Techmeme
November 12, 2019, 4:15 PM

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram debuts Reels, a TikTok-style video remix feature, which lets you make 15-second video clips set to music and share them as Stories, in Brazil  —  Instagram is launching a video-music remix feature to  —  finally fight back against Chinese social rival TikTok.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Facebook unveils Facebook Pay, which will work on Facebook, Messenger, Instagram, and WhatsApp, to let users shop, donate to causes, send money to friends, more  —  Facebook Pay arrives just weeks after payment companies dropped out of Libra  —  Facebook is launching a new payments system today, appropriately named Facebook Pay.
Alfred Ng / CNET:
Facebook's iOS app accesses the camera as users scroll their feeds; a workaround is to revoke the app's camera permissions; Facebook says it's fixing the bug  —  Some people have complained that their cameras got turned on while they were looking through Facebook's app.
Frank Pallotta / CNN:
Disney+ spokesperson acknowledges service issues on launch day, saying consumer demand exceeded “high expectations”, as users complain that they can't connect  —  New York (CNN Business)Disney+ launched to much fanfare on Tuesday, and then immediately hit some bumps.
Cherlynn Low / Engadget:
Snap Spectacles 3 review: stylish design, sturdy build, comfortable fit, clever and fun 3D filters, convenient video capture, but expensive, not water resistant  —  In case you've forgotten, Snap makes video-recording sunglasses called Spectacles.  The first two iterations didn't do very well …
Reuters:
Microsoft says it will honor California's digital privacy law throughout the US; source: CCPA offers special treatment to “service providers” like Microsoft  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Microsoft Corp said in a blog post on Monday that it would honor California's privacy law …
Taylor Lorenz / New York Times:
A look at @BallerBusters, an Instagram account that calls out people who pretend to be wealthier than they are to hawk dubious mentorship or online classes  —  It's easy to look successful on Instagram.  Now, getting caught out is easy too.  —  In February, an Instagram account called …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Whoop, which makes fitness trackers and provides performance metrics for athletes, raises $55M Series D, bringing its total raised to $100M+  —  On the heels of Google buying Fitbit for $2.1 billion, another player in wearables and health technology has picked up a big round of growth funding to continue expanding its business.
Michael Hayes / OneZero:
How some police departments in the US conduct facial recognition searches on behalf of other jurisdictions, boosting access to the tech and evading local laws  —  “Do not mention FITlist.”  —  ver the last decade, large police forces in Washington state like the Seattle Police Department …
Bijan Stephen / The Verge:
Twitch Studio, the company's live streaming software, is now in open beta for PC users  —  The streaming site's first software product is now available to everyone  —  Twitch Studio — the broadcasting software the live-streaming site debuted back in August to a select group of users — is now open to the public.
Farah Elbahrawy / Bloomberg:
TruKKer, a UAE-based on-demand trucking platform, has raised $23M Series A led by Saudi Technology Ventures  —  - The $23 million Series A one of the largest on record for MENA  — Trukker founded in Abu Dhabi in 2016 cross-border cargo  —  Trukker, a digital marketplace …
More: wamda
Thomas Ohr / EU-Startups:
CoachHub, the Berlin-based digital coaching platform, raises €10M from existing investors HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Partech, and others  —  The digital coaching platform CoachHub has raised a €10 million funding round, from existing investors HV Holtzbrinck Ventures, Partech and Speedinvest and new investor RTP Global.
More: Tech.eu and FinSMEs
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Blaize, which custom-designs AI chips with a new graph streaming architecture, emerges from stealth with $87M raised over several rounds  —  There's booming demand for silicon custom-designed to accelerate AI workloads, as the gobs of cash raised by startups like Hailo Technologies, Graphcore, and Untether AI demonstrates.

Sponsor Posts

Okara:
Meet Okara, the AI platform that doesn't train on your data  —  Chat with 30+ open-source models (Llama, Kimi, Qwen, DeepSeek) through encrypted infrastructure.  Used by teams handling proprietary code and strategy.
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:
Zoho Office Integrator 2025: An overview of the features we added throughout the year  —  Wishing you all a very happy and prosperous new year!  When we stepped into 2025, our goal was to empower you to edit one of the most popular document formats: PDFs.
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:
Qualcomm CEO Cristiano Amon: Future Of AI Devices, AI Fashion, Blending Reality and Computing
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.
The Social Radars:
Christina Cacioppo, Founder & CEO, Vanta
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Invest Like the Best:
Patrick O'Shaughnessy - Creating on Principle
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The non-technical PM's guide to building with Cursor | Zevi Arnovitz (Meta)
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.
Hard Fork:
Jonathan Haidt Strikes Again + What You Vibecoded + An Update on the Forkiverse
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 4:15 PM ET, November 12, 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

Adam Satariano / New York Times:
Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Rob Copeland / Wall Street Journal:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Axios: