Techmeme
October 13, 2020, 4:20 PM

Top News

Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Apple debuts $999 6.1" iPhone 12 Pro and $1,099 6.7" iPhone 12 Pro Max with flat-edge design, 5G, LiDAR, three rear cameras with 5x zoom, and 128GB base storage  —  Apple today unveiled the new 6.1-inch iPhone 12 Pro and 6.7-inch iPhone 12 Pro Max at its pre-recorded “Hi, Speed” digital event.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Apple unveils iPhone 12 with 6.1" OLED display and 460ppi, A14, thinner and lighter design, 5G, improved durability, and five colors options, starting at $799  —  The right iPhone for most people gets a new design, OLED screen, and 5G  —  It might be happening a bit later than usual, but Apple has just announced the iPhone 12.
Apple:
iPhone 12 pre-orders start on October 16, shipping on October 23, while iPhone 12 mini pre-orders begin November 6, shipping on November 13  —  iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini introduce a beautiful new design packed with innovative features, including A14 Bionic, an advanced dual-camera system …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Apple announces the $699 iPhone 12 mini with 5.4-inch OLED display, five colors, and similar specs to the iPhone 12  —  The iPhone mini has arrived  —  Apple is announcing a new iPhone 12 mini today.  It's the first time Apple has used the “mini” moniker on its iPhone line …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 mini cost $30 more than their starting advertised prices of $699 and $799, as those prices include “special offers” from AT&T, Verizon  —  In an incredibly sneaky move, it turns out the iPhone 12 does not actually cost $799 as advertised.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Apple announces MagSafe for iPhone 12, letting users magnetically attach chargers, wallets, and other accessories  —  The magnetic charging brand is back  —  Apple has revived its MagSafe charging brand with a twist: it's no longer for its MacBook line but instead for the new iPhone 12 line.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Apple debuts HomePod mini with spherical design, S5 chip, fabric mesh exterior, black and white options, a small screen on top; pre-orders start Nov. 6 from $99  —  Apple finally offers an entry-level HomePod  —  Apple has announced a new version of its HomePod smart speaker …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook Messenger gets a visual update, custom reactions, chat themes, and more, as cross-app communication between Instagram and FB rolls out to North America  —  Facebook Messenger is getting a visual update and a number of new features, including support for chat themes, custom reactions, and soon, selfie stickers and vanish mode.
CNBC:
Facebook announces a global policy banning anti-vaccination ads but will allow ads that advocate for legislation around vaccination policies  —  - Facebook said Tuesday it is launching a new global policy that bans ads that discourage people from getting vaccines.
Stephanie Sengwe / The Streamable:
Netflix has stopped offering its 30-day free trial across all markets  —  It's either you're all in or you're all out with Netflix as the streaming giant has removed their free trial.  —  As first spotted by Phil Swann, the streamer is no longer giving users a chance to try the service for free.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
WordPress debuts a tool that can take blog posts, including accompanying images and videos, and post them as Twitter threads automatically  —  Earlier this year, WordPress .com introduced an easier way to post your Twitter threads, also known as tweetstorms, to your blog with the introduction of “unroll” option for Twitter embeds.
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:
Apple announces $49 Beats Flex earbuds with USB-C, longer battery life, and Apple's W1 chip, replacing the BeatsX, available from October 21  —  BeatsX wireless headphones landed three years ago as the first Beats product to feature Apple's W1 chip and Lightning charging port like the original AirPods.
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Surface Laptop Go review: solid design, fast, excellent keyboard and trackpad, but very low screen resolution, 8GB RAM limit, and max 256GB storage  —  It's hard not to love the Surface Laptop Go at first sight.  Microsoft took the basic style of its Laptop line, shrunk it down, and created an adorable sibling with a 12.4-inch screen.
Daisuke Wakabayashi / New York Times:
Sources detail how Google, under intense scrutiny, has limited discussion of antitrust issues among employees, executives, and potential recruits  —  A company operating in the shadow of government regulators has some very particular rules about what workers can say about it.
More: The Verge
Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Facebook says its new policy that bans the denial or distortion of the Holocaust does not apply to other genocides, such as the Armenian or Rwandan genocides  —  Facebook Inc. will ban posts that deny the Holocaust in a reversal of a long-held and controversial policy.
Associated Press:

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:
Wed. 11/20 - AI To Read The Books
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 4:20 PM ET, October 13, 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

Earlier Picks

Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Daniel Bader / Android Central: