Techmeme: Dell debuts updated XPS 13 with Intel 10th-gen processors, Intel's Iris Plus graphics, 16:10 screen, larger touchpad, available January 7 starting at $999 (Luke Larsen/Digital Trends)

Open Links In New Tab

Mobile Archives Advertise

January 2, 2020, 12:00 PM

Top News

Nitasha Tiku / Washington Post:

Former Google exec alleges that he was pushed out in April after he lobbied for a human rights program to formalize Google's free speech and privacy principles — Ross LaJeunesse left the tech giant in April after lobbying for a human rights program for two years

More: Medium, TechCrunch, TechCrunch, and CNBC

Jennifer Elias / CNBC:

Current and former Googlers share how HR changes and lack of transparency made 2019 a turning point for company culture, as Alphabet grew beyond 100,000 workers — - Google employees shared why 2019 was a pivotal year for the company's history. — Former workers shared why they left the company …

More: WebProNews. Tweets: @blueharv, @neojipc, @ginnymarvin, and @willfoia

Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:

In its first transparency report, TikTok says it received most requests for user data and content takedowns from India and USA, claims zero requests from China — The highest number of requests came from India and the US — TikTok released its first transparency report yesterday …

Luke Larsen / Digital Trends:

Dell debuts updated XPS 13 with Intel 10th-gen processors, Intel's Iris Plus graphics, 16:10 screen, larger touchpad, available January 7 starting at $999 — When you're on top of the world, you have every reason to play it safe. That's where Dell has been for the past few years with its XPS laptops.

More: The Verge, Barton's Blog, Thurrott, CNET, Windows Central, Windows Blog, ZDNet, Tom's Hardware, Ars Technica, AnandTech, LaptopMag, MSPoweruser, and Mashable. Tweets: @tomwarren. Thanks:@smashdawg

Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:

Dell debuts a new Latitude 9510 laptop with built-in 5G, to launch March 26, and says a spring update to its Mobile Connect software will enable iOS mirroring — Ahead of next week's CES in Las Vegas, Dell today announced two PC updates that will improve its appeal to users of mobile devices …

More: Bloomberg, PR Newswire, 9to5Mac, BetaNews, Thurrott, and Windows Central

Andrei Frumusanu / AnandTech:

Imagination Technologies says it has inked a new multi-year IP licensing agreement with Apple, replacing an agreement first announced in February 2014 — Today Imagination Technologies has announced that Apple the two companies have signed a new multi-year licensing with the company …

More: Imagination, Bloomberg, MacRumors, The Verge, Philip Elmer‑DeWitt, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, Financial Times, Business Insider, Liliputing, The Mac Observer, TechSpot, Engadget, Light Reading, MSPoweruser, Cult of Mac, Apple Must, SlashGear, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com, Seeking Alpha, and MacDailyNews

Tweets: @ruskin147, @ryansmithat, and @iancutress. Thanks:@iancutress

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:

Sensor Tower: $277M was spent on apps across Google Play and App Store on Christmas Day, up 11.3% YoY; PUBG, the top grossing game, earned $8.5M, up 431% YoY — Consumer spending on mobile games grew 8% to $210 million on Christmas, according to a report by mobile analyst firm Sensor Tower.

More: Sensor Tower Blog, TechSpot, and Firstpost Tech

Tweets: @modestproposal1 and @dez_blanchfield

ProPublica:

IRS amends its deal with tax prep software firms, now barred from hiding free products from search, and ends its ban on making its own online filing system — Finding free online tax filing should be easier this year for millions of Americans. — The IRS announced significant changes Monday …

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

California-based home robot company Trifo raises $15M Series B, launches a $799 autonomous vacuum cleaner called Lucy — Home robots are an unsolved challenge in the field of AI and machine learning. Despite the fact that 52% of people believe machines will perform most human activities …

More: Crunchbase News. Tweets: @ldrogen

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:

Trump signs TRACED Act into law to increase robocall fines, extend statute of limitations from 1 to 4 years, and require carriers to deploy STIR/SHAKEN protocol — The Pallone-Thrune TRACED Act, a bipartisan bit of legislation that should make life harder for the villains behind robocalls, was signed into law today by the president.

More: The White House, CNET, O'Grady's PowerPage, AppleInsider, Engadget, ZDNet, International Business Times, New Jersey Online, CNN, Gizmodo, and Associated Press

Tweets: @83txochair, @agcurtishill, @senschumer, and @uscto

Fred Wilson / AVC:

Big trends and takeaways from the 2010s: the “capital as a moat” model has failed, machine learning has become table stakes for tech companies, and more — My friend Steve Kane suggested I take a longer view in my pair of year end posts this year: … And so I will.

More: AVC and Business Insider

Tweets: @golemproject, @zooko, @mikejcasey, @mdudas, @carnage4life, @_jcmurray, @mrp, @mdudas, @fredwilson, @bwertz, and @semil

Laura Bliss / CityLab:

A look at how telemetry reshaped urban living in the 2010s when a slew of on-demand services made physical proximity less important — In 1964, scientists in the Galápagos Islands fed radio transmitters wrapped in chunks of food to a bunch of giant tortoises.

More: Slashdot. Tweets: @counternotions, @citylab, @citylab, and @citylab

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model — Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) 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:

Recruiters, be that zeroth candidate — Welcome again! Earlier, we looked at how personality assessments are evaluation tools that help look at candidates beyond resumes. Let's look at how to use …

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.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:

(Bonus) World Cup Of Entrepreneurs Part 2

The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.

Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.

Sponsor this podcast

Hard Fork:

Ed Helms Answers Your Hard Questions

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Great Chat:

Are VC jobs truly AI Proof? (Marc thinks so)

A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.

Subscribe to Great Chat.

Decoder with Nilay Patel:

Workday's new head of product wants you to like Workday as much as he does

A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.

Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.

Lenny's Podcast:

How Revolut trains world-class product managers: The "local CEO" model, raw intellect over experience, and a cultural obsession with building wow products | Dmitry Zlokazov (Head of Product)

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Uncapped with Jack Altman:

Qasar Younis from Applied Intuition

Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.

Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.

Add your postcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:00 PM ET, January 2, 2020.

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

Washington Post:

More than 500 Voice of America contractors are expected to lose their jobs by June 30; Kari Lake says 584 total employees were terminated across USAGM

Daniel Thomas / Financial Times:

Sources: New York Sun owner Dovid Efune is launching a new “British bid” to buy The Telegraph with backing from Brexit backer Jeremy Hosking and Nadhim Zahawi

Financial Times:

Sources: BT is in advanced talks to sell its 50% stake in TNT Sports UK to WBD, its joint venture partner, and could announce the deal as early as next week

More News

Dougal Shaw / BBC:

A look at dating apps like Lumen and OurTime that cater exclusively to users over 50, who often find being approached by much younger users unsettling

Tweets: @foxnic, @mrsnickyclark, and @alexalexyang

Nicole Wetsman / The Verge:

Study of depression management and suicide prevention apps shows many aren't following best practices and some even contain inaccurate hotline contact info

Tweets: @coyneoftherealm and @ethics13

Harry McCracken / Fast Company:

Twitter execs including VP of Product Kayvon Beykpour talk about their focus on Lists and Topics, which help new users find tweets relevant to their interests

More: Social Media Today. Tweets: @carnage4life, @kayvz, @dsgnrsteve, @harrymccracken, @yun, and @harrymccracken. Thanks:@technologizer

Joanna Glasner / Crunchbase News:

Analysis: VC funding in North American consumer electronics startups was $1.74B in 2019 vs. $2.45B in 2018, with significant slowdown at the Series B stage

Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech:

Interview with AMD CTO Mark Papermaster on AMD's release schedule and future products, partnerships with TSMC and Samsung, driving industry standards, and more

Tweets: @anandtech. Thanks:@iancutress

Politico:

A look at the increasing prevalence of facial recognition and AI tech across the globe, as the US and EU governments' efforts to limit their use have stalled

Tweets: @mikelarsenoh and @viacristiano

Earlier Picks

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

ProtonMail launches E2E encrypted calendar app ProtonCalendar in public beta, tied to users' paid ProtonMail accounts, encrypting event info and participants

More: TalkAndroid.com, The Verge, TechSpot, Tom's Hardware, Engadget, XDA Developers, Android Police, Neowin, ProtonMail Blog, Gizmodo, SlashGear, iPhone in Canada Blog, BetaNews, and Understandably

Tweets: @protonmail and @infosecsherpa

Fox Business:

WSJ: Cloud Hopper, a hacking campaign by Chinese state-sponsored group APT10, was larger than formerly known, and may have been active as late as November 2019

Source: Wall Street Journal. More: iPhone in Canada Blog and The Verge

Tweets: @kentthornhillmp, @dnvolz, @lewisshepherd, @robert_spalding, @kennwhite, @jessefelder, @carter_pe, @ericgarland, @mitchparkerciso, @jamesliamcook, @jchengwsj, @petertinti, @batchelorshow, and @dnvolz

Toby Sterling / Reuters:

2018 tax filings: Alphabet will no longer use the IP licensing scheme commonly called the “Double Irish, Dutch sandwich”, which had let it delay paying US taxes

More: The Verge, International Business Times, Wccftech, Telegraph, WebProNews, 9to5Google, iPhone in Canada Blog, and Seeking Alpha

Tweets: @dave_universetf, @dhh, @steveklabnik, @ron_miller, @lindsaytedds, and @dhh

Brenda Goh / Reuters:

Huawei's Rotating Chairman Eric Xu estimates the company's 2019 revenue grew 18% YoY to $122B, says it shipped 240M smartphones, but forecasts “difficult” 2020

More: Silicon Republic, Telecoms.com, Axios, Gizchina, Financial Times, Tom's Hardware, TechSpot, Thurrott, Wall Street Journal, ZDNet, and International Business Times

Tweets: @hardmaru, @danwwang, @yuanfenyang, @reutersbiz, and @jchengwsj

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Microsoft wins court order to seize 50 domains run by North Korean cyber-espionage group Thallium, the fourth APT Microsoft has combated with this tactic

More: CyberScoop, Microsoft on the Issues, CNN, Gizmodo, HackRead, Tom's Hardware, CNET, New York Post, WinBuzzer, Dark Reading, Beyond Search, GeekWire, CNBC, Financial Times, Softpedia News, Seeking Alpha, and PYMNTS.com

Tweets: @jfslowik, @rungrage, @tomburt45, @w7voa, @blaw, @cristingoodwin, and @campuscodi