Techmeme
December 1, 2020, 5:55 PM

Top News

TechCrunch:
Salesforce announces it's buying Slack in a $27.7B deal  —  Salesforce, the CRM powerhouse that recently surpassed $20 billion in annual revenue, announced today it is wading deeper into enterprise social by acquiring Slack in a $27.7 billion megadeal.  —  Every worker at every company needs …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Amazon launches EC2 Mac instances, bringing Intel-based Mac minis to its cloud for $1.083 per hour billed by the second  —  AWS today opened its re:Invent conference with a surprise announcement: the company is bringing the Mac mini to its cloud.  These new EC2 Mac instances, as AWS calls them, are now available in preview.
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
AWS announces Babelfish for Aurora PostgreSQL, which aims to make it easier and cheaper for Microsoft SQL Server users to migrate to the AWS cloud  —  AWS today announced a new database product that is clearly meant to go after Microsoft's SQL Server and make it easier — and cheaper — for SQL Server users to migrate to the AWS cloud.
BBC:
Facebook's Oversight Board takes up first cases for review, all involving decisions to remove user content, says users have submitted 20K cases since Oct. 2020  —  Facebook's Oversight Board has chosen its first batch of cases to review.  —  All involve decisions originally made by the platform to remove user content.
Reuters:
Sources: Samsung may discontinue Galaxy Note next year, reflecting the sharp drop in demand for high-end smartphones due to the pandemic  —  SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd may discontinue its premium Galaxy Note phone next year, sources with knowledge of the matter said …
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft will remove user names from Productivity Score feature after a privacy backlash, says Microsoft 365 will only aggregate data at the organization level  —  Microsoft says it will make changes in its new Productivity Score feature, including removing the ability for companies to see data …
Shara Tibken / CNET:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Libra Association is rebranding to Diem, distancing itself from the initial Facebook-led vision debuted last year, ahead of its expected 2021 stablecoin launch  —  The Libra Association put together by Facebook last year is rebranding in further efforts to distance itself from the original Facebook-led vision rolled out last year.
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
HPE announces it will relocate its headquarters from San Jose, CA, to Houston, TX, that it's constructing a new campus there, and no layoffs come with the move  —  - Hewlett Packard Enterprise is relocating its headquarters to Houston, Texas.  — The company is currently constructing a new campus.
CNBC:
Amazon says 2020's holiday shopping season has been its biggest ever, with independent sellers reaching $4.8B+ in worldwide sales over the weekend, up 60% YoY  —  - Amazon has announced that this year's holiday shopping season has been the biggest in its history.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft Teams adds support for answering calls via Apple CarPlay, transferring calls between mobile and desktop, and adding call recordings to OneDrive  —  Microsoft Teams will soon let you transfer calls easily between desktop and mobile  —  Microsoft is overhauling its calling features inside Microsoft Teams today.
Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal:
Reddit says it averaged 52M DAUs in October, up 44% YoY, disclosing the metric for the first time; ad revenue hit $100M+ in 2019, on track to rise 70%+ in 2020  —  The disclosure comes as the tech company pursues new advertisers  —  Reddit Inc. said it averaged 52 million daily active users in October …
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Wyze unveils a $20 smartwatch with nine-day battery life and heart rate and blood oxygen tracking but no GPS support, slated to ship in February 2021  —  With heart rate and blood oxygen saturation tracking  —  Wyze, the smart home company best known for its range of budget internet-connected …

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Earlier Picks

Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Eric Geller / Politico:
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors: