Techmeme
December 3, 2020, 8:20 AM

Top News

Casey Newton / Platformer:
Slack's struggles to succeed as a standalone company mirror the fortunes of other one-time innovators in enterprise productivity who struggled with distribution  —  And why the era of worker-centered work tools may be over  —  Slack's life as an underdog darling of Silicon Valley ended on November 2, 2016.
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Three Democratic lawmakers introduce a bill that would require stablecoin issuers to obtain a banking charter, approval from the Federal Reserve and FDIC, more  —  A new U.S. Congressional bill would require stablecoin issuers to secure bank charters and secure regulatory approval prior to circulating any stablecoins.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
PhonePe is partially spinning off, reducing Flipkart's stake from 100% to 87%, and raises $700M led by Walmart at a post-money valuation of $5.5B  —  PhonePe, the crown jewel in Flipkart's acquisition by Walmart, is “partially” spinning off, the financial services firm said on Thursday.
Reuters:
Source: a group of more than 40 US states, led by New York, plans to file an antitrust suit against Facebook next week  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A group of U.S. states led by New York is investigating Facebook Inc for possible antitrust violations and plans to file a lawsuit …
More: TGDaily and SlashGear
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Alphabet transitions its navigation system for its fleet of Loon high-altitude balloons to one controlled by AI, a first for commercial aerospace systems  —  The company's new AI flight control system outperforms its human-made one  —  Alphabet's Loon, the team responsible for beaming internet …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Amazon adds webcam support to the 2nd-gen Fire TV Cube, enabling video calls with Alexa-enabled devices, rolling out in the coming weeks in US, UK, elsewhere  —  Call any Alexa-enabled device with a screen, including smartphones, Fire tablets, and the Echo Show
Zoe Schiffer / The Verge:
NLRB says in a complaint that Google violated US labor laws by spying on workers who organized staff protests before firing two of them in late 2019  —  Company policies violated labor law, according to the complaint  —  Google violated US labor laws by spying on workers …
Wall Street Journal:
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
A look at MANRS, a group of ~600 participants including Google, which aims to add safeguards to the Border Gateway Protocol, improving internet routing security  —  Efforts to secure the Border Gateway Protocol have picked up critical momentum, including a big assist from Google.
Caitlin Dewey / OneZero :
How Americans are using Cash App and Venmo to practice direct giving to one another in a new way, as an alternative to giving through charitable institutions  —  In 2020, Venmoing total strangers in need became a radical act of support — and trust  —  aised in a six-bedroom mansion …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Researcher details a zero-click iOS device exploit using Apple's AWDL protocol, now patched, which could have granted access to device hardware and data  —  A Google Project Zero researcher found a stunning vulnerability  —  Ever watch that movie, or play that video game …
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 …
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
GitHub: JavaScript, Python, and Java remain most popular languages on GitHub in 2020, followed by TypeScript; open source project creation jumped up to 40% YoY  —  GitHub released its annual Octoverse report today to reveal trends found in one of the largest developer communities on the planet …
More: ZDNet
Michael del Castillo / Forbes:
Visa says it's connecting its global network of 60M merchants to the US Dollar Coin, a stablecoin 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 Butcher / TechCrunch:
Bizay, which has created a marketplace for highly customized products for SMBs, raises €32M Series C co-led by Indico Capital and the European Investment Bank  —  Bizay, a marketplace for small-to-medium-sized businesses allowing them to create highly customized products (such as merchandise) …
More: Tech.eu
Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:
Google says News Showcase will soon add free access to select paywalled articles, and it has doubled publisher partners to ~400 since its launch in October  —  Google News Showcase visitors will soon be able to read select paywalled articles at no extra charge.

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Meet Airtable ProductCentral  —  The unified solution for managing your entire product development process in the AI era.
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:
Zoho Forms for successful Black Friday sales  —  Black Friday is a retail frenzy that can significantly impact your bottom line.  To make the most of this shopping bonanza, you need a strategy that not only attracts customers …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 11/04 - Apple Buying And Investing In Things
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 8:20 AM ET, December 3, 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

Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:
Chris Velazco / Engadget:

Earlier Picks

Byron Tau / Wall Street Journal:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Tony Romm / Washington Post: