Techmeme
November 20, 2020, 8:25 PM

Top News

Reed Albergotti / Washington Post:
Congressional staffers say Apple is among companies trying to weaken a bill that would hold US companies accountable for using Uighur forced labor in China  —  Apple wants to water down key provisions of the bill, which would hold U.S. companies accountable for using Uighur forced labor, according to two congressional staffers
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Trump admin is providing only limited cybersecurity assistance to Biden's transition team, which now relies on a standard, paid Google Workspace  —  The incoming administration is working remotely, operating on a standard, paid Google network  —  WASHINGTON—When it comes …
Sarah Emerson / OneZero:
Twitter says it will transfer @POTUS to Joe Biden when he is sworn in as president, along with other official accounts; Facebook says it will do the same  —  The presidential Twitter account will pass to Biden on inauguration day  —  January, Joe Biden will be sworn in as the 46th president …
TechCrunch:
a16z closes two new funds totaling $4.5B, focused on early and later-stage investments, bringing total assets under management to $16.5B  —  Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) has closed a pair of funds totaling $4.5 billion, the firm confirmed in a blog post this morning.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft is enticing Zoom users to Teams with new free 24-hour meetings, allowing up to 300 people to join calls via the web without an account  —  Microsoft Teams is now free to use for 24-hour video calls all in a browser  —  Microsoft is making a big push to entice fans of Zoom …
Michael del Castillo / Forbes:
Crypto analytics startup Chainalysis raises $100M Series C led by Addition at a $1B valuation, says its revenue grew by around 96% over the past year  —  A new bitcoin unicorn is about to be born.  After days of rumors flying around the cryptocurrency industry, investigation firm Chainalysis …
Wall Street Journal:
Scott Stein / CNET:
Apple's AR execs on how iPhones and iPads are becoming world-mapping, object-scanning tools that are laying the groundwork for the arrival of AR headsets  —  Sometime in the not-too-distant future, Apple will reportedly unveil an augmented- or mixed-reality headset.  Apple hasn't discussed any headgear yet.
Samuel Axon / Ars Technica:
Craig Federighi, Johny Srouji, and Greg Joswiak on how Apple designed M1, the importance of UMA, non-linear increase in performance at higher power levels, more  —  Craig Federighi, Johny Srouji, and Greg Joswiak tell us the Apple Silicon story.  —  Some time ago, in an Apple campus building, a group of engineers got together.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Peter Guest / Rest of World:
Facebook created country-specific community standards for the first time ahead of Myanmar's general election, and seemingly reduced hate speech and misinfo  —  Accused of enabling genocide, the social media giant has temporarily changed its rules in Myanmar to prevent abuse and misinformation.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
BBC:
YouTube, Facebook, and Twitter say they will join forces with fact-checkers, governments, and researchers to tackle COVID-19 vaccine conspiracies from January  —  Three of the largest social networks have said they will join forces with fact-checkers, governments and researchers to try to come …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Snap has reportedly acquired Voisey, a UK startup that lets users create short music tracks and videos using their own voice overlayed on custom instrumentals  —  Snapchat helped pioneer the use of lenses on faces in photos and videos to turn ordinary picture messages into fantastical creations …
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Robinhood co-founder Baiju Bhatt steps down as co-CEO, leaving Vlad Tenev as sole CEO ahead of a rumored IPO  —  Robinhood, creator of the popular stock-trading app of the same name, announced on Friday that Vlad Tenev will be the company's sole chief executive, ending an arrangement …
David McLaughlin / Bloomberg:
Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, others want to prevent Google's in-house lawyers from accessing “competitively sensitive” docs given to DOJ as part of antitrust probe  —  - Fight is over documents in U.S. antitrust suit against Google  — Apple says Google would have unfair advantage from disclosures
More: Reuters
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Google is testing Project Guideline, an AI-powered system that enables navigation guidance for low-vision people, allowing them to run races by themselves  —  In collaboration with nonprofit organization Guiding Eyes for the Blind, Google today piloted an AI system called Project Guideline …
Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Sources: Amazon agrees to pull HBO from Fire TV's Amazon Channels next year; WarnerMedia wanted HBO out to maintain a direct relationship with users via its app  —  - Amazon has agreed to pull HBO from Amazon Channels in the Amazon Fire TV interface when that agreement lapses next year, sources say.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Apple defends its delayed IDFA changes in iOS 14 and slams Facebook, saying “its intent is to collect as much data as possible” on its users  —  Last month, a coalition of eight civil and human rights organizations penned an open letter to Apple CEO Tim Cook regarding …
Bloomberg:

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