Techmeme
August 22, 2019, 12:40 AM

Top News

Joseph Cox / VICE:
Google, Mozilla, Apple to block root certificate issued by Kazakhstan which could be used to monitor users; Microsoft says cert not in its Trusted Root Program  —  Browser makers announced they would block the Kazakhstan government's root certificate, which was designed to spy on citizens' internet usage.
Stephen Hall / 9to5Google:
Source: Google is planning an update to the Home Mini, called the Nest Mini, with a similar form factor, wall mount, improved sound, and 3.5mm jack  —  Google plans to launch a followup to 2017's Google Home Mini with a second-generation ‘Nest Mini,’ a reliable source tells 9to5Google.
Bloomberg:
Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, who led a heavily criticized unit focusing on practical AI uses, has been placed on leave for unspecified reasons  —  - Mustafa Suleyman is head of applied artifical intelligence  — He led heavily critized unit focusing on AI and healthcare
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Microsoft contractors say they listened to recordings, including accidentally invoked ones, of Xbox users, many of them children, to improve voice command tech  —  Multiple contractors working for Microsoft explain how they listened to audio captured by Xbox consoles.
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Big data analytics service Splunk to acquire cloud monitoring company SignalFx for $1.05B  —  The company announced the deal along with its second quarter financial results, which topped estimates.  —  Splunk delivered better-than-expected second quarter financial results and announced …
Reuters:
Sources: Alibaba has delayed its listing in Hong Kong, which had been slated for late August and aimed to raise $10B-$15B, amid growing political unrest  —  HONG KONG/NEW YORK (Reuters) - China's biggest e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd has delayed its up to $15 billion listing …
Rose Eveleth / Slate:
A look at the weird and wacky patents filed by tech companies, some seemingly unrelated to the industry, and the reasons behind filing for them  —  Companies are constantly patenting strange things they have no intention of developing.  Here's why.  —  Amazon is putting humans in cages to protect them from machines!
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Eminem's publisher Eight Mile Style sues Spotify claiming copyright infringement, challenges the constitutionality of the Music Modernization Act passed in 2018  —  Eight Mile Style alleges “Lose Yourself” and many of the rapper's hits aren't licensed by the streamer.  Now comes a suit eyeing Spotify's billions.
Ryan Smith / AnandTech:
Intel unveils 10th-gen Comet Lake CPUs with up to 6 cores for thin and light laptops, based on its Skylake CPU architecture and 14nm process  —  Capping off a busy few weeks for processors for Intel, today the company is announcing the second half of their product stack for their low-power 10th generation Core processors.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researcher who was banned from Valve's HackerOne bug bounty program after submitting a Steam 0-day that Valve downplayed, reveals details of another Steam 0-day  —  Valve gets heavily criticized for mishandling a crucial bug report.  —  A Russian security researcher has published details about a zero-day in the Steam gaming client.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
IAC has acquired short-term nursing jobs marketplace NurseFly, source says for $15M  —  NurseFly, a startup that's created a job marketplace for short-term nursing positions, is announcing its acquisition by holding company IAC.  —  While the companies aren't disclosing the deal terms …
Takahiko Hyuga / Bloomberg:
Wireless giant SoftBank Corp's brokerage unit, One Tap BUY, will allow individuals in Japan to participate in IPOs for as little as $10, starting next year  —  - Japanese companies are working to entice younger investors  — New investment offering to start in first half of next year
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook debuts first findings from conservative bias audit led by former GOP senator, says it influenced policy changes like creating a content oversight board  —  Facebook will release the findings of a roughly year-long conservative bias audit Tuesday, along with changes to its advertising policies …
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
Glenda Toma / Forbes:
Used clothing online marketplace ThredUp says it has raised a total of $175M over the past year; ThredUp is valued at ~$670M according to PitchBook  —  Even as the retail industry has slumped, dragged down by disappointing earnings and an unending trade war, resale is exploding.
Reuters:
Amazon says it is opening an office in Hyderabad, India, which will house over 15,000 employees, making it the company's biggest campus in the world  —  HYDERABAD (Reuters) - Amazon.com Inc on Wednesday launched its biggest campus in the world in the southern Indian city of Hyderabad …
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Fitbit wins a Singapore government contract to provide fitness trackers for free for up to a million citizens who subscribe to the $10/month premium service  —  KEY POINTS  — Fitbit is providing devices for potentially hundreds of thousands of people in Singapore who commit to a monthly subscription.

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Knowledge management vs. document management  —  Document management is the process of storing and tracking documented information within the organization, while knowledge management is a more broader approach …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Tue. 11/26 - Apple Going Too Thin Again?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:40 AM ET, August 22, 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.

More News

Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Nat Levy / GeekWire:
Washington Post:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Casey Newton / The Verge: