Techmeme
October 22, 2019, 12:15 PM

Top News

CNBC:
Sources: SoftBank to take control of WeWork, spending $4B-$5B on new funding and existing shares in The We Company, valuing it between $7.5B and $8B  —  KEY POINTS  — Softbank to spend $4 billion to $5 billion on new equity, existing shares, sources say.
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Verizon is giving away Disney+ for free for one year to all of its wireless customers on unlimited-data plans and to FiOS and 5G home internet customers  —  New Fios broadband, 5G home wireless internet customers also eligible for 12-month free offer  —  Verizon is giving away Disney Plus …
Nathaniel Gleicher / Facebook:
Facebook bans networks, three originating in Iran and one in Russia, running “inauthentic” accounts, Pages, and Groups misleading US and Latin American users  —  Today, we removed four separate networks of accounts, Pages and Groups for engaging in coordinated inauthentic behavior on Facebook and Instagram.
Facebook:
Joe Maring / Android Central:
The Pixel 4 and 4 XL support fast wireless charging on any Qi charger, unlike the Pixel 3, which needed Google's own Pixel Stand for fast charging  —  11W speeds seem to be supported on just about anything.  —  Updated October 22, 2019: So it turns out that the Pixel 4's wireless charging situation …
Shelby Brown / CNET:
Devumi settles FTC charges that it sold fake followers and likes; cosmetics firm Sunday Riley also settles with FTC for allegedly posting fake online reviews  —  The Federal Trade Commission uncovered and stopped the misleading online marketing tactics of two different companies, it announced Monday.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Sources: MPC, which pitched itself as a privacy-focused smartphone vendor, was run by a violent UK gang, shuttering after multiple investigations into it began  —  Crime blogger Martin Kok was assassinated while leaving a sex club.  It turned out MPC, one of his clients, was not an ordinary phone company.
Andrew Nusca / Fortune:
A look at the revival in digital music sales, which have grown from $14.3B in 2014 to $18.1B in 2018, mainly thanks to paid streaming services like Spotify  —  Imagine, for a moment, that Taylor Swift was wrong.  The reigning queen of country-tinged pop shocked fans in 2014 by abruptly …
vpnMentor:
Researchers find open database that leaked 179GB+ of customer, US government, and military records from Best Western's travel reservation system Autoclerk  —  Led by Noam Rotem and Ran Locar, vpnMentor's research team discovered a breach in a database belonging to Autoclerk …

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 12:15 PM ET, October 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

Bloomberg:
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks

Ina Fried / Axios:
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Ionut Ilascu / BleepingComputer:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: