What's Popular on Techmeme
How cities like Katowice in Poland, Hangzhou in China, and Frisco, Texas are embracing esports tournaments in a bid to revive their economies
Some Defcon attendees discuss why people are still getting hacked and what the cybersecurity community needs to do better
A look at What3words, a location sharing app that divides the world into 57 trillion three meter squares, and assigns them a unique, random three-word address
How US-based companies are moving manufacturing out of mainland China while their Chinese counterparts are "de-Americanizing" their supply chains
Sources: the US Department of Commerce to extend Huawei's license to buy US goods, which expires on August 19, by another 90 days
Ikea says it is creating a new business unit, Ikea Home smart, with end-to-end responsibility for its portfolio of smart devices
Sources: SoftBank plans to lend up to $20B to its employees to buy stakes in its second VC fund, with Masayoshi Son accounting for more than half of the amount
A look at donations by major tech execs to 2020 presidential candidates, with Elizabeth Warren and Bernie Sanders notably absent from the list of recipients
Source: Airbnb's revenue grew 40% in 2018, and it booked 91M nights in Q1 2019 for an overall bookings value of $9.4B, up 31% YoY, had about $3.5B in cash in Q1
Segway-Ninebot unveils the semi-autonomous KickScooter T60 that it says can return itself to charging stations, expected to be available in Q1 2020 for ~$1,420
Interview with Microsoft's Executive VP of Gaming Phil Spencer on how xCloud is years away from becoming mainstream, how it fits into Xbox's repertoire, more
Commsignia, which develops software for automotive OEMs that connects vehicles with each other and smart city infrastructure, raises $11M Series A
Gab experienced a huge growth spurt in H1 2019 as SimilarWeb data shows its traffic between January and July grew almost 200% and unique visitors are up 180%
Google's Area 120 incubator is testing Fundo, a service for YouTube creators to sell invites to online events, personalized shoutouts to fans, and more
In internal letter, Facebook moderators in Austin claim Accenture managers pressured on-site counselors to divulge info on trauma sessions; one counselor quit
Google says it bought homework helper app Socratic in 2018, launches an AI-powered version on iOS, adds subject guides, and promises Android launch this fall
eMarketer estimates that 111.8M people, or 39.4% of US internet users, will use a voice assistant at least monthly this year, up 9.5% from 2018
Flyhomes raises $21M Series B and $120M in debt for its platform that lets buyers make upfront cash offers for a house, and then helps them sell their own homes
Amazon launches "Custom Interfaces", a new API that allows developers to connect gadgets and smart toys with Alexa-enabled devices to create new interactions
developer.amazon.com · 6 days ago
Bluetooth SIG issues a security notice for the "KNOB" flaw, which allows hackers to steal data by brute forcing the encryption key used during bluetooth pairing
Report: Alibaba to buy NetEase's Kaola, one of the biggest Chinese shopping sites for imported goods, for $2B in cash
Sources: JD.com is talking with investment banks about a $500M US IPO in May for its online supermarket unit Dada-JD Daojia; Walmart owns 10% of Dada-JD Daojia
EU's General Court says it will hear arguments in Apple's and Ireland's challenges to EU's €13B bill over the company's back-taxes on September 17-18
Bakkt says it plans to launch its physically-settled bitcoin futures contracts on Sept. 23, after getting approval from NY state's financial regulator
Five years later, a deep dive into Gamergate's origins and how conspiracy-fed trolling tactics it took mainstream are now central to post-truth information wars
Edge cloud services provider Zenlayer raises $30M Series B to expand globally with an emphasis on emerging markets like India, Indonesia, and Brazil
SmileDirectClub, which ships teeth-aligners directly to users, with dental professionals monitoring patient progress remotely, files for an IPO
Brazil-based RD Station, a marketing automation platform aimed at SMBs in emerging markets, raises $50M Series D, bringing its total raised to about $90M
In a letter to Congress, the Trump administration asks lawmakers to reauthorize a law that lets the NSA gain access to logs of phone and text records
India-based Twitter-like platform ShareChat, which supports multiple regional languages, raises $100M round led by Twitter, sources say at $600M-$650M valuation
After a 40% share price drop in 2019, Baidu has been replaced on the top 5 list of China's most valuable internet companies by NetEase
After the latest firmware update, some Surface Pro 6 and Surface Book 2 devices are throttling CPU speeds to 400 MHz; Microsoft says it is working on a fix
Nvidia beats Q2 expectations with revenues of $2.58B, down 17% YoY, gaming chip sales of $1.3B, up 24% from Q1, and data center revenues of $655M, up 3% QoQ
Cyprus-based Au10tix, an AI-based ID verification and authentication platform, raises $60M at a $260M post-money valuation, from TPG Tech Adjacencies
Apple sues mobile device virtualization company Corellium, accusing it of copyright infringement for illegally replicating iOS, along with iPhone and iPad apps
Overview of startup exits outside Silicon Valley from the past ten years, not including Asian companies: Sweden edges out UK, Boston remains big, more
Source: Coinbase has acquired the custody business of Xapo, a service best known for storing bitcoins in a vault under a Swiss mountain, for $55M
YouTube's guidelines may not discriminate against LGBTQ creators, but their vagueness and ad-friendly conservatism leads to discriminatory enforcement
Walmart says its online sales grew 37% in Q2, boosted by its four-day July sales event that countered Amazon Prime Day
Apple says its US job footprint reached 2.4M and it is on track to hit its goal of directly contributing $350B to the US economy by 2023
Ripple's investment subsidiary Xpring grants 1B XRP, around $262M, to Coil, a micropayments platform for content creators, to drive adoption of the token
Facebook is expanding its third-party fact checking program to Instagram, starting with US, and will downplay posts deemed fake on its Explore and Hashtag pages
poynter.org · 7 days ago
Cloudflare files for an IPO, citing sites like 8chan as one risk factor, says it had revenues of $192.7M in 2018, up 43% YoY, and a net loss of $87.2M
A deep dive into Amazon FC Ambassadors program finds 53 Ambassador accounts in seven countries, some of which are using fake identities and recycling accounts
bellingcat.com · 7 days ago
Google says data from its new "Password Checkup" Chrome extension shows that 1.5% of all website logins use credentials that have been compromised
How St. Louis University is trying to help new students acclimate to campus life by putting an Echo Dot in every dorm room with a campus-specific Alexa skill
Flashy Gen Z résumés, containing photos and bitmoji, are colliding with employer efforts to reduce hiring bias with systems that remove such embellishments
wsj.com · 7 days ago