Techmeme
November 21, 2019, 12:35 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is overhauling how it tests software, making daily builds disable unfinished features by default, after a swarm of bugs marred the iOS 13 debut  —  Apple Inc. is overhauling how it tests software after a swarm of bugs marred the latest iPhone and iPad operating systems, according to people familiar with the shift.
NBC News:
President Donald Trump hosted an undisclosed dinner with Mark Zuckerberg and Peter Thiel at the White House in October, Facebook confirmed on Wednesday  —  The meeting took place during Zuckerberg's most recent visit to Washington, where he testified before Congress about Facebook's new cryptocurrency Libra.
Scott Spencer / The Keyword:
Google announces new political ad rules, limits microtargeting to age, gender, and general location categories, will start enforcing them in UK within a week  —  We're proud that people around the world use Google to find relevant information about elections and that candidates use Google …
New York Times:
Jack Nicas / New York Times:
Tim Cook and Apple did not correct Trump after he took credit for opening a Texas manufacturing plant that has been in operation since 2013  —  President Trump said on Wednesday that he opened a facility that makes computers for Apple.  It's been operating since 2013.
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google Duplex launches on the web as Google Assistant in Chrome, lets users buy movie tickets from 70+ cinemas and ticketing services in the US  —  At I/O 2019, Sundar Pichai announced that Google Duplex was “moving beyond voice” and coming to the web.  After publicly testing in late September …
Faiz Siddiqui / Washington Post:
Uber plans to test letting riders and drivers in the US record audio of their trips “soon”, as a similar pilot program debuts next month in Brazil and Mexico  —  Uber plans to record audio during rides in the United States as part of a new security feature, its latest push …
Kate Conger / New York Times:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
PayPal to acquire Honey, a comparison shopping and rewards platform that has 17M MAUs, for ~$4B  —  PayPal announced today it has agreed to acquire Honey Science Corporation, the makers of a deal-finding browser add-on and mobile application, for $4 billion, mostly cash.
Annie Palmer / CNBC:
WeWork says it is laying off around 2,400 employees globally  —  - The beleaguered office-sharing start-up is laying off 2,400 employees in an attempt to right-size the business.  — The layoffs come after several tumultuous months for WeWork, which were marred by a botched IPO …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Alphabet's Loon signs deal with Telefonica to provide internet to remote parts of the Amazon  —  Alphabet-owned Loon, the high-altitude balloon company that is using its stratospheric technology to provide internet connectivity on Earth, has signed a new commercial agreement with Telefonica-owned Internet para Todos (IpT).
More: Loon Blog, Engadget, and FierceWirelessTweets: @shiraovide
Amnesty International:
Amnesty International says Facebook and Google's omnipresent surveillance is inherently incompatible with the right to privacy and is a danger to human rights  —  Facebook and Google's omnipresent surveillance of billions of people poses a systemic threat to human rights …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook brings Stories to Facebook Dating, letting users add their Facebook or Instagram Stories to dating profiles  —  Facebook Dating, an opt-in feature of the main Facebook app, will begin to tap into the content users are already creating across both Facebook and Instagram to enhance its service.
More: The Verge and CNET
Gwen Everett / Bloomberg:
Juniper Square, which operates a platform for commercial real estate investment firms, raises $75M Series C led by Redpoint Management  —  Juniper Square, a startup maker of software for commercial real estate investing, raised $75 million in a series C funding round led by venture capital firm Redpoint Management LLC.
Buster Hein / Cult of Mac:
Guilherme Rambo, who has published scoops about unreleased Apple products by examining beta software, says Apple locked his dev account with no stated reason  —  Guilherme Rambo, one of the top Apple secret-spillers, says Apple locked him out of his developer account, preventing …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Robotic process automation startup Automation Anywhere raises $290M Series B at a valuation of $6.8B, now has 3,500+ enterprise clients in 90+ countries  —  Robotic process automation (RPA), or bots that can be programmed to perform tedious and mundane tasks, is undergoing a period of explosive growth.

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:
Thu. 11/21 - What The DOJ Wants Google To Do
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 12:35 PM ET, November 21, 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

April Glaser / Slate:
Matthew Gault / VICE:

Earlier Picks

New York Times:
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Jay Peters / The Verge: