Techmeme
July 24, 2019, 2:20 AM

Top News

Brent Kendall / Wall Street Journal:
DOJ is opening an antitrust review of whether tech giants are unlawfully stifling competition, examining search, social media, and retail services platforms  —  Inquiry signals Barr's deep interest in tech sector, poses threat to companies such as Facebook, Google, Amazon, Apple
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Sources: FTC will allege that Facebook misled users on how it used phone numbers and poorly informed them about facial recognition; FB won't have to admit guilt  —  The Federal Trade Commission plans to allege that Facebook misled users' about its handling of their phone numbers as part …
Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed News:
Interviews, including with the dev who led the team that built the retweet button, discuss the power of retweets and shares and ways to limit their virality  —  Developer Chris Wetherell built Twitter's retweet button.  And he regrets what he did to this day.
Bloomberg:
Filings: Apple has asked the Trump administration for exclusion from import tariffs of 25% for components of a computer that is likely to be the new Mac Pro  —  - Trump has promised relief for companies in certain cases  — High-end computer was only major Apple product made in U.S.
Bijan Stephen / The Verge:
As streaming offerings get more expensive and convoluted, people are setting up their own platforms via Plex servers to share media, including pirated content  —  Have you heard about the best new streaming platform on the internet?  It's totally customizable, works on any device, and, best of all, is basically free.
Tripp Mickle / Wall Street Journal:
Analysis: Apple's own apps rank first in 60%+ of App Store test searches; Podcasts, which had a 1.7-star rating before its reviews were removed, ranks #1 in US  —  Searches for ‘music,’ ‘audiobooks’ and other categories rank company apps first, a process some developers find unfair …
Patrick Klepek / VICE:
Nintendo memo tells customer service to fix a Joy-Con in-game “drift” issue for free, even out of warranty, following a Kotaku report and a class-action lawsuit  —  The company will repair devices free of charge, even outside of the warranty period.  —  IMAGE COURTESY OF NINTENDO
Kellen / Droid Life:
Google Store page updates the availability of the Google Nest Hub Max, its $229 10-inch smart display, from 9/9 in the US, UK, and Australia to “coming soon”  —  Google's new Nest Hub Max arrives on September 9, folks.  That date has now been confirmed by the Google Store …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Snap reports Q2 revenue of $388M, up 48% YoY, vs. $359.7M est., DAUs of 203M, up 8% YoY, and that its net loss shrunk from $353M to $255M YoY; stock jumps 9%+  —  KEY POINTS  — Snap, the maker of Snapchat, posted a loss of 6 cents per share, vs. an expected loss of 10 cents per share.
Richard Lawler / Engadget:
DoorDash CEO to change tipping policy “in the coming days”, says it will add all customer tips to driver's earnings, after a renewed backlash  —  Earlier this year, news reports exposed that not only did DoorDash (and others, like Instacart) sometimes lower its payout to delivery workers …
Jessica Dolcourt / CNET:
Profile of Craigslist founder Craig Newmark, who has donated $100M+ to charities and who champions “vigorous, trustworthy journalism” and women in tech  —  Craig Newmark is a man of quiet contradiction.  Wrapped in a sweater the color of hot chocolate, the 66-year-old founder …
Guilherme Rambo / 9to5Mac:
Sources: Apple to release three “iPhone 11” models this fall, each with an A13 chip, Lightning port, and a new Taptic Engine, as 3D Touch goes away  —  Similar to last year's introduction of the iPhone XS, iPhone XS Max, and iPhone XR, Apple will release three new ‘iPhone 11’ models this fall.
Facebook AI:
Facebook details Map With AI, a set of tools that maps previously unmapped places, many in the developing world, using commercially available satellite imagery  —  Creating accurate maps today is a painstaking, time-consuming manual process, even with access to satellite imagery and mapping software.
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
CERT-Bund discovers a serious vulnerability in VLC for Windows, Unix, and Linux that allows for remote code execution and hasn't been patched yet  —  The bug is present in VLC's latest release.  —  A serious vulnerability has been uncovered in the latest release of the VLC media player and no patch is available.
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
NSA will create a cybersecurity directorate led by Anne Neuberger starting October 1, to help align offensive and defensive operations more closely  —  Anne Neuberger, tapped as head, warns against ‘not engaging in the fight’  —  The National Security Agency will create a cybersecurity directorate later …
David Canellis / The Next Web:
Federal judge refuses to dismiss $224M lawsuit against AT&T for allegedly letting a customer be SIM-swapped twice, leading to the loss of $24M in cryptocurrency  —  THIS INVESTOR LOST $24M IN CRYPTOCURRENCY AFTER HE WAS SIM-SWAPPED, TWICE  —  A US federal judge has rejected AT&T's request …
Joshua Rivera / Kotaku:
Video game industry is coming under increased pressure from static triple-A prices, a turn towards the cloud, developer burnout, and slower release schedules  —  At about this time next year, we'll have a pretty good idea of what the next generation of video games will look like.

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Jay Greene / Washington Post:
Stacy Cowley / New York Times: