Techmeme: Apptopia: TikTok's in-app purchase revenue grew to $50M in Q4 2019, up from $20M in Q3, and was up 310% YoY (Alex Wilhelm/TechCrunch)

Top News

Google says its AI has made significant improvements at reading mammograms to detect breast cancer in a research study of images from around 90K cases — Computers that are trained to recognize patterns and interpret images may outperform humans at finding cancer on X-rays.

More: The Keyword, BBC, Input, MIT Technology Review, USA Today, Towards Data Science, BGR, Tehrani.com, TechSpot, Gizmodo, Bloomberg, ComputerWeekly.com, International Business Times, Geek.com, Axios, Business Insider, Mashable, Neowin, and ZDNet

Tweets: @nytimes, @wsj, @joehas, @natashabhuyan, @mona_sloane, @uhoelzle, @pedrocanod, and @omkar_raii

Stephanie Condon / ZDNet:

Lenovo announces ThinkSmart View, a smart display for Microsoft Teams, available this month for $349 — The new personal business communications device makes it easier for mobile workers to conduct Microsoft Teams audio and video calls. — Lenovo on Friday announced the expansion …

More: TechCrunch, Thurrott, Windows Central, CNET, The Verge, Lenovo StoryHub, PCWorld, Yahoo Finance, Neowin, MSPoweruser, WRAL TechWire, and SlashGear

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Sources: Snap has acquired Ukraine-based computer vision startup AI Factory, which helped create a Cameos feature Snapchat is currently testing, for ~$166M — After acquiring Ukraine startup Looksery in 2015 to supercharge animated selfie lenses in Snapchat — arguably changing the filters game …

More: AIN.UA, 9to5Mac, Axios, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @ingridlunden, @edbott, @sarthakgh, and @joshconstine

Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:

Apptopia: TikTok's in-app purchase revenue grew to $50M in Q4 2019, up from $20M in Q3, and was up 310% YoY — According to newly released third-party data, TikTok has reason to dance. — The famous, short-video application saw its in-app purchase revenue rise 310% on a year …

More: Threatpost, Seeking Alpha, and NullTX

Tweets: @lanceulanoff and @alex

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:

Samsung says it shipped 6.7M+ Galaxy 5G phones globally in 2019, accounting for 53.9% of the 5G phone market; Samsung had only sold 2M 5G devices as of Sept. — 2020 will be the real test for 5G devices, though — Samsung sold 6.7 million 5G phones in 2019 between the Galaxy S10 5G …

More: Samsung Mobile Press, Digital Trends, The Next Web, VentureBeat, Telecompetitor, ExtremeTech, Android Headlines, Pocket-lint, Tom's Guide, Telegraph, TechCrunch, Tom's Guide, Android Central, and CNET. Tweets: @ibd_ecarson

Zach Laidlaw / Android Police:

APK teardown reveals Galaxy S11 camera features like Director's View, Pro Video, and Bokeh Effects, and super fast charging for Fold 2, topping out at 45W — There's a certain thrill we feel when a photo of an unreleased device slides across our desks. It's new, mysterious, exciting …

More: XDA Developers, 9to5Google, Android Authority, BGR, Android Authority, Android Headlines, MobileSyrup, and SlashGear

Anna Escher / TechCrunch:

Loft, a São Paulo-based real estate marketplace for Latin America, raises $175M Series C co-led by a16z and Vulcan Capital — Loft may have better product market fit in Brazil than Opendoor does in the U.S.. And now the São Paulo-based property tech company has growth funding to prove it.

More: Business Wire, PYMNTS.com, Wall Street Journal, Crunchbase News, Contxto, FinSMEs, and Business Insider

Tweets: @annaescher and @megan_hernbroth

Cody Toombs / Android Police:

Google is ending its print-replica magazine service, launched in 2012 as the Play Magazines app, and is refunding payments to users — The venerable Egon Spangler once said, “print is dead.” The statement may have been premature, but today it feels a little more on point because Google …

More: CNET, 9to5Google, and Android Central

See also Mediagazer

Mike Masnick / Techdirt:

EU Patent Office rejects two patent applications in which AI was designated as the inventor; this is the right decision that all patent offices should emulate — We've written a bunch about why AI generated artwork should not (and need not) have any copyright at all.

More: ZDNet. Tweets: @woganmay, @glenngabe, @glynmoody, @seanmmcdonald, and @joemckendrick

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

SuperData: digital games and interactive media revenue was up 4% YoY to $120.1B in 2019, with $64.4B for mobile; Fortnite topped with $1.8B, vs. $2.4B in 2018 — The combined game industry grew 3% to $120.1 billion in 2019, according to market researcher SuperData in its year-end report.

New York Times:

A look at the optimists behind the Y2K-era Cassandra Project and how they emphasized the importance of analog community building amid technological uncertainty — For millennials, Y2K felt like an apocalypse. Twenty years later, we're still anxious.

Tweets: @jwherrman

Liam Tung / ZDNet:

Mozilla will allow all users to request the deletion of Firefox telemetry data stored on its servers in accordance with the CCPA; the feature will ship Jan. 7 — The next version of Firefox will give users a way of requesting Mozilla delete their telemetry data.

More: GeekWire, CNBC, Dark Reading, and CNET

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Google unveils the Coral Dev Board Mini, a smaller, budget alternative to the Coral Dev Board with the Edge TPU, and the Accelerator Module, available H1 2020 — Last March, Google took the wraps off of Coral, a collection of hardware kits and accessories intended to bolster AI development at the edge.

More: Google Developers Blog, Tom's Hardware, CNX Software, SiliconANGLE, and 9to5Google. Tweets: @googledevs

Steve Brooks / Enterprise Times:

Receipt Bank, a UK-based digital bookkeeping platform, raises ~$73M Series C led by Insight Partners — Receipt Bank has announced a successful $73 million Series C funding round led by Insight Partner. Receipt Bank was advised by Harris Williams. This is the second round led …

More: Business Wire, Telegraph, FinSMEs, UKTN, and EU-Startups

Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:

Dell debuts a new Latitude 9510 laptop with built-in 5G, to launch March 26, and says a spring update to its Mobile Connect software will enable iOS mirroring — Ahead of next week's CES in Las Vegas, Dell today announced two PC updates that will improve its appeal to users of mobile devices …

More: The Next Web, Bloomberg, Digital Trends, PR Newswire, Mashable, Softpedia News, O'Grady's PowerPage, LaptopMag, Windows Central, The Verge, The Mac Observer, Thurrott, TechSpot, Light Reading, BGR, WebProNews, and SiliconANGLE. Tweets: @seattletimes

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends:

Dell debuts updated XPS 13 with Intel 10th-gen processors, Intel's Iris Plus graphics, 16:10 screen, larger touchpad, available January 7 starting at $999

More: LaptopMag, Barton's Blog, Engadget, XDA Developers, Firstpost Tech, Engadget, The Verge, BetaNews, AnandTech, Ars Technica, The Next Web, Gizmodo, SlashGear, Thurrott, CNET, Windows Experience Blog, Windows Central, WebProNews, MSPoweruser, ZDNet, Tom's Hardware, LaptopMag, and Mashable

Tweets: @rjcc, @devindra, @killyourfm, @jaycuthrell, and @tomwarren. Thanks:@smashdawg

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