Techmeme
December 5, 2019, 11:10 AM

Top News

Li Tao / South China Morning Post:
Huawei files lawsuit with a federal appeals court against the FCC's decision to bar rural carriers from using federal subsidies to buy Huawei's equipment  —  Huawei says FCC order is unlawful as it does not give Huawei required due process protections in labelling the company …
Bloomberg:
Sources: FTC investigators, who have been looking into Amazon's e-commerce business, have begun asking software companies about Amazon's practices around AWS  —  - FTC said to broaden Amazon inquiry beyond online retail  — Amazon's cloud business leads market over No. 2 Microsoft
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
FCC investigation finds Verizon, T-Mobile, and US Cellular exaggerated 4G coverage in official filings to the FCC; Ajit Pai has no plans to punish the carriers  —  FCC buries investigation's finding in 5G press release, won't punish carriers.  —  49 with 42 posters participating
Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News:
Kashmiris, who are subject to an ongoing four month internet shutdown, are losing their WhatsApp accounts because of the platform's policy on inactive accounts  —  On Wednesday, Kashmiris began disappearing from WhatsApp — and no one initially knew why.  Citizens of the disputed geographical territory …
Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:
An in-depth look at Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 865 and 765 chips, and why Snapdragon 865 does not come with an integrated 5G modem  —  We're here in Maui for the second day of Qualcomm's fourth annual Snapdragon summit, for what is probably the most exciting part of the event …
Kieren McCarthy / The Register:
Internet Society says private equity firm Ethos Capital will pay $1.135B for the .org top level domain registry  —  Anger rises over ten-figure sale of registry  —  Analysis The price tag for one of the internet's largest and most important domain-name registries has finally been revealed: $1.135bn.
More: CNET
Munsif Vengattil / Reuters:
Alibaba-backed Chinese startup AutoX applies to test self-driving vehicles without an in-car backup driver in California  —  (Reuters) - Chinese startup AutoX, backed by e-commerce giant Alibaba, has applied to test self-driving vehicles without an in-car backup driver in California …
More: TechNode and CNET
Jason D. Rowley / Crunchbase News:
Analysis: Series A and Series B rounds have annually accounted for between 21% and 37% of total $100M+ VC rounds across the globe since 2010  —  It's become the norm for some private tech companies to raise in a single round what VC firms raise for an entire new fund.
More: AVC
Jason Schreier / Kotaku:
Sources: Microsoft is planning a cheaper, disc-free Xbox, codenamed Lockhart, to go alongside its high-end Project Scarlett console  —  In June, Microsoft announced Project Scarlett, a new iteration of the Xbox that the company said would “set a new bar for console power, speed and performance.”
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Figure, the lending platform led by Mike Cagney, who resigned as CEO of SoFi due to sexual harassment allegations, raises $103M Series C at a $1.2B valuation  —  Figure, a San Francisco-based consumer lending platform, raised $103 million in Series C funding led by Morgan Creek Digital at a $1.2 billion valuation.
More: CoinDesk and FinSMEs
Paresh Dave / Reuters:
Instagram says it will now require birthdates from new users, in order to improve safety features for minors and better target ads for age-restricted products  —  SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc's Instagram said it will require birthdates from all new users starting on Wednesday …

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.
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
Zoho:
AI-orchestrated digital workspace  —  Work is no longer confined to one place, one app, or even one screen.  With so many tasks and applications, we juggle between chats, meetings, tasks, documents, and dashboards, all while trying to stay productive.
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.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
The "Holy Grail" Of AI Models
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
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.
Invest Like the Best:
Graham Weaver - Building Alpine
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
The Talk Show With John Gruber:
'A Monkey on a Rock', With Stephen Hackett
The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
Subscribe to The Talk Show With John Gruber.
Grit:
Inside Aurora's Push to Make Autonomous Trucking Real | Chris Urmson
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:10 AM ET, December 5, 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

Will Oremus / OneZero:
Caroline Haskins / VICE:
Victoria Song / Gizmodo:

Earlier Picks

Nick Brown / Reuters:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
The Keyword:
Shara Tibken / CNET: