Techmeme
December 2, 2020, 12:10 PM

Top News

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 …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple announces Best of 2020 apps and most downloaded apps: home workout app Wakeout! won App of the Year for iPhone, Zoom for iPad, Disney+ for Apple TV  —  Apple today released its highly anticipated annual list of the best apps and games of 2020.  As in previous years …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Researcher details a now patched zero-click iOS device exploit using Apple's AWDL protocol which would grant attackers access to device hardware and data  —  A Google Project Zero researcher found a stunning vulnerability  —  Ever watch that movie, or play that video game …
Tony Romm / Washington Post:
President Trump in a late night tweet threatened to veto the annual defense bill authorizing ~$1T in military spending unless Congress repeals Section 230  —  President Trump on Tuesday threatened to veto an annual defense bill authorizing nearly $1 trillion in military spending unless Congress opens …
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Apple's MagSafe Duo charger is now available to order online for $129, charging brick not included  —  Don't forget the power brick  —  Apple's MagSafe Duo charger is now on sale online, after initially having been announced without a release date as part of this year's iPhone launch.
Dave Lee / Financial Times:
Amazon unveils Monitron, a service that uses ML and low-cost sensors to monitor industrial machinery, as it looks to push into the industrial sector  —  Sensor and computer vision hardware come as tech giant looks to push into industrial sector  —  Amazon is rolling out cheap new tools …
Natalie Gagliordi / ZDNet:
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify says Anchor powered 80% of its new podcasts, or 1M+ shows, in 2020; overall, Anchor powers 70% of Spotify's total podcast catalog of over 1.9M shows  —  Anchor powered more than 1 million show launches in 2020  —  Spotify's $100 million-plus Anchor acquisition is seemingly paying off.
Michael del Castillo / Forbes:
Visa says it's connecting its global network of 60M merchants to the US Dollar Coin, a stable coin created by Circle Internet Financial on ethereum's blockchain  —  Credit card giant Visa today announced it is connecting its global payments network of 60 million merchants to the U.S. Dollar Coin …
Mike Wuerthele / AppleInsider:
Ming-Chi Kuo: Apple to release two new MacBook Pros with an all-new design in 2021 and a more affordable MacBook Air in 2022, all with mini LED panels  —  Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes that as part of Apple's mini LED push, the company will release a pair of new MacBook Pro models …
Igor Bonifacic / Engadget:
Google Maps rolls out a new community feed section within Explore tab, featuring posts from local experts, food and drink merchants, and publishers you follow  —  Google is introducing a new community feed to Maps that the company says will help keep you informed of all the latest developments in your city …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Adobe: Cyber Monday online spending in the US was at the lower end of expectations at $10.8B, but 15.1% higher YoY, with 37% of sales made on smartphones  —  Cyber Monday, traditionally the biggest shopping day online in the year, followed in the footsteps of Thanksgiving and Black Friday this year …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube upgrades Premieres, which gives scheduled videos a landing page, with trailers, themes, and live stream pre-shows that later redirect to the main event  —  YouTube today is launching three new features designed to improve its “Premieres” experience, including trailers, themes …
More: The Verge
John Tozzi / Bloomberg:
Virta Health, a telehealth startup that helps people manage diabetes with frequent monitoring and dietary counseling, raises $65M, valuing the company at ~$1.1B  —  - Telehealth firm uses monitoring, counseling to optimize care  — Series D round of $65 million brings equity to $231 million
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Google announces it is acquiring Actifio, a data management and continuity company that was valued at over $1B in 2014 and has raised over $460M  —  In the same week that Amazon is holding its big AWS confab, Google is also announcing a move to raise its own enterprise game with Google Cloud.
PYMNTS.com:
Stripe extends its business lending service Stripe Capital to online platforms, offering an “end-to-end lending API” to provide customers with financing options  —  Payments giant Stripe is taking Stripe Capital, its push into online business finance and lending, to the next level.
Mary Ann Azevedo / FinLedger:
Amount, which helps banks modernize and provide mobile experiences, raises $81M Series C led by Goldman Sachs Growth, after being spun off from Avant this year  —  Chicago-based startup's clients include financial institutions collectively managing nearly $2 trillion in US assets
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 …

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.
Zoho:
The crossroads of AI and SaaS  —  Enabling businesses of all sizes to build products in-house and disqualifying SaaS tools that are not AI-powered.  In a span of just two years, AI has made a name for itself as the key driver for innovation.
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
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.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Fri. 12/20 - Gemini Flash Thinking
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 12:10 PM ET, December 2, 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

Gene Park / Washington Post:
The Citizen Lab:

Earlier Picks

Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Shara Tibken / CNET:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
BBC: