Techmeme
August 26, 2020, 8:05 AM

Top News

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Palantir files S-1 for its public market listing, confirming a net loss of $580M in 2019 on $742.6M in revenue; intends to debut with a direct listing  —  - The data analytics company co-founded by Peter Thiel is going public after 16 years.  —  Data analytics company Palantir Technologies …
Ari Levy / CNBC:
In a letter included in Palantir's S-1, CEO Alex Karp says the “engineering elite” of SV do not know “how society should be organized or what justice requires”  —  KEY POINTS  — In Palantir's filing to go public on Tuesday, CEO Alex Karp said Silicon Valley engineers …
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Facebook says it will unify its AR/VR teams into a group called Facebook Reality Labs, renames Oculus Connect event to Facebook Connect, to be held on Sept. 16  —  Facebook is moving further away from the Oculus brand.  —  The company says it is changing the name of their augmented reality …
Ian Sherr / CNET:
Microsoft adds an audio transcription feature to Word's web version for Office 365 that will work with prerecorded or live audio  —  Microsoft's Word writing tool will soon be able to record and transcribe audio, marking an evolution long requested by everyone from students to reporters to Microsoft executives.
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
Crypto derivatives exchange FTX has acquired crypto price tracking app Blockfolio for $150M, in the form of equity, FTX's native token, and cash  —  Crypto derivatives exchange FTX has acquired popular crypto price tracking app Blockfolio for $150 million in one of the largest acquisition deals in the digital asset space this year.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google rolls out Chrome 85 with 10% faster page load times, collapsible tab groups, a PDF editor, and more  —  Following version 84's release on Android, Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chrome OS, the next release of Google's browser is rolling out today.  Chrome 85 sees faster page loads …
Issie Lapowsky / Protocol:
As content moderators started working from home, YouTube's reliance on automation resulted in double the video removals; Facebook saw removals steeply decline  —  When YouTube sent content moderators home in March due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it dramatically expanded its use of automated filters …
Patrick O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
Human rights advocates file a court petition against Israeli phone hacking firm Cellebrite to stop exports to Hong Kong, say tools are used against dissidents  —  Human rights advocates filed a new court petition against the Israeli phone hacking company Cellebrite, urging Israel's ministry …
Paul Mozur / New York Times:
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Gartner: global smartphone sales in Q2 dropped 20.4% YoY, similar to Q1's 20% drop; Samsung and Huawei virtually tie for top spot, after Samsung drops 27% YoY  —  The last couple of years have been tough on the smartphone industry, as sales plateaued and eventually eroded.
Katie Abel / Footwear News:
Tony Hsieh is stepping down as Zappos CEO after 21 years at the helm; COO Kedar Deshpande will succeed him at the Amazon-owned company  —  Zappos CEO Tony Hsieh is stepping down after 21 years at the helm.  —  Kedar Deshpande, COO at the company, has assumed the role of CEO, according to an internal email obtained by FN.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Salesforce reports Q2 revenue of $5.15B, up 29% YoY, vs. $4.90B est., gives Q3 revenue guidance of $5.24 to $5.25B, up 16% YoY; stock jumps 11%+ after hours  —  - A gain on investments benefited Salesforce's adjusted earnings in the quarter.  — The company's full-year guidance beat expectations …
Olaf Storbeck / Financial Times:
Interviews and documents reveal Wirecard's desperate effort to cover up fraud, hoodwink its auditors, and a plan to take over Deutsche Bank in its final months  —  Executives at the German payments group hatched a plan to buy Deutsche Bank while desperately trying to cover their tracks
Foreign Affairs:
NSA director says the US disrupted “a concerted effort” to undermine 2018 midterms and describes Cyber Command's proactive strategy ahead of the 2020 election  —  In early October 2019, personnel from U.S. Cyber Command landed in Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, at the invitation of the country's government.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Facebook is testing a Shop section in its app in the US, while Instagram expands Live Shopping to more sellers in the US  —  Facebook is announcing a number of new e-commerce features both within the main Facebook app and on Instagram.  —  The pandemic has forced many businesses to shift online …
Eugene Demaitre / The Robot Report:
XYZ Robotics, a robotic pick-and-place startup using AI and a tool-changing system to reduce overhead costs, raises $17M Series A+ from Source Code Capital  —  Piece picking is still a challenge for robots, particularly in high-variability applications such as e-commerce order fulfillment.
More: TechCrunch

Sponsor Posts

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:
CIO challenge 6: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Techmeme Ride Home:
(BNS) How To Know When To Kill Your Startup
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 8:05 AM ET, August 26, 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

Nabila Ahmed / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Ian Allison / CoinDesk:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
CNBC:
The Verge:
Rishi Iyengar / CNN: