Techmeme
April 19, 2018, 7:30 PM

Top News

Cameron Johnson / Netflix Media Center:
Netflix launches vertical preview videos for mobile, each about 30 seconds long, on iOS now and coming soon to Android; users can swipe to see next preview  —  One of the best ways to know if you'll like a new series or movie is to watch a quick trailer.  Today, we are excited …
Bloomberg:
An investigation of data-mining company Palantir, cofounded by Peter Thiel, which works with government agencies and law enforcement to help track US citizens  —  Peter Thiel's data-mining company is using War on Terror tools to track American citizens.  The scary thing?  Palantir is desperate for new customers.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Google's App Engine can no longer be used for domain-fronting, which let services use its network to avoid state-level internet blocks  —  Domain-fronting is now a thing of the past  —  App developers won't be able to use Google to get around internet censorship anymore.
David Ingram / Reuters:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon introduces Alexa Blueprints that let anyone create custom Alexa skills and responses without coding  —  Amazon this morning is introducing “Alexa Blueprints,” a new way for any Alexa owner to create their own customized Alexa skills or responses, without needing to know how to code.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple open sources FoundationDB core, three years after acquiring the database company  —  Apple owned-company FoundationDB today announced that the FoundationDB core has been open sourced with the goal of building an open community with all major development done in the open.
Stephen Schenck / Android Police:
New budget Moto handsets: €250 G6 with dual cameras and USB-C, bigger €300 G6 Plus, €200 G6 Play with larger battery, €150 E5, €170 E5 Plus, and E5 Play  —  For smartphone fans who enjoy a good spoiler, we started the year off with a pretty substantial one …
Bloomberg:
Interview with Jeff Wilke, who runs Amazon's worldwide consumer division and has been Bezos' right-hand man for 18 years, on its usage of USPS and more  —  Retail chief Jeff Wilke talks about the company's AI ambitions and downplays Trump concerns.  —  Donald Trump has hammered Amazon.com …
Chloe Cornish / Financial Times:
Interview with Vitalik Buterin, Ethereum's 24-year-old founder, on his “weird” 2017, which saw ether's market cap reach $125B+, the broader crypto market, more  —  Up in San Francisco's Monterey Heights district stands a modest detached house; a house that would be perfectly ordinary …
Ryan Faughnder / Los Angeles Times:
Sources: Netflix has considered buying movie theaters in New York and Los Angeles; it decided not to pursue LA-based Landmark Theatres due to high price  —  Netflix, the global streaming giant that has dramatically changed the TV industry and clashed with movie theater owners …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Lyft announces “multimillion-dollar” initiative to invest in environmental projects as it hopes to offset 1M+ metric tons of carbon in the first year  —  The plan is to offset over a million metric tons of carbon  —  Lyft announced a multimillion-dollar investment to become …
Becky Peterson / Business Insider:
Filings show Qualcomm's layoffs will happen on or around June 19, will impact ~1,231 employees at its San Diego HQ, 269 in its San Jose and Santa Clara offices  —  - Qualcomm will layoff a total of 1,500 employees across its San Diego and Bay Area locations, according to WARN filings with the state of California.
CNNMoney:
Investigation: 300+ organizations' ads ran on extremist YouTube channels despite many advertisers saying they use YouTube's sensitive subject exclusion filter  —  Advocates say YouTube is collecting kids' data  —  Ads from over 300 companies and organizations — including tech giants …
More: Digiday
Emily Feng / Financial Times:
Filing: 10 investors, including Tencent, JD.com, Lenovo, and TCL, have agreed to buy a $437M stake in the smart TV unit of ailing tech conglomerate LeEco  —  Tencent and JD.com are part of a consortium of 10 private investors that have agreed to buy a $437m stake in a subsidiary of ailing tech conglomerate LeEco.

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More News

Pew Research Center:
Stef W. Kight / Axios:

Earlier Picks

Bloomberg:
Aaron Tilley / The Information:
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors: