Techmeme
July 29, 2019, 6:05 PM

Top News

The Keyword:
Pixel 4 will come with face unlock and radar-powered Motion Sense features, to let you skip songs, snooze alarms, and more by waving your hand over the device  —  As we shared last month, Pixel 4 is in the works1.  Today we're giving you an early look at the technology behind two new features coming …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google says it used field research that offered people $5 to scan their faces, to improve accuracy of face unlock; research data will be kept for 18 months  —  It's ensuring that the Pixel 4 will work on a wide range of faces  —  Google just announced a face unlock feature for the upcoming Pixel 4 …
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
As identity fraud schemes plague Facebook, the company seems unable or unwilling to address accounts that use others' photos as their own profile pictures  —  Renee Holland sent her Facebook friend thousands of dollars.  She became entwined in a global fraud that the social network …
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Uber says it laid off ~400 people across 75 offices from its 1,200-person marketing team, as the ride-hailing company tries to streamline its operations  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Uber said it laid off around 400 people from its marketing team on Monday, as the ride-hailing company tries to cut costs …
Reuters:
ByteDance confirms it is working on its own smartphone after acquiring some patents and employees from Chinese smartphone maker Smartisan earlier this year  —  Chinese social media firm ByteDance Ltd said on Monday it is developing a smartphone, following a deal it made with device maker Smartisan Technology.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
EU's top court rules that sites with embedded Facebook Like buttons are responsible for data collected, must obtain user consent before data is sent to Facebook  —  Europe's top court has made a ruling that could affect scores of websites that embed the Facebook ‘Like’ button and receive visitors from the region.
TechCrunch:
GitHub officially confirms it is blocking devs in Iran, Syria, N. Korea, Cuba, and Crimea from accessing private repositories and paid accounts due to sanctions  —  The impact of U.S. trade restrictions is trickling down to the developer community.  GitHub, the world's largest host of source code …
Karen Weise / New York Times:
Sources: Amazon is exploring an ambitious new grocery chain, probably separate from Whole Foods, built for pickup and delivery as well as in-store shopping  —  SEATTLE — In early 2017, a memo circulated inside Amazon that imagined an ambitious new grocery chain.
Juro Osawa / The Information:
Sources: Huawei and Google were working together on a Huawei-branded smart speaker slated for September release, but that work ended after Trump's ban in May  —  China's Huawei and Google were working together on a new Huawei-branded smart speaker right before President Donald Trump restricted Huawei's access …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Maryland-based Trinity Cyber raises $23M from Intel and others for its real-time threat mitigation services and hires ex-DHS Advisor Tom Bossert as CSO  —  Bowie, Maryland-based Trinity Cyber, a cybersecurity startup developing a platform that combines detection with “adversary inference” …
Benedict Evans:
Amazon is increasingly good at helping us buy things we know we want, but it's not clear if it'll ever be good at helping us shop for things we don't know about  —  I sometimes think that if you could look in the safe behind Jeff Bezos's desk, instead of the sports almanac from Back to the Future …
Caroline Haskins / VICE:
According to notes from an Amazon webinar, Ring has partnered with 200+ local police departments in US, which can directly ask Ring owners for camera footage  —  Ring's partnerships with law enforcement could be far more more widespread than previously reported.

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