Techmeme
August 4, 2020, 11:30 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
With a TikTok sale, China would lose control of its first global internet sensation, hardening suspicions that the US is sabotaging its tech growth  —  Washington's push for Chinese company to sell American operations hardens suspicions in China that the U.S. aims to sabotage its technology
Dan Primack / Axios:
Apple says there are no talks to buy TikTok, and it isn't interested, after sources said it is among the companies that have expressed interest in buying TikTok  —  🖥️ You're invited: Axios tomorrow at 12:30pm ET hosts a live virtual event on small biz pandemic pivots with Sen. James Lankford …
Alex Wilhelm / TechCrunch:
Trump says he is fine with the idea of Microsoft buying TikTok in US, but the US government should be paid a “substantial amount of money” as part of the deal  —  Today the President appeared to bless the budding Microsoft-TikTok deal, continuing his evolution on a possible transaction.
Wall Street Journal:
The Official Microsoft Blog:
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft's xCloud game streaming service will launch on September 15 on Android in 22 countries, bundled with the Xbox Games Pass Ultimate subscription  —  Available in 22 countries, but no iOS support at launch  —  Microsoft will launch its game streaming service, known as Project xCloud …
European Commission:
The European Commission opens an in-depth investigation into Google's proposed acquisition of Fitbit over concerns about vast amounts of data Google could use  —  The European Commission has opened an in-depth investigation to assess the proposed acquisition of Fitbit by Google under the EU Merger Regulation.
Takashi Mochizuki / Bloomberg:
Sony beats estimates with quarterly profit of $2.15B, says PlayStation Plus subscription service added 3.4M users for a total of 44.9M  —  - Company had delayed issuing firm full-year forecast on virus  — The Last of Us 2 was a record-breaking PS4 exclusive debut
Caleb Potts / Android Police:
Facebook adds search feature in WhatsApp to help check viral messages for misinformation, rolling out today in Brazil, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, Spain, UK, and US  —  WhatsApp is one of the most popular messaging apps in the world, but that also means a lot of misinformation and rumors are shared on the platform.
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Fawkes, a tool developed by researchers at the University of Chicago, disguises photos with pixel-level changes that confuse facial recognition systems  —  Researchers at the University of Chicago want you to be able to post selfies without worrying that the next Clearview AI will use them to identify you.
Bloomberg:
As tech giants renew vows to diversify their workforces, a look at why their efforts have fallen short, especially in retaining new Black and Latinx employees  —  Quora Inc., which runs the eponymous questions and answers website, couldn't figure this one out: Why were so many Black …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Apple announces a refresh for its 21.5" and 27" iMacs, including 10th-generation Intel CPUs, a 1080p webcam, and SSDs as standard, shipping from next week  —  But the design remains the same  —  Apple is announcing updates for both the 27-inch and 21.5-inch iMacs.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Twitter says FTC may soon fine it between $150M-$250M for using users' email addresses and phone numbers for ad targeting; practice was disclosed in Oct. 2019  —  Twitter said the identifiers were ‘inadvertently’ used for advertising  —  Twitter said that the Federal Trade Commission …
Katie Roof / Bloomberg:
Rippling, an employee data management company led by Parker Conrad, raises $145M led by Founders Fund, valuing it at $1.35B, up 5x from its last valuation  —  - Former Zenefits founder's new company valued at $1.35 billion  — Investors include Founders Fund, Kleiner Perkins and Coatue

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More News

Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:

Earlier Picks

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Donie O'Sullivan / CNN:
Jack Stubbs / @jc_stubbs:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Manish Singh / TechCrunch: