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November 20, 2019, 10:35 PM
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Top News

Scott Spencer / The Keyword:
Google announces new political ad rules, limits microtargeting to age, gender, and general location categories, will start enforcing them in UK within a week  —  We're proud that people around the world use Google to find relevant information about elections and that candidates use Google …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
PayPal to acquire Honey, a comparison shopping and rewards platform that has 17M MAUs, for ~$4B  —  PayPal announced today it has agreed to acquire Honey Science Corporation, the makers of a deal-finding browser add-on and mobile application, for $4 billion, mostly cash.
New York Times:
Google has hired IRI Consultants, an anti-union consulting company, signaling the feud between some activist employees and management has escalated  —  After nearly two years of unrest, the company appears to be cracking down on employee activism.  —  Google has hired an anti-union consulting firm …
Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:
Uber plans to test letting riders and drivers in the US record audio of their trips “soon”, as a similar pilot program debuts next month in Brazil and Mexico  —  Uber plans to record audio during rides in the United States as part of a new security feature, its latest push …
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Uber has been testing video recording of some trips in Texas, Florida, and Tennessee since July; riders, drivers can send video to Uber after safety incidents  —  The company says it is increasing the recording of rides to settle disputes between drivers and passengers and to improve safety.
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Sonos has acquired voice assistant startup Snips for $37M, says it has sold 6.1M speakers in 2019, reports fiscal Q4 revenue of $294.2M, up 8% YoY  —  The company grew its 2019 revenue by 11%, but saw losses rise in Q4 due to increased R&D spending  —  Smart speaker maker Sonos is getting ready …
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
On-demand transcription service Rev faces backlash from its contractors after cutting their take to 30 cents for each dollar spent on some jobs, from 45 cents  —  Rev was just a small start-up offering online transcriptions.  Now it's the latest symbol of a gig-economy company whose workers are fed up.
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Apple says it has begun construction of its $1B Austin, Texas campus, opening in 2022, as Trump tours the nearby Mac Pro production plant  —  Apple has announced that it has begun construction of its new Austin, Texas, campus, on the day that President Trump is due to tour the Mac Pro production line a short distance away.
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Researchers find bugs in Google and Samsung camera apps from before July 2019 that could record video, take pictures, and extract GPS data without permission  —  A new vulnerability has been found in the Camera apps for millions, if not hundreds of millions, of Android devices that could allow …
Jake Bright / TechCrunch:
After converting to a for-profit status, Samasource raises $14.8M Series A for its AI data annotation service used by companies like Google and Walmart  —  AI training data provider Samasource has raised a $14.8 million Series A funding round led by Ridge Ventures.
Joel Marcey / Facebook Developers:
Facebook makes Visual Studio Code its default internal development environment, partners with Microsoft on tools to let devs do remote development at scale  —  History  —  Facebook engineers have written millions of lines of code.  There is no mandated development environment.  Some developers use vim.
Jay Peters / The Verge:
Google launches Google Earth tools that let users create and present virtual tours, with attached text, images, and videos, for specific places  —  It's like a homemade guided tour  —  Today, Google is adding new tools to Google Earth on the web that let you build your own tour of a place right on top of the Google Earth map.
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Apple launches Apple Music for Business, letting businesses play music in retail locations with Apple providing human-curated playlists and recommendations  —  Apple Music is now partnering with businesses to play music at retail stores.  In a partnership with PlayNetwork …
Crystal Tse / Bloomberg:
Canaan, the China-based maker of Bitcoin mining machines, prices its US IPO at the bottom of the range at $9 per share, raising $90M  —  Canaan Inc., a maker of Bitcoin mining machines, raised $90 million after pricing its U.S. initial public offering at the bottom of its marketed range.
Angelica Mari / ZDNet:
WhatsApp says it has banned more than 400,000 accounts between August 15 and October 28, 2018, during Brazil's general election  —  The information was submitted by the messaging app as part of ongoing investigations into the spread of fake news.  —  Messaging app WhatsApp reported banning …
More: Engadget
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple launches $129 Smart Battery Cases for the iPhone 11, 11 Pro, and 11 Pro Max, now with a physical button that launches the camera app  —  Apple today launched new battery cases for the iPhone 11, iPhone 11 Pro, and iPhone 11 Pro Max, with the new cases available for $129.

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From Mediagazer

Jessica Toonkel / Wall Street Journal:
A look at Comcast co-CEO Brian Roberts' earlier bundling strategy for connectivity and content, and his plan now to unbundle in order to keep growing

Associated Press:
After a short-term hold, SCOTUS denies former Fox News reporter Catherine Herridge's bid to stay an $800-a-day fine if she refuses to reveal a source

Charlotte Tobitt / Press Gazette:
A photographer sues The Daily Mail in New York over “systematic” lifting of thousands of images from social media without permission from copyright holders

More News

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Alibaba has raised ~$11.2B in its Hong Kong share sale, after pricing 500M new shares at HK$176, in one of the largest equity offerings this year
Brad Templeton / Forbes:
NTSB finds Uber's safety driver the primary cause of fatal Tempe crash, also blames lack of “safety culture” at Uber; AI not detecting jaywalkers played no role
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Malware that steals cryptocurrency found embedded in some versions of Monero's official client app available on its site; Monero team says it is investigating
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google announces Your News Update, an Assistant-powered audio feature that chooses stories based on interests, location, and more, available first in the US
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Microsoft claims 20M DAUs for Teams, up from 13M in July, extending its lead over Slack, which in October said it had 12M; Slack closes down 8.35%
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