Techmeme
October 18, 2018, 10:25 PM

Top News

Sam Levin / The Guardian:
As Facebook promotes its “war room” and efforts to fight interference, a study of disinformation on WhatsApp during Brazil's election shows more could be done  —  Corporation shows off room of engineers, data scientists and other experts but offers reporters few new specifics
Wall Street Journal:
New York Times:
A look at how SoftBank, whose Vision Fund received $45B from Saudi Arabia, is handling the growing crisis over Khashoggi's disappearance  —  Since the disappearance and apparent killing of a dissident journalist in a Saudi Arabian consulate, some of the most powerful figures in business are distancing themselves from the kingdom.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple sends out invites for an event on October 30 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music in New York City, where updated iPads and MacBooks are expected  —  Apple today sent out media invites for a second major 2018 event set to be held in New York City on Tuesday, October 30 at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Howard Gilman Opera House.
Financial Times:
Sources: Uber is developing a short-term staffing business, called Uber Works, that would utilize its database of workers for events and corporate functions  —  Uber is developing a new short-term staffing business, dubbed Uber Works, that would help to diversify its business ahead of next year's planned initial public offering.
Stan Higgins / CoinDesk:
Chicago Mercantile Exchange report shows Bitcoin futures have continually risen through Q3 2018, with average daily volume up 41% since Q2  —  Average daily volumes for bitcoin futures trading saw a significant jump in the third quarter compared to the last period, according to CME Group.
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
The SEC launches FinHub, a new division to help fintech startups, including those launching ICOs, navigate the legal implications of their products  —  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is launching a new division with the goal of making it simpler for fintech startups …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon says Whisper Mode for Alexa is rolling out to all users in the US and works in US English  —  At Amazon's Alexa event last month in Seattle, the company teased a new feature soon coming to its voice assistant: the ability to whisper.  The company demonstrated how whispering a request …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Samsung debuts $1,000+ Galaxy Book 2, a Windows 2-in-1 to compete with Surface, with 12-inch OLED display, LTE, 4GB RAM, Snapdragon 850, on sale from November 2  —  A couple weeks after Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 6, Samsung is today unveiling the $1,000 Galaxy Book 2 …
Rob Copeland / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: data mining giant Palantir is weighing an IPO as soon as H2 2019; some bankers have told the firm it could IPO with a valuation of as much as $41B  —  Bankers have told the firm it could go public with a valuation as high as $41 billion  —  Data-mining giant Palantir Technologies Inc. …
Lily Katz / Bloomberg:
BitGo, which makes multi-signature cryptocurrency wallets, raises $58.5M Series B from Goldman, Mike Novogratz, and others, bringing total raised to $70M  —  - Startup guards digital currencies for institutional investors  — Bank calls custody a ‘logical precursor’ to market making
Anton Shilov / AnandTech:
Samsung says it has started mass production of 7nm chips using an EUVL process that it claims enables 50% power and 20% performance improvements over 10nm chips  —  Samsung Foundry on Wednesday said that it had started production of chips using its 7LPP manufacturing technology …
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Google makes Compose actions, a feature for Gmail Add-ons, generally available to all users with integrations from Box, Dropbox, Atlassian, and Egnyte  —  Lately, Google has been all about shaving time off your everyday activities when sending emails.  First they came out with smart responses …
Dami Lee / The Verge:
Square launches Terminal, an all-in-one device for card and mobile payments from Apple Pay and others, available for $399  —  Square is launching a new point-of-sale hardware device called Terminal, which can accept credit card and mobile payments through Apple Pay, Google Pay, Samsung Pay, and NFC.
NBC News:
Source: Twitter suspended hundreds of accounts for violating spam rules; the accounts had posted pro-Saudi Arabia tweets about the disappearance of Khashoggi  —  Twitter became aware of some of the bots on Thursday when NBC News presented the company with evidence of coordinated activity.

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:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
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:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
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 10:25 PM ET, October 18, 2018.

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

Earlier Picks

For The Record:
Dave Zohrob / Chartable:
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
Bloomberg: