Techmeme
November 21, 2019, 12:10 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is overhauling how it tests software, making daily builds disable unfinished features by default, after a swarm of bugs marred the iOS 13 debut  —  Apple Inc. is overhauling how it tests software after a swarm of bugs marred the latest iPhone and iPad operating systems, according to people familiar with the shift.
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 …
New York Times:
NBC News:
President Donald Trump hosted an undisclosed dinner with Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel at the White House in October, Facebook confirmed on Wednesday  —  The meeting took place during Zuckerberg's most recent visit to Washington, where he testified before Congress about Facebook's new cryptocurrency Libra.
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Tim Cook and Apple did not correct Trump after he took credit for opening a Texas manufacturing plant that has been in operation since 2013  —  President Trump said on Wednesday that he opened a facility that makes computers for Apple.  It's been operating since 2013.
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google Duplex launches on the web as Google Assistant in Chrome, lets users buy movie tickets from 70+ cinemas and ticketing services in the US  —  At I/O 2019, Sundar Pichai announced that Google Duplex was “moving beyond voice” and coming to the web.  After publicly testing in late September …
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.
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:
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
WeWork says it is laying off around 2,400 employees globally  —  - The beleaguered office-sharing start-up is laying off 2,400 employees in an attempt to right-size the business.  — The layoffs come after several tumultuous months for WeWork, which were marred by a botched IPO …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Alphabet's Loon signs deal with Telefonica to provide internet to remote parts of the Amazon  —  Alphabet-owned Loon, the high-altitude balloon company that is using its stratospheric technology to provide internet connectivity on Earth, has signed a new commercial agreement with Telefonica-owned Internet para Todos (IpT).
More: Loon Blog, Engadget, and FierceWirelessTweets: @shiraovide
Amnesty International:
Amnesty International says Facebook and Google's omnipresent surveillance is inherently incompatible with the right to privacy and is a danger to human rights  —  Facebook and Google's omnipresent surveillance of billions of people poses a systemic threat to human rights …
Gwen Everett / Bloomberg:
Juniper Square, which operates a platform for commercial real estate investment firms, raises $75M Series C led by Redpoint Management  —  Juniper Square, a startup maker of software for commercial real estate investing, raised $75 million in a series C funding round led by venture capital firm Redpoint Management LLC.
Buster Hein / Cult of Mac:
Guilherme Rambo, who has published scoops about unreleased Apple products by examining beta software, says Apple locked his dev account with no stated reason  —  Guilherme Rambo, one of the top Apple secret-spillers, says Apple locked him out of his developer account, preventing …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Robotic process automation startup Automation Anywhere raises $290M Series B at a valuation of $6.8B, now has 3,500+ enterprise clients in 90+ countries  —  Robotic process automation (RPA), or bots that can be programmed to perform tedious and mundane tasks, is undergoing a period of explosive growth.
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 …
April Glaser / Slate:
Blind users on Facebook say they are frustrated that the platform is consistently buggy for them, and the company isn't doing enough to fix accessibility gaps  —  The social network wants to be accessible.  Blind users and former Facebook workers say it isn't doing enough.

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