Techmeme
July 29, 2020, 5:10 AM

Top News

The Amazon Blog:
Bezos statement to US House underscores Amazon's job creation, investments in social causes, and its role in supporting small and medium-sized businesses  —  Testimony before the Subcommittee on Antitrust, Commercial, and Administrative Law  —  Statement by Jeffrey P. Bezos Founder & Chief …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Tim Cook will tell US lawmakers that App Store has opened the “gate wider” for developers, Apple isn't anticompetitive, and doesn't have “dominant market share”  —  Apple Inc. Chief Executive Officer Tim Cook will tell U.S. lawmakers probing his company's market power …
Jennifer Elias / CNBC:
Sundar Pichai will tell lawmakers that Google operates in a “highly competitive” market and that its free products benefit the “average American”  —  - Ahead of a Wednesday House Judiciary hearing, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai released opening remarks that show …
Betsy Woodruff Swan / Politico:
New York Times:
Sam Shead / CNBC:
Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter work to pull versions of a video touting hydroxychloroquine as a COVID-19 cure, after it was shared by Trump and his allies  —  - A Breitbart video containing dangerous coronavirus misinformation went viral on Facebook before it was removed.
Joel Rosenblatt / Bloomberg:
US DOJ asks federal judge for permission to drop charges against two ex-Twitter employees and a Saudi national who allegedly helped Riyadh spy on dissidents  —  The U.S. filed a revised indictment against two former Twitter Inc. employees and a Saudi national, alleging the three spied …
Andrew Griffin / The Independent:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
AMC and Universal agree to shorten the theatrical window for films to 17 days, or 3 weekends, before Universal can release them onto premium on-demand platforms  —  Films only have to be in theaters for three weekends now before going to digital platforms  —  AMC Theaters and Universal …
Bloomberg:
Sources: Google and Samsung are in talks about giving Google products more prominence on Samsung phones, including more control over search  —  - Google Assistant, Play app store may gain more prominent roles  — Samsung seeks other revenue sources as handset demand drops
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft launches a new Family Safety app for iOS and Android that lets users manage screen time and app usage  —  Content filters, location sharing, and much more  —  Microsoft is launching a new Family Safety app for iOS and Android this week.  The software giant has been testing the app …
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify debuts Group Session feature in beta, letting up to five premium users simultaneously listen to same content  —  Simultaneously stream music or podcasts  —  Spotify is now allowing its paying users to listen to music and podcasts with friends and family at the same time, even if they aren't in the same location.
Jeffrey Dastin / Reuters:
Over about 8 years, Rite Aid quietly added facial recognition systems in 200 US stores, largely in low income areas, claiming it was meant to deter theft  —  In the hearts of New York and metro Los Angeles, Rite Aid installed facial recognition technology in largely lower-income, non-white neighborhoods, Reuters found.
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Revel suspends its electric moped service in NYC after two people were killed in recent weeks; at least one was not wearing a helmet during the crash  —  Two people were killed and one was critically injured while riding the shared electric mopeds  —  Revel is suspending its service …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
In a reversal, CES says its event planned for January 2021 will be going all-digital, using a virtual meeting format for vendors, attendees, and the press  —  CES 2021 will take place in January as an all-digital event since the organizers feel it's the only way they can protect attendees during the pandemic.
Nick Kolakowski / Dice Insights:
In July, a H-1B software engineers' median salary at Google, Microsoft, and Apple was at least $142K, a substantial increase from at least $120K in October 2019  —  How much are software engineers on the H-1B visa making at some of the nation's largest tech companies?  At first glance, the answer seems simple: quite a lot.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Toppr, an e-learning service in India covering 17 subjects and preparing students for five dozen competitive exams, raises $46M led by Foundation Holdings  —  Toppr, one of the largest online learning startups in India, has secured $46 million in a new financing round as it looks to scale its platform including a new product.
The Markup:
Study of 15K+ recent popular queries finds Google devoted 41% of the first page of search results on mobile devices to its own properties and “direct answers”  —  The search engine dedicated almost half of the first page of results in our test to its own products, which dominated the coveted top of the page
New York Times:
Sources: after Airbnb and ClassPass began selling virtual classes, Apple wanted to collect its 30% commission on the sales, up from no fee previously  —  After Airbnb and ClassPass began selling virtual classes because of the pandemic, Apple tried to collect its commission on the sales.
Ryan Browne / CNBC:
TransferWise announces a new $319M secondary share sale round led by Lone Pine Capital and D1 Capital Partners at a $5B valuation  —  - TransferWise employees and early investors sold some of their stakes in a $319 million secondary deal.  — The company's $5 billion valuation makes …

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