Note: Techmeme is hiring part-time editors. Go here to apply, or tell a friend!
|
January 23, 2019, 12:45 PM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Chris Welch / The Verge: |
Google launches YouTube TV in 95 new US markets, says it now covers 98% of US households — 98 percent of US households are covered as of today, with the rest coming soon — YouTube TV is finally nearing nationwide availability. The streaming TV service first launched in February 2017 … | Reuters: |
Waymo to invest $13.6M in a factory for level 4 autonomous cars in Michigan, partnering with Magna to install Waymo's self-driving system in cars made by others — (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's Waymo self-driving vehicle unit said on Tuesday it plans to build a plant in Michigan to transform vehicles …
More:
Waymo, Engadget, Detroit Free Press, Axios, Associated Press, Silicon Valley Business …, SiliconANGLE, Business Insider, TechCrunch, Neowin, 9to5Google, SlashGear, VentureBeat, The Verge, CNET, Forbes, Mashable, MIT Technology Review, Detroit News, and Reuters
Tweets: @tombamonte and @waymo
| Sean Scott / Day One: |
Amazon says it is field testing Amazon Scout, a small autonomous six-wheeled delivery robot, in Snohomish County, Washington — Field testing a new delivery system with Amazon Scout. — At Amazon, we continually invest in new technologies to benefit customers.
More:
The Verge and CNBC
Tweets: @shiraovide, @davechensky, @olivercameron, @jyarow, and @davegershgorn
| Jim Waterson / The Guardian: |
Microsoft is automatically installing NewsGuard, a plug-in that guides users on which news websites can be trusted, on mobile versions of its Edge browser — Mail Online rated one out of five for credibility by new feature to fight fake news — Microsoft's internet browser is warning users …
More:
The Verge, GeekWire, BBC, BetaNews, Thurrott, Inquirer, Engadget, OnMSFT.com, TechSpot, and MacRumors
Tweets: @bbctech, @shoaibmkhan, @stopfundinghate, and @adrianweckler
| Liz Alderman / New York Times: |
Despite Bitcoin's dive, thousands of Georgians have sold cars to buy computers to mine Bitcoin; ~10% of the country's energy output goes into mining Bitcoin — Tax breaks, land deals and cheap energy have spurred cryptocurrency mining in Georgia, which wants to be a digital data leader.
Tweets: @nytimesbusiness, @nytimesbusiness, @nytimesbusiness, and @dealbook
| Steven T. Wright / Ars Technica: |
A look at the history of LiveJournal, the early blogging platform that boasted 10M+ accounts at its height but faltered after questionable business decisions — George RR Martin's platform switch reminds us of an early blogging giant greatly changed. — Last April, famed writer …
More:
Silicon Florist and Boing Boing
Tweets: @alicetiara, @mightyodango, @sparklystuff, @q0rtz, @anildash, @curacosmica, @ohthatflo, @szechuan, and @jmatwood
| GSMArena.com: |
Meizu announces Zero, a smartphone with no ports, physical buttons, or SIM card slot; instead it has eSIM support and 18-watt fast wireless charging — The Meizu Zero is here - the world's first phone without physical buttons, speaker cutout and even without a USB port for conventional wired charging.
More:
9to5Google, The Verge, Android Authority, Engadget, Android Beat, PhoneArena, Gizmochina, and Gizchina
| Chris Welch / The Verge: |
After Netflix price hikes, Hulu will lower the price of its base, ad-supported subscription plan to $5.99/mo, down from the current $7.99/mo, starting Feb. 26 — The core service is getting cheaper, but live TV now costs more — Hulu just announced that it will lower the price of its base … | Shona Ghosh / Business Insider: |
Candy Ventures acquires AR startup Blippar, which went into administration last month after raising $130M+, and will reform it as a new business with same CEO — - British property tycoon Nick Candy has bought Blippar, the augmented reality startup which collapsed late last year.
More:
TechCrunch, Tech.eu, Business Insider, VentureBeat, TechCrunch, and Telegraph
| Alex Konrad / Forbes: |
Confluent, the company behind open source streaming data project Apache Kafka, raises $125M Series D led by Sequoia Capital, source says at a $2.5B valuation — Open source software has produced a new multi-billion-dollar company - one that has some of Silicon Valley's best-known venture firms jockeying …
More:
SiliconANGLE, TechCrunch, Business Wire, Confluent, and Index Ventures
| Jon Fingas / Engadget: |
Twitter begins limited rollout of a new web interface with a two-column layout, keyboard shortcuts, a dedicated emoji button, and a revised trends section — Don't be surprised if Twitter looks very different on the web in the near future. The social network has started rolling … | Sam Levin / The Guardian: |
US DoL files complaint against Oracle for discrimination against women and people of color, seeks $400M+ for workers who have suffered pay inequities — US labor department accuses company of rampant exclusion of black and Hispanic people in hiring and higher pay for white men
More:
Bloomberg Law, CNBC, SiliconANGLE, CNET, TechCrunch, Associated Press, Wired, Silicon Valley Business …, Fortune, Axios, and Mercury News
Tweets: @usatodaymoney, @nitashatiku, @ekp, @wired, @terencehyland, @hassankanu, @boxall, @wired, @emilychangtv, @scottthurm, @scottthurm, and @nitashatiku
| Josh Constine / TechCrunch: |
Anchorage, which holds and safeguards crypto assets for institutions, comes out of stealth after raising $17M Series A led by Andreessen Horowitz — I'm not allowed to tell you exactly how Anchorage keeps rich institutions from being robbed of their cryptocurrency, but the off-the-record demo was damn impressive.| Alex Hern / The Guardian: |
Consumer finance journalist Martin Lewis drops his lawsuit against Facebook over scam ads, after the company agrees to donate £3M to set up an anti-scam project — Consumer finance journalist drops action as firm agrees to give £3m to anti-scam project
More:
MoneySavingExpert and TechCrunch
| Jordan Crook / TechCrunch: |
Electric.ai, the NYC startup that helps companies automate their IT support services via a chat-based service, has raised $25M Series B round led by GGV — Electric.ai, the NY-based startup that offers chat-based IT support, has announced the close of a $25 million Series B round led by GGV.
More:
FinSMEs, VentureBeat, and Crunchbase News
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Alexa AI scientists describe in a paper a technique that uses millions of unannotated interactions with Amazon's voice assistant to reduce NLP error rate by 8% — Developing an AI system capable of understanding natural language isn't just time-consuming — it's really expensive.| Anthony D'Alessandro / Deadline: |
The Motion Picture Association of America has added Netflix as a member, the first internet-based service to be added — UPDATED with Netflix officially joining: It's official, Netflix is a member of the MPAA. The Washington, DC-based organization just dropped the following release:
More:
Hollywood Reporter, MPAA, MediaNama, Engadget, SlashGear, The Verge, CNBC, TechSpot, iPhone in Canada Blog, TechCrunch, and Politico
Tweets: @lucas_shaw, @pameladaym, @charlierivkin, @great_katzby, @great_katzby, @politico, and @politico
| Paresh Dave / Reuters: |
Google spent $21.2M on US govt lobbying in 2018, up from $18.04M in 2017; Facebook spent $12.62M, up from $11.51M; and Microsoft spent $9.52M, up from $8.5M — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Alphabet Inc's (GOOGL.O) Google disclosed on Tuesday that it spent a company-record $21.2 million on lobbying … | Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
Google will retire classic Hangouts for G Suite customers in October, after its previous announcement that Hangouts would be split into Hangouts Chat, Meet apps — Google announced in March 2017 that it would split Hangouts, its cross-platform messaging service, into two core apps …
More:
G Suite Updates Blog, Ars Technica, The Verge, Inquirer, KnowTechie, WinBuzzer, Mashable, 9to5Google, TechCrunch, Droid Life, and 9to5Google. Tweets: @mgsiegler
| Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security: |
New research details how two widely received spam email campaigns over the past few months were made possible by a previously detailed weakness at GoDaddy.com — Two of the most disruptive and widely-received spam email campaigns over the past few months — including an ongoing sextortion email scam … | Louise Matsakis / Wired: |
Google announces it will contribute an additional $3.1M to Wikimedia and give Wikipedia editors free access to Custom Search API and Cloud Vision API — GOOGLE IS POURING an additional $3.1 million into Wikipedia, bringing its total contribution to the free encyclopedia over the past decade … | Joshua Brustein / Bloomberg: |
Andela, which trains and places African programmers to work remotely for US companies, raises $100M Series D from Al Gore's Generation Investment Management — Outsourcing isn't generally seen as the most high-minded of industries. But when the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative …
More:
FinSMEs, TechCrunch, PR Newswire, Financial Times, The Guardian Nigeria Newspaper, Andela, Quartz, PC Tech Magazine, Concise News, and PE Hub Blog. Tweets: @celestocalculus
| Kim Zetter / Motherboard: |
Q&A with the ACLU's Jon Callas, formerly of Apple, on the need for tech expertise in policymaking, the biggest challenges for the security industry, and more — Apple security expert Jon Callas, who helped build protection for billions of computers and smartphones against criminal hackers …
Tweets: @kimzetter, @lorenzofb, and @kimzetter
Sponsor Posts
Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model — Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy. Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model — Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy. Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future — Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future — Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
New in Zoho Payroll USA: Multi-state payroll and more — Running payroll shouldn't get harder as your business grows. Whether you've expanded into new states or built a team with unique needs …
New in Zoho Payroll USA: Multi-state payroll and more — Running payroll shouldn't get harder as your business grows. Whether you've expanded into new states or built a team with unique needs …
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.
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
Techmeme Ride Home:
Somebody Knows Victoria's Secrets
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How private equity kills companies and communities
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Jordan Bramble from Antares
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
How to Reinvent a Magazine, with Wired's Katie Drummond
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.
Azeem Azhar's Exponential View:
GitHub CEO on what AI means for developer salaries, SaaS, and more
Azeem Azhar explores how AI and exponential technologies are shaping our future.
Subscribe to Azeem Azhar's Exponential View.
Spotlight On:
*Live from Accel's 2025 People Summit* Behind the Netflix Culture Deck with Patty McCord and Jessica Neal
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:45 PM ET, January 23, 2019.
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
Todd Spangler / Variety:Wall Street Journal:
Ben Johansen / Politico:
Upcoming Tech Events
More News
| Sara Fischer / Axios: |
| Pushkala Aripaka / Reuters: |
More:
Bloomberg, SiliconANGLE, CCN, CNBC, CNBC, Bloomberg, Light Reading, MarketWatch, Wall Street Journal, Investing.com, Business Insider, IBM, and Financial Times
Earlier Picks
| Sean Lyngaas / CyberScoop: |
More:
The Verge, ZDNet, Threatpost, SiliconANGLE, BleepingComputer, SecurityWeek, The Hacker News, The Register, Boing Boing, Federal Computer Week, and CircleID
Tweets: @alex_lanstein, @gossithedog, and @alexstamos
| Wall Street Journal: |
More:
Fortune, Mercury News, and Notes from Silicon Valley
| Tom Warren / The Verge: |
More:
Microsoft EDU, Axios, Stock Market News …, Digital Trends, Softpedia News, UploadVR, Inquirer, CNBC, Windows Central, Patently Apple, Ars Technica, The Next Web, Neowin, EdSurge, MSPoweruser, Thurrott, CNET, ZDNet, BetaNews, OnMSFT.com, OnMSFT.com, Engadget, and GeekWire
Tweets: @satyanadella, @microsoftedu, @justinchando, @tomwarren, @tomwarren, and @tomwarren
| Apple: |
More:
Target Corporate, VentureBeat, AppleInsider, iPhone Hacks, Macworld, ZDNet, Quartz, Geek News Central, Neowin, 9to5Google, Digital Trends, Mashable, Investor's Business Daily, CNET, TechSpot, The Verge, PYMNTS.com, FierceWireless, Engadget, Cult of Mac, KnowTechie, MSPoweruser, 9to5Mac, iDownloadBlog.com, BleepingComputer, TechCrunch, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, and The Mac Observer
Tweets: @oliyoung, @oliyoung, @calbucci, @richdemuro, @counternotions, @rstephens, and @reneritchie
| Carolyn Said / San Francisco Chronicle: |
More:
TechCrunch, CNBC, TechCrunch, PYMNTS.com, and Crunchbase News
Tweets: @jwangark, @austenallred, @peterme, @kateclarktweets, @sfchronicle, and @mdudas. Thanks:@techchronicle