Techmeme
January 23, 2020, 2:10 PM

Top News

Jon Porter / The Verge:
Google's new look for desktop search results blurs the lines between ads and search results, leading many critics to identify it as a dark pattern  —  The latest desktop update blurs the lines  —  Last week, Google began rolling out a new look for its search results on desktop …
BuzzFeed News:
NYPD disputes facial recognition firm Clearview AI's claim that it identified a terrorism suspect; company's founders have previous connections to the far right  —  Clearview AI, a facial recognition company that says it's amassed a database of billions of photos, has a fantastic selling point …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Match Group invests in safety app Noonlight to add features like a panic button, check-in, and photo verification to its dating apps, starting with Tinder  —  Match Group, the dating app giant and parent company to Match, Tinder, OKCupid, Plenty of Fish, and several other dating apps …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft starts rolling out developer kits and emulators for its dual-screen Surface Duo Android phone and Windows 10X-based Surface Neo  —  Microsoft is starting to roll out developer kits and emulators for both Android and 10X developers who want to build for coming dual-screen devices, starting with its own.
Shannon Vavra / CyberScoop:
Experts say FTI's report on the hack of Bezos' phone does not explain why FTI wasn't able to decrypt the malicious file or perform actions like jailbreaking  —  (National Museum of American History / Flickr)  —  A cybersecurity forensics team has concluded with “medium to high confidence” …
Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:
VICE:
Stephanie Kirchgaessner / The Guardian:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
TikTok signs licensing deal with music rights agency Merlin for indie label music in videos and, source says, in its upcoming music streaming service, Resso  —  TikTok, the fast-growing user-generated video app from China's Bytedance, has been building a new music streaming service to compete …
Bloomberg:
Paul Kiel / ProPublica:
Inside the IRS's 8-year audit into Microsoft after the company sold its IP to a factory it owns in Puerto Rico to reduce tax rate on US profits from ~35% to ~2%  —  For years, the company has moved billions in profits to Puerto Rico to avoid taxes.  When the IRS pushed it to pay, Microsoft protested that the agency wasn't being nice.
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Bear Robotics, which is developing autonomous robot waiters, raises $32M Series A led by SoftBank  —  Back in August, we flagged a filing for you that we found interesting, one for a now 2.5-year-old, 40-person Redwood City, Calif.,-based startup called Bear Robotics that's been developing robots …
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
New York-based project management platform Clubhouse raises $25M Series B led by Greylock Partners, source says at a valuation of $100M  —  Covering venture capital, software and startups  —  In software development, Atlassian's Jira product suite holds rarified status as a market leader with few large-scale competitors.
Tweets: @alexrkonradThanks:@alexrkonrad
Gregory Barber / Wired:
Google helps publish largest high-resolution map of brain neurons of a fruit fly, using a machine learning technique called flood-filling networks  —  It took 12 years and at least $40 million to chart a region about 250 micrometers across—about the thickness of two strands of hair.
Politico:
Interview with David Cicilline, the chairman of the House subcommittee on antitrust, on his approach to investigating Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon  —  Practically everybody in Washington is mad at Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Google.  David Cicilline might actually do something about it.
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Twitter is rolling out a pop-up feature that lets users add an emoji reaction to a Direct Message, similar to a feature in iMessage  —  Twitter is taking a page out of Apple's playbook with its latest messaging feature.  The social network announced today that it is rolling out support …

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