Techmeme
December 1, 2020, 4:15 PM

Top News

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Amazon launches EC2 Mac instances, bringing Intel-based Mac minis to its cloud for $1.083 per hour billed by the second  —  AWS today opened its re:Invent conference with a surprise announcement: the company is bringing the Mac mini to its cloud.  These new EC2 Mac instances, as AWS calls them, are now available in preview.
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Jonathan Shieber / TechCrunch:
AWS unveils an appliance called AWS Panorama, which can transform existing on-premises cameras into computer vision-enabled surveillance devices  —  AWS has launched a new hardware device, the AWS Panorama Appliance, which, alongside the AWS Panorama SDK, will transform existing on-premises cameras …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
AWS announces Babelfish for Aurora PostgreSQL, which aims to make it easier and cheaper for Microsoft SQL Server users to migrate to the AWS cloud  —  AWS today announced a new database product that is clearly meant to go after Microsoft's SQL Server and make it easier — and cheaper — for SQL Server users to migrate to the AWS cloud.
TechCrunch:
Salesforce announces it's buying Slack in a $27.7B deal  —  Salesforce, the CRM powerhouse that recently surpassed $20 billion in annual revenue, announced today it is wading deeper into enterprise social by acquiring Slack in a $27.7 billion megadeal.  —  Every worker at every company needs …
Reuters:
Sources: Samsung may discontinue Galaxy Note next year, reflecting the sharp drop in demand for high-end smartphones due to the pandemic  —  SEOUL (Reuters) - Samsung Electronics Co Ltd may discontinue its premium Galaxy Note phone next year, sources with knowledge of the matter said …
BBC:
Facebook's Oversight Board takes up first cases for review, all involving decisions to remove user content, says users have submitted 20K cases since Oct. 2020  —  Facebook's Oversight Board has chosen its first batch of cases to review.  —  All involve decisions originally made by the platform to remove user content.
Shara Tibken / CNET:
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Microsoft will remove user names from Productivity Score feature after a privacy backlash, says Microsoft 365 will only aggregate data at the organization level  —  Microsoft says it will make changes in its new Productivity Score feature, including removing the ability for companies to see data …
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Libra Association is rebranding to Diem, distancing itself from the initial Facebook-led vision debuted last year, ahead of its expected 2021 stablecoin launch  —  The Libra Association put together by Facebook last year is rebranding in further efforts to distance itself from the original Facebook-led vision rolled out last year.
CNBC:
Amazon says 2020's holiday shopping season has been its biggest ever, with independent sellers reaching $4.8B+ in worldwide sales over the weekend, up 60% YoY  —  - Amazon has announced that this year's holiday shopping season has been the biggest in its history.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft Teams adds support for answering calls via Apple CarPlay, transferring calls between mobile and desktop, and adding call recordings to OneDrive  —  Microsoft Teams will soon let you transfer calls easily between desktop and mobile  —  Microsoft is overhauling its calling features inside Microsoft Teams today.
John Cook / GeekWire:
Tanium, a cybersecurity company valued at $9B+, is moving its HQ from just outside Oakland, CA to Kirkland, WA near Seattle, after going remote first in June  —  Orion Hindawi was born in the San Francisco Bay Area, and helped build two successful companies there.
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Scale, which helps companies label data for use in artificial intelligence models, raises $155M led by Tiger Global at a $3.5B+ valuation  —  - Start-up Scale helps companies label data for use in artificial intelligence models.  — It has had trouble keeping up with one of its customers …
Jim Waterson / The Guardian:
Facebook to launch Facebook News in the UK in Jan. 2021, says it will pay publishers for news not already on its platform; most big UK publishers have signed up  —  Facebook is to pay mainstream UK news outlets millions of pounds a year to license their articles, as the social network faces …
Eric Geller / Politico:
SCOTUS worries about CFAA's sweeping nature, with Justice Gorsuch saying that the US government's view of the law risks “making a federal criminal of us all”  —  The Supreme Court on Monday indicated serious reservations about the ambiguity and scope of the nation's only major cybercrime law …

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Earlier Picks

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors: