Techmeme
August 11, 2020, 5:50 PM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google is partnering with USGS and creating a worldwide, Android phone-powered opt-in earthquake alert system using phone accelerometers  —  Google is creating a worldwide, Android phone-powered earthquake alert system.  The first part of that system is rolling out today.
Sam Rutherford / Gizmodo:
Google announces new features in its computer vision Lookout app, like document scanning, an Android Auto refresh, and Bedtime mode is no longer Pixel-exclusive  —  Ahead of the upcoming official release of Android 11, Google is pushing out a few updates to all Android phones …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft commits to launching the Xbox Series X in the month of November and will delay Halo Infinite until 2021  —  Halo Infinite will not be available until 2021  —  Microsoft is committing to launching its next-generation Xbox Series X console in November.
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Mozilla says it plans to lay off around 250 employees and is closing the company's current operations in Taipei, Taiwan  —  The changes come as the Mozilla Corporation looks to invest in more revenue-generating projects like its recently announced VPN.  —  Joseph Cox
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Facebook says it removed 22.5M posts for violating hate speech policies in Q2, up 2x from Q1, and that 95% of the violations were caught using automated systems  —  - Hate speech removal has jumped nearly 10-fold since 2018  — Facebook to undergo third party audit for content in 2021
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
Clearview AI has hired pre-eminent First Amendment lawyer Floyd Abrams, who plans to assert a free-speech right to disseminate publicly available photos  —  Clearview AI has hired Floyd Abrams, a top lawyer, to help fight claims that selling its data to law enforcement agencies violates privacy laws.
Yogita Khatri / The Block:
MicroStrategy buys ~$250M in bitcoin, becoming the first publicly traded company to buy the currency as part of its capital allocation strategy  —  MicroStrategy, the Nasdaq-listed business intelligence company, has become the first publicly-traded company to buy bitcoin as part of its capital allocation strategy.
Wall Street Journal:
Analysis: TikTok used a Android security hole to collect MAC addresses, possibly for ad tracking, without the ability to opt out; the practice ended in November  —  The tactic, which experts in mobile-phone security said was concealed through an unusual added layer of encryption, appears to have violated Google policies
More: The Verge
Sam Nussey / Reuters:
SoftBank reports quarterly net profit of ~$12B, up 12% YoY, and a $2.8B gain in Vision Fund; by July, Vision Fund's $75.2B in investments was worth $71.5B  —  TOKYO (Reuters) - SoftBank Group Corp broke with tradition on Tuesday and declined to disclose operating profit in its quarterly results …
Ari Levy / CNBC:
Sources: about a month before BigCommerce's successful IPO, Intuit offered to buy the company for $1.5B  —  - Intuit offered to buy BigCommerce for $1.5 billion about a month before the e-commerce software company's IPO.  — BigCommerce opted to go public instead, and the stock jumped over 200% in its debut last week.
Christine Hall / Crunchbase News:
RevenueCat, a startup offering in-app subscription tools, raises $15M Series A led by Index Ventures, says over 3,000 apps are using its services  —  RevenueCat raised a $15 million Series A round, led by Index Ventures, to help developers find subscribers for their applications.
Samuel Axon / Ars Technica:
Parallels Desktop 16 adds support for Big Sur, 3D in Metal, and zoom and rotate gestures on multitouch trackpads, and claims 20% faster DirectX performance  —  Windows on Apple Silicon is still a question mark, though.  —  Parallels Desktop 16 launched on the Mac today.
Lauren Clark / Official Google India Blog:
Google rolls out virtual business cards for Google Search in India with links to user's website, social media profiles and, optionally, phone number and email  —  If you search for famous people on Google, it's easy to find information about well-known personalities: search their names …
James Vincent / The Verge:
Pinterest says it is expanding its skin tone search tool, which uses machine vision to sort beauty-related pins and debuted in US in 2018, to five more markets  —  Users can filter by skin tone to get more relevant results  —  Pinterest is upgrading its skin tone search feature …
More: VentureBeatThanks:@malliegator
Jonathan Roeder / Bloomberg:
Kroger says it is working with Mirakl to develop an e-commerce marketplace for third-party vendors, in a bid to compete with Amazon and Walmart  —  Kroger Co. is setting up an e-commerce marketplace open to third-party vendors, part of the grocery-store operator's bid to wrest web sales away …

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