Techmeme: CBS All Access and Showtime have 11M subscribers; Pluto TV had 22.4M MAUs in Q4 2019, up 75% YoY; revenue from all three hit $1.6 billion in 2019 (Cynthia Littleton/Variety)

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Shopify says it will join the Libra Association, contributing financially and operating a node that processes transactions of Facebook's stablecoin — After eBay, Visa, Stripe, and other high-profile departures, the Libra Association scored a win today with the addition of Shopify.

More: Shopify's pressreleases, BetaKit, CNBC, CNET, Decrypt, The Market Refresh, CoinDesk, Modern Consensus, Forbes, Yahoo Finance, Reuters, Crypto Briefing, The Daily Hodl, PaymentsSource, BitcoinExchangeGuide, CryptoGlobe, Cointelegraph, Finextra, The Block, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @davidmarcus, @caseynewton, @forbescrypto, @libra_, @zachary, and @mdudas. Thanks:@joshconstine

Joseph Cox / VICE:

WhatsApp lets some invite links for group chats, that the members may want to keep private, to be indexed by search engines like Google, allowing anyone to join — Google is indexing invite links to WhatsApp group chats whose administrators may want to be private.

More: XDA Developers, The Verge, Android Authority, Neowin, 🛡️ …, Android Central, Wccftech, and MSPoweruser

Tweets: @josephfcox, @dannysullivan, @josephfcox, @wongmjane, and @glenngabe

Jon Porter / The Verge:

Google says that from August 3 all new Google Play apps that access background location will need to pass review, expanding to all existing apps on November 3 — Apps will face a new review process to enable the feature — Google is placing new restrictions on which Android apps can track …

More: Android Developers Blog, Ars Technica, Gizmodo, ZDNet, Android Central, CNET, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechRadar.com, and SlashGear

Tweets: @stuartathompson, @webster, and @jonporty

John D. McKinnon / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Google is resisting efforts to surrender emails, texts, and other documents sought by state investigators probing anticompetitive digital-ad practices — Company is reluctant to surrender some documents in investigation of possible anticompetitive practices

More: The Hill, Input, New York Post, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @gregbensinger, @yost4ohio, @jbflint, @jason_kint, @asharma, and @rstephens

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Samsung Galaxy Z Flip review: the best hinge on a folding phone so far but the screen's plastic covering scratches easily and the cameras are disappointing — Even with a glass screen, it's just a curiosity — Samsung's brand-new Galaxy Z Flip is the third folding screen phone that I've reviewed.

More: Gizmodo, BGR, Engadget, and iPhone in Canada Blog

Tweets: @jentrification, @reckless, @reagangomez, and @backlon

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

MIT researchers say they used AI to discover new potent antibiotics that treat drug-resistant diseases — Machine learning uncovers potent new drug able to kill 35 powerful bacteria — Artificial intelligence has been used to discover new antibiotics effective against untreatable diseases …

More: The Guardian, MIT News, TechSpot, The Next Web, and Newser

Tweets: @popeguilty, @josephflaherty, @omkar_raii, @grady_booch, and @stephenmcgann

Christopher Dring / GamesIndustry.biz:

Sony and Facebook say they will not attend Game Developers Conference this year due to coronavirus concerns; Facebook to make Oculus announcements online — Oculus announcements will now take place online — PlayStation and Facebook Gaming/Oculus will not be attending …

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Shogun, which helps e-commerce brands build faster websites, has raised $10M Series A, led by Initialized Capital with participation from VMG Partners and YC — Amazon may have a market cap of more than $1 trillion, but Finbarr Taylor, CEO of Y Combinator-backed startup Shogun, said the e-commerce giant is “kind of dropping the ball.”

Tweets: @rishmishra and @garrytan

Cynthia Littleton / Variety:

CBS All Access and Showtime have 11M subscribers; Pluto TV had 22.4M MAUs in Q4 2019, up 75% YoY; revenue from all three hit $1.6 billion in 2019 — CBS All Access and Showtime are on track to garner a combined 16 million subscribers by year's end, ViacomCBS CEO Bob Bakish told investors Thursday.

More: Deadline. Tweets: @xpangler, @xpangler, and @anibundel

See also Mediagazer

Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:

Lyft has acquired Halo Cars, a small startup that lets ride-hailing drivers earn money via ad displays mounted atop their cars — Lyft has acquired Halo Cars, a small startup that lets ride-hailing drivers earn money via ad displays mounted atop their cars. Lyft confirmed the deal but declined to share any details.

More: Seeking Alpha

Julia Boorstin / CNBC:

Source: Facebook considers transparency measures around posts from political campaign staffers, due to concerns around Bloomberg campaign's use of its platform — - Facebook is considering ways to show when a paid campaign staffer shares a political post on the site.

More: Market Realist and Yahoo Finance

FinSMEs:

Feather, an NY-based furniture subscription service, raises $30M Series B led by Cobalt Capital with Kleiner Perkins, YC, SV Angel, and others participating — Feather, a New York, NY - based next-generation furniture rental service, closed a $30M Series B funding.

Jay Peters / The Verge:

Facebook will pay users up to $5 for voice recordings via its Viewpoints app to improve its speech recognition tech; recordings won't be tied to user profiles — But it won't pay much — Facebook will offer to pay some users for voice recordings that will be used to help improve …

More: KnowTechie, The Next Web, International Business Times, BetaNews, TechSpot, Tom's Guide, Digital Trends, SlashGear, BGR, and Engadget

Tweets: @brianroemmele, @shiraovide, @leimer, @yoda, @nathanblawrence, @thirdrowtesla, and @mattnavarra

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft announces Defender ATP for Linux, will offer the antivirus software for Android and iOS later this year as part of its enterprise security platform — New Defender mobile apps will be available later this year — Microsoft is planning to bring its Defender antivirus software to Android and iOS later this year.

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Volocopter, which aims to develop an autonomous air taxi service, extends its Series C by another €37M, taking the round total to €87M — Volocopter, a German company that's developing autonomous electric takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft for commercial air taxi services …

More: SiliconANGLE, FinSMEs, and EU-Startups

Nico Grant / Bloomberg:

Sources: around 300 workers at Oracle offices around the world walked out on Thursday to protest Larry Ellison's fundraiser for Trump on Wednesday — - Chairman's fundraiser for Trump re-election sparked anger — Activism more muted than at tech companies like Google

More: Ars Technica, TechRadar.com, Axios, and Protocol

Tweets: @teddyschleifer, @nicoagrant, and @thekenyeung

Malathi Nayak / Bloomberg:

Trump administration urges Supreme Court to reject Alphabet's appeal against Oracle, on the same day Trump attended a re-election fundraiser by Larry Ellison

More: The Hill and MSPoweruser

Tweets: @boltyboy, @michaelrkytch, and @campuscodi

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