Techmeme
September 18, 2019, 9:10 AM

Top News

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook debuts Portal TV, a TV accessory for video calling, streaming, AR gaming, and co-viewing Facebook Watch shows, shipping November 5 for $149  —  Facebook wants to take over your television with a clip-on camera for video calling, AR gaming, and content co-watching.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
Facebook shares more on its upcoming Oversight Board for content decisions and how members are picked, says decisions will be binding even if Facebook disagrees  —  'The board's decision will be binding, even if I or anyone at Facebook disagrees with it,' says Zuckerberg
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Facebook says it has updated its definition of “terrorist organizations” and changed its counterterrorism team's structure to curb white supremacist violence  —  In a blog post this afternoon, Facebook detailed the progress it's made in combatting terrorists, violent extremist groups …
Salvador Rodriguez / CNBC:
Sources: after setbacks, Facebook partners with Luxottica to help make “Orion” AR smart glasses designed to replace smartphones, with 2023-2025 launch timeframe  —  KEY POINTS  — Facebook has partnered with Luxottica to develop augmented-reality Ray-Ban glasses, sources familiar with the matter told CNBC.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google will start surfacing key moments from videos in search results, highlighting them with direct links to timestamps provided by creators  —  Google today announced an update to how it handles videos in search results.  Instead of just listing relevant videos on the search results page …
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
iPhone 11 Pro and Pro Max review: its camera system outperforms the Pixel 3 and Note10 in bright light and, with Night mode, usually beats Pixel 3 in low light  —  And the best camera you can get on a phone  —  The iPhone 11 Pro and iPhone 11 Pro Max did not arrive at the splashiest Apple event ever.
Chris Velazco / Engadget:
Brian X. Chen / New York Times:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple Watch Series 5 review: the best smartwatch with an always-on screen, a beautiful display, and new apps, but its battery life hasn't improved  —  There's basically no competition  —  The highest praise I can give the new Apple Watch Series 5 is simply this: it's an Apple Watch.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google Fi debuts a more traditional unlimited plan for $70/mo. for a single line, but “may optimize” video to 480p and will throttle data past 22GB per month  —  Including some limits on video streaming and 100GB of cloud storage  —  Google is announcing a new plan for its MVNO Fi cell service: Unlimited.
Tavi Gevinson / The Cut:
Founder of the Rookie mag reflects on being an early influencer and the effect that Instagram had on her life and career as Instagram's aesthetic keeps evolving  —  My senior year of high school, I had three Instagram accounts: a public one, a private one for friends and internet friends, and a private one that was just for me.
Will Oremus / OneZero:
Studies that try to place a monetary value on consumer privacy have such varying results that researchers are beginning to conclude that it's the wrong approach  —  No one knows.  And it might be time to stop asking.  —  For big tech platforms, this was the year when violating users' privacy got expensive.
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
FarmWise, which is developing autonomous farming robots for removing weeds, raises $14.5M Series A, following a $5.7M seed round in 2017  —  Automating agriculture is a complex proposition given the number and variety of tasks involved, but a number of robotics and autonomy companies are giving it their best shot.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Descript, which offers tools for creating podcasts, raises $15M Series A from a16z and Redpoint, and acquires Lyrebird, which built audio transcription tools  —  The boom in popularity for podcasting has given a new voice to the world of spoken word content that had been largely left for dead with the decline of broadcast radio.
More: Fast CompanyThanks:@ingridlunden
Steve Dent / Engadget:
HTC names former Orange exec Yves Maitre as its new CEO; HTC had $770M in revenue in 2018, the first time its annual revenue fell below $1B as a public company  —  HTC announced that it has appointed a former executive from telecom giant Orange, Yves Maitre, as its new CEO.

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:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
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:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
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 9:10 AM ET, September 18, 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

Wall Street Journal:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
U.S. Department of Justice:
Lesley Goldberg / Hollywood Reporter:
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Joshua Franklin / Reuters: