Techmeme
May 13, 2020, 11:30 AM

Top News

Max Willens / Digiday:
Sources: Apple is asking the publishers participating in Apple News+ for permission to produce audio versions of stories, with Apple handling production costs  —  Apple News+ is pivoting to audio.  —  Over the past several months, Apple has been asking the publishers participating …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple plans to return employees to offices sooner than rival tech companies, with staff coming back in phases  —  - Company to start letting more workers return to major offices  — Google, Facebook will allow remote work through end of 2020  —  Apple Inc. plans …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook will pay $52M in a settlement covering 11,250 content moderators as compensation for mental health issues developed on the job  —  Current and former moderators will all be paid a minimum of $1,000  —  In a landmark acknowledgment of the toll that content moderation takes on its workforce …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
CNBC:
Sources: Uber has been in off and on talks for a year to acquire Grubhub, but the parties remain at odds about price  —  - Uber has made an offer to buy food delivery company Grubhub, a person familiar with the matter told CNBC Tuesday.  — Grubhub's stock spiked as much as 38% …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Dell's upgraded flagship Alienware Area-51m R2 shows the promise of upgradeable Area-51m has failed, as the original won't get any of the new CPU or GPU updates  —  Original owners won't get any of the new CPU or GPU upgrades  —  Alienware has announced the second generation of its flagship Area-51m gaming laptop, the Area-51m R2.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Spatial makes its VR meeting rooms free to use and adds support for the web, mobile, and Oculus Quest  —  Two years ago, we called Spatial's virtual collaboration platform “FaceTime in VR.”  Since then, the company has focused on corporate users who have access to pricey augmented reality headsets …
More: VentureBeat, CNET, and WiredThanks:@lucyagoss
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Alphabet's Loon signs deal with carrier Vodacom to bring its commercial internet service to Mozambique  —  Loon, the Alphabet -owned company that's using stratospheric balloons to provide high-speed bandwidth to hard-to-serve areas without strong ground infrastructure, has signed a new deal …
More: Loon and Engadget
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Amazon updates the Fire HD 8 tablet with a faster processor, more RAM, more storage, and USB-C, with the base model getting a slight price increase to $89.99  —  Along with a slight price increase to $89.99  —  Amazon has announced a new update for its Fire HD 8 tablet, adding a faster processor, more RAM, and USB-C charging.
Robert Stevens / Decrypt:
Chat app Telegram says it's abandoning its TON blockchain project, after the SEC challenged the legality of its $1.7B ICO and delayed the network's launch  —  Telegram, the operator of the 400 million-strong messenger app, today announced that it has given up on its upcoming blockchain network …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Security experts believe online voting systems do not have strong enough security guarantees for prime time despite seemingly successful trials in the US  —  Proponents of mobile and internet voting point to its uneventful track record.  That's not good enough.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Epic Games unveils the Unreal Engine 5, coming in 2021, with a PlayStation 5 demo and says the Epic Online Services set of tools are available today  —  Epic says its new engine is a ‘quantum leap,’ and it'll arrive in 2021  —  Epic Games today announced the next iteration of its game engine …
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Instagram adds bulk comment deletion and control for who can mention or tag you on iOS, to help fight bullying; the ability to pin comments is being tested  —  Instagram is rolling out some changes today to keep the platform a more positive place for users.
Natasha Mascarenhas / TechCrunch:
Education startup Quizlet raises $30M Series C led by General Atlantic at a $1B valuation, up 5x from its last 2018 round, as usage surges during the pandemic  —  As millions of students and teachers shift to learn from home in response to the novel coronavirus disease …
Annie Musgrove / Tech.eu:
Tel Aviv-based accessiBe, which uses AI to make website content more accessible to disabled users, raises $12M led by K1  —  Tel Aviv-based accessiBe, a startup using AI to make website content more accessible for users with disabilities, has raised $12 million from K1, an investment firm based in California.

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:
Fri. 11/22 - An LLM Siri But... Only The Year AFTER Next?
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 11:30 AM ET, May 13, 2020.

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

Earlier Picks

JD Alois / Crowdfund Insider:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch: