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Techmeme
August 15, 2019, 2:10 PM
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Top News

The Keyword:
Google Assistant now lets users create reminders that can be assigned to friends or family, including scheduled time-based or location-based reminders  —  If you're a fellow parent, you probably spend a lot of time coordinating with your partner through on-the-fly conversations, text messages or phone calls.
Elizabeth Lopatto / The Verge:
A close reading of the S-1 of the soap opera that is The We Company, a “tech company” whose mission “is to elevate the world's consciousness”  —  On August 14th, The We Company (the company formerly known as WeWork) filed its mandatory S-1 paperwork to go public, and it's worth reading in full.
Dan Primack / Axios:
WeWork files to raise $1B in an IPO, reports a $904M net loss on around $1.5B in revenue for first half of 2019
Eugene Kim / CNBC:
Amazon launches a new donations program, called FBA Donations, for third-party sellers to dispose of unsold products stored in its warehouses in the US and UK  —  KEY POINTS  — Amazon is launching a new donations program, called FBA Donations, for third-party sellers that store …
April Glaser / Slate:
Tech companies can do a lot more to protect the identities of people speaking in recordings used to train AI, like shifting the voice or gender of the speaker  —  It turns out that Siri, Alexa, and whatever it is you call Facebook Messenger have been a little loose-lipped with your conversations.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Leaked documents show that Microsoft pays $12 to $14 per hour to the contractors who transcribe up to 200 audio clips per hour to train Cortana
The Information:
Investors and employees of Toptal, a freelancing platform with ~$200M revenue and originally funded by $1.5M in convertible notes, have ended up with no equity  —  Toptal, a service that connects companies with freelance software engineers, is a Silicon Valley success story.
Tweets: @amir, @amir, @amir, @amir, @amir, @amir, @amir, and @amir
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Berlin-based game studio Klang raises $23.3M led by Novator Partners to develop a MMO space colony simulation called Seed, bringing its total raised to $37.4M  —  Klang has raised $22.33 million in funding to develop a massively multiplayer online space colony simulation called Seed.
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Incorta, which aims to optimize data warehousing projects for enterprises, raises $30M Series C led by Sorenson Capital, bringing its total raised to $75M  —  Incorta, a startup founded by former Oracle executives who want to change the way we process large amounts data, announced a $30 million Series C today led by Sorenson Capital.
Andrew Webster / The Verge:
Sega's Genesis Mini, launching September 19 for $79.99, is 55% smaller than the original Genesis, comes with two USB controllers, and has 42 built-in games  —  It's been three years since the breakout success of Nintendo's tiny NES Classic, but the miniature console wars are finally heating up.
CNBC:
VMware says it is in talks to acquire Pivotal Software for $15 per share in cash, an 80% premium on Pivotal's $8.30 closing price on Wednesday  —  This is breaking news.  Please check back for updates.  —  TRENDING NOW  —  Subscribe to CNBC PRO Licensing & Reprints Join …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:10 PM ET, August 15, 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.

From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
CPB says the Department of Education has terminated Ready To Learn, the grant program that funded Sesame Street and would've provided $23M for children's shows

Alex Sherman / CNBC:
Comcast's spinoff of the majority of the NBCU cable network portfolio will be named Versant; the “holding company” name is for “business-to-business purposes”

New York Times:
California Gov. Gavin Newsom says he wants to work with the Trump administration to craft a $7.5B federal film tax credit; the state allocates $330M annually

More News

Laura Parker / GameSpot:
Profile of Microsoft's Executive VP of Gaming Phil Spencer, who has steadfastly advocated for cross-platform play since taking over as head of Xbox in 2014
New York Times:
As the 10+ day internet shutdown in Kashmir continues, pharmacists run out of drugs, people can't get cash, and online related businesses close

Earlier Picks

Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Cisco reports Q4 revenues of $13.43B, up 6% YoY, and revenues of $7.88B for Infrastructure Platforms, up 6% YoY; stock down 7%+ after weak guidance
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
About 200 Google employees sign a petition, saying they “refuse to be complicit” in potential cloud computing work for the US Customs & Border Protection agency
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Google says Course Kit, its toolkit for teachers launched last year, will now be called Assignments and be able to detect plagiarism
Jordan Davis / Facebook:
Facebook simplifies Groups' privacy settings, to public and private; “secret” Groups are now private and hidden, and “closed” Groups are now private and visible
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
AT&T and T-Mobile have started rolling out cross-network call authentication services to protect against spam and spoofed robocalls
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