Techmeme
July 8, 2020, 12:30 PM

Top News

Mike Isaac / New York Times:
An independent audit commissioned by Facebook harshly criticizes the company, arguing that some of its decisions were “significant setbacks for civil rights”  —  An independent audit faulted the social network for “vexing and heartbreaking decisions” that affect its users — and potentially the November elections.
Free Press:
After meeting between leaders of Facebook, ADL, Free Press, NAACP, and Color Of Change, boycott organizers are unconvinced meaningful change will occur  —  WASHINGTON — On Tuesday afternoon, leaders of four of the organizations coordinating the #StopHateForProfit advertising boycott met …
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Facebook's Oversight Board says it won't be operational until “late fall”, likely after the US Presidential election  —  Facebook has announced that the limp “Oversight Board” intended to help make difficult content and policy decisions will not launch until “late fall,” which is to say, almost certainly after the election.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
A job listing suggests Twitter is working on a new “subscription platform” under a team codenamed “Gryphon”, although most details remain unclear  —  A mysterious new Twitter subscription team, codenamed ‘Gryphon’  —  Twitter appears to be working on a subscription platform for its social networking service.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon 865 Plus processor, designed to boost gaming, AI, and graphics performance by ~10%, expected to ship in phones in Q3  —  10 percent more power than the original Snapdragon 865  —  Qualcomm has announced a refreshed version of its flagship Snapdragon 865 processor called …
Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
Code in the second developer beta of iOS 14 reveals a hidden and unannounced feature in the Wallet app that would allow payments with QR codes using Apple Pay  —  Apple today released the second developer beta of iOS 14 with some small changes across the system.
Apple:
Apple expands its Independent Repair Provider Program to hundreds of new locations in the US and opens up to businesses in Europe and Canada  —  Independent Repair Provider Program also opens to businesses across Europe and Canada  —  Apple is expanding its Independent Repair Provider Program …
Angus Loten / Wall Street Journal:
Report: nearly 70K tech startup employees worldwide have lost jobs since March, including over 25.5K in the San Francisco region  —  Layoffs among tech startups reflect economic fallout of Covid-19  —  Technology startups have been laying off tens of thousands of workers to cope …
More: PYMNTS.com
Chuong Nguyen / Digital Trends:
Intel details the Thunderbolt 4 standard coming to laptops later this year: USB4 compatibility, multi-monitor support, and data transfers of up to 40Gbps  —  Intel has detailed some of the biggest features coming to the next generation of its port protocol, known as Thunderbolt 4 …
Richard C. Moss / Ars Technica:
A retrospective on a nearly 25-year history of Flash, as Adobe prepares to officially end support and distribution of Flash Player in December 2020  —  Before Flash Player sunsets this December, we talk its legacy with those who built it.  —  Few technologies have yielded such divisive and widespread passion as Flash.
Arielle Pardes / Wired:
The Police Data Accessibility Project, which started on Reddit, aims to aggregate all public police records into one easily searchable, open source database  —  The Police Data Accessibility Project aims to request, download, clean, and standardize public records that right now are overly difficult to find.
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Microsoft Teams vs. Slack: Teams is a part of Microsoft's vision to build an OS for the cloud whereas Slack is building an enterprise social network via Connect  —  On November 2, 2016, Microsoft announced Teams at a special event in New York City.  Slack decided to mark the occasion:
Gwyn Topham / The Guardian:
Uber to launch a commuter boat service this summer in London in partnership with Thames Clippers, branded as Uber Boat, and bookable through Uber's app  —  US firm will buy naming rights for fleet and piers, and users can book journeys on its app  —  Uber is to extend its reach in London …
Patrick O'Neill / MIT Technology Review:
Unsealed court documents reveal identity of Fxmsp, a Kazakh hacker responsible for information theft from 300+ companies and governments in 44 countries  —  Newly-unsealed court documents name a Kazakh man as the mastermind behind a hacking campaign that hit 44 countries.  They also detail his short-lived successes.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Samsung announces its next Galaxy Unpacked event for August 5, to be held virtually, where the Galaxy Note 20 lineup and Galaxy Fold's successor are expected  —  Time for a new Galaxy Unpacked event  —  Samsung has announced that its next Galaxy Unpacked event will take place on Wednesday, August 5th, at 10AM ET.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
2025: World Password Day is now also World Passkey Day  —  Since 2013, the first Thursday of May has been recognized as World Password Day to spread awareness about good password practices and protecting our online accounts.
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

Hard Fork:
The Dangers of A.I. Flattery + Kevin Meets the Orb + Group Chat Chat
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
EP 141 Ben Lamm (Founder & CEO, Colossal Biosciences) On The Breakthroughs Making De-Extinction Actually Possible
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Judge Refers Apple For A Criminal Investigation
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Great Chat:
What's the deal with Deel?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Lenny's Podcast:
The rise of Cursor: The $300M ARR AI tool that engineers can't stop using | Michael Truell (co-founder and CEO)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Uncapped with Jack Altman:
Josh Kopelman from First Round Capital
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:30 PM ET, July 8, 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

Tom Simonite / Wired:

Earlier Picks

Diane Bartz / Reuters:
Todd Spangler / Variety:
Nick Statt / The Verge: