Techmeme
May 18, 2021, 10:45 PM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google details Android 12's new design, based on the flexible Material You system, with better widgets and buttons, more animation, privacy features, and more  —  There are new features, but it's the biggest design update in years  —  Google is announcing the latest beta for Android 12 today …
Erik Kay / The Keyword:
Google says it's working on a new digital car key feature for Android 12 to unlock or start your car, announces Fast Pair for faster Bluetooth pairing, and more  —  Phones are at the center of our digital lives.  When purchasing a phone these days, we're buying not only a phone …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google debuts Material You design language, letting users personalize the look of apps and the OS, coming to Pixels this fall, then to Chrome OS, the web, more  —  “Material You” is Google's “radical new way to think about design.”  It's a hyper-personalized approach to designing custom appearances …
Lauren Goode / Wired:
Early look at Google's Project Starline, a video booth with a 65" display and several sensors and cameras allowing for 3D representations of video call subjects  —  Our reporter tests out a “video booth” to glimpse of the future of telepresence.  —  OVER THE PAST several years …
Scott Stein / CNET:
Google unveils Wear OS 3.0, with a revamped design and 30% performance boost, and partners with Samsung, which will use Wear OS, not Tizen, for its next watches  —  Were you considering buying a smartwatch for your Android phone?  Hold off until the fall.  Google and Samsung have announced …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is planning MacBook Pros, Airs, Mac Pros, Mac minis, and larger iMacs with faster CPUs, new IO, more; MacBook Pro could debut as soon as summer  —  - Company developing Mac Pro desktop with 40 cores, new Mac mini  — Apple plans to swap remaining Intel part with in-house design
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google unveils new features for Workspace, part of an initiative called “smart canvas”, including smart objects in Docs and deeper integration of Meet  —  Google is launching a slate of new features for its Workspace productivity suite today, starting with new “smart chips” that connect Google Docs to other products.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Google announces LaMDA, a language model for dialogue applications that it says represents a “breakthrough” for having natural conversations with AI  —  Google wants to build AI that understands language better  —  Artificial intelligence is a huge part of Google's business …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft confirms that Windows 10X won't launch in 2021 as planned, instead being integrated into parts of Windows and other products  —  Microsoft officials have admitted what leaked a week-plus ago: Its Chrome-OS competitor, Windows 10X, isn't coming.  Instead, some of the 10X technologies …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google says Duplex will help Chrome users more easily fix compromised passwords, rolling out slowly to Chrome users with limited site compatibility at first  —  Google announced a new feature for its Chrome browser today that alerts you when one of your passwords has been compromised …
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Amazon says it is extending its ban on selling facial recognition tech to police indefinitely  —  The firm said in June its freeze would last a year to ‘give Congress enough time to implement appropriate rules.’ No federal laws have been passed since.  —  Amazon is extending its global ban …
Monica Chin / The Verge:
iMac 24-inch (M1 2021) review: great CPU, sleek design, and good webcam, but limited ports, not the best value for money, can't upgrade anything after purchase  —  A new design, new processor, and new screen make for a winning combination  —  This is an iMac unlike any other iMac we've seen before …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Nvidia extends its crypto mining limits to newly manufactured GeForce RTX 3080, RTX 3070, and RTX 3060 Ti graphics cards, which will be labeled “Lite Hash Rate”  —  New Nvidia cards will be branded as Lite Hash Rate  —  Nvidia is extending its cryptocurrency mining limits …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google teams with Shopify to let Shopify's 1.7M+ merchants easily sign up to have their products appear across YouTube, Search, Maps, Images, and Lens  —  Google today announced it's partnering with Shopify, giving the e-commerce platform's over 1.7 million merchants the ability …
Carl Beekhuizen / Ethereum Blog:
Ethereum Foundation says “in the upcoming months” Ethereum will fully transition from proof-of-work to proof-of-stake, which requires far less power consumption  —  TL;DR: Ethereum will use at least ~99.95% less energy post merge.  —  Ethereum will be completing the transition …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify will auto-transcribe certain original shows in the coming weeks as part of a beta rollout of the feature that it aims to eventually enable for all shows  —  With a goal of a wider rollout  —  Spotify announced multiple updates to make its app more accessible across iOS and Android today …
Oren Naim / The Keyword:
Google is rolling out Maps updates in the coming months with new routing optimizations, enhancements for Live View, detailed street maps in 50 more cities, more  —  From the very beginning, we built Google Maps to help you connect with the real world.  In 2007, we introduced Street View …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook debuts “Live Shopping Fridays” event series, featuring brands live streaming beauty, skincare, and fashion content on a weekly basis starting May 22  —  Facebook wants to whet consumers' appetite for live streamed shopping with this week's launch of “Live Shopping Fridays” …
Bloomberg:
NYSE sets Squarespace's reference price at $50 per share for its direct listing on Wednesday, which would give the company a market value of about $6.8B  —  - Web-hosting service going public via direct listing Wednesday  — Squarespace was valued at $10 billion in March funding round

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Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security: