Techmeme
December 1, 2020, 7:50 AM

Top News

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Amazon launches EC2 Mac instances bringing the Intel-based Mac mini to its cloud for $1.083 per hour billed by the second  —  AWS today opened its re:Invent conference with a surprise announcement: the company is bringing the Mac mini to its cloud.  These new EC2 Mac instances, as AWS calls them, are now available in preview.
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Alphabet's DeepMind says it has solved the key “protein folding problem”, cutting the job down from months to hours, which could speed up drug discovery  —  Researchers at DeepMind say they have solved “the protein folding problem,” a task that has bedeviled scientists for more than 50 years.
Eric Geller / Politico:
SCOTUS worries about CFAA's sweeping nature, with Justice Gorsuch saying that the US government's view of the law risks “making a federal criminal of us all”  —  The Supreme Court on Monday indicated serious reservations about the ambiguity and scope of the nation's only major cybercrime law …
Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Facebook to launch Facebook News in the UK in Jan. 2021, says it will pay publishers for news not already on its platform; most big UK publishers have signed up  —  Facebook is to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, as the social network faces …
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Ajit Pai, the Trump-appointed Republican chairman of the FCC, announces he will leave the agency on Jan. 20, when president-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office  —  Aji Pai, the Trump-appointed Republican chairman of the FCC, announced that he will leave the agency on Jan. 20, 2021, when president-elect Joe Biden is sworn into office.
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it has agreed to acquire Kustomer, which specializes in customer service tools and chatbots, reportedly for $1B+  —  Facebook Inc. has acquired Kustomer Inc., a New York-based software company that helps businesses manage customer conversations from multiple services on one dashboard.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Apple hires Josh Elman, former VC at Greylock Partners and ex-VP of product at Robinhood, to work on app discovery at the App Store  —  Apple Inc. hired Josh Elman, a former venture capitalist at Greylock Partners who led early investments in Discord and the precursor to TikTok, to work on the App Store.
Ana Swanson / New York Times:
Sources: Apple suggested edits to a draft of Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, extending some deadlines, limiting release of some info to the public, and more  —  Business groups and major companies like Apple have been pressing Congress to alter legislation cracking down on imports of goods …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Zoom reports Q3 revenue of $777.2M, up 367% YoY, vs. $694M est., and customers with 10+ employees rose to ~433,700, up 485% YoY, higher than Q2's 355% growth  —  - Zoom beat expectations for third-quarter earnings and guidance for the quarter ahead.  — The company now sees 329% …
Sahil Patel / Wall Street Journal:
Reddit says it averaged 52M DAUs in October, up 44% YoY, disclosing the metric for the first time; ad revenue hit $100M+ in 2019, on track to rise 70%+ in 2020  —  The disclosure comes as the tech company pursues new advertisers  —  Reddit Inc. said it averaged 52 million daily active users in October …
Surojit Chatterjee / The Coinbase Blog:
Coinbase says that, starting in early 2021, it will begin supporting Ethereum 2.0, letting users convert ETH into ETH2 and earn staking rewards  —  On December 1, the Ethereum Beacon Chain will launch, beginning a multi-year upgrade to Ethereum 2.0 (ETH2).  Coinbase intends to support ETH2 through staking and trading.

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