Techmeme
February 5, 2019, 4:15 AM

Top News

Alphabet:
Alphabet Q4: revenue of $39.3B, up 22% YoY, net income of $8.9B, CPC down 29%, and paid clicks on Google properties up 66% YoY; stock down 3%  —  MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. - February 4, 2019 - Alphabet Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG, GOOGL) today announced financial results for the quarter and fiscal year ended December 31, 2018.
Sara Salinas / CNBC:
Alphabet's traffic acquisition costs hit $7.44B for Q4, up from $6.58B in Q3, and ad revenue grew 20% YoY to $32.6B, amid competition from rivals like Amazon  —  - Traffic acquisition costs as a percent of advertising revenue came in at 23 percent, matching analyst estimates and falling right in line with previous quarters.
More: MSPoweruser and 9to5GoogleTweets: @lexnfxThanks:@mattrosoff
Mark Zuckerberg:
Vox:
Alex Heath / Cheddar:
Sources: Facebook hires the team behind Chainspace, a startup building tech for decentralized “smart contracts”, its first blockchain acquisition  —  Facebook has made its first acquisition in the blockchain space.  —  The social network has quietly hired the team behind Chainspace …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Slack says it has submitted a confidential draft filing to go public with the SEC  —  - The business chat provider is just one of several tech IPOs expected in 2019, including Uber, Lyft and Airbnb.  —  Slack confidentially filed to go public, according to a press release published Monday.
Erik Schatzker / Bloomberg:
Bloomberg:
In a Russian filing, Apple says it stores user data including names, addresses, email addresses, and phone numbers on Russian servers to comply with a local law  —  - User information limited to customer names and contact details  — Apple made similar agreement in China last year for iCloud
Paul Tassi / Forbes:
EDM artist Marshmello held two in-game concerts in Fortnite this weekend, with the first reportedly having 10M+ concurrent players watching  —  I'm still trying to process just how cool yesterday's live Marshmello concert in Fortnite was, and I found myself wondering just how many people were actually “in attendance,” so to speak.
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
After the death of a British teen, Instagram head announces plans to debut “sensitivity screens” to blur images of self-harm unless users click to reveal them  —  Facebook-owned app promises changes to better shield users from self-harm images  —  Instagram will introduce …
Chris Pearce / Mozilla Hacks:
Beginning with the upcoming release of Firefox 66, Firefox for Android and desktop will block auto-playing audio and video by default  —  Isn't it annoying when you click on a link or open a new browser tab and audible video or audio starts playing automatically?
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple's iOS 12.2 beta has a new Motion & Orientation Access toggle in Privacy settings, off by default, that limits gyroscope and accelerometer access in Safari  —  Last month, Apple released iOS 12.2 in beta with several new features, including the Apple News app in Canada …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Instant Tethering, launched in 2017 to let Chrome OS easily share a Pixel's cell connection, is coming to dozens of non-Google Chrome OS and Android devices  —  Google introduced Instant Tethering in 2017 to let Chrome OS devices automatically share an Android phone's cellular connection.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google announces Live Transcribe, a near-real time transcriber, and Sound Amplifier; both are Pixel 3 accessibility features and available as apps on Play store  —  It's also releasing a Sound Amplifier feature — both only on Android  —  Google is announcing two new features for Android phones today …
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Crypto exchange Kraken acquires British trading startup Crypto Facilities in a deal worth at least $100M, says it is raising $100M from its largest customers  —  The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken says it has paid “nine figures” to acquire Crypto Facilities, a British trading firm that specializes in derivatives.

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