Techmeme
May 23, 2019, 7:20 PM

Top News

Matt Day / Bloomberg:
Source: Amazon is working on a wearable voice-activated health and wellness device that works with a mobile app and can recognize human emotions  —  - Described as a health product, it would work with a mobile app  — Machines that can understand emotions are a sci-fi staple
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Multiple sources and emails describe how Snap employees used internal tools like SnapLion to access user data several years ago, before Snap restricted access  —  Multiple sources and emails also describe SnapLion, an internal tool used by various departments to access Snapchat user data.
Guy Rosen / Facebook:
Facebook releases an update on enforcing its community standards, saying it banned 2.19B fake accounts in Q1 2019, up from 1.2B in Q4 2018  —  Today, we're publishing our third Community Standards Enforcement Report, covering Q4 2018 and Q1 2019.  This report adds a few additional data points:
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Samsung researchers detail a machine learning method that can recreate lifelike motion from just a single image of a person's face  —  Machine learning researchers have produced a system that can recreate lifelike motion from just a single frame of a person's face, opening up the possibility …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Instagram says IGTV will now support landscape video, following feedback from creators and users, as the service struggles to gain traction  —  The vertical video experiment is over  —  Instagram is no longer all-in on vertical video.  The company announced today that its longform video offshoot …
The Keyword:
Google says it has partnered with delivery services including DoorDash and Postmates to let users order food via Google Search, Maps, or Assistant in the US  —  French fries, lettuce wraps, massaman curry, chicken wings, cupcakes—I could go on.  When I was pregnant with my son last year, my cravings were completely overpowering.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
GitHub launches Sponsors, a tool that lets users pay their favorite open source contributors; developers can opt in to a “Sponsor me” button on repositories  —  GitHub today launched Sponsors, a new tool that lets you give financial support to open-source developers through recurring monthly payments.
Aislinn Keely / The Block:
AT&T says customers can now pay their mobile bills in cryptocurrency via BitPay  —  Cryptocurrency is taking another step towards the mainstream as mobile carrier AT&T announced it would accept payments in crypto today, according to a release from the company.
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Rotten Tomatoes says it will now calculate the Audience Score using only ratings or reviews from users whose ticket purchase has been verified through Fandango  —  Review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes is taking additional steps to confirm that audience members actually see a movie before leaving a rating or review.
Nico Grant / Bloomberg:
Interviews with Marc Benioff and 18 associates and current and former Salesforce employees show his instinctual and sometimes mystifying M&A strategy  —  Marc Benioff's acquisitions have kept the software giant growing at an incredible rate.  He's also made some costly errors.
Mark Scott / Politico:
GDPR has helped big tech companies cement their dominance in the data economy while smaller companies have suffered from relatively high compliance costs  —  The region's data protection overhaul was supposed to help citizens.  Instead, it's helped Big Tech.
Wall Street Journal:
Facebook says it won't pay commissions to employees who sell political ads; source: Zuckerberg decided to keep selling political ads after an internal debate  —  Company leaders considered dropping such ads, which are now viewed as a headache  —  Facebook Inc. said it stopped paying commissions …
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
Software maker Panic unveils Playdate, a Game Boy-like device with a hand crank control and 12 bundled games released over time, coming in 2020 for $149  —  Little, yellow, different  —  Panic made its name through high-end Mac software, but more recently, the company moved into gaming …
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
Google adds group video calls for up to eight people to its Duo video calling app for iOS and Android users worldwide  —  Google's Duo video call app today introduced group video calls for up to 8 people for iOS and Android users worldwide.  At launch, Duo group video calls will not be available …
Dave Lee / BBC:
Leaked memo: ARM has told staff it must suspend business, including all active contracts, support entitlements, and pending engagements, with Huawei  —  UK-based chip designer ARM has told staff it must suspend business with Huawei, according to internal documents obtained by the BBC.

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Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica: