Techmeme
May 7, 2020, 8:30 PM

Top News

Ari Levy / CNBC:
Zoom is acquiring Keybase, a 25-person startup, to add end-to-end encryption to video calls, the first acquisition in the company's nine-year history  —  - Zoom is acquiring Keybase, a 25-person start-up in New York, to add end-to-end encryption to video calls.
Isabelle Kirkwood / BetaKit:
Alphabet's Sidewalk Labs says it will no longer pursue its smart city project at Quayside in Toronto due to “unprecedented economic uncertainty”  —  Sidewalk Labs has announced it will no longer pursue its project at Quayside in Toronto.  The company noted the decision was due to the current …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google brings all of its messaging and communication apps under a single team to be led by Javier Soltero, who is VP and GM of G Suite  —  Integration isn't on the roadmap, but coherency may be  —  In October of last year, Google hired Javier Soltero to be the VP and GM of G Suite …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
A Facebook SDK crash caused iOS apps like TikTok and Venmo to crash on Wednesday, showing the need for Apple to sandbox third-party SDKs from an app's own code  —  Facebook's near-ubiquitous SDK broke yesterday, taking major mobile apps with it  —  Sometime around 6:30PM ET on May 6th …
James Vincent / The Verge:
Google updates its Lens app for iOS and Android to let users copy and paste some handwritten text to Chrome, read text aloud, and provide information on words  —  If you handwriting is neat enough  —  Google has added a very useful feature to Google Lens, its multipurpose object recognition tool.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Google expands Read Along, its Android app that uses AI to help children read via verbal and visual feedback in nine languages, from India to 180+ countries  —  Google today launched Read Along, an Android app that taps AI and machine learning to help children learn to read by providing verbal and visual feedback.
Frank X. Shaw / Microsoft on the Issues:
Microsoft communications VP, Frank Shaw, says Amazon has filed another protest against Microsoft's JEDI deal, this time out of public view, directly with DoD  —  Many years ago when I was on active duty as a Marine officer in the 1980s, I went through cold weather training carrying …
Dana Wollman / Engadget:
Apple MacBook Pro 13-inch review: nice display, lovely keyboard, and great performance, but models with 10th-gen Intel CPUs are pricey and it can get hot  —  I had a feeling I'd be reviewing a new 13-inch MacBook Pro sooner rather than later.  When Apple refreshed the MacBook Air back in March …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Uber leads a $170M investment in Lime, with Bain Capital Ventures, Alphabet, and GV participating, and will transfer its Jump scooter division to Lime  —  - Uber is leading a $170 million investment round in Lime, the companies announced Thursday.  — Uber will transfer its own electric bike …
Owen Churchill / South China Morning Post:
Citizen Lab: WeChat screens overseas users for sensitive content, which it then bars from being viewed by Chinese accounts  —  Research group Citizen Lab finds WeChat screens overseas users for sensitive content, which it then bars from being received by Chinese accounts Findings are likely …
Lora Kolodny / CNBC:
Uber reports Q1 revenue of $3.54B, up 14% YoY, gross bookings of $15.8B, up 8%, net loss of $2.9B; rides gross bookings fell 5%, Eats bookings were up 52% YoY  —  - Ride-hailing giant Uber reports first-quarter results Thursday after the bell.  — This week, Uber laid off about 14% …
Brittany A. Roston / SlashGear:
Smart home company Wink to require users pay a $4.99 monthly subscription fee starting May 13, or device automations and accessibility via app will be disabled  —  Smart home company Wink has made a surprising and heavily criticized announcement: it will soon charge a monthly subscription fee.
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Square launches Online Checkout to let sellers accept card payments without having to build an entire online store  —  Square is introducing a new payment tool designed for small businesses looking to rapidly transition to ecommerce.  —  With billions of people around the world forced …
New York Times:
Israeli security company says hackers linked to the Chinese military have used Aria-body, a cyberattack tool, on governments and firms in Australia and SE Asia  —  An Israeli security company said the hacking software, called Aria-body, had been deployed against governments and state-owned companies in Australia and Southeast Asia.
Apple:
Apple awards $10M from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund to COPAN Diagnostics, a leader in COVID-19 sample collection kit production  —  Cupertino, California — Apple today announced it is awarding $10 million from its Advanced Manufacturing Fund to COPAN Diagnostics, a market leader …
Matt Brian / Engadget:
UK broadband provider Virgin Media and telecom operator O2 announce a £31B merger in an effort to take on BT, Sky, and Vodafone in the country  —  The rumors were true: UK broadband provider Virgin Media and telecoms operator O2 are to merge, their parent companies confirmed today.

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.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Zoho:
Introduction: Zoho Notebook now imports and transcribes your call recordings automatically from Zoho apps  —  Does your team run on Zoho's call and meeting apps?  That's where decisions get made, plans come together, and work actually moves forward.
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.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
How The AI Bet Pays Off + AI Lab Strategy Game — With David Cahn
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Oliver Darcy on Status, Bari Weiss, and Why Media Reporters Are Too Soft
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Training Data:
Chai Discovery's Bitter Lesson: Drug Design Is Another Scaling Problem
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:
Gavin Baker - AI Market Jitters
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
This CPO regrets that product management exists | Tom Verrilli (CPO of Whatnot)
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.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:30 PM ET, May 7, 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

Kate Conger / New York Times:

Earlier Picks

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
David Kaye / Just Security: