the first version of Photoshop for iPad.  The update is available as a 30-day trial …
Dami Lee / The Verge:
Adobe says it is developing Illustrator for iPad, which will include the core tools alongside new tools made for touch, to be released by the end of 2020  —  The long-awaited Photoshop for iPad is available to download today, and to keep the momentum going, Adobe is announcing that it's …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google Play Points, which rewards Android users with store credit or discounts for buying content like apps and movies, expands to the US from Japan and S.Korea  —  Google Play is launching a new rewards program, Googe Play Points, that will allow you to earn points for everything …
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Microsoft's Chromium-based Edge browser to be generally available on Jan. 15, with new privacy features including InPrivate browsing and tracking prevention  —  After launching a beta test for the new Chromium Edge in September, Microsoft is now gearing up to officially launch the browser on January 15th, 2020.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft debuts Project Cortex, a new Office 365 service for knowledge management that uses machine learning to classify documents into topics and collections  —  At its annual Ignite IT conference in Orlando, Florida, Microsoft today announced Project Cortex, its first new commercial product since the launch of Teams.
Uber:
Uber reports Q3 revenue of $3.8B, up 30% YoY, gross bookings of $16.5B, up 29%, net loss of $1.2B; Uber Eats revenue up 64% to $645M; stock down 5%+ after hours  —  Revenue of $3.8 billion, with growth accelerating to 30% year-over-year, or 31% on a constant currency basis
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
1,100+ Googlers sign a letter asking Google to commit to eliminating its carbon footprint by 2030 and stop working with orgs harming climate change refugees  —  Google employees announced a campaign today to push the company to eliminate its massive carbon footprint by 2030.  —  OLLY CURTIS/FUTURE VIA GETTY IMAGES
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Netflix added a button to skip the politics segments of Seth Meyers' new comedy special “Lobby Baby”, following a request from the comedian  —  Using Netflix's technology to make the joke land  —  Chances are, if someone is tuning into Seth Meyers' new stand-up special on Netflix …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google News for Android and iOS adds an option to show stories for up to two languages and regions  —  In recent years, Google has strived to make its products work better internationally.  Google News for Android and iOS now supports bilingual feeds to show stories for up to two “languages & regions of interest.”
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
iOS 13.2 and iPadOS 13.2 seem to terminate apps in the background far more aggressively, hurting the multitasking experience, especially on the iPad  —  A growing number of iPhone and iPad users have complained about poor RAM management on iOS 13 and iPadOS 13, leading to apps like Safari …
Dami Lee / The Verge:
Adobe releases Aero, its free iOS app to let designers build AR experiences without coding knowledge via imported files from Dimension and Photoshop  —  Only available on iOS for now  —  Adobe is releasing its augmented reality app Aero today at its annual Max conference.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Build AI that works  —  Tribe builds tech for top AI companies.  Get in touch to learn how our bench of 500+ engineers and researchers can accelerate your roadmap.
Kulkan Security:
Hire Kulkan as your penetration testing partner  —  Kulkan prioritizes deep-dive manual security reviews, dissecting your software and infrastructure to find issues that once remediated can truly reduce security risk.
Zoho:
Environmental impact of remote support: Reducing carbon footprints in IT  —  Information technology is essential for powering core business processes and facilitating communication.
Mastodon:
Donate to Mastodon  —  Mastodon gGmbH, the non-profit behind the open-source software powering the social web, relies entirely on support from users like you.  Donate directly with a credit card or through Patreon.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Magatte Wade, Unlocking Prosperity in Africa (#53)
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 04/19 - All The News About Llama 3
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:45 PM ET, November 4, 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

Adobe Newsroom:
BuzzFeed News:

Earlier Picks

Paul Vigna / Wall Street Journal:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat: