Techmeme
February 6, 2020, 9:50 AM

Top News

Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Apple releases the first iOS 13.4 beta, which includes a “CarKey” API, making it possible to unlock, lock, and start a car with an iPhone or Watch  —  Apple today released the first beta version of iOS 13.4 for developers, and now 9to5Mac has found evidences to a new feature …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple adds universal purchases for iOS and macOS apps to the Xcode 11.4 beta, letting developers bundle apps  —  The new Xcode 11.4 beta update, released today alongside the iOS 13.4, tvOS 13.4 and macOS Catalina 10.15.4 betas, includes support for universal purchases …
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Huawei is suing Verizon, accusing it of using 12 patents relating to its network technology without authorization  —  US carrier accused of using 12 patents without authorization  —  Huawei has announced that it's suing Verizon for alleged patent violations, marking the latest twist …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Twitter Q4: total revenue of $1.01B, up 11% YoY, net income of $119M, down from $255M a year ago, average monetizable DAU were 152M compared to 126M a year ago  —  As Twitter continues to try to find the right balance between making its platform easier to use while also less prone to toxicity and abuse …
Dane Glasgow / The Keyword:
Google Maps turns 15, updates its app with five tabs: Explore, Commute, Saved, Contribute, and Updates, new transit features, and more  —  In 2005, we set out to map the world.  Since then we've pushed the limits of what a map can do: from helping you easily navigate from point A to B …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google says Chrome's ad blocker will expand to target disruptive video ads in August, including long pre-roll ads, mid-roll ads, and overlays ads on video  —  Last year, Google made Chrome's standards-backed ad blocker fully available around the world.  The Better Ads Standards today announced a …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Amazon launches Brand Voice, a fully managed service within Amazon Polly for letting brands work with Amazon's engineers to build custom text-to-speech voices  —  If Amazon has its way, companies will soon tap Amazon Web Services (AWS) en masse to create voices tailored to their brands.
The Guardian:
Dutch court rules that a surveillance system used to detect welfare fraud violates human rights; called SyRI, it used a secret algorithm to run risk modeling  —  Government told to halt use of AI to detect fraud in decision hailed by privacy campaigners  —  A Dutch court has ordered …
Christina Farr / CNBC:
After layoffs at 23andMe, Ancestry says it is laying off 6%, citing slowdown across entire DNA testing category, now that most of early adopters have enrolled  —  - Ancestry, following 23andMe, made the decision to lay off some employees.  It confirmed to CNBC that the cuts affected 6% of its workforce.
Robert Heaton:
Software engineer finds that Wacom drawing tablets track the name of every application opened on a user's computer and send the data to Google Analytics  —  Chapter 1: The discovery  —  I have a Wacom drawing tablet.  I use it to draw cover illustrations for my blog posts, such as this one:
Nicholas Thompson / Wired:
LinkedIn says CEO Jeff Weiner is stepping down in June after 11 years in the role, becoming executive chairman, to be replaced by SVP of Product Ryan Roslansky  —  After 11 steady years as the CEO of the professional networking company, Weiner is yielding the reins to deputy Ryan Roslansky.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Lightning Labs, which wants to speed up bitcoin transactions, raises $10M Series A led by Craft Ventures and rolls out its first enterprise product  —  Elizabeth Stark stands out in the digital currency world.  The 30-something entrepreneur is at ease among crypto's tribal subcultures …
Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:
Facebook says older versions of the WhatsApp desktop app, which uses Electron, let hackers access files on macOS and Windows via a malicious link in messages  —  Yet another Electron implementation of a “secure” app turns out not to be.  —  Facebook has issued a security advisory for a flaw …
Tom Foremski / ZDNet:
Although Google disclosed many financial metrics for the first time in Q4, it removed cost-per-click, which has steadily declined, and the number of paid clicks  —  Google makes less money per click every quarter.  Now, we won't know how much less.  Is there trouble ahead in online advertising?

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.
Zoho:
Celebrate and collaborate this holiday season with Zoho Cliq  —  The holiday season is a time for celebration, relaxation, and reflection.  While some people are busy wrapping presents for their loved ones …
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 12/23 - The Revenge Of Google Glass?
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 9:50 AM ET, February 6, 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.

More News

Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Corey Kilgannon / New York Times:
Alfred Ng / CNET:
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch: