Techmeme
June 30, 2020, 7:20 PM

Top News

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube TV is raising its monthly rate to $65 from $50, due to “the rising cost of content”; some ViacomCBS channels are becoming available on the service today  —  YouTube TV is getting another price hike, making its live TV streaming service less competitive with the cable TV services it aims to replace.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google shares details on upcoming Sheets features that automatically clean up and complete data, through formula suggestions and more  —  Google today announced a couple of updates to Google Sheets that will make building spreadsheets and analyzing data in them a little bit easier.
NBC News:
Facebook says it's removed 220 FB “Boogaloo” groups and 95 Instagram accounts, weeks after feds said group members planned the murder of a federal agent on FB  —  Facebook announced Tuesday that it is removing groups dedicated to the Boogaloo extremist movement one month …
Bloomberg:
Rahul Shrivastava / India Today:
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook will change its News Feed algorithm to prioritize news stories with original reporting and demote ones that are not transparent about their authors  —  Beginning today, Facebook will be updating the way news stories are ranked in its News Feed to prioritize original reporting, executives tell Axios.
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Microsoft unveils initiatives to upskill workers amid the “COVID-19 economy” including cash grants, affordable skill certificates, and a learning app in Teams  —  Microsoft has announced a slew of new initiatives designed to open up access to new digital skills, including cash grants …
Abram Brown / Forbes:
Chat app Discord raises $100M led by Index Ventures at a $3.5B valuation, up from $2.05B 18 months ago, and says it has ~100M MAUs, up 50% YoY  —  By shutting out white supremacists and reinventing itself to be more accessible, Discord has added millions of more diverse users—teachers …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
UK government plans to begin allowing rental e-scooter trials on roads from Saturday, in a bid to ease pressure on public transport during the pandemic  —  In light of COVID-19 and social distancing regulations, the UK has been working on making it easier for people to get from point A to B …
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
Leaked memo: Verily is suspending spot bonuses through 2020 and redirecting the money to diversity and inclusion programs  —  The move frustrated employees who said it implied the initiatives aren't worthy of their own investment  —  Verily Life Sciences, the Alphabet-owned healthcare company …
Jeff Hunter / AnyList Blog:
AnyList says it won't support Sign In With Apple due to issues it creates with customer support and poor documentation, will also remove Facebook Login  —  Starting June 30th, Apple will be enforcing a new rule in the App Store requiring many apps to support Sign in with Apple.
Cara Lombardo / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Uber in talks to buy Postmates for ~$2.6B in a deal that could be announced next week if not sooner  —  A deal between Uber and the San Francisco-based food-delivery company could be announced next week if not sooner  —  Uber Technologies Inc. is in discussions to buy Postmates Inc …
Wall Street Journal:
Amazon is boosting efforts to lure military and commercial space organizations as major users of AWS, hoping to benefit from rising spending in the sector  —  AWS's move comes during a multiyear surge in U.S. military and civilian agency spending on space projects
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Q&A with Reddit CEO Steve Huffman on banning r/The_Donald and other problematic subreddits, after resisting for years  —  Steve Huffman, Reddit's co-founder and chief executive, says new rule changes will help the company fulfill its mission.  —  On Monday, Reddit …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researchers found 25 Android apps, downloaded 2.3M+ times, stealing Facebook credentials through a phishing page overlay; Google has now removed them  —  The malicious apps were downloaded more than 2.34 million times.  —  Google has removed this month 25 Android applications …
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Google says it is acquiring Canadian smart glasses company North, which is winding down Focals 1.0 hardware and canceling its plans to ship Focals 2.0  —  Google confirmed today via blog post that it has acquired Canadian smart glasses company North, which began life as human interface hardware startup Thalmic Labs in 2012.
Makena Kelly / The Verge:
FCC officially designates Huawei and ZTE as risks to national security, and telecoms can no longer use federal subsidies to purchase equipment from them  —  Telecoms can no longer use federal funds to purchase their equipment  —  On Tuesday, the Federal Communications Commission officially …
Matthew J. Belvedere / CNBC:
Netflix says it will put 2% of its cash holdings, currently ~$100M, toward financial institutions and organizations dedicated to helping Black communities  —  - Netflix announced plans to start putting 2% of its cash holdings into financial institutions and organizations to “directly support Black communities in the U.S.”
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Sensor Tower: consumer spending on apps reached $50.1B globally during the first half of 2020, up 23.4% YoY, and first time installs were up 26.1% YoY  —  Consumer spending on mobile apps and app installs grew significantly during the first half of 2020, in part due to the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new data from Sensor Tower.
Alex Barker / Financial Times:
Survey of 58 WFA members, who are responsible for $90B+ of ad spending worldwide, finds ~33% will suspend or are likely to suspend spending on social media  —  Study reveals extent of revolt against Facebook and Twitter over hate speech  —  Almost a third of the world's biggest brands …

Sponsor Posts

UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
SignalFire:
SignalFire raises another $1 billion to back applied AI startups  —  We build AI too.  It tracks 650M tech employees so we can help companies with recruiting and GTM across enterprise, infra, healthcare, security, and consumer.
Zoho:
In-depth bounce reports now in ZeptoMail  —  The ultimate aim of any email sender is to deliver emails to the right recipient's inbox—but even when taking measures to ensure successful delivery, bounces still occur.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Azeem Azhar's Exponential View:
The difference between early and late AI adopters
Azeem Azhar explores how AI and exponential technologies are shaping our future.
Subscribe to Azeem Azhar's Exponential View.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Tariffs, Trump, TikTok: What's going to happen to ads in 2025?
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Techmeme Ride Home:
OpenAI Shopping?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Spotlight On:
*S3 Feature* Transcend's Kate Parker on putting data back into the hands of users in an AI-driven world
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Cliff Sosin - Investing in Carvana
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:20 PM ET, June 30, 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

Steve Lohr / New York Times:
River Davis / Wall Street Journal:
Julia Alexander / The Verge: