Techmeme: Expedia CEO Mark Okerstrom and CFO Alan Pickerill are stepping down, with day-to-day work taken up by Chairman Barry Diller, after a disagreement over strategy (Annie Palmer/CNBC)

Top News

Paresh Dave / Reuters:

Instagram says it will now require birthdates from new users, in order to improve safety features for minors and better target ads for age-restricted products — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's Instagram said it will require birthdates from all new users starting on Wednesday …

More: Instagram, Digital Trends, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, The Hill, TechCrunch, KnowTechie, MSPoweruser, Neowin, CNET, Engadget, The Verge, CNET, and BBC

Tweets: @timmarchman, @chrismessina, @tomgara, @wongmjane, @sarahfrier, @wongmjane, and @karissabe

Jason Schreier / Kotaku:

Sources: Microsoft is planning a cheaper, disc-free Xbox, codenamed Lockhart, to go alongside its high-end Project Scarlett console — In June, Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, a new iteration of the Xbox that the company said would “set a new bar for console power, speed and performance.”

More: CNET, GeekWire, Business Insider, The Verge, Engadget, Thurrott, Digital Trends, IGN, Tom's Guide, Gamasutra, TechSpot, BGR, Geek.com, Windows Central, VG247, USgamer.net, Wccftech, Neowin, OnMSFT.com, Gematsu, GamesIndustry.biz, TweakTown News, SlashGear, and MSPoweruser

Tweets: @tomwarren, @smetaldave64, @balroggameroom, @tomwarren, @jasonschreier, and @benjisales

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

BMW reverses its decision to charge $80/year for Apple's CarPlay, saying it will offer it free in some models and for a one-off $300 fee in others — BMW in early 2018 decided to begin offering BMW customers CarPlay access for a subscription fee rather than a one-time fee …

More: Autocar, The Verge, 9to5Mac, Ars Technica, Engadget, autoblog.com, AppleInsider, and Cult of Mac. Tweets: @ianstechyt

Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:

An in-depth look at Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 865 and 765 chips, and why Snapdragon 865 does not come with an integrated 5G modem — We're here in Maui for the second day of Qualcomm's fourth annual Snapdragon summit, for what is probably the most exciting part of the event …

More: PCMag, MacRumors, Android Police, AppleInsider, iMore, Engadget, 9to5Mac, SiliconANGLE, Digital Trends, VentureBeat, The Verge, Gizmodo, ZDNet, and Wired

Tweets: @ryansmithat, @rdrv3, @markhachman, @horwitz, and @horwitz. Thanks:@iancutress

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Plex launches a free, ad-supported streaming service featuring thousands of movies and shows from studios like MGM, available in ~220 countries — Plex today is launching its own ad-supported streaming service, a rival to The Roku Channel, Tubi, Crackle, Vudu's Movies on Us …

More: Plex, 9to5Mac, Digital Trends, The Streamable, Android Police, Android Authority, Gizmodo, TechSpot, The Verge, and Windows Central. Tweets: @film_girl

See also Mediagazer

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Language learning app Duolingo raises $30M Series F from Alphabet's CapitalG at a $1.5B valuation, more than double the valuation from its 2017 Series E — Popular language learning app Duolingo has raised $30 million in a series F round of funding from Alphabet's investment arm CapitalG.

More: CNBC, Pittsburgh Business Journal, EdSurge, and Axios

Tweets: @chrisbriem and @stevecase

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Reddit publishes its 2019 retrospective: 430M MAUs, up 30% YoY, with 199M posts, 1.7B comments, and 32B upvotes; Bill Gates AMA had the most upvotes with 110K — In a year-end retrospective released this morning, Reddit says its user base grew 30% this year to reach 430 million monthly active users, as of the end of October.

More: Upvoted, CNET, Mashable, Digital Trends, and Business Insider

Tweets: @reddit, @brianmanzullo, and @davidspinks

Abner Li / 9to5Google:

Google says Focus mode, a Digital Wellbeing feature for Android that mutes notifications, is rolling out to Android 9 and 10 users — At I/O 2019 in May, Google announced the latest Digital Wellbeing features to build on last year's initial launch. In testing for the past several months …

More: The Keyword, TechCrunch, Engadget, Digital Trends, Android Police, Business Insider, The Verge, Thurrott, MSPoweruser, CNET, and XDA Developers

Annie Palmer / CNBC:

Expedia CEO Mark Okerstrom and CFO Alan Pickerill are stepping down, with day-to-day work taken up by Chairman Barry Diller, after a disagreement over strategy — KEY POINTS — Expedia announced Wednesday that CEO Mark Okerstrom and CFO Alan Pickerill are stepping down from their roles at the company.

More: Expedia Inc. MediaRoom, ZDNet, Bloomberg, PYMNTS.com, GeekWire, Reuters, and Business Insider

Caroline Haskins / VICE:

Internal and public documents portray efforts by Amazon's Ring to entice police with parties and batches of 40+ free Ring doorbells for promoting the service — This is the second of a three-part series exploring how Ring transformed from start-up pitch to the technology powering Amazon's …

More: The Verge and New York Post

Tweets: @jason_koebler, @jason_koebler, @carolineha_, @katiedrumm, @josephfcox, @jason_koebler, and @acluofil

Victoria Song / Gizmodo:

Craigslist, which launched in 1995, finally gets an official app, available now on iOS and in beta on Android — Craigslist has long been a staple of the internet since it first launched in 1995—but surprisingly, it hasn't had an official app in the decade or so since the smartphone era began.

More: GeekWire, iMore, KnowTechie, TechCrunch, Cult of Mac, Droid Life, and Mashable

Tweets: @jowens510, @nathanblawrence, and @caseynewton

Fair Tax Mark:

Fair Tax Mark report on Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, and Netflix over the past decade finds they have collectively avoided $100B+ in taxes — The Fair Tax Mark will later this week release a new report, The Silicon Six and their $100 billion global tax gap …

More: CNBC, Cult of Mac, and Wccftech. Tweets: @fairtaxmark

Manish Singh / TechCrunch:

Amazon launches a battery-powered portable Echo speaker in India with an enclosed 4,800mAh battery, claims up to 10 hours of continuous music playback — After launching nearly a dozen Echo speaker models in India in two years, Amazon said on Wednesday it is adding a new variant to the mix …

More: GeekWire, Engadget, TechSpot, International Business Times, Gizchina, XDA Developers, Android Central, Android Police, Tom's Guide, iPhone Hacks, TechHive, Cult of Mac, Mashable, Thurrott, BetaNews, Pocket-lint, PhoneArena, Digital Trends, and The Verge

Tweets: @davezatz and @tech2eets

Li Yuan / New York Times:

Huawei's reputation in China, once unimpeachable, has been dented by a labor dispute over severance pay with an employee, who was recently freed from jail — When an executive wrote about her house arrest in Canada, an outcry about a former employee's treatment arose on social media.

More: Foreign Policy. Tweets: @liyuan6, @kenroth, @liyuan6, @maryhui, and @nytimes

Newley Purnell / Wall Street Journal:

India, which is increasingly trying to shelter local companies, has erected regulatory hurdles over the past year for how US tech firms operate in the country — New barriers make world's biggest untapped digital market a slog for Walmart, Facebook; taking cues from China's protectionism

More: Politico. Tweets: @ericbellmanwsj, @wsj, @viditb, @arifcrafiq, @dericsayers, @matthausk, @hoofnagle, and @parmy. Thanks:@newley

TechCrunch:

SEC filing: Sequoia Capital has raised nearly $1B for later-stage US investments and ~$2.4B for venture and growth deals in China — Noted Silicon Valley venture capital fund Sequoia Capital has raised nearly $1 billion for later-stage U.S. investments and roughly $2.4 billion for venture …

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

Sources: Facebook's NPE team is exploring the creation of apps for podcasts, travel, workplace services, and newsletters, although these may never be released — The social network is exploring new product areas through a team dedicated to building the company's future.

Tweets: @ceciliakang, @puiwingtam, and @caseynewton

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Kustomer, an omnichannel CRM platform for enterprise customer service, raises $60M Series E led by Coatue, bringing its total raised to ~$173M — Kustomer, a CRM startup that's taking on the likes of Zendesk, Salesforce, and many other bigger and older providers, has closed yet another round of funding …

More: SiliconANGLE, VentureBeat, and FinSMEs

Todd Feathers / VICE:

A look at the problems caused by spyware on student devices, marketed as a way to prevent shootings, without any independent research to support the claims — It was another sleepy board of education meeting in Woodbridge, N.J. The board gave out student commendations and presented budget requests.

Tweets: @josephfcox and @vice

Will Oremus / OneZero:

A study by Avaaz may have overstated the problem of false stories on Facebook, but it also revealed cracks, loopholes, and limitations in Facebook's systems — And in 2021. And 2022. — hree and a half years after the pope endorsed President Donald Trump (or didn't), Facebook has put in a lot of work to clean up its News Feed.

Tweets: @jake_hanrahan, @willoremus, @willoremus, @moonalice, @willoremus, @willoremus, @profgalloway, and @willoremus

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