Paw Print

The Download: Twitter denies shadow banning

This is The Download,  a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

The Download is sponsored by Skinit, makers of vinyl skins and cases for all of your devices. Make your devices yours today and get 25% off your purchase by using the promo code andrew25 at checkout.

Jack Dorsey denies Twitter “shadows bans” users based on politics

Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey called into Sean Hannity’s radio…

The Download: Android gets pied

This is The Download, a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

Android Pie available now on some Google Pixel phones without some key features

Google has revealed that Android Pie is the name for Android 9.0, and pushed the latest source code to Android’s Open Source Project along with an over-the-air update for Pixel phones.

If you don’t have a Pixel phone, you may be waiting a while…

The Download: Google looks into bringing its services to China

This is The Download, a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

Google in talks with Tencent, Inspur, other local companies to offer Google cloud services in mainland China

  Google is in talks with Tencent, Inspur, and other Chinese companies to offer its cloud services in mainland China, according to Bloomberg.

The tale began early this year, with one of the people saying that…

Apple earnings: 41.3M iPhones sold, Revenue of $53.3B, net income of $11.5B

Apple Park in Cupertino, Calif. (Image: Apple)

Apple has posted its third quarter earnings with revenue of $53.3 billion, surpassing its projection by a cool $1 billion in the company’s strongest third quarter ever. The average selling price of an iPhone was $724, below analyst estimates of $693.

“Our Q3 results were driven by continued strong sales of iPhone, Services, and Wearables, and we are very excited about the products and services in our pipeline.”

Tim Cook; Apple CEO, in a press release

The company’s expected revenue for fiscal Q4 is $60-$62 billion, up 16 to 19 percent from the same period last year. This could suggest that multiple new iPhones are on the way for the fall, along with strong sales for the new MacBook Pros that will be included in next quarter’s revenue.

Apple CEO Tim Cook specifically noted that strong International sales were a big driver for these numbers with 60 percent of all that money coming from sales outside the US. 

41.3 million iPhones were sold during the quarter, compared to 41.03 million sold in the same period a year ago. 

Beyond that, hardware sales were a mixed bag. iPad sales were up 27 percent from last quarter to 11.55 million in the quarter, largely helped by the launch of the $329, education-focused tablet. However, Mac sales tanked. The company sold 3.72 million of them, down nine percent from the previous quarter and 13 percent from this time last year.

This mild dip was easily balanced out by big growth from Apple’s services business, which includes app purchases, Apple Music, and iCloud. The division saw a 30 percent surge in revenue year-over-year to $9.55 billion that Cook attributed particularly to a surge in subscriptions to Apple services and third-party apps (like Apple takes a cut of). Apple Music has grown 50 percent since last year, along with revenues from the company’s cloud services.

Meanwhile, the Other Products segment (AirPods, HomePods, etc.) jumped 37 percent from this time last year. Apple doesn’t usually break out how individual products do relative to the entire company’s performance, but Cook pointed out during the earnings call that the Apple Watch’s growth was “in the mid-40a range” this quarter. AirPods also got a nod.

IDC: 342M smartphones shipped worldwide in Q2 2018, Huawei overtakes Apple for second place in smartphone shipments

Huawei has overtaken Apple to become the second-largest smartphone manufacturer in the world, according to new data from IDC and Canalys.

According to IDC, the overall market shrunk by 1.8 percent in Q2 2018. However, the biggest surprise here is that Huawei now has a 15.8 percent marketshare with 54.2 million smartphones being shipped in Q2.

Samsung remains the overall market leader with 20.9 percent market share and 71.5 million smartphones sold.

That doesn’t mean that Apple is on a downward spiral in any stretch, as just exhibited in its earnings. The company also has a slightly bigger market share with 12.1 percent of the market.

Canalys senior analyst Ben Stanton provided some color on the situation, saying that Q2’s always “seasonally weak” for Apple:

“While the iPhone X succeeded in generating volume in the previous quarters despite its hefty price tag, it has been unable to sustain that volume this quarter. But for an Apple flagship, this is normal. In addition to this, models such as the iPhone 7 and 7 Plus are also losing steam given a high sell-in in Q1. But an uptick in iPhone 8 and 8 Plus, helped in part by the Product Red campaign, was enough to offset this trend.”

Meanwhile, IDC worldwide mobile trackers program vice president Ryan Reith commented on the rise of Huawei, calling it “impressive… as is its ability to move into markets where, until recently, the brand was largely unknown.”

So how was Huawei able to accomplish this? Canalys analyst Mo Jia pegs it to the company’s focus on the low-end segment of the market, particularly with its Honor line:

“Despite its failure to strike a US carrier partnership, the company has turned around quickly, moving away from its drive for profitability and focusing instead on finding volume growth at the low end. Honor, which has long been a major brand in China but relatively small overseas, has taken a pivotal role in this strategy.”

The Honor brand’s grown to account for 36 percent of Huawei’s smartphone shipments, compared to 24 percent last year. Four million Honor smartphones were sold outside China in Q2, up 150 percent year on year.

Facebook bans 32 Pages, accounts from site, Instagram for “coordinated inauthentic behavior”

Facebook removed 32 pages and fake accounts from the service after the company detected an “ongoing political influence campaign,” where the accounts engaged in “coordinated inauthentic behavior” that in some cases was designed to influence November’s US midterm elections.

Facebook said during a call with reporters that it didn’t have enough technical , but Facebook officials that briefed lawmakers on the issue told The New York Times that Russia may be involved. 

The company discovered activity designed to inflame tensions around politically charged topics like the rise of white supremacy in the United States and the country’s Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agency. Facebook particularly found suspicious accounts engaging in coordinated activity around the #AbolishICE movement and a second “Unite the Right” meet-up of white supremacists in Charlottesville, Virginia, a sequel to last year’s organized protest that devolved into violence leaving three people dead and dozens injured.

Facebook head of cybersecurity policy Nathaniel Gleicher said that the activity was “focused on a range of activities.” However, the company felt the need to disclose the findings with lawmakers and the public ahead of a scheduled August 10 left-wing protest in Washington that was coordinated by one of the inauthentic accounts and related to the one-year anniversary of the original “Unite the Right” protest.

According to the company, the event was shut down and five other authentic administrators of the event were enlisted to help inform Facebook of the situation. Over 600 users said they would attend the event, with more than 2,600 people listing themselves as “interested.” Facebook intends to explain to all of those users what happened.

Facebook published a series of blog posts outlining the removal of 32 Pages and accounts from the main Facebook app and Instagram that were involved  in the inauthentic behavior that laid out the potential link to state-sponsored actors.

“It’s clear that whoever set up these accounts went to much greater lengths to obscure their true identities than the Russia-based Internet Research Agency (IRA) has in the past. We believe this could be partly due to changes we’ve made over the last year to make this kind of abuse much harder But security is not something that’s ever done. We face determined, well-funded adversaries who will never give up and are constantly changing tactics. It’s an arms race and we need to constantly improve too. It’s why we’re investing heavily in more people and better technology to prevent bad actors misusing Facebook – as well as working much more closely with law enforcement and other tech companies to better understand the threats we face.”

Nathaniel Gleicher, Facebook head of cybersecurity policy

According to Gleicher, the company identified eight Pages, 17 profiles, and seven instagram accounts. Around 290,000 people followed at least one of the pages, the earliest of which was created in March 2017. Over 9,500 organic posts were created by three Pages and accounts, and $11,000 were spent to run 150 ads between last April and June 2018. The Pages also created 30 Facebook events, some of which received commitment to attendance from thousands.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerburg posted to his personal page after the briefing, saying that “security isn’t a problem that you ever completely solve.”

A series of sample posts from the banned accounts were also disclosed by Facebook:

Senator Mark Warner (D-VA) reported to the announcement, saying that it’s “further evidence that the Kremlin continues to exploit platforms like Facebook to division and spread disinformation.”

Facebook & Instagram launch activity dashboards to help people manage time on social apps

Instagram and Facebook are rolling out new “time well spent” features meant to help people dealing with smartphone addiction. 

You’ll now be able to see how much time you spend within each app, snooze notifications for up to eight hours, and set a timer that will alert you after you’ve spent a certain amount of time using the app on a given day.

“As long as you believe that we’re developing products that people love, and that they use them frequently because they’re deriving value out of them, not because they’re addicted to it, then we’re doing our job. Okay, if that’s our mission, then the question is, ‘can we provide people tools so that they can be in control?”

Kevin Systrom; Instagram CEO, in an interview with Recode

System says that he has a responsibility to balance the amount of time users spend on Instagram.

“I as the CEO of Instagram don’t want to make a single person use Instagram more than they want to use it. That’s not my intention. So if we can give people the tools to control their time, or be aware of their time, I think that is a very healthy equilibrium.”

Kevin Systrom

This places Facebook in an interesting position though, as it jeopardizes the company’s dominant revenue source of serving users ads at least in part if users spend less time in its apps. Instagram product director Ameet Ranadive said that the company’s “willing to live with” that tradeoff:

“There may be some trade-off with other metrics for the company. That’s a trade-off that we’re willing to live with because, in the long run, this is important to the community.”

Ameet Ranadive, Instagram product director

Google working with news organizations to surface data journalism project data in search results

Google is working with several news organizations to surface more project data from their data journalism projects in its search results. 

The goal here is to make it easier for the data produced by these organizations to be discoverable and surfaced in an easy to read format on the company’s search pages.

“Data journalism takes many forms, and it’s not always clear from the headline that there is potentially useful data within that document or story. The way that data is presented can vary as well, and though data tables are often the most useful format for data journalists, it isn’t always easy for Google Search to detect and understand tables of data to surface the most relevant results.”

Simon Rogers; Google News Lab data editor, in a blog post

ProPublica is among the organizations working to provide the structured data in the format needed for the search index. As long as that data is in a table, adding it to the index should be pretty straightforward.

“As a news organization that is focused on having real-world impact, it’s very much in our mission to give people information at the point of need. If we can make the data we’ve worked hard to collect and prepare available to people at the very moment when they’re researching a big life decision, and thereby help them make the best decision they can, it’s an absolute no-brainer for us. And the code is trivial to add.”

Scott Klein, ProPublica deputy managing editor

Any news organization that produces this sort of data can follow Google’s guidelines and have this data indexed. For the right searches, the reward is going to be prime placement on Google’s search results pages.

In other news…

Police in India have arrested two suspects for allegedly duping $4 million from 1,800 people in a fake cryptocurrency company called “Ripple Future” that promised to triple investor money in 250 days, along with running daily and weekly payment schemes.

Online booking platform for salons and spas Shedul has raised $5 million in funding led by Berlin’s Target Global, with participation from New York’s FJ Labs.

The BlackBerry Evolve and Evolve X have become official in India, with a 5.99-inch display that has an 18:9 aspect ratio, 2160×1080 resolution, and Gorilla Glass 5 protection.

Popular lip-sync video app Musical.ly is being folded into Tik Tok, which will lead to the Musical.ly brand and app disappearing and the community is being automatically migrated to Tik Tok with an app update. ByteDance, Tik Tok’s parent company, acquired Musical.ly for $1 billion in November 2017.

US Senator Jack Reed (D-RI) warned tech companies that “time is running out” during a meeting of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence discussing foreign influence operations and their use of social media platforms.

The Download: Uber stops developing self-driving trucks

This is The Download, a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

The Download is sponsored by Skinit, makers of vinyl skins and cases for all of your devices. Make your devices yours today and get 25% off your purchase by using the promo code andrew25 at checkout.

Uber stops development of self-driving trucks to focus on self-driving cars; Uber Freight unaffected

Uber is killing off its…

The Download: Slack buys HipChat and Stride

This is The Download, a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

Slack buys HipChat, Stride from Atlassian; will pay for IP over three years; apps will shut down in February 2019

Atlassian is selling corporate chat software HipChat and Stride to Slack and taking a small stake in the startup.

Slack will pay an undisclosed amount over the next three years to acquire the apps’ assets,…

The Download: Apple fixes MacBook Pro thermal throttling

This is The Download, a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

The Download is sponsored by Skinit, makers of vinyl skins and cases for all of your devices. Make your devices yours today and get 25% off your purchase by using the promo code andrew25 at checkout.

Apple issues fix for 2018 MacBook Pro CPU throttling, thermal management issues via macOS High Sierra 10.13.6 Supplemental Update

The Download: Rideshare driver doubles down on side hustles

This is The Download, a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

St. Louis rideshare driver has live-streamed hundreds of rides on Twitch without passenger consent; companies claim practice is legal in Missouri

Jason Gargac, a 32-year-old Uber and Lyft driver in St. Louis, Missouri has given around 700 rides since March 2018, with nearly all of them being live-streamed on Twitch without…

The Download: Facebook takes a stand on misinformation

This is The Download, a daily recap of the top technology headlines.

This edition of The Download is brought to you by Skinit, makers of quality skins and cases for smartphones, tablets, laptops, game consoles, audio devices and more. They’ve partnered with brands like DC Comics, Disney, the NBA, NFL, MLS, MLB, NHL, along with independent artists around the world to bring you hundreds of…

The Download: Apple’s souped up Macbook Pros

This is The Download, a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

Apple updates 13-inch, 15-inch MacBook Pros with Touch Bar with latest Intel processors, more RAM, True Tone display technology, more storage, quieter keyboards

Apple has updated its MacBook Pros with Touch Bars with newer processors, more configuration options, True Tone displays, and a “quieter” keyboard design. To be…

UK watchdog gives Facebook preliminary $664,000 fine for enabling Cambridge Analytica breach

The UK’s Information Commissioner’s Office announced a preliminary $664,000 fine for Facebook after finding that the company failed to protect user data and wasn’t transparent about how the user data was gotten by others. The fine, which was the largest amount allowed, comes after revelations that as many as 87 million Facebook users had their data improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica, a digital consultancy firm with ties to the Trump campaign.

“We are at a crossroads. Trust and confidence in the integrity of our democratic processes risk being disrupted because the average voter has little idea of what is going on behind the scenes. People cannot have control over their own data if they don’t know or understand how it is being used.”

Elizabeth Denham; UK Information Commissioner, in a statement

Facebook will address the proposed penalty before the watchdog makes a final ruling.

“As we have said before, we should have done more to investigate claims about Cambridge Analytica and take action in 2015. We have been working closely with the ICO in their investigation of Cambridge Analytica, just as we have with authorities in the US and other countries. We’re reviewing the report and will respond to the ICO soon.”

Erin Egan; Facebook chief privacy officer, in a statement

Uber human resources head Liane Hornsey resigns after racial discrimination allegations probe

Uber Chief People Officer Liane Hornsey has resigned after a third-party firm investigated allegations that she routinely dismissed internal racial discrimination complaints.

Hornsey joined the company a month before former engineer Susan Fowler penned a blog post on the rampant sexual harassment and sexism she endured at Uber.

Uber Chief Legal Officer Tony West ordered a probe into the way she handles discrimination reports after a group of whistleblowers threatened to go public with their complaints if the company doesn’t take action. The group, which told Reuters that they’re Uber employees of color, also accused Hornsey of using discriminatory language against the company’s global head of diversity and inclusion Bernard Coleman. They claimed that she threatened former executive Bozoma Saint John, who joined the company from Apple Music also with the intention of fixing its internal cultural issues.

In an email sent to her team, Hornsey said her resignation might come “a little out of the blue” for some people, but she’s apparently “been thinking about [it] for a while.”

“By now you’ll have seen the news that I’ve decided to leave Uber. I know this comes a little out of the blue for some of you, but I have been thinking about this for a while. I couldn’t leave without first thanking each and every one of you for your incredible professionalism and dedication to our work. You’ve had an enormously positive impact on the direction of the company.

“I am so proud of all that we have accomplished, but mostly our shared ethic of doing what’s right for our employees. I leave knowing that the company is in great hands and that together our team has lived up to our cultural norm of doing the right thing. In the interim, I am handing over the reins to Pranesh who is simply amazing and who will be a wonderful leader to you all.”

Liane Hornsey, former Uber chief people officer

Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi also sent a company-wise email about her resignation, calling her “incredibly talented, creative, and hard-working.”

https://twitter.com/ceodonovan/status/1016890364685312000

Uber didn’t disclose the probe’s results, and West told the whistleblowers that it has no intentions to.

“Serious allegations alone, even when they turn out to be unsubstantiated, can damage a person’s career and reputation, implicating important due process, privacy and moral concerns. [W]e should keep in mind that the simple fact that we may not observe disciplinary action doesn’t mean serious measures haven’t been imposed, if and where appropriate.”

Tony West; Uber chief legal officer, in an email to the whistleblowers, according to Bloomberg

Court filing: former Apple employee Xiaolang Zhang has been charged by FBI with alleged theft of trade secrets related to company’s autonomous car efforts

Apple Park in Cupertino, Calif. (Image: Apple)

Xiaolang Zhang, an Apple engineer that worked on Apple’s autonomous car project form December 2015 through May 2018, allegedly stole trade secrets for a Chinese car startup backed by Alibaba according to charges filed by the FBI.

Zhang has been charged in federal court with stealing trade secrets, and faces 10 years in prison and a $250,000 fine, and was arrested trying to leave the country over the weekend.

“Apple takes confidentiality and the protection of our intellectual property very seriously. We’re working with authorities on this matter and will do everything possible to make sure this individual and any other individuals involved are held accountable for their actions.”

An Apple spokesperson, in a statement to The Verge

Zhang designed and tested circuit boards as part of the compute team of Apple’s autonomous car project, according to the federal complaint that was filed this week in California’s Northern District. In it, the company says that Zhang returned from a month-long paternity leave at the end of April and informed his supervisor at Apple that he was resigning so he could spend time with his ailing mother in China. Zhang also shared in that meeting that he planned to work for Chinese electric car startup Xiaopeng Motors.

Once Zhang told his supervisor about his intentions and after “feeling that he had been evasive” according to the filing, a member of Apple’s New Product Security Division joined the meeting and had Zhang turn in his two work phones and his laptop. After the meeting, Apple reviewed Zhang’s past network activity and performed a forensic analysis on his work devices and “activities on the Apple campus,” including swipe badge access and closed circuit TV footage.

The company’s security team found that Zhang’s network activity “increased exponentially compared to the prior two years of his employment” in the days before his attempted resignation, with the bulk of the activity being “bulk searches and targeted downloaded copious pages of information” from confidential databases he had access to. According to the complaint, the CCTV footage that Apple reviewed showed that Zhang left the company’s autonomous vehicle lab on April 28 (during his leave period) carrying a “computer keyboard, some cables, and a large box.”

Apple security teams confronted Zhang with this information in a follow-up meeting on May 1, and the company says he admitted to taking data and removing items, including circuit boards and a Linux server, from the autonomous vehicle lab. He told Apple that he was pursuing a job at Xiaopeng and that he airdropped data to his wife’s laptop. After consenting to a search of that laptop, Apple found approximately 40GB of data, 60 percent of which its forensic teams said was “highly problematic.”

According to the complaint, Zhang was “voluntarily terminated from Apple” on May 5. Afterwards, Zhang claimed to work for Xiaopeng although it’s unclear if he did.

Apple alerted the FBI of its findings in May, and the agency obtained a search warrant for Zhang’s home. The FBI searched his home on June 27, according to the filing, and he admitted to the same things he told Apple when the FBI interviewed him that same day.

On July 7, the FBI learned that Zhang bought a round trip ticket from San Jose, California to Beijing. Federal agents arrested Zhang after passing through a security checkpoint at San Jose International Airport.

Magic Leap signs AT&T as sole US wireless vendor, receives undisclosed investment; AT&T CEO John Donovan gains observer rights

Magic Leap, the startup responsible for the Magic Leap One augmented reality platform, has selected AT&T as its exclusive wireless distributor for US consumers ahead of the device’s initial release this year. AT&T is also investing an undisclosed amount in Magic Leap, with AT&T CEO John Donovan gaining observer rights on Magic Leap’s board.

Donovan hinted that the partnership will leverage AT&T’s upcoming 5G network.

“AT&T is excited to pair our pioneering technologies, unmatched network, content platform, and vast customer ecosystem with Magic Leap’s efforts to build the next generation of computing. We’re designing and offering the future of entertainment and connectivity, and this exclusive arrangement – in combination with our 5G leadership position – will open up new opportunities and experiences.

John Donovan, AT&T CEO

AT&T’s deal is a vote of confidence in Magic Leap’s provider, with the telecom company leveraging “Magic Leap’s focus on transformational technology and products” with its own network and stores “to usher in a new kind of contextually aware, intelligent, human-computer interactivity.”

“We’ve joined with AT&T because we believe in a combined vision of expanding high-speed networks, edge computing, and deep integration with creative content. Coupling the strength of the evolving AT&T network with Magic Leap’s spatial computing platform can transform computing experiences for people.”

Rony Abovitz, Magic Leap CEO

DOJ settles with 3D printable gun inventor Cody Wilson, five years after take down order

Cody Wilson, the gunmaker and free speech advocate at the center of a multi-year legal battle over the ability to distribute computer models of gun parts and replicate them in 3D printers, has won his battle against government authorities that sought to prevent the practice. Wilson now intends to expand his operations and provide printable gun blueprints to all who desire them.

In the settlement, the US government agrees to exempt “the technical data that is the subject of the Action” from legal restriction. The modified rules should appear soon in the Federal Register. This means that a 3D model that can be used to print the components of a working firearm is legal to own and legal to distribute – you just can’t sell it.

Wilson’s original vision is DEFCAD, a repository of gun models on the web.

“I currently have no national legal barriers to continue or expand DEFCAD. The legal victory is the formal beginning to the era of downloadable guns. Guns are as downloadable as music. There will be streaming services for semi-automatics.”

Cody Wilson, DEFCAD creator

Sonos rolling out AirPlay 2 support to newest speakers

Any app on your iOS device can now be streamed directly to Sonos’ Beam, One, Playbase, and the second generation Play:5 speakers with AirPlay 2.

Siri is also on board with extensive voice control support. You can ask what room or devices you want songs to play on, along with asking Siri to play songs on Apple Music.

Loon & Wing graduate into full companies under Alphabet corporate umbrella

Google parent company Alphabet’s internet-delivering balloon service Loon and drone delivery project Wing have graduated from the X moonshot incubator to become fully fledged subsidiaries of Alphabet.

According to Alphabet, Loon will maintain its mission of working with carriers worldwide to deliver internet to underserved areas. Wing will also continue building out its network of delivery drones along with its air-traffic control system.

Alastair Westgarth will serve as Loon’s CEO while James Ryan Burgess will fill the same role at Wing.

According to Alphabet, the next steps for each company are best done outside the X Lab’s “prototyping-focused environment” and in the real world. Meanwhile, the X Lab now has more resources to focus on new moonshots along with existing ones like Google Glass and its numerous robotics projects.

Opera testing built-in crypto wallet in Android browser, available in private beta

Opera is testing Opera Crypto, a browser-based cryptocurrency wallet for smartphones in a private beta for the Opera browser for Android.

“Having a Crypto Wallet in the browser brings the cash experience to the world of online payments. Paying with the Crypto Wallet is like sending digital cash straight from your phone, and we’ve just made it easier.”

Charles Hamel; Opera Crypto product lead, in a press release

The feature supports tokens along with popular crypto-collectibles like CryptoKitties.

According to Opera, the problem with most cryptocurrency wallets is that they aren’t very user-friendly. Most require users to install browser extensions or generate lengthy, complicated passphrases. To compare, Opera Crypto doesn’t need an extension or a separate app, and it secures the wallet’s contents with Android’s system lock.

“This opens up new possibilities for merchants and content creators alike.”

Charles Hamel

Sending and receiving cryptocurrency can be done by tapping a QR code-generating button. Because of an integration with digital currency exchange Coinbase, users can pay for goods in supported online stores (like the Opera Crypto Store) directly from Crypto Wallet.

“Having a Crypto Wallet in the browser brings the cash experience to the world of online payments. Paying with the Crypto Wallet is like sending digital cash straight from your phone, and we’ve just made it easier. This opens up new possibilities for merchants and content creators alike.”

Charles Hamel

There’s also a shortcut to a showcase of decentralized apps leveraging the Ethereum network, like racing game Crypto Racing League and cryptocurrency-branded merchandise market CryptoGoods.

Pony.ai raises $102 million to deploy self-driving cars in Beijing

Autonomous car startup Pony.ai has raised $102 million from lead investors ClearVue Partners and Fidelity International’s investment arm Eight Roads, putting it closer to a billion-dollar valuation. It also secured a permit from the Chinese government to test autonomous vehicles in Beijing, becoming one of the first companies to have that distinction.

Other new investors participating in Pony.ai’s latest funding round include Green Pine Capital Partners, China Merchants Capital, Redpoint Ventures China, and Delong Capital, along with existing investors Sequoia Capital China, Morningside Ventures, DCM Ventures, and Hongtai Capital. The company has raised $214 million to date.

According to CEO James Peng, Pony.ai will use the cash to support existing and new partnerships, grow its team, and “accelerate expansion into low and medium volume [vehicle] deployment.”

“We are very honored to welcome our new investors to the team and to continue partnering closely with our existing investors. I truly believe the next major challenge for autonomous cars will be small- and medium-scale deployment – this is an absolutely critical step to validating the system’s overall stability and reliability. We are grateful for the new and continued support in helping us to achieve this future.”

James Peng, Pony.ai CEO

In other news…

VR content studio Penrose Studios has closed a $10 million Series A funding round led by TransLink Capital. Marc Benioff, Will.i.am, Korea Telecom, and Co-Made also participated in the round with returning investment from Sway Ventures, 8VC, and Suffolk Equity.

India’s Telecommunications Commission has approved new net neutrality-like protections that bans ISPs from performing actions involving “blocking, degrading, slowing down, or granting preferential speeds or treatment to any content.”

Activision Blizzard has inked a deal with Disney to broadcast the Overwatch League playoffs on ESPN and Disney XD, marking the first time live e-sports will air on ESPN in primetime as well as ever on ABC.

Epic Games has unveiled a Summer Skirmish series for Fortnite that will hand out $8 million in prizes across eight weeks of competition, starting with a $250,000 Duos bout this weekend.

Martin Tripp, a former Tesla employee that was fired and then sued by the electric vehicle maker, has filed a formal whistleblower tip to the US’ Securities and Exchange Commission alleging that the company misled investors and put its customers at risk.

The Download: Samsung profits plateau

This is The Download, a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

Samsung forecasts $13.2B operating profit in Q2, breaking quarterly record streak

Samsung has released earnings guidance of $13.2 billion in operating profit off $51.8 billion in revenue for Q2, which would represent a 0.7 percent decline in sales and an 11 percent increase in profit year on year. This would end a year-long…

The Download: Lyft buys Citi Bike

This is The Download, a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

Lyft buying core operations of Citi Bike parent company Motivate

Lyft has acquired Motivate, the bike-sharing company behind New York City’s Citi Bike program and Ford’s GoBike program in San Francisco.

Motivate, which accounts for roughly 80 percent of bike-share trips in the US according to Lyft, also operates networks in…

The Download: Apple rebuilds its Maps

This is The Download, a weekday recap of the top technology headlines.

Apple rebuilding Maps from the ground up with its own data

Apple is planning to introduce overhauled mapping data in the US over the next year using information gathered by Apple themselves, according to a feature from TechCrunch that delivers a behind-the-scenes look at the project.

The new data will begin rolling out in the…

All four major US carriers pledge to stop selling customers’ location data to brokers

AT&T, Verizon, T-Mobile, and Sprint announced today that they will end its practice of selling real-time user location data to third-party brokers.

Verizon started the train this morning, stating in a letter to US Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) that it will cancel its aggregation agreements with LocationSmart and Zumigo in “careful steps” to not disrupt “beneficial services being provided using customer location data” like fraud protection and call routing services.

“Verizon will work with the aggregators to ensure a smooth transition for these beneficial services to alternative arrangements so as to minimize the harm caused to customers and end users. In the interim, Verizon will not authorize any new uses of location information by either LocationSmart or Zumigo or the sharing of location information with any new customers of these existing aggregators.”

Karen Zacharia; Verizon chief privacy officer, in a letter to Sen. Wyden

AT&T quickly followed with a statement.

“Our top priority is to protect our customers’ information, and, to that end, we will be ending our work with aggregators for these services as soon as practical in a way that preserves important, potential lifesaving services like emergency roadside assistance.”

AT&T, in a statement

The company’s executive vice president of federal relations Timothy McKone followed up in a letter to Wyden, saying that AT&T “never authorized” the use of its customer data from Securus Technologies, a company that mainly monitors phone calls to inmates in jails and prisons nationwide and sells real-time location data to law enforcement agencies.

“We are actively investigating the extent to which Securus may have obtained unauthorized access to AT&T customer location data, and we are pressing Securus to provide greater cooperation than they have to this point.”

Timothy McKone; AT&T executive vice president of federal relations, to Sen. Wyden

Late this afternoon, we received word of statements from Sprint and T-Mobile respectively that announced the end of their contracts.

“Protecting our customers’ privacy and security is a top security at Sprint. Based on our current internal review, Sprint is beginning the process of terminating its current contracts with data aggregators to whom we provide location data. This will take some time in order to unwind services to consumers, such as roadside assistance and fraud prevention services. Sprint previously suspended all data sharing with LocationSmart on May 25, 2018. We are taking this further step to ensure that any instances of unauthorized location data sharing for purposes not approved by Sprint can be identified and prevented if location data is shared inappropriately by a participating company.”

A Sprint spokesperson

T-Mobile said that they didn’t approve Securus’ use of customer location information and “quickly shut down any transmission of our customers’ location data to Securus.”

“T-Mobile takes the privacy and security of our customers’ data very seriously and we do not tolerate any misuse of our customers’ data. We, therefore, were troubled to read the allegations in your letter and subsequent press coverage regarding Securus’ alleged misuse of customer location information without customer consent. The use described in your letter was never approved by T-Mobile and we quickly shut down any transmission of our customers’ location data to Securus. We have also reviewed the program more broadly and, while we believe the program has appropriate controls already in place, we are working with our location aggregators and will be taking additional steps to help ensure that an incident like this one does not happen in the future.”

Anthony Russo; T-Mobile vice president of federal legislative affairs, in a letter to Sen. Wyden

This comes after Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) revealed that one of the companies that purchased the real-time location-tracking data from carriers wasn’t verifying if its users had legal permission to track cellphone users through its service.

In a letter to carriers and the Federal Communications Commission, Sen. Wyden said that Securus wasn’t actually verifying if those documents were legitimate.

According to Wyden’s letter to the FCC, Securus didn’t “conduct any review of surveillance requests.”

According to the New York Times, a Missouri sheriff was charged with illegally tracking 11 times without court orders using Securus. While all four major carriers have now cut off access to Securus, only Verizon has said it will stop selling data to geolocation aggregators who can then turn around and sell that data to someone else. According to Verizon, 75 companies obtained data from the two companies it sells location data directly to: LocationSmart and Zumigo.

Wyden praised Verizon in a statement to the Associated Press made before AT&T’s announcement:

“Verizon did the responsible thing and promptly announced it was cutting these companies off. In contrast, AT&T, T-Mobile, and Sprint seem content to keep selling their customers’ private information to these shady middle men, Americans’ privacy be damned.”

Ron Wyden; US Senator (D-OR), to the Associated Press

Facebook launches game-show platform that lets creators add quizzes, polls, more to live and on-demand video

Facebook has announced a new set of interactive and on-demand video features that let creators add quizzes, polls, challenges, and gamification so players can be eliminated from a game for a wrong answer.

Gameshow launch partners include Fresno’s What’s In The Box, where viewers guess what’s inside, and BuzzFeed News’ Outside Your Bubble, where contestants have to guess what their opponents are thinking. Facebook is also testing the ability of awarding price money with INSIDER’s Confetti, where viewers answer trivia questions and can see friends’ responses, with winners splitting the cash.

“Video is evolving away from just passive consumption to more interactive two-way formats. We think creators will want to reward people. If this is something that works with Insider and Confetti, we may consider rolling out payments tools.”

Fidji Simo; Facebook VP of video product, to TechCrunch

Facebook won’t be taking a share of the prize money in this test, and is forgoing its cut of the $4.99/month subscription option that lets fans pay for exclusive content.

The new interactive video features will be available to all publishers and creators, alongside the global launch of the Android version of Facebook’s Creator app for web celebrities. The tools range from offering basic in-video polls to creating a full trivia gameshow. Creators can write out their trivia questions and designate correct answers, according to Simo, as well as “write down the logic of the game.”

While polls will work for Live and on-demand videos, gamification that impacts the outcome of the broadcast is only for Live. Brent Rivera and That Chick Angel are two of the creators that will be testing the features in the coming weeks.

Google Podcasts launches on Android with personalized recommendations, listening progress auto-sync

Google is launching a new standalone podcast for Android. Called Google Podcasts, the app will use the company’s recommendation algorithms to connect people with shows they might enjoy based on their listening habits. Despite podcasts previously being available through Google Play Music and third-party apps, Google expects that the app will bring the form to hundreds of millions of new listeners around the world.

“There’s still tons of room for growth when it comes to podcast listening.”

Zack Reneau-Weeden, Google Podcasts product manager

According to Reneau-Wedeen, creating a native first-party Android app for Podcasts could “as much as double” the worldwide listenership of podcasts overall.

Google Podcasts will look familiar to users of other podcast apps. It lets you search for new shows, download them, and play them at your leisure. Over two million podcasts will be available on the app on launch day, according to Google, including “all of the ones you’ve heard of.”

Once you open the app, you’re greeted by the “For you” section that shows you new episodes of shows that you’ve subscribed to, episodes you’ve been listening to but haven’t finished, and a list of your downloaded episodes. Scroll down to see top and trending podcasts, both in general and by category. However, you lose some granular controls like customizing the skip buttons or create playlists of podcasts to listen to.

The Podcasts app is integrated with Google Assistant, meaning you can search for and play podcasts wherever you have Assistant enabled. The company will sync your place in a podcast across products, so you can pick up where you left off at home on Google Home after listening on the go with the Android app.

Over the coming months, Google plans to add a suite of features powered by artificial intelligence. One feature will add closed captioning to podcasts, so you can read along as you listen and skip ahead to see what’s coming up later in a show. Eventually, you’ll be able to read real-time transcriptions in the language of your choice, opening podcasts hosted by people that don’t share your native tongue.

Google also wants to increase the diversity of podcast creators. According to the company’s research, only a quarter of podcast hosts are female and even fewer are people of color. To rectify this, Google has formed an independent advisory board that will consider ways to promote podcast production outside of the metropolitan areas that currently dominate the field.

Creators won’t be paid by Google to create podcasts, but the company said that it’ll likely explore ways of giving podcasts from underrepresented groups extra promotion. It’s also exploring ways to make recording equipment more accessible to those that can’t afford it.

If you currently listen to podcasts on Google Play Music, nothing changes for now. However, Google is clearly doubling down on this standalone app.

The Android app can be downloaded here, and there are no plans for an iOS app.

Facebook testing autoplay video ads in Messenger

Facebook has begun to sell video ads inside Messenger, where some users will start seeing autoplay video ads in their inbox right next to their messages.

Head of Messenger’s ad business Stefanos Loukakos says that Facebook will monitor user behavior to see how they respond to the ads.

“Top priority for us is user experience. So, we don’t know yet [if these will work]. However, signs until now, when we tested basic ads, didn’t show any changes with how people used the platform or how many messages they send.

“Video might be a bit different, but we don’t believe so.”

Stefanos Loukakos, Facebook Messenger ad business head

Amazon is rolling out Alexa for Hospitality for hotels that help order room service, request housekeeping, & more

Amazon has introduced Alexa for Hospitality, a special edition of the company’s voice assistant that will be distributed on an invitation basis to hotels, vacation rental spaces, and other locations starting today.

The Alexa experience will be customized and tailored to each individual hospitality location, so guests will be able to do things like order room service, request a housekeeping visit, or adjust room controls (thermostat, blinds, lights, etc.) using an Echo in their room. They can also ask location-specific questions such as when the hotel pool closes or where the fitness center is.

Marriott International plans to integrate the system at select Marriott Hotels, Westin Hotels & Resorts, St. Regis Hotels & Resorts, Aloft Hotels, and Autograph Collection Hotels starting this summer.

Alexa command recordings are deleted daily, and hotels don’t have access to voice recordings of Alexa interactions or the ability to review the assistant’s responses to users.

Hotels can use Alexa for Hospitality to “measure engagement through analytics” or “customize the deployment” by choosing custom skills to their Echo devices. Amazon’s example of the latter is Marriott offering TED Talks on its Echo devices.

According to Amazon, users will soon be able to temporarily link their own account with Echos that are running Alexa for Hospitality so you’ll have access to your music subscription from Amazon Music or Spotify or Audible audiobooks. The Amazon account is automatically disconnected when a guest checks out.

Over 500K residents have access to Amazon’s Hub package delivery lockers as more roll out nationwide

Amazon has released some updated figures on its Hub delivery lockers for apartments.

The program launched last July and places a large metal locker unit in an apartment complex’s common area where people can pick up their packages 24 hours a day.

According to Amazon, over 500,000 residents nationwide now have access to Hub, with thousands more getting access each month. It said that some of the biggest names in real estate have signed up to use Hub, including AvalonBay, Fairfield Residential, Pinnacle, J.P. Morgan Asset Management, WinnResidential, and Equity Residential.

Oppo announces Find X with 6.4-inch display, front and rear cameras housed in slide-up section above display

Oppo’s latest attempt at squeezing as much screen as possible is the Find X, which fits a 6.4-inch display into a phone that you can still hold in one hand. The company claims that the Find X has a screen to body ratio of 93.8 percent without utilizing a notch.

The camera system is the most interesting aspect of the Find X’s hardware, which is completely hidden when the phone is off or the camera app is closed. When the Find X is turned on and the camera app is opened, the entire top section of the phone motorizes up and reveals a 25-megapixel front-facing camera, 3D facial scanning system, along with a 16-megapixel and 20-megapixel dual rear camera system. Close the camera app and the entire assembly motors back into the phone’s chassis. According to Oppo, the camera can open in half a second.

Otherwise, the Find X looks very similar to a Samsung Galaxy S9 Plus with its curved sides and rounded corners. Its display is an OLED panel with 1080p resolution, and both the front and back of the phone feature curved glass.

The Find X doesn’t have any sort of fingerprint sensor, instead using a 3D facial scanner in the pop-up camera assembly for biometric authentication. Turning the phone on and swiping up on the lock screen will cause the top of the phone to motor up, authenticate your face, and unlock the phone.

Spec-wise, the Find X stacks up well with other high-end Android phones in mid-2018 with the Qualcomm Snapdragon 845 processor, 8GB of RAM, and offers up to 256GB of storage. It has a 3,730mAh battery with Oppo’s VOOC fast wired charging that’s like OnePlus’ Dash Charge technology. The Find X is a dual-SIM phone that’s also globally compatible.

Global LTE compatibility is important because this will be Oppo’s first phone sold in North America and Europe. Specific pricing and carrier information is coming soon for North America and Europe.

In terms of software, the Find X is running Android 8.1 Oreo with Oppo’s Color OS customizations. Color OS takes some inspiration from iOS and Samsung’s Android skin.

The Find X is available now in China starting today, costing less than other comparably equipped Android smartphones.

Yahoo updates Yahoo Mail for mobile web, releases Android Go app

Yahoo has announced two new versions of Yahoo Mail, optimized for mobile web and an Android Go app.

It comes at a time when Yahoo Mail has stagnated in its growth, with the company now having 227.8 million monthly active users with 26 billion emails sent daily. That’s about two million more than it had a year ago. It’s also miniscule compared to Gmail, which reported 1.4 billion users in April.

Specifically, for the mobile web service, Yahoo’s hoping to ease people into using Yahoo Mail more regularly.

“We’ve heard loud and clear from users that they’ve not always ready to make the big leap to downloading an app that takes up any storage space on their phone. People with high-capacity phones may want to save that space for photos or videos, while others with entry-level smartphones may just have limited space from the get-go. Further, some folks share devices or borrow a family member’s to access their email. This is all especially true in developing markets.”

Joshua Johnson, Yahoo Mail senior director of product management

Meanwhile on Android Go, Yahoo Mail will take up only about 10 megabytes of space to install, and is optimized to reduce RAM usage if your device is below 50MB.

Peek raises $23M Series B, partners with Google in push to digitize travel activities

Peek, a San Francisco-based startup that aims to digitize the travel activities industry, has pulled a $23 million Series B funding round and a partnership with Google to help expand its visibility.

The company aims to make booking activities as seamless and straightforward as a flight or restaurant.

Peek’s partnership with Google will see its inventory added to Google Search, Google Maps, and Google Trips.

Peek claims to offer 10,000 experiences in the US and Mexico, along with tourist hotspots like Paris and London. It has 500,000 reviews and ratings, each of which is verified since users can only leave them if they’ve boked, paid for, and completed their activity.

“Part of this round is allowing ourselves to go out and reach more businesses.”

Ruzwana Bashir, Peek co-founder

Anchor brings suite of mobile podcasting tools to iPad

Podcast creation platform Anchor is bringing its suite of mobile podcasting tools to the iPad. Like its iPhone counterpart, the iPad version lets you record, edit, and distribute your podcast everywhere, including to iTunes and Google Play Music. The app’s designed with touch-based editing in mind, specifically taking advantage of iPad features like drag-and-drop and multitasking.

The app lets you opt to use a standalone microphone that you plug into your iPad’s Lightning port either natively or with a Lightning-to-USB adapter.

You can also upload or drag and drop audio files from other apps into Anchor’s episode builder. For example, you could pull in music from GarageBand, add a voice memo, or import other audio files saved in a cloud storage site like Dropbox.

The app also supports multitasking, so you can keep notes open as you record.

As mentioned, you can directly edit the audio files on the iPad with touch-based controls. These controls let you trim the beginning and end of your podcast, so you can cut out false starts or other chatter. You can also split audio clips to insert transitions, voice messages, music, or other audio.

The clips can then be moved around or deleted as you put your podcast together.

Waymo, Uber, Ford, others form Partnership for Transportation Innovation and Opportunity to explore self-driving cars’ impact on human jobs

Third generation Bolt EV self-driving test vehicle

The companies working to expedite the growth of self-driving cars have joined forces to form a new group that will study the “human impact” of autonomous vehicles.

The Partnership for Transportation Innovation and Opportunity (PTIO) lists many of the companies involved in this industry as members. This includes legacy automakers like Ford, Toyota, and Daimler; tech giants like Waymo, Uber, and Lyft; and logistics providers like FedEx and the American Trucking Association. The group is being formed as a 501(c)(6), which lets it accept donations like a nonprofit and lobby government like a chamber of commerce.

“Concern for the safety of workers and the public is paramount to PTIO, and safe deployment of [autonomous vehicle] technology is fundamental to securing better job opportunities for workers, so we plan to engage with a variety of concerned stakeholders already having conversations and planning for this transition to an autonomous vehicle future.”

Maureen Westphal; Partnership for Transportation Innovation and Opportunity executive director, in an email to The Verge

According to the United States’ Bureau of Labor Statistics, over 3.8 million people operate motor vehicles for their livelihood. That includes America’s 1.7 million truck drivers, which are employed in the most common profession for 29 US states. When autonomous vehicle saturation peaks, a report released last year from Goldman Sachs Economics Research claims that US drivers could see job losses at a rate of 25,000 a hour.

In the group’s first six months, the PTIO will “begin to develop a well-rounded and data-based understanding of the impact and implications of autonomous vehicles on the future of work, solicit the expertise, concerns, and aspirations of a variety of interested parties, and begin to foster awareness of existing and near-term career opportunities for workers during the transition to a new autonomous vehicle-enabled economy.”

This isn’t the only group invested in the autonomous driving space. In 2016, Ford, Google, Uber, Lyft, and Volvo formed the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets, a lobbying group with the goal of advocating for autonomous driving.

“While the Self-Driving Coalition for Safer Streets is doing very important work on issues related to autonomous vehicle safety and implementation, the Partnership for Transportation Innovation and Opportunity believes that while society prepares for the practical impact of autonomous vehicles, we must also focus our efforts on the human impact as it relates to Americans’ careers and jobs.”

Maureen Westphal

These companies have a vested interest in selling autonomous driving technology to a skeptical public, so the question should be raised of what level of independence will the group have from the financial motivations of its corporate backers.

“Part of PTIO’s mission is to promote debate on these issues. Our hope is that in doing so we will bring consensus around some proactive policies and initiatives that help ensure everyone benefits from these technological innovations. At the same time, we realize by promoting debate we may generate conversations that are uncomfortable for some stakeholders, including our members.”

Maureen Westphal

Musk memo alleges employee sabotaged Tesla

Tesla CEO Elon Musk sent a memo to his entire company saying that an employee was caught conducting “damaging sabotage to our operations,” according to CNBC, which obtained the email. The employee allegedly made “direct code changes” to Tesla’s manufacturing system and sent “large amounts of highly sensitive” data to third parties.

The employee has already been questioned by Tesla, and Musk says they’re continuing to investigate whether he/she was working with others. In the email, Musk questions whether “Wall Street short-sellers,” “oil & gas companies,” or “the multitude of big gas/diesel car company competitors” may have been involved.

“If they’re willing to cheat so much about emissions, maybe they’re willing to cheat in other ways?”

Elon Musk; Tesla CEO, in a memo to employees

According to Musk, the employee claims to have acted because he didn’t get a promotion.

“In light of these actions, not promoting him was definitely the right move.”

Elon Musk

Later, a second memo was sent from Musk alerting the entire company to a “small fire” on a production line, according to CNBC. There were no injuries, according to the email, but production was stopped for several hours.

“Could just be a random event, but as [former Intel CEO] Andy Grove said, ‘Only the paranoid survive.’ Please be on the alert for anything that’s not in the best interests of our company.”

Elon Musk

Employees were asked to be “extremely vigilant” over the next few weeks as Model 3 production ramps up.

“This is when outside forces have the strongest motivation to stop us.”

Elon Musk

In other news…

The Federal Court of Australia has announced its order for Apple to pay $6.6 million for telling customers that encountered the Error 53 bug which bricked iOS devices that they weren’t entitled to a refund.

Microsoft has launched a redesigned Microsoft News app for iOS and Android devices that includes a dark theme, integration with iOS and Android widgets, configurable breaking news alerts, and personalization tools that lets users follow topics like World News, Fitness, Personal Finance, and more.

AMC Theaters will launch Stubs A-List, a monthly subscription service that will let people see three movies per week for $19.95 per month starting June 26. A press release from AMC notes that this include IMAX, Dolby Cinema, and 3D features and tickets can be bought day-of or in advance with the AMC website or mobile app.

Amazon, Berkshire Hathaway, and JPMorgan Chase have that Dr. Atul Gawande will be the first CEO for the companies’ employee healthcare joint venture.

Amazon Prime Wardrobe, the company’s “try before you buy” shopping service, has launched to all US Prime members today.

The Downlooad: Twitter has a scoop

This is The Download, a daily recap of the top technology headlines.

Twitter will begin curating dedicated event pages that are promoted across notifications, Explore, more

Twitter wants to make it easier for you to see the latest about events and topics you care about through push notifications that will be sent to your phone based on your interests, including who you follow and what you tweet…

The Download: HomePod, now in stereo!

This is The Download, a daily recap of the top technology headlines.

Apple adds stereo pairing to HomePod, AirPlay 2 as part of iOS 11.4 update

iOS 11.4 has launched with two notable new features: AirPlay 2 and messages in iCloud. AirPlay 2 brings multiroom support so multiple AirPlay 2 compatible devices from a variety of manufacturers can all play the same music around your house. Separately,…