Techmeme
August 28, 2019, 5:20 PM

Top News

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Apple announces changes to its Siri audio clip review process, making it opt-in for users, bringing the work in-house, and saying it won't retain recordings  —  The top line news is that Apple is making changes to the way that Siri audio review, or ‘grading’ works across all of its devices.
Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
Amazon's Ring has partnerships with over 400 US police forces, granting them access to footage by request, higher than previously believed  —  The doorbell-camera company Ring has quietly forged video-sharing partnerships with more than 400 police forces across the United States …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
Facebook tightens rules on political advertisers, requiring further identity proof such as tax-identification number or Federal Election Commission registration  —  Facebook on Wednesday announced it would tighten some of its rules around political advertising ahead of the 2020 presidential election …
Damien Wilde / 9to5Google:
Report: Google plans to move some production of Pixel 3A from China to Vietnam later this year and aims to have shipped 8M-10M smartphones by the end of 2019  —  According to a report from Japanese news outlet Nikkei, Google is set to move production of the Pixel from China to Vietnam amid the growing US-China trade war.
Alexandra Ma / Business Insider:
Report: US officials are trying to block an undersea cable backed by Google and Facebook connecting Los Angeles to Hong Kong over national security concerns  —  - An 8,000-mile undersea cable connecting Los Angeles to Hong Kong is at risk of being abandoned over national-security threats, The Wall Street Journal reported.
Saritha Rai / Bloomberg:
Source: Apple will begin selling its devices online in India over the coming months, after the country relaxed rules mandating local production  —  - iPhone maker could start online sales in India within months  — Eased requirements may reduce China manufacturing dependency
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Three prominent men in the video game industry were accused of sexual assault in one day this week, re-igniting a broader debate about #MeToo and the industry  —  Developers who worked on ‘Gears of War 4’ and ‘Night in the Woods’ have been accused of sexual assault.  —  MARCO PIUNTI/GETTY IMAGES
Colin Campbell / Polygon:
LCG Entertainment, a new company formed by game industry veterans, to buy defunct studio Telltale Games, sell some of their back catalog, and work on new games  —  A new attempt to relaunch the episodic adventure company  —  Telltale Games, which shut down last year, is coming back after its assets …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft begins bringing a dark mode to its apps, starting with Outlook for iOS and Android and Office.com; Word and others to gain dark mode for iOS 13 launch  —  Microsoft goes all in on dark mode for iOS 13's launch  —  Microsoft revealed that it was working on a dark mode for Outlook …
Cameron Faulkner / The Verge:
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Sources: when Telegram raised $1.7B in 2018, it told investors it will deliver Gram by Oct. 31, 2019, or give back the money, and now says it is still on track  —  While Facebook's big cryptocurrency plans have hit a wall with regulators, another big social network, Telegram, is charging ahead with its own digital currency.
Lucas Kunce / New York Times:
Tech workers should distinguish between the role of technologies like AI and AR on the battlefield and general questions of whether US war-making is right  —  You have the power to help your fellow Americans survive on the battlefield and carry out military missions without harming civilians.
Renee Dudley / ProPublica:
Investigation finds cyber insurers often prefer to pay the ransom for ransomware attacks, even when backup files could be recovered, to save claim costs  —  Even when public agencies and companies hit by ransomware could recover their files on their own, insurers prefer to pay the ransom.  Why?
Sophie Kleeman / VICE:
A steady stream of A-list celebs, from Will Smith to Zac Efron to Alexa Chung, have recently become YouTube vloggers, embracing the authenticity and new fans  —  Over the past 20 or so months, some of the biggest stars in the world have turned to something people do to get famous in the first place: vlogging.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Inkitt, a crowdsourced publishing platform that has 1.6M readers and 110K writers, raises $16M Series A, and says its reading app Galatea has a run-rate of $6M  —  The traditional world of publishing has been challenged hard by the digital revolution.  Reading as a pastime has been in significant decline …
More: FinSMEs
Julia Carrie Wong / The Guardian:
Pinterest says it will begin surfacing fact-based search results, from the WHO and others, when users search for 200 vaccine-related queries  —  Users who search for terms related to vaccines will be presented with information from major public health organizations

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