Techmeme
August 11, 2020, 6:25 PM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google is partnering with USGS and creating a worldwide, Android phone-powered opt-in earthquake alert system using phone accelerometers  —  Google is creating a worldwide, Android phone-powered earthquake alert system.  The first part of that system is rolling out today.
Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo:
Google announces new features in its computer vision Lookout app, like document scanning, an Android Auto refresh, and Bedtime mode is no longer Pixel-exclusive  —  Ahead of the upcoming official release of Android 11, Google is pushing out a few updates to all Android phones …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft commits to launching the Xbox Series X in the month of November and will delay Halo Infinite until 2021  —  Halo Infinite will not be available until 2021  —  Microsoft is committing to launching its next-generation Xbox Series X console in November.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Mozilla says it plans to lay off around 250 employees and is closing the company's current operations in Taipei, Taiwan  —  The changes come as the Mozilla Corporation looks to invest in more revenue-generating projects like its recently announced VPN.  —  Joseph Cox
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it removed 22.5M posts for violating hate speech policies in Q2, up 2x from Q1, and that 95% of the violations were caught using automated systems  —  - Hate speech removal has jumped nearly 10-fold since 2018  — Facebook to undergo third party audit for content in 2021
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Clearview AI has hired pre-eminent First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, who plans to assert a free-speech right to disseminate publicly available photos  —  Clearview AI has hired Floyd Abrams, a top lawyer, to help fight claims that selling its data to law enforcement agencies violates privacy laws.
Bloomberg Law:
US appeals court throws out a 2019 antitrust ruling against Qualcomm and its licensing practices in a case brought by the FTC  —  Listen  —  Qualcomm Inc. persuaded a U.S. appeals court to set aside a 2019 ruling that cast a pall over its licensing business and threatened to upend the smartphone industry.
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
MicroStrategy buys ~$250M in bitcoin, becoming the first publicly traded company to buy the currency as part of its capital allocation strategy  —  MicroStrategy, the Nasdaq-listed business intelligence company, has become the first publicly-traded company to buy bitcoin as part of its capital allocation strategy.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
LinkedIn says it has sold presentation-sharing service SlideShare to Scribd, which will take over its operation on September 24  —  SlideShare has a new owner, with LinkedIn selling the presentation-sharing service to Scribd for an undisclosed price.  —  According to LinkedIn …
Sam Nussey / Reuters:
SoftBank reports quarterly net profit of ~$12B, up 12% YoY, and a $2.8B gain in Vision Fund; by July, Vision Fund's $75.2B in investments was worth $71.5B  —  TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp broke with tradition on Tuesday and declined to disclose operating profit in its quarterly results …
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Sources: about a month before BigCommerce's successful IPO, Intuit offered to buy the company for $1.5B  —  - Intuit offered to buy BigCommerce for $1.5 billion about a month before the e-commerce software company's IPO.  — BigCommerce opted to go public instead, and the stock jumped over 200% in its debut last week.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
HMD Global, maker of Nokia-branded phones, raises $230M Series A2 from strategic investors including Google, Nokia, and Qualcomm  —  Its latest cash injection is notable both for its size (HMD claims it as the third largest funding round in Europe this year); and the profile …
Samuel Axon / Ars Technica:
Parallels Desktop 16 adds support for Big Sur, 3D in Metal, and zoom and rotate gestures on multitouch trackpads, and claims 20% faster DirectX performance  —  Windows on Apple Silicon is still a question mark, though.  —  Parallels Desktop 16 launched on the Mac today.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Pinterest says it is expanding its skin tone search tool, which uses machine vision to sort beauty-related pins and debuted in US in 2018, to five more markets  —  Users can filter by skin tone to get more relevant results  —  Pinterest is upgrading its skin tone search feature …
More: VentureBeatThanks:@malliegator
Lauren Clark / Official Google India Blog:
Google rolls out virtual business cards for Google Search in India with links to user's website, social media profiles and, optionally, phone number and email  —  If you search for famous people on Google, it's easy to find information about well-known personalities: search their names …

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle  —  Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify.  Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.
Zoho:
Contract Signed.  Project Ready.  Tasks Created.  —  Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms.  But for most businesses …
Bitrix24:
Bitrix24 powers the next generation of high-performing businesses  —  Chat, projects, CRM, and automation — all in one place.  Replace dozens of tools so your team moves faster, collaborates smarter, and grows effortlessly.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box 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:
AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers
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:
"Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw
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.
Hard Fork:
OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why LinkedIn is turning PMs into AI-powered "full stack builders" | Tomer Cohen (LinkedIn CPO)
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 6:25 PM ET, August 11, 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

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Matthew Keys / The Desk:
Bloomberg:
Juli Clover / MacRumors: