Techmeme
August 5, 2020, 7:15 PM

Top News

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook launches Instagram Reels, its TikTok competitor that lets users create and publish 15-second videos, in 50+ countries, including the US, UK, and Japan  —  Instagram Reels, the company's significant effort in challenging TikTok on short-form creative content, is launching globally, starting today.
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Samsung announces 6.7" Galaxy Note20 and 6.9" Note20 Ultra with Android 10, Snapdragon 865+, and more, starting at $999 and $1,299  —  Samsung's Galaxy Note lineup has evolved over the years, but always remained a series for power users.  Today, Samsung is launching the Galaxy Note 20 series …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Samsung and Microsoft extend their partnership to add deeper integration with Office on Galaxy Note20 devices and let users stream Android apps to Windows 10  —  The new Samsung Galaxy Note 20 devices will support Office app synchronization, new Your Phone features and Microsoft's cloud gaming functionality.
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Twitter fixes a bug in its Android app that could let hackers access private data like DMs; 96% of the apps' users currently use a patched version of Android  —  Twitter today announced that it fixed a security vulnerability in the Twitter for Android app that could have allowed attackers …
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News:
Instagram says a “bug” caused its hashtag recommendations to favor Trump-related content when searching for hashtags related to Joe Biden and Trump  —  “A technical error caused a number of hashtags to not show related hashtags.  We've disabled this feature while we investigate."
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Samsung announces the Galaxy Z Fold 2 with an upgraded camera system, larger 7.6-inch main display, and hole-punch cameras; release date and price TBA  —  The Fold is back  —  Samsung has officially announced the Galaxy Z Fold 2 at its Unpacked event, the successor to last year's Galaxy Fold …
Chance Miller / 9to5Mac:
Virginia becomes the first US state to use Apple and Google's COVID-19 Exposure Notification API  —  The Exposure Notification API developed by Apple and Google is officially being put to use in the United States.  Virginia has become the first U.S. state to offer a COVID-19 contact tracing application using …
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Camera maker Canon struck by apparent ransomware attack resulting in data loss for users of its free cloud storage and affecting many of its website domains  —  ​Canon has suffered a ransomware attack that impacts numerous services, including Canon's email, Microsoft Teams, USA website …
More: Gizmodo
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Researchers find a cluster of 295 Chrome extensions, with more than 80M users, that inserted ads into Google and Bing results; Google is now removing some  —  The malicious Chrome extensions have been installed by more than 80 million users.  —  More than 80 million Chrome users have installed …
Davey Alba / New York Times:
In an open letter, 20 state AGs called on Facebook to better prevent messages of hate, bias, and disinformation from spreading and support users facing abuse  —  The call from 20 state officials adds to the rising pressure facing Mark Zuckerberg and his company.
Daniel Bader / Android Central:
Samsung launches Galaxy Watch 3 in 41mm and 45mm variants with a thinner, lighter design on Samsung's Tizen platform, arriving on August 6 for $400+  —  Our favorite smartwatch-meets-fidget-spinner is back.  —  It's no surprise that Samsung's Galaxy Watch is still incredibly popular despite being almost two years old.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
TikTok tightens policies against manipulated content, expands fact-checking partnerships, and is working with DHS's Countering Foreign Influence Task Force  —  TikTok announced new rules for its users on Wednesday to curb misinformation and manipulation ahead of the 2020 election.
Tom Krazit / Protocol:
Microsoft releases Open Service Mesh, an open source tool to help companies build complex modular apps more easily  —  More than a year after declaring itself a neutral party in the emerging service-mesh arena, Microsoft will release its own open-source take on the technology Wednesday …
More: TechCrunch
Eugene Wei / Remains of the Day:
TikTok's video recommendation algorithm shows that machine learning can overcome cultural ignorance, a boon for companies operating in foreign markets  —  I often describe myself as a cultural determinist, more as a way to differentiate myself from people with other dominant worldviews, though I am not a strict adherent.
Geoffrey Fowler / Washington Post:
Review of Amazon's Echo Frames, $180 Alexa-enabled glasses that debuted last year: their internet connectivity is flaky and Alexa is too chatty and disruptive  —  You have to really love Amazon's Alexa to let the Echo Frames whisper in your ear all day.  —  What do you call it when there's …
Bloomberg:
Interviews show Google automating mental health ads has boosted big firms and sidelined independent therapists, forcing them to spend more or face irrelevancy  —  The company's push into health care is a case study in how tech giants dominate small businesses.  And the U.S. government may have something to say about that.
Stephen Schenck / Android Police:
Samsung unveils 11" Galaxy Tab S7 and 12.5" S7+ with Snapdragon 865+, Android 10, 5G, 13MP and 5MP rear cameras, from $650, coming this fall  —  In a world where tablet-sized phones fold up to fit in our pockets, it's fascinating to see companies like Samsung not just continue to stand …
David Shepardson / Reuters:
White House announces a national education partnership with Amazon, Google, Microsoft, and others to expand K-12 quantum information science education  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy said on Wednesday the Trump administration is launching …
More: GeekWire

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:
CIO challenge 5: Can we find an effective solution that also minimizes operational costs?  —  Welcome to the next and final installment of our CIO series!  After what feels like a thousand cups of coffee …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 11/21 - What The DOJ Wants Google To Do
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 7:15 PM ET, August 5, 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

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:

Earlier Picks