Techmeme
January 29, 2020, 7:40 PM

Top News

Facebook:
Facebook reports Q4 revenue of $21.1B, up 25% YoY, and net income of $7.4B, up 7% YoY; DAUs rose 9% YoY to 1.66B, MAUs rose 8% YoY to 2.5B; stock drops 5%+  —  Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) today reported financial results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2019.
New York Times:
Facebook agrees to pay $550M to settle a class action over Illinois biometric law violations while tagging users in photos, after SCOTUS rejected its appeal  —  It was another black mark on the privacy record of the social network, which also reported its quarterly earnings.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Q2: revenue of $36.9B, up 14% YoY, net income of $11.6B, up 38% YoY; Commercial Cloud revenue up 39% YoY to $12.5B; Office 365 Consumer subs hit 37.2M  —  Microsoft Commercial Strength Powers Second Quarter Results REDMOND, Wash. — January 29, 2020 — Microsoft Corp. today announced …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Kuo outlines Apple's H1 2020: 4.7" iPhone, “AirTags” trackers, smaller wireless charging mat, high-end headphones, and refreshed iPad Pro, MacBook Pro or Air  —  Apple plans to release several new products in the first half of 2020, including Ultra Wideband tags …
Katy Stech Ferek / Wall Street Journal:
US Interior Department introduces a no-fly rule for its ~800 drones that were made in China or have Chinese parts, with some exceptions, amid espionage concerns  —  Order reflects concern that data collected ‘could be valuable to foreign entities’  —  WASHINGTON—Interior Department officials plan …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google says in 2019 its bug bounty program paid 461 security researchers $6.5M, up from $3.4M to 317 researchers in 2018  —  Google today announced it has paid out over $21 million since launching its bug bounty program in November 2010.  In the past year alone, the company distributed $6.5 million …
Shara Tibken / CNET:
Apple addresses Wuhan coronavirus concerns, offers wider than usual Q2 revenue estimates, says it closed one retail store in China, slightly delayed production  —  Apple has suppliers in the Wuhan area of China, and it has taken precautions like closing one store in China and reducing hours at other retail locations.
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Ben Parker / The New Humanitarian:
Report: UN did not tell the public nor its general staff about a hacking attack into its IT systems from last July, despite staff records being compromised  —  About this investigation: … GENEVA  —  The UN did not publicly disclose a major hacking attack into its IT systems in Europe …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Study that looked at 72M YouTube comments across 330,925 videos finds evidence of radicalization effect on users that leads them to extreme far-right content  —  Research presented at the ACM FAT 2020 conference in Barcelona today supports the notion that YouTube's platform is playing a role …
Bill Budington / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
Ring app on Android covertly sends personally identifiable information of users to third parties including Facebook and MixPanel  —  Ring isn't just a product that allows users to surveil their neighbors.  The company also uses it to surveil its customers.
Babu Mohan / Android Central:
Samsung says the 5G version of its Galaxy Tab S6, which it claims is the world's first 5G tablet, is available now in South Korea for $850  —  It will only be sold in South Korea, at least initially.  —  What you need to know  — Samsung today unveiled a variant of the Galaxy Tab S6 with 5G connectivity.
Matina Stevis-Gridneff / New York Times:
Despite US pressure, the EU told member states they should limit “high risk” 5G vendors, like Huawei, but did not recommend a total ban  —  The bloc's experts suggested members limit and monitor the involvement of “high-risk” vendors as they invest in next-generation mobile communications infrastructure.
Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian:
Investigation: in 2019, Trump's marketing campaign spent ~$20M on 218K+ Facebook ads targeting conservatives with marketing ploys designed to harvest user data  —  A Guardian investigation of 218,100 ads reveals how the campaign's sophisticated social media machine targets conservative voters
Shoshana Wodinsky / Gizmodo:
Facebook's Off-Facebook Activity tool won't actually clear the data collected about you from other apps and sites, only its connection to your Facebook account  —  When we talk about Facebook's myriad foibles and fuckups, we're usually laying the blame on things that happen within the Big Blue App …

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Zoho:
Ask an Expert: How to effectively recover stuck TDS refunds with reduced TDS reconciliation time  —  The 26AS/Form 168 gets updated quarterly and often gets checked only during the time of ITR filing.
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.
Soxton:
Fast, affordable 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!

Featured Podcasts

Training Data:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Andrew Huberman - The Frontier of Neurotechnology
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Big Technology Podcast:
Who Wins The AI Assistant Wars? + Why Didn't Google Build Muse?
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.
Sources:
Reflection's founders on building a DeepSeek of the West
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Grit:
How Vercel Is Rethinking Go-to-Market With AI | COO Jeanne Grosser
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
OpenAI's Head of ChatGPT: We're entering a new era of AI (again) | Tibo Sottiaux
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:40 PM ET, January 29, 2020.

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

Earlier Picks

Dhruv Mehrotra / Gizmodo:
Dara Kerr / CNET:
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security: