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July 23, 2020, 11:30 AM
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Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Twitter says hackers accessed the DM inbox for up to 36 of the 130 high profile accounts targeted in last week's attack  —  Last week's hack of over 100 very high-profile Twitter accounts did in fact expose the direct messages of many of those accounts, the company admitted today …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Plex launches 80+ free live TV channels accessible by both free users and subscribers with news, sports, film, classic TV, comedy, anime, and more  —  Streaming media platform Plex announced today it's further expanding into live TV with the addition of over 80 free live TV channels accessible by free users and subscribers alike.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Nvidia expressed interest about a potential deal for ARM as SoftBank explores a sale; Apple declined to pursue a bid after being approached by SoftBank  —  - SoftBank also approached Apple to gauge its interest in Arm  — Japanese group bought U.K. chip designer for $32 billion
Bill Ready / The Keyword:
Google Shopping goes commission-free for retailers and adds support for third-party providers, starting with PayPal and Shopify  —  Over the past few months, we've made significant changes to help businesses reach more consumers and help people find the best products, prices and places to buy online.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Facebook can now simulate the actions of bad actors using AI-powered bots let loose in a parallel version of Facebook that researchers can then study  —  Bad bots roam free in a parallel version of Facebook  —  Facebook's engineers have developed a new method to help them identify …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Twitter misses Q2 expectations with revenue of $683M, down 19% YoY, but reports 186M mDAUs, up 34% YoY, and ad revenue of $562M, down 23% YoY  —  - Twitter reported second-quarter earnings Thursday that missed analyst expectations on revenue, but showed strong growth in users.
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Corning announces Gorilla Glass Victus, says it can resist a six-foot drop and has twice the scratch resistance of the previous model  —  Samsung will be the first to feature the new glass  —  Your next Samsung Galaxy or iPhone may soon include the toughest gadget glass Corning has ever created.
Microsoft:
Microsoft Q4: revenue up 13% YoY to $38B, net income of $11.2B, down 15% YoY, Intelligent Cloud revenue of $13.4B, up 17%, and Azure revenue up 47%  —  Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended June 30, 2020, as compared to the corresponding period of last fiscal year:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
NY legislature passes a bill pausing use of facial recognition and other biometric ID tech in schools until 2022, the first such regulation in the US if signed  —  The New York legislature today passed a moratorium banning the use of facial recognition and other forms of biometric identification in schools until 2022.
More: Engadget and WGRZ-TV
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Pandora expands interactive voice ads in beta for more listeners and advertisers and allows free users to unlock on-demand music search with their voice  —  Pandora is expanding the scope of its interactive voice-based advertising today, launching the service in beta for more listeners and advertisers …
Lawfare:
An overview of how COVID-19 contact tracing technology has fared in the US and around the world, as contact tracing apps retreat from the spotlight in the US  —  In May of this year, Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged the United Kingdom would develop a “world beating” …
Bryan Walsh / Axios:
Facebook VP of AI Jerome Pesenti says OpenAI's GPT-3 can “easily output toxic language that propagates harmful biases”, as some critics point out issues of bias  —  While GPT-3 has earned ecstatic reviews from many experts for its capabilities, some critics have pointed out clear issues around bias.
Peter Aldhous / BuzzFeed News:
Hackers attacked GEDmatch servers and caused over 1M of its profiles to be opted-in for searching by law enforcement, which were previously opted-out  —  First GEDmatch, the DNA database that helped identify the Golden State Killer, was hacked.  Then email addresses from its users were used …
Bloomberg:
Sources: to save TikTok, ByteDance and investors are considering options like selling just TikTok's US business or splitting off ByteDance's international arm  —  - Venture investors urge Zhang to sell a majority stake in app  — Time is running short to avoid a crackdown from U.S. officials
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Facebook to pay $650M to settle a facial recognition suit in Illinois, after judge says the original settlement of $550M did not adequately punish the company  —  Facebook has agreed to pay a total of $650 million in a landmark class action lawsuit over the company's unauthorized use of facial recognition, a new court filing shows.
Tweets: @caseynewton.  Thanks:@jeffjohnroberts
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
UK-based Quantexa, which uses big data intelligence for risk analysis and investigations, raises $64.7M Series C led by Evolution Equity Partners  —  The wider field of cyber security — not just defending networks, but identifying fraudulent activity — has seen a big boost in activity in the last few months, and that's no surprise.
Christine Hall / Crunchbase News:
Cybersecurity startup CyCognito raises $30M Series B led by Accel, bringing its total raised to $53M  —  CyCognito, which helps identify and eliminate the critical security risks in an organization's IT ecosystem, secured a $30 million round of Series B funding to expand its unique approach to assessing risk.
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Sources: Facebook is preparing to limit the reach of QAnon content, with an announcement next month, and has been coordinating with Twitter and other companies  —  The company permanently suspended thousands of accounts associated with the fringe conspiracy theory movement.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:30 AM ET, July 23, 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.

From Mediagazer

David Ellison / @ellisonskydance:
David Ellison announces that the combined Paramount and Warner Bros. Discovery will be called Skydance “to preserve what has made each of these studios iconic”

New York Times:
Sources: Trump personally told his budget director to use taxpayer money for TV ads praising his presidency; at least four spots have run at a cost of ~$5.5M

Kristen Hare / Poynter:
Q&A with a co-author of a study on independent US journalism: 40% of respondents got all their income from their sites and ~80% were nearly 100% reliant on ads

More News

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
US Rep. Jim Jordan writes Democratic House leadership to call on Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey to testify at Monday's antitrust hearing with CEOs of tech giants
Karen Weise / New York Times:
Profile of Tim Bray, the former VP at Amazon who quit in May criticizing its “vein of toxicity” and who is building a business case for breaking up the company

Earlier Picks

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Apple starts giving “hacker-friendly” iPhones with a custom and more accessible iOS version to vetted researchers in the iOS Security Research Device program
Michael McSweeney / The Block:
US bank regulator grants national savings banks and federal savings associations the authority to provide cryptocurrency custody services to their customers
Ian Sherr / CNET:
Apple hires economists to help prove its App Store commissions aren't anti-competitive
April Glaser / NBC News:
Palantir's federal pandemic contracts worth $42M+ raise fears that its work sharing information with ICE makes it a poor guardian of sensitive medical records
Manuel Vonau / Android Police:
AT&T told some customers their phones are not compatible with its new network, without explicitly saying the issue may not affect them until February 2022
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