Techmeme
June 26, 2019, 5:25 AM

Top News

Axios:
Apple says it has acquired autonomous driving startup Drive.ai, hiring dozens of Drive.ai engineers and, per sources, taking over its autonomous cars  —  Apple bought Drive.ai, an autonomous driving startup once valued at $200 million, Apple confirmed to Axios on Tuesday, and has hired dozens of Drive.ai engineers.
New York Times:
Sources: US tech companies, including Intel and Micron, have found ways to sell millions of dollars of products to Huawei despite the Trump administration's ban  —  SHANGHAI — A number of the United States' biggest chip makers have sold millions of dollars of products to Huawei despite …
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Bill Gates says his “greatest mistake” was Microsoft losing the platform opportunity to Android on mobile, in an interview at VC firm Village Global  —  Gates calls Microsoft's smartphones failure a “$400 billion” loss.  —  Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently gave …
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Executives at seven of Facebook's Libra partners say the companies have only signed nonbinding agreements and have not yet paid to join the Libra Association  —  SAN FRANCISCO — One of the biggest selling points of Facebook's ambitious plans for its new cryptocurrency, Libra …
Bloomberg:
Airbnb launches Airbnb Luxe, a new luxury tier of 2,000 listings with an average price of $14K a week to as high as $1M a week for a private atoll  —  Gone are the days of air mattresses on the floor.  Airbnb Inc. is now catering to the mega-wealthy with a new tier of luxury rentals.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researchers have discovered OSX/Linker malware exploiting an unpatched macOS flaw that would allow a malicious binary to bypass the Gatekeeper scanning process  —  Researchers find new OSX/Linker malware abusing still-unpatched macOS Gatekeeper bypass.  —  Mac malware developers have jumped …
ProPublica:
Some US schools are using microphones equipped with “aggression detection” algorithms, which critics say are unreliable, raising concerns about surveillance  —  Headphones recommended. … Ariella Russcol specializes in drama at the Frank Sinatra School of the Arts in Queens …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft unveils OneDrive Personal Vault, which protects folders with 2FA and is expected by year end, and ups OneDrive's $1.99/mo plan from 50GB to 100GB  —  Available to everyone by the end of the year  —  Microsoft is adding a new secured storage area to OneDrive where users can store more sensitive files.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
FTC and DOJ announce their latest crackdown on robocallers, taking 94 actions against several companies and people blamed for a recent wave of spam calls  —  Federal authorities have announced its latest crackdown on illegal robocallers — taking close to a hundred actions against several companies …
Amir Efrati / The Information:
Uber to buy Seattle-based Mighty AI, which helps train computer vision models, to strengthen its self-driving car unit; Crunchbase: Mighty AI had raised $27.3M  —  Uber as soon as today expects to close its acquisition of Seattle-based “data annotation” firm Mighty AI in a bid to strengthen …
More: GeekWire
Ben Sisario / New York Times:
Classical music has been an awkward fit for major streaming platforms because their metadata schemes and algorithms are mostly designed to favor pop music  —  When Roopa Kalyanaraman Marcello, a classical music aficionado in Brooklyn, asked her Amazon Echo for some music recently …
Sidney Fussell / The Atlantic:
While new laws in cities like Oakland and Seattle restrict police surveillance tech, Ring video doorbells remain unhindered despite serving similar purposes  —  People are far more comfortable with surveillance when they think they're the only ones watching.
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Cobalt Robotics, which makes indoor security robots designed to work alongside human guards, raises $35M Series B; it raised a $13M Series A in March 2018  —  Cobalt Robotics, a three-year-old startup building indoor security robots designed to work alongside human guards …
More: FinSMEs
Kate Clark / TechCrunch:
Cameo, which lets fans pay for personalized videos from celebrities, raises $50M Series B led by Kleiner Perkins, reports suggest at a valuation of $300M  —  Instead of emailing a term sheet, Ilya Fushman paid $150 to have ‘Deep Blue Sea’ actor Michael Rapaport send the Cameo founders Steven Galanis …

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Douglas MacMillan / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Sara Fischer / Axios:
Daniel Eran Dilger / AppleInsider:
Nick Summers / Engadget:
Murray Stassen / Music Business Worldwide: