Techmeme
August 11, 2020, 3:05 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 …
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
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.
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
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.
Lauren Clark / Official Google India Blog:
Google rolls out virtual business cards in Google Search in India with links to user's website and 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 …
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.
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 …
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.
Matthew Keys / The Desk:
According to an email sent to podcast producers, Amazon says it will add free podcasts in Amazon Music, for both free and paid tiers, and on Audible  —  Amazon will incorporate free podcasts into its Amazon Music and Audible products, according to a confidential email distributed to podcast producers on Monday.

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Juli Clover / MacRumors:
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Abner Li / 9to5Google: