Tech Brew Ride Home

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

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)

The great winter of tech worker discontent is definitely here, Disney’s streaming service has a name, Vine might be coming back, Github hits a major milestone and, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.

Links:

Amazon is finally selling new iPhones after a long and complicated 'turf war' with Apple (BusinessInsider)

A note to our employees (Google)

#GoogleWalkout update: Collective action works, and we need to keep working. True equity depends on it. (Google Walkout For Real Change)

Amazon Execs Addressed Concerns About Amazon Rekognition And ICE At An All-Hands Meeting (BuzzFeed)

Vine co-founder plans to launch successor Byte in Spring 2019 (TechCrunch)

GitHub passes 100 million repositories (Venture Beat)

The Betterment Weekend Longreads:

Why Technology Favors Tyranny (The Atlantic)

Tech C.E.O.s Are in Love With Their Principal Doomsayer (NYTimes)

HQ Trivia was a blockbuster hit — but internal turmoil and a shrinking audience have pushed its company to the brink (ReCode)

‘It’s Giant and Has Like Five Million Buttons.’ The Office Desk Phone Won’t Die (WSJ)

Why Doctors Hate Their Computers (The New Yorker)

Here Comes ‘Smart Dust,’ the Tiny Computers That Pull Power from the Air (WSJ)

ASTRONOMERS SEE MATERIAL ORBITING A BLACK HOLE *RIGHT* AT THE EDGE OF FOREVER (SyFy Wire)

Foldable phones are officially a thing, Tesla names a new board chair, Amazon’s mailing a physical toy catalog, Ford doesn’t want to miss out on scooters, and Comcast doesn’t want to miss out on home hubs.

Stories from: @albertwenger, @dmac1, @meganrosedickey

Tweets: @bryce

Links:

This is Samsung’s foldable smartphone (The Verge)

Google says Android will natively support ‘foldables’ to limit fragmentation (The Verge)

Amazon is mailing a printed holiday toy catalog to millions of customers (CNBC)

Google Plans Large New York City Expansion (WSJ)

The Anchor Tenant (Fred Wilson/AVC)

Google's Gift to NYC (Albert Wenger)

Ford buys electric scooter startup Spin (TechCrunch)

Comcast is developing a video-streaming platform for broadband-only customers (CNBC)

So I sent my mom that newfangled Facebook Portal (TechCrunch)

Silicon Valley’s special election day vote, why robocalls have taken over your phone, Jeff Bezos’ clever HQ2 bonus, making 911 calls better and why Jake Tapper is a digital media pioneer.

Links:

San Francisco has passed a first-of-its-kind tax on big businesses — like Square and Stripe — to help the homeless (Recode)

Scoop: AT&T to cut off some customers' service in piracy crackdown (Axios)

Why robocalls have taken over your phone (The Verge)

Amazon gained a huge perk from its HQ2 contest that's worth far more than any tax break (Business Insider)

Chinese ‘gait recognition’ tech IDs people by how they walk (The Associated Press)

RapidSOS, an emergency response data provider, raises $30M as it grows from 10K users to 250M (TechCrunch)

Newsonomics: “Digital defeats print” is the headline as Gannett steps away from printed election results (NiemanLab)

Facebook takes down more accounts ahead of the election, the new Chrome might block ALL ads on some websites, Macbook Air reviews, and why you might not be able to read election results in tomorrow’s newspaper.

Links:

Medium Post on Facebook and the Election (Jonathan Albright)

Chrome will soon ad-block an entire website if it shows abusive ads (The Verge)

Amazon Plans to Split HQ2 Evenly Between Two Cities (WSJ)

APPLE MACBOOK AIR (2018) REVIEW: THE PRESENT OF COMPUTING (The Verge)

The 2018 Retina MacBook Air (Daring Fireball)

India's Meesho, which enables social commerce via WhatsApp, raises $50M (TechCrunch)

PredictHQ exits stealth with $10 million to help Uber and others forecast demand surges (VentureBeat)

VMWare acquires Heptio, the startup founded by 2 co-founders of Kubernetes (TechCrunch)