Techmeme
October 23, 2019, 5:40 PM

Top News

Cade Metz / New York Times:
Google claims “quantum supremacy” breakthrough: its quantum computer performed a mathematical calculation at a speed inconceivable with today's technology  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Google said on Wednesday that it had achieved a long-sought breakthrough called “quantum supremacy,” …
IBM Research Blog:
IBM says Google's experiment is an excellent demo of quantum computing progress, but not proof that quantum computers are “supreme” over classical computers  —  Quantum computers are starting to approach the limit of classical simulation and it is important that we continue …
Microsoft:
Microsoft reports Q1 revenue of $33.1B, up 14% YoY, as net income rises 21% YoY to $10.7B; Intelligent Cloud revenue rose 27% YoY to $10.8B, driven by Azure  —  REDMOND, Wash. — October 23, 2019 — Microsoft Corp. today announced the following results for the quarter ended September 30 …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft's Q1 Surface revenue declined by 4% YoY, which was blamed on the lack of new or refreshed products, as gaming revenue declined by 7% YoY  —  No new Surface or Xbox hardware in recent quarter  —  Microsoft posted the first quarter of its 2020 financial results today …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
At a hearing on Libra, Mark Zuckerberg was grilled by House lawmakers from both parties on the proposed cryptocurrency, privacy, diversity, and misinformation  —  The social media giant's chief executive took an early lashing Wednesday over the company's policies to spot and prevent the spread disinformation.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Leaked presentation shows Comcast is lobbying US lawmakers against Google and Mozilla's plan to encrypt DNS data, making it harder for ISPs to track users  —  Motherboard has obtained a leaked presentation internet service providers are using to try and lobby lawmakers against a form of encrypted browsing data.
eMarketer:
Apple Pay overtook Starbucks as the top mobile payment app in US in 2018 with 27.7M users, will grow to 30.3M users in 2019 representing a 47.3% market share  —  Nearly 30% of US smartphone users will use a mobile payment app … For the first time, a generic mobile payment app is more popular …
Andy Boxall / Digital Trends:
Huawei says the Mate X foldable phone will launch in China next month for ~$2,400, and has shipped 200M smartphones so far in 2019, 64 days faster than 2018  —  Though times are turbulent for Huawei, it has still managed to ship 200 million smartphones already this year, beating a previous record …
Wall Street Journal:
Investigation: Amazon sells cheap clothes made in dozens of Bangladeshi factories, most of which are deemed too dangerous for workers by other big retailers  —  After a deadly 2013 factory collapse, most big U.S. apparel companies agreed to steer clear of dangerous plants in Bangladesh.  Not Amazon.
CNBC:
WeWork says SoftBank will provide $5B in new financing and buy up to $3B in shares from existing shareholders, which would give SoftBank an 80% stake in WeWork  —  - CNBC's David Faber previously reported that SoftBank was seeking to take control of WeWork through a financing package.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Republicans made a spectacle of storming into the secure room where a closed-door impeachment hearing was taking place, known as the SCIF, some with cell phones  —  Lawmakers flout strict rules designed to prevent eavesdropping by adversaries.  —  On Wednesday, Republican lawmakers committed …
Sarah Emerson / VICE:
Documents show how Facebook uses Menlo Park's police department, which includes a Facebook-funded unit for campus patrol duties, amid racial profiling concerns  —  Hundreds of pages of documents obtained by Motherboard show how Facebook is using the Menlo Park Police Department to reshape the city.
Alexi McCammond / Axios:
Memo from a departing chief of White House security lays out how an ongoing reorg under the Trump administration has left its networks more vulnerable to attack  —  An internal memo on cybersecurity, obtained by Axios, warns that “the White House is posturing itself to be electronically compromised once again.”
More: Gizmodo
Ferris Jabr / New York Times:
A deep dive into the debate surrounding video game addiction, as the scientific understanding of what it means to be addicted continues to evolve  —  The latest research suggests it's not far-fetched at all — especially when you consider all the societal and cultural factors that make today's games so attractive.
Financial Times:
Interviews with 30+ former employees of UK cloud computing company UKFast surface allegations claiming its founder, Lawrence Jones, sexually assaulted employees  —  There are two sides to Lawrence Jones, MBE, one of Britain's wealthiest technology entrepreneurs with an estimated £700m fortune.

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