Techmeme
September 12, 2019, 9:20 PM

Top News

Richard Gingras / The Keyword:
Google says it changed how it ranks stories and updated guidelines for evaluation of search results to help better identify and surface original news reporting  —  Google Search was built to provide everyone access to information on the web—and with tens of thousands of web pages …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Google Photos starts rolling out Memories, a tool that brings back old photos and videos on their anniversaries in an Instagram Stories-like format  —  A new feature to help you reminisce, plus same-day printing  —  Google Photos is adding features to encourage reminiscing …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Slack launches a dark mode for macOS, Windows, and Linux, with dark mode variants of all existing sidebar themes and a new “Nocturne” dark mode theme  —  Updated dark mode themes are available today  —  Slack is introducing a new dark mode for desktop versions of its workplace chat app.
Theodore Schleifer / Vox:
Sources: federal investigators, including the FBI, are probing the conduct and practices of Mithril Capital, the VC firm co-founded by Peter Thiel  —  Mithril Capital raised over $1 billion on the name of Thiel, one of Silicon Valley's biggest celebrities.  Now federal investigators are looking under the hood.
April Glaser / Slate:
Kickstarter has fired two union organizers in eight days; sources: both were fired for what management said were performance-related issues  —  On Thursday morning, Kickstarter fired Taylor Moore, an employee who was one of the organizers of a unionization effort within the company.
Claudia Koerner / BuzzFeed News:
Facebook takes down fact-check of anti-abortion video after complaints from four GOP senators alleging bias; Facebook's fact-checking partner is investigating  —  Facebook on Wednesday removed a fact-check conducted by doctors of an anti-abortion activist's video, which falsely claimed abortion …
Lindsey O'Donnell / Threatpost:
Researchers: “SimJacker”, a widespread SIM card-based vulnerability, is being exploited by a private actor “that works with governments to monitor individuals”  —  A vulnerability discovered in mobile SIM cards is being actively exploited to track phone owners' locations …
Anthony Cuthbertson / The Independent:
French Economy and Finance Minister says the country will block the development of Facebook's Libra in the EU as it poses a threat to “monetary sovereignty”  —  French Finance Minister says: ‘We cannot authorise the development of Libra on European soil’
Jared Newman / Fast Company:
Amazon launches Alexa Answers, a crowdsourcing platform that lets any user answer questions asked by other users, in the US  —  The Alexa Answers crowdsourcing platform is now open to everyone in the United States.  Amazon says it has measures in place to prevent misuse.
Lauren Debter / Forbes:
Direct-to-consumer dental startup SmileDirectClub closes down 28% on its first day of trading, after raising $1.35B in its IPO at a $9B valuation  —  SmileDirectClub raised $1.35 billion in an initial public offering on Thursday, defying challenges from dentists and regulators and cementing …
Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
AT&T's WarnerMedia signs an exclusive five-year deal with J.J. Abrams' Bad Robot for TV, film, and streaming projects; sources: deal is worth ~$250M  —  Bad Robot, the production company he runs with his wife and co-CEO, Katie McGrath, will now have all of its divisions …
Michael del Castillo / Forbes:
Dapper Labs, developer of CryptoKitties, raises $11.2M from a16z, Warner Music Group, and others for its proof-of-stake, high transaction volume blockchain Flow  —  Now that Warner Music Group has mastered streaming, generating $2 billion in revenue from the technology, the music giant behind Cardi B …
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Apple says it is tweaking changes announced at WWDC to App Store policies around Sign in with Apple and the rules around children's app categories  —  Originally announced in June, changes to Apple's App Store policies on its Sign in with Apple service and the rules around children's app categories are being tweaked.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Google won't need to admit wrongdoing in a NLRB settlement over complaints of restricting employees' speech, but will need to inform employees of speech rights  —  Google will affirm that employees can discuss workplace issues, following a settlement with the National Labor Relations Board (NLRB).
Andrew Ross Sorkin / New York Times:
Apple, Facebook, Google, and Microsoft did not sign a letter from 145 CEOs, including Lyft, Twitter, Airbnb, and Uber CEOs, urging Senate action on gun violence  —  “Doing nothing about America's gun violence crisis is simply unacceptable," the corporate chiefs urged senators in a letter.
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Uber says drivers will remain contractors under AB5, as they aren't core to its business which serves as a platform for several types of digital marketplaces  —  The ride-hail company shrugs off a new bill in California, but legal challenges loom  —  Uber won't be reclassifying its drivers …
Corbin Davenport / Android Police:
Android 10 allows multiple apps to access a phone's microphone at once, in a way designed to benefit accessibility services and Google Assistant  —  Android 10 is now available in its final form on a few phones, but some of its more interesting changes flew under the radar.

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.
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.
Zoho:
5 common accounting mistakes  —  This is a guest post by Yaali Bizappln Solutions.  A lot of businesses manage their customers and finances on separate platforms.  This disconnect often leads to missed invoices …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 11/22 - An LLM Siri But... Only The Year AFTER Next?
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 9:20 PM ET, September 12, 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

Earlier Picks

Nicole Lee / Engadget:
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Blake Montgomery / The Daily Beast: