Techmeme
March 14, 2019, 2:30 PM

Top News

Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
Facebook says all of its services are now operational, attributes the downtime to a “server configuration change”  —  Instagram, WhatsApp, and Facebook all appear to be operating normally  —  Facebook is reporting all services operational after a prolonged outage that impacted all of the company's most popular apps.
New York Times:
Sources: Facebook's data-sharing deals under federal criminal investigation; an NY grand jury subpoenaed at least two device-makers who partnered with Facebook  —  Federal prosecutors are conducting a criminal investigation into data deals Facebook struck with some of the world's largest …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft launches a new cross-platform mobile SDK that allows game developers to add Xbox Live features to iOS or Android games  —  Microsoft also open to Xbox Live on the PS4 or Switch  —  Microsoft is bringing its Xbox Live network to iOS and Android devices.
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple announces WWDC 2019 will be held June 3-7 at the McEnery Convention Center in San Jose  —  Apple has officially announced dates and opened registration for its annual developer conference where it will likely unveil iOS 13, macOS 10.15, watchOS 6, and tvOS 13.
Emma Haruka Iwao / Google Cloud Blog:
Google breaks world record for the most accurate value of pi, first time using cloud computing, calculating 31.4T digits after a ~112-day computation  —  Try GCP  —  Get $300 free credit to spend over 12 months.  —  Free Trial  —  TM title , and the first time the record  …
Chris Davies / SlashGear:
Dropbox has quietly updated its website to add a three-device limit, including mobile devices, on its free storage plan  —  Dropbox has quietly added a new limitation on free accounts, putting a cap on how many devices can be linked simultaneously.  The cloud storage service offers new users 2GB for free …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Google says it removed 2.3B bad ads in 2018, down 28% from 2017 and terminated ~1M bad advertiser accounts, including ~734K publishers and app developers  —  Around this time of year, Google shares how many “bad ads” it killed the year before.  And every year, the number grows.  But not this time.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Slack says it has removed 28 accounts for having a “clear affiliation with known hate groups”  —  Chat competitor Discord has faced similar issues  —  Workplace chat company Slack said today it's removed 28 accounts for having a “clear affiliation with known hate groups.”
More: Slack, TechCrunch, and Axios
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Google is shutting down its Spotlight Stories VR film studio, part of Google's ATAP group, according to an email from the studio's executive producer  —  Google is shutting down its Spotlight Stories immersive entertainment unit, according to an email sent out by Spotlight Stories executive producer Karen Dufilho Wednesday evening.
Parmy Olson / Forbes:
Profile of Peter Szulczewski, co-founder of Wish, the most downloaded shopping app worldwide with a valuation of $8.7B+, and a revenue of $1.9B last year  —  n a sun-filled San Francisco afternoon, Peter Szulczewski is climbing the stairs to the top of a Sansome Street skyscraper …
Stuart Dredge / Music Ally:
Spotify files an anti-trust complaint against Apple with the European Commission, claiming App Store rules limit choice and stifle competition  —  Spotify is filing a complaint against Apple with the European Commission, accusing the latter company of anticompetitive behaviour in the way it manages …

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.
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.
Zoho:
CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 11/21 - What The DOJ Wants Google To Do
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 2:30 PM ET, March 14, 2019.

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

Maureen Farrell / Wall Street Journal:

Earlier Picks

Aaron Tilley / The Information:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch: