Techmeme Ride Home

Mr. Pichai goes to Washington, another bug prompts Google to kill Google+ even sooner, Keurig for beer makes no sense, and Doom turns 25.Sponsors:DataDogHQ.com/ridehomeTiny.websiteFlatironSchool.com/podcastLinks:Google moves up Google+ consumer shutdown to April 2019 (VentureBeat)Uber customers and drivers are furious after a major outage causes all kinds of issues (BusinessInsider)Social media outpaces print newspapers in the U.S. as a news source (Pew Research Center)Fintech start-up Plaid raises $250 million at $2.7 billion valuation, adds Mary Meeker to board (CNBC)Vroom nabs $146M from AutoNation, VCs for its used car site (TechCrunch)Keurigs for Beer Make No Sense (Gizmodo)Doom is 25 and co-creator John Romero is putting out a giant expansion for it (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

iPhone sales blocked in China, Apple’s getting into the A&R business, pump the breaks on the e-scooter hype, and forget the notch, 2019 might be the year of the hole punch.Sponsors:DataDogHQ.com/ridehomeTiny.websiteLinks:China bans many iPhone models in Qualcomm patent dispute (Axios)Can the U.S. Stop China From Controlling the Next Internet Age? (NYTimes)Huawei CFO Arrested, Australia’s Awful Law (Stratechery)Apple acquired Platoon, a platform for musicians to create and distribute work (TechCrunch)Investor Frenzy for Scooter Startups Cools (WSJ)Your Apps Know Where You Were Last Night, and They’re Not Keeping It Secret (NYTimes)Samsung’s A8s is its first phone with an Infinity-O hole-punch display (The Verge) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Microsoft calls for regulation of facial recognition AI, the Crypto market crash is starting to claim casualties, Reddit is quietly doing very well, thank you very much, and the Weekend Longreads suggestions.Sponsors:Metalab.coDataDogHQ.com/RideHomeLinks:MICROSOFT WANTS TO STOP AI'S 'RACE TO THE BOTTOM' (Wired)Scientists create AI that can crush the world's best AI (at board games, thankfully) (CNET)Crypto Market Crash Leaving Bankrupt Startups in its Wake (Bloomberg)Reddit’s Year in Review: 2018 (Upvoted)The Betterment Weekend Longreads:The Comics Canon (Podcast)Land of the “Super Founders“— A Data-Driven Approach to Uncover the Secrets of Billion Dollar Startups (Ali Tamaseb)YOUTUBE CREATORS BLINDSIDED BY MAJOR NETWORK’S COLLAPSE (The Verge)A 7-year-old boy is making $22 million a year on YouTube reviewing toys (MSN)Almost Every Electric Scooter in the World Comes From This Chinese Company (Bloomberg)Cryptopia In Crisis: Joe Lubin’s Ethereum Experiment Is A Mess. How Long Will He Prop It Up? (Forbes)How Rob

Huawai’s CFO arrested and stock markets quake, Google’s Allo joins the crowded Google Deadpool, Lyft files for an IPO and are Amazon’s robots finally rebelling?Sponsors:DatadogHQ.com/RideHomeMetalab.coLinks:Canada arrests Huawei’s global chief financial officer in Vancouver (The Globe and Mail)Microsoft is rebuilding its Edge browser on Chrome and bringing it to the Mac (The Verge)Google is shutting down Allo (The Verge)Ride-hail firm Lyft races to leave Uber behind in IPO chase (Reuters)These Confidential Charts Show Why Facebook Bought WhatsApp (Buzzfeed)Firefly Nets $21.5 Million Seed Round To Boost Ride-Hail Driver Revenues With On-Car Ads (Crunchbase News)Cuba to roll out mobile internet for the first time (CNBC)Robot Accidentally Hospitalises 24 Amazon Workers After It Sprays Them With Bear Repellent (Huffington Post) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The UK Parliament docu-dumps on Facebook, Qualcomm fires the starter pistol on 5G rollout, an actual test drive on Waymo’s new ride hailing service, and behind that $100 million Friends deal.Sponsors:Metalab.coDataDogHQ.com/ridehomeLinks:Note by Damian Collins MP (UK Parliament)Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon 855 and its news under-display fingerprint sensor (TechCrunch)Qualcomm announces first ultrasonic fingerprint reader: Headed to the Galaxy S10? (CNET)Fortnite’s Minecraft-like creative mode launches tomorrow (The Verge)RIDING IN WAYMO ONE, THE GOOGLE SPINOFF’S FIRST SELF-DRIVING TAXI SERVICE (The Verge)The story behind Netflix’s $100 million ‘Friends’ deal (Recode) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Another day, another data breach, this time Quora, Microsoft might be replacing the Edge web browser, and maybe even replacing Windows, a review of some low-end smartphones and why 4k streaming and data caps are on a collision course.Sponsors:DatadogHQ.com/ridehomeMetalab.coLinks:Quora Security Update (The Quora Blog)Microsoft is building a Chromium-powered web browser that will replace Edge on Windows 10 (Windows Central)What is Windows Lite? It's Microsoft's Chrome OS Killer (Petri.com)NVIDIA's new AI turns videos of the real world into virtual landscapes (Engadget)MOTOROLA AND NOKIA’S NEW PHONES MAKE $350 LOOK LIKE $1,000 (The Verge)Your 4K Netflix Streaming Is on a Collision Course With Your ISP's Data Caps (Motherboard) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Tumblr bans adult content, is Apple going to sit on the 5G sidelines, Uber has held talks about acquiring either Bird or Lime, a new self-driving car yardstick and resetting your web browser to square one.SimpleContacts.com/rideMetalab.coLinks:Tumblr will ban all adult content on December 17th (TheVerge)Apple Will Wait Until at Least 2020 to Release a 5G iPhone (Bloomberg)Kuo: ‘All-new design’ AirPods in 2020, wireless charging model in first quarter 2019 (9to5Mac)Uber Exploring Deal to Buy Bird or Lime (The Information)Tencent Music Moves Forward With IPO After Delay (WSJ)Microsoft PowerPoint is getting real-time captions and subtitles for presentations (The Verge)The first self-driving car you use will most likely carry your groceries, not you (Vox)How to Reset All of Your Browsers Back to Square One (Gizmodo) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The monster Starwood Hotels data breach, Apple music comes to Amazon Echo devices, Instagram rolls out “close friends” lists, Airbnb wants to build your house, not just rent it, and the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Links: Marriott says 500 million Starwood guest records stolen in massive data breach (TechCrunch) SEC charges Floyd Mayweather, DJ Khaled for promoting ICOs without disclosing payments (CNBC) Apple Music is coming to the Amazon Echo (TechCrunch) Instagram now lets you share Stories to a Close Friends list (TechCrunch) Exclusive: Airbnb will start designing houses in 2019 (Fast Company) Techmeme now publishing paid and free "Leaderboards" showing the most influential reporters around a specific news topic (Techmeme.com) The Betterment Weekend Longreads Suggestions: Our first podcast suggestion: Python Bytes Microsoft Is Worth as Much as Apple. How Did That Happen? (NYTimes) How China’s Bytedance became the world’s most valuable startup (The Verge) China’s Video Craze Drives Growth for ByteDa

Amazon gets into self-driving cars… in a way, Google Assistant adds some familiar features, YouTube rolls out Stories, and WTF is happening in Crypto? Stories from: @RolfeWinkler Tweets: @CrankGameplays, @SavinTheBees Links: Amazon debuts a scale model autonomous car to teach developers machine learning (TechCrunch) New Parents Complain Amazon Baby-Registry Ads Are Deceptive (WSJ) An Amazon revolt could be brewing as the tech giant exerts more control over brands (Recode) Google Assistant gets visual lyrics and more in big holiday update (Engadget) YouTube is rolling out its Instagram-like Stories feature to more creators (The Verge) Facebook Considered Charging for Access to User Data (WSJ) WTF is happening to crypto? (TechCrunch) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

The biggest ad fraud ever? Amazon gets into medical records, Project Fi comes to iPhones, one of Elon’s LA tunnels is canceled, and the Big Mouth Billy Bass enters the 21st Century. Links: 8 People Are Facing Charges As A Result Of The FBI’s Biggest-Ever Ad Fraud Investigation (BuzzFeed) Big Tech Expands Footprint in Health (WSJ) Project Fi is now Google Fi, and it will work with iPhones and most Android devices (The Verge) Waymo taps former NTSB chair to oversee safety of self-driving ride-share fleet (CNBC) YouTube to Make New Originals Available for Free, Ad-Supported Viewing With ‘Single Slate’ Strategy (Variety) Laurene Powell Jobs’s Emerson Collective bought Pop-Up Magazine Productions (Recode) Community Activists Kill Elon Musk's Plan for an Underground Freeway Tunnel in LA (Motherboard) Big Mouth Billy Bass Will Now Annoy the Shit Out of You With Alexa Support Built In (Gizmodo) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AWS goes the custom silicon route, Facebook Watch goes after the olds, will Microsoft leapfrog Apple and why does Amazon’s shopping experience suck so much? Stories from: @katienotopoulos, @ShiraOvide Tweets: @ajassy, @AlexSchleber Links: Amazon Web Services introduces its own custom-designed Arm server processor, promises 45 percent lower costs for some workloads (GeekWire) Facebook's YouTube competitor is pivoting to older audiences as teens tune out and publishers balk (CNBC) Half of all Phishing Sites Now Have the Padlock (Krebs on Security) Employees Say Startup Civil Hyped Crypto Returns, But Failed to Pay (CoinDesk) Apple has an idea to make Animoji even more fun (Cult of Mac) Don’t Look Now, But Microsoft Is Overtaking Apple (Bloomberg) What If Amazon.com Actually…Is A Horrible Website? (BuzzFeed) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

AWS goes the custom silicon route, Facebook Watch goes after the olds, will Microsoft leapfrog Apple and why does Amazon’s shopping experience suck so much? Stories from: @katienotopoulos, @ShiraOvide Tweets: @ajassy, @AlexSchleber Links: Amazon Web Services introduces its own custom-designed Arm server processor, promises 45 percent lower costs for some workloads (GeekWire) Facebook's YouTube competitor is pivoting to older audiences as teens tune out and publishers balk (CNBC) Half of all Phishing Sites Now Have the Padlock (Krebs on Security) Employees Say Startup Civil Hyped Crypto Returns, But Failed to Pay (CoinDesk) Apple has an idea to make Animoji even more fun (Cult of Mac) Don’t Look Now, But Microsoft Is Overtaking Apple (Bloomberg) What If Amazon.com Actually…Is A Horrible Website? (BuzzFeed) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Apple heads to the Supreme Court over antitrust concerns about its App Store; Facebook’s internal documents are seized by the British Parliament; what’s behind the resurgence of Atari; the human story of Black Friday inside Amazon’s fulfillment centers; and Lenny—a chatbot designed to frustrate telemarketers. Links: U.S. top court leans toward allowing Apple App Store antitrust suit (Reuters) My Amicus Brief (AVC/Fred Wilson) Parliament seizes cache of Facebook internal papers (The Guardian) Internal documents Facebook has fought to keep private obtained by UK Parliament (CNN) Atari CEO interview — How Rollercoaster Tycoon revival saved the company (VentureBeat) The human costs of Black Friday, explained by a former Amazon warehouse manager (Vox) The Story of Lenny, the Internet's Favorite Telemarketing Troll (Motherboard) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Storm clouds everywhere! Tech stocks in bear market territory, crypto in full-on meltdown territory… but video games might help solve science’s gender problem and this one spacebar trick might make your iPhone insanely more useful. Oh, and the weekend Longreads suggestions. Links: It's Official: Once Mighty FAANG Stocks Have All Entered a Bear Market (Fortune) Silicon Valley wages have dropped for all except highest-paying jobs: report (The Mercury News) Bitcoin drops 12% to below $5,000 (CNBC) Tumblr was removed from Apple’s App Store over child pornography issues (The Verge) Video games could be a short-term answer to science’s gender problem (The Conversation) “The space bar trick” is the most amazing feature in iOS 12, and the internet just realized it (Fast Company) The Betterment Weekend Longreads: How The Wall Street Journal is preparing its journalists to detect deepfakes (NiemanLab) Self-driving trucks in US offer window into where machines may replace humans (Christian Science Monitor) When Elo

Skype calls on Amazon Echos, Tumblr disappears from iOS, Facebook on a war footing, iPhone sales storm clouds, and the Bitcoin Cash hard fork explained. Links: Skype calling now available on Alexa (The Verge) Tweet Storm on Where Tumblr's Gone (@bluechoochoo) With Facebook at ‘War,’ Zuckerberg Adopts More Aggressive Style (WSJ) Tim Cook defends multibillion-dollar Google search deal despite Apple’s privacy focus (The Verge) Apple Suppliers Suffer With Uncertainty Around iPhone Demand (WSJ) With Facebook at ‘War,’ Zuckerberg Adopts More Aggressive Style (WSJ) Bitcoin Cash Declares War: Why Coming Hard Fork Could Mean Another Split (CoinDesk) One Day After the Bitcoin Cash Hard Fork: Takeaways and Latest Developments (Bitcoin Magazine) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Airbnb opens the kimono, a disc-less Xbox, Facebook pushes back on controversy, SpaceX gets a key go-ahead, and the weekend longreads suggestions. Links: Airbnb booked more than $1 billion in third quarter revenue (CNBC) Microsoft’s Building a Disc-Less Xbox One for Release in 2019 (Thurrott.com) Facebook Morale Takes a Tumble Along With Stock Price (WSJ) ‘I Don’t Really Want to Work for Facebook.’ So Say Some Computer Science Students. (NYTimes) Major SMS security lapse is a reminder to use authenticator apps instead (The Verge) The Betterment Weekend Longreads: THE GENIUS NEUROSCIENTIST WHO MIGHT HOLD THE KEY TO TRUE AI (Wired) Are Killer Robots the Future of War? Parsing the Facts on Autonomous Weapons (NYTimes Magazine) The Internet Has a Huge C/C++ Problem and Developers Don't Want to Deal With It (Motherboard) How Superhuman Built an Engine to Find Product/Market Fit (First Round Review) THE HAIL MARY PLAN TO RESTART A HACKED US ELECTRIC GRID (Wired) Space Camp grows up (Mashable) Learn more

That huge New York Times story behind the scenes of Facebook, Google adds business messaging to Google Maps, Uber eats is a monster business, Amazon Go has a rival and there’s a new King of YouTube. Links: Delay, Deny and Deflect: How Facebook’s Leaders Fought Through Crisis (NYTimes) Google Maps will let you chat with businesses (The Verge) Uber continues to lose money as it scales scooters, bikes and other newer businesses (TechCrunch) Amazon Go competitor Standard Cognition raises $40 million to expand its cashierless store solution (VentureBeat) PewDiePie's Tumultuous Reign as YouTube King Is Almost Over (Bloomberg) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Why was Google’s traffic routed from Nigeria through China, Ford partners with Walmart on driverless cars, Amazon’s HQ2 stunt seems to be backfiring, and Uber gets a customer loyalty program. Links: Nigerian firm takes blame for routing Google traffic through China (Reuters) Exclusive: Snap reveals U.S. subpoenas on IPO disclosures (Reuters) Ford partners with Walmart and Postmates to test autonomous grocery delivery (TechCrunch) A STARTUP IS SETTING DRONES FREE BY TYING THEM TO THE GROUND (Wired) Amazon’s HQ2 stunt could come back to haunt it (The Verge) This time, Amazon has gone too far: Jeff Bezos's company is profiting and taxpayers are paying the price (NYDailyNews) Uber launches rider loyalty Rewards like credits & upgrades 9 cities (TechCrunch) Amazon's Microwave With Alexa Makes Life Marginally Better (BuzzFeed) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Amazon’s HQ2 officially lands in Queens and Crystal City; Waymo is launching a driverless car service in December; Apple locks down repairs on modern Macs; get ready for cloud gaming; Pandora applies its music technology to podcasts; and a magic act that’ll make your day. Links: Amazon selects New York City and Northern Virginia for new headquarters (Amazon DayOne Blog) Amazon HQ2 decision: Amazon splits prize between Crystal City and New York (The Washington Post) Pandora brings its Genome technology to podcast recommendations (TechCrunch) Waymo to Start First Driverless Car Service Next Month (Bloomberg) Apple confirms its T2 security chip blocks some third-party repairs of new Macs (The Verge) The Tricky—but Potentially Lucrative—Task of Streaming Videogames (WSJ) Eric Chien 2018 Fism Grand Prix Magic Act (YouTube) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

SAP buys Qualtrics, the Galaxy S10 might be coming in February and the Galaxy F might be coming in March, what exactly is TikTok and why you should care, and Jony Ive has an exclusive new product design. Links: SAP to buy Qualtrics for $8 billion (Axios) How One Family Built $8 Billion Startup Far From Silicon Valley (Bloomberg) Samsung Electronics to release first foldable smartphone in March: sources (Yonhap News Agency) Snap’s former No. 2 exec Imran Khan is building an online shopping startup (ReCode) Facebook quietly launches a TikTok competitor app called Lasso (The Verge) A Guide to TikTok for Anyone Who Isn’t a Teen (Slate) Netflix to Test Lower-Price Plans as It Seeks More Asian Users (Bloomberg) At Netflix, Who Wins When It’s Hollywood vs. the Algorithm? (WSJ) Jony Ive’s latest design is the ultimate diamond ring – made only of diamond … (9to5Mac) The Fading Battlefields of World War I (The Atlantic) Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices