Techmeme
November 21, 2019, 12:00 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.
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:
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.
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 …
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:
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.
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:
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).
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter rolls out its “Hide Replies” feature to all users globally  —  Twitter's radical “Hide Replies” feature, one of the biggest changes to how Twitter works since the invention of the Retweet, is now available to Twitter's global user base.  The company says the feature …
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 …
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 …
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.
New York Times:
Google has hired IRI Consultants, an anti-union consulting company, signaling the feud between some activist employees and management has escalated  —  After nearly two years of unrest, the company appears to be cracking down on employee activism.  —  Google has hired an anti-union consulting firm …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple MacBook Pro 16" review: best speakers on a laptop with a good keyboard and improved battery life, but it's heavy and macOS Catalina is still buggy  —  Apple fixed the obvious things  —  The keyboard is fixed.  —  If Apple did nothing else, that one thing makes the 2019 16-inch MacBook Pro better …
Thomas Germain / Consumer Reports:
How outdoor ad networks like Five Tier let clients plan and target billboard ads based on mobile phone data about passersby such as gender, age, race, and more  —  How the most intrusive parts of the web are expanding into the real world, complete with data collection and targeted ads

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