Techmeme
August 22, 2019, 8:15 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is planning to launch Pro iPhones with three-sensor camera systems for better low-light photos and video recording, new iPads, larger MacBook Pro  —  Apple Inc. is readying a clutch of new hardware for the coming weeks and months, including “Pro” iPhones, upgrades to iPads and its largest laptop in years.
Stephen Hall / 9to5Google:
Source: Google is planning an update to the Home Mini, called the Nest Mini, with a similar form factor, wall mount, improved sound, and 3.5mm jack  —  Google plans to launch a followup to 2017's Google Home Mini with a second-generation ‘Nest Mini,’ a reliable source tells 9to5Google.
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Eminem's publisher Eight Mile Style sues Spotify claiming copyright infringement, challenges the constitutionality of the Music Modernization Act passed in 2018  —  Eight Mile Style alleges “Lose Yourself” and many of the rapper's hits aren't licensed by the streamer.  Now comes a suit eyeing Spotify's billions.
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Big data analytics service Splunk to acquire cloud monitoring company SignalFx for $1.05B  —  The company announced the deal along with its second quarter financial results, which topped estimates.  —  Splunk delivered better-than-expected second quarter financial results and announced …
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Microsoft contractors say they listened to recordings, including accidentally invoked ones, of Xbox users, many of them children, to improve voice command tech  —  Multiple contractors working for Microsoft explain how they listened to audio captured by Xbox consoles.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google officially rolls out a redesign for the Play Store, using its Material design language, and creates two distinct destinations for games and apps  —  After months of waiting and temporary appearances, the Play Store Material Theme redesign is now official on Android.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Google, Mozilla, Apple to block root certificate issued by Kazakhstan which could be used to monitor users; Microsoft says cert not in its Trusted Root Program  —  Browser makers announced they would block the Kazakhstan government's root certificate, which was designed to spy on citizens' internet usage.
Bloomberg:
Google DeepMind co-founder Mustafa Suleyman, who led a heavily criticized unit focusing on practical AI uses, has been placed on leave for unspecified reasons  —  - Mustafa Suleyman is head of applied artifical intelligence  — He led heavily critized unit focusing on AI and healthcare
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researcher who was banned from Valve's HackerOne bug bounty program after submitting a Steam 0-day that Valve downplayed, reveals details of another Steam 0-day  —  Valve gets heavily criticized for mishandling a crucial bug report.  —  A Russian security researcher has published details about a zero-day in the Steam gaming client.
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, Baidu, IBM, ARM, Intel, Red Hat, and others form the Confidential Computing Consortium to promote better data security practices  —  A number of big-name tech companies — including Microsoft, Google, Alibaba, Red Hat, IBM, and Intel — are joining forces …
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Fitbit wins a Singapore government contract to provide fitness trackers for free for up to a million citizens who subscribe to the $10/month premium service  —  KEY POINTS  — Fitbit is providing devices for potentially hundreds of thousands of people in Singapore who commit to a monthly subscription.
Rose Eveleth / Slate:
A look at the weird and wacky patents filed by tech companies, some seemingly unrelated to the industry, and the reasons behind filing for them  —  Companies are constantly patenting strange things they have no intention of developing.  Here's why.  —  Amazon is putting humans in cages to protect them from machines!
Stephan Kahl / Bloomberg:
Numbrs, an app that enables users to manage existing bank accounts in one place, raises $40M at a $1B+ valuation, bringing its total raised to ~$200M  —  - Numbrs raises $40 million as it looks to expand beyond Germany  — Company counts 50 indivuals and families among its investors
Takahiko Hyuga / Bloomberg:
Wireless giant SoftBank Corp's brokerage unit, One Tap BUY, will allow individuals in Japan to participate in IPOs for as little as $10, starting next year  —  - Japanese companies are working to entice younger investors  — New investment offering to start in first half of next year

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.
Zoho:
Introducing AI Forms: Create optimized forms with AI in Zoho Forms  —  The future of form creation isn't coming, it's here.  Forget everything you thought you knew about building online forms.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 12/23 - The Revenge Of Google Glass?
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 8:15 AM ET, August 22, 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

Jay Greene / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
John Whitehouse / Media Matters for America:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Ryan Smith / AnandTech:
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Reuters:
Nat Levy / GeekWire:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: