Facebook said it doesn’t market certain data; surprise, surprise, researchers prove they do, Amazon doesn’t love unions, is the Oculus Quest VR’s iPhone moment, and do ride sharing companies actually make money? Links: Facebook Is Giving Advertisers Access to Your Shadow Contact Information (Gizmodo) Amazon's Aggressive Anti-Union Tactics Revealed in Leaked 45-Minute Video (Gizmodo) Teen Apple Hacker Avoids Jail in Australia After Serious Attacks (Bloomberg) Payment Startup Stripe Is Now a $20 Billion Company (Bloomberg) Masayoshi Son, SoftBank, and the $100 Billion Blitz on Sand Hill Road (Bloomberg Businessweek) Lyft Shows Financial Improvement Ahead of IPO Filing (The Information)

More fallout from the Instagram departures and some pretty dirty laundry aired from inside Facebook, Google reverses course on Chrome, Coinbase opens its doors to alts, and maybe I was right about Amazon Homes! Links: Exclusive: WhatsApp Cofounder Brian Acton Gives The Inside Story On #DeleteFacebook And Why He Left $850 Million Behind (Forbes) Facebook’s Messing With Instagram Prompted Co-Founders’ Departure (WSJ) Product updates based on your feedback (The Google Chrome Blog) The Temptation of Apple News (Slate) Coinbase will add cryptocurrencies more rapidly, with ratings and reviews (Yahoo Finance) One third of ICOs launched in the past two years aren’t listed anywhere (TNW) Amazon Comes Up With Another Way to Get Alexa Into Your Home (Bloomberg)

Instagram’s founders turn in their two weeks notice, Samsung accuses Apple of stealing, lots of changes coming to Google Search, and a “Netflix for open source.”  Links: Why Instagram's founders are resigning: independence from Facebook weakened (TechCrunch) Facebook’s Terrible Year Hits a New Low (Bloomberg Opinion) Qualcomm accuses Apple of stealing chip secrets and giving them to Intel (CNBC) Google CEO Sundar Pichai to Meet With Top GOP Lawmakers (WSJ) Google's new activity cards will save your previous searches (Engadget) 'NETFLIX FOR OPEN SOURCE' WANTS DEVELOPERS TO GET PAID (Wired) macOS 10.14 Mojave: The Ars Technica review (Ars Technica)

Office 2019 is here, SiriusXM acquires Pandora, the Chrome browser login controversy, more missed revenue numbers in digital media and Eric Schmidt says there could someday be the regular internet and a separate, Chinese internet. Links: SiriusXM to buy Pandora in all-stock deal valued at $3.5 billion (CNBC) Why I’m done with Chrome (Matthew Green) Uber drivers and other gig economy workers are earning half what they did five years ago (Recode) Vox Media On Pace to Miss Revenue Target as Digital Advertising Disappoints (WSJ) Amazon: Retailers Gonna Retail (Steven Sinofsky) Former Google CEO predicts the internet will split in two — and one part will be led by China (CNBC)

More fallout from that monster Alexa event yesterday, Facebook is gonna take another swing at Portal, Instagram wants to cut down on #hashtagoverload, Gmail was too willing to say “I love you,” and the Weekend Longreads Suggestions.Sponsors:Ude.my/techTiny.websiteLinks:AMAZON...

Amazon announced Alexa for friggin everything, AmazonGos might soon be friggin everywhere, a life insurer will only sell you a policy if you own a smartwatch, and they’ve finally found Spock’s home planet of Vulcan.  Links: Amazon Will Consider Opening Up to 3,000 Cashierless Stores by 2021 (Bloomberg) Strap on the Fitbit: John Hancock to sell only interactive life insurance (Reuters) Life Insurance Offering More Incentive to Live Longer (NYTimes) ESPN's new streaming service passes 1 million paid subscribers in five months (CNBC) Google, Facebook Lead Digital’s March to Half of U.S. Ad Market (Bloomberg) Spock’s planet ‘Vulcan’ found years after Star Trek prediction (SlashGear)

Amazon’s ad business is already huge, there’s a new retro Playstation console, Evernote is in our prayers, HQ is moving beyond trivia with a new game and a roundup of the Apple Watch Series 4 reviews. Links: The ACLU Is Charging Facebook With Gender Discrimination In Its Ta...

A reported criminal investigation around Elon Musk’s tweets, Twitter brings back the chronological feed, Alexa for microwaves, and a wrap up of the iPhone XS and XS Max reviews. Links:Tesla Is Facing U.S. Criminal Probe Over Elon Musk Statements (Bloomberg)The Tweet that got Twitter to bring back the chrono-feed (@EmmaKinema)Amazon plans to release at least 8 new Alexa-powered devices, including a microwave, an amplifier, and an in-car gadget (CNBC)Trump Hits China With Tariffs on $200 Billion in Goods, Escalating Trade War (NYTimes)APPLE IPHONE XS AND XS MAX REVIEW: SMOOTHED OUT (The Verge)

Another Billionaire bails out a major media brand, social network Path is no more, Amazon employees are allegedly taking bribes, Linus Torvalds apologizes for being a jerk, and Steve Jobs had a weird notion about what actually constitutes pizza. Stories from: @cgartenberg Tweets: @laura_nelson, @BuzzFeedBen Links:Are there any other billionaires out there to buy Fortune or Sports Illustrated? (Recode)Mobile social network Path, once a challenger to Facebook, is closing down (TechCrunch)Here are over 150 new features and changes in iOS 12 for iPhone and iPad (Apple Insider)Amazon Investigates Employees Leaking Data for Bribes (WSJ)Amazon Storefronts is a new retail hub exclusively for US small businesses (The Verge)Linus Torvalds apologizes for years of being a jerk, takes time off to learn empathy (Ars Technica)AN ORAL HISTORY OF APPLE'S INFINITE LOOP (Wired)

Literally, what the f*** is up with Tesla? With the Rob Maurer of the Tesla Daily podcast. Subscribe!

More signs of drama inside Google, how Apple cleared the new Apple Watches through the FDA, how the Weather Channel made that insane flooding video, and the weekend longreads suggestions. Links:Google Employees Are Quitting Over The Company’s Secretive China Search Project (B...

The fallout from the Apple event, Google kills another beloved product, the Nintendo Switch online service comes online, and where in the World is Larry Page? Links:The iPhone Franchise (Stratechery)Making sense of the most confusing new iPhone lineup ever (Fast Company)Inbox, Google’s playground for email innovation, is going bye-bye (Fact Company)The Nintendo Switch online service is launching on September 18th (The Verge)How Procore Built The Cloud’s Hottest Unicorn By Bringing Software To Low-Tech Construction Sites (Forbes)Where in the World Is Larry Page? (Bloomberg Businessweek)

What else? The iPhone event. Also, the EU strikes again, the T-Mobile/Sprint merger is on “pause” and "Gawker" is coming back.  Links:EU approves controversial Copyright Directive, including internet ‘link tax’ and ‘upload filter’ (The Verge)European Parliament Passes Copyright Directive Giving Artists Greater Share of Revenue (Variety)FCC says it needs more time to review Sprint-T-Mobile deal (CNBC)Verizon to begin 5G home broadband service sign-ups on Thursday (Axios)Gawker Set to Relaunch Under New Owner Bryan Goldberg (EXCLUSIVE) (Variety)

ICOs now officially securities, some steps backward in the self-driving car space, parsing the Zuckerberg New Yorker profile, and did Facebook disrespect the memory of Burt Reynolds?  Stories from: @eosnos Tweets: @ezraklein, @BrendanNyhan Links:US Judge Rules ICO Frauds Fall Under Securities Law (CoinDesk)Renesas in $6.7 billion deal for IDT to boost chips for self-driving cars (Reuters)GM's Plan to Test Autonomous Cars in New York City Seems to Have Gone up in Smoke (Jalopnik)How to prepare your iPhone for a trade-in program (The Verge)Can Mark Zuckerberg Fix Facebook Before It Breaks Democracy? (The New Yorker)Facebook Apologizes For Taking Down Your Horny Burt Reynolds Posts (Vulture)

Some juicy new Apple rumors for Wednesday, the end of the Jack Ma era is nigh upon us, there were some naughty apps in the Mac App Store and why following people whose politics you disagree with might not lead to peace in our time. Links:Kuo: USB-C on 2018 iPad Pro, Touch ID on 2018 MacBook, EKG and Ceramic Backs on All Apple Watch Series 4 Models, More (MacRumors)Snap just lost its chief strategy officer (Fast Company)Alibaba announces Jack Ma succession plan: CEO Daniel Zhang to take over as chairman in a year (CNBC)Additional Mac App Store apps caught stealing and uploading browser history (9to5Mac)No. 1 paid utility in Mac App Store steals browser history, sends it to Chinese server (9to5Mac)Twitter’s Flawed Solution to Political Polarization (NYTimes Opinion)Can Mark Zuckerberg Fix Facebook Before It Breaks Democracy? (The New Yorker)

Tim Armstrong might be on his way out of Oath, Alex Jones is permanently off of Twitter, a Cambridge Analytica figure is officially no longer a Facebook employee, Elon Musk smokes a blunt and the weekend longreads suggestions! Links:Verizon’s Internet Boss Tim Armstrong in Ta...

The 2014 Sony hacker gets charged, Lyft beats Uber to the scooter punch, why Roblox is the biggest thing since Minecraft, Spotify plays chicken with the music industry, and let’s play another round of Apple event rumor bingo. Links:U.S. charges North Korean operative in consp...

Tech CEOs hauled before Congress again, Theranos is no more, Google mulls big changes to URL’s and maybe the whole the-teens-are-abandoning-Facebook is a real thing after all? Links:Video of the Hearings (The US Senate)Facebook and Twitter testified before Congress. Conservative conspiracy theorists lurked behind them. (The Washington Post)Blood-Testing Firm Theranos to Dissolve (WSJ)HOW GOOGLE CHROME SPENT A DECADE MAKING THE WEB MORE SECURE (Wired)GOOGLE WANTS TO KILL THE URL (Wired)Americans are changing their relationship with Facebook (PEW Research)Instagram is building a standalone app for shopping (The Verge)Snap launches new styles of Spectacles that look more like traditional sunglasses (The Verge)Vimeo pivots business from media to tech (Axios)Vimeo launches stock video marketplace starting at $79 per clip (Venture Beat)

Amazon hits a trillion, the EU is giving Netflix quotas, gaming out various Apple rumors ahead of next week’s event and the robots are coming to the drive through window. LinksAmazon falls off $1 trillion market cap, leaving Apple the only public US company above the benchmark (Bloomberg)Local Product Quotas for Netflix, Amazon to Become Law, EU Official Says (EXCLUSIVE) (Variety)Ethereum in BigQuery: a Public Dataset for smart contract analytics (Google Cloud)Major cryptocurrency exchange delists Bitcoin Gold following $18M hack (TNW)2018 iPad Pro redesign is both brilliant and stupid (Cult of Mac)Samsung teases foldable smartphone launch for later this year (The Verge)China's Silicon Valley Threatens to Swallow Up Hong Kong (Bloomberg)Clinc is building a voice AI system to replace humans in drive-through restaurants (TechCrunch)

How those iPhone leaks happened (maybe), the scooter permits happened and some big names got snubbed, Google’s secret deal with MasterCard, and the weekend long reads suggestions.  Links:Exclusive: This is ‘iPhone XS’ — design, larger version, and gold colors confirmed (...

An Apple acquisition suggests they’re serious about AR, Uber is serious about escooters, Google lets Kubernetes leave the nest, your IP address is not enough to finger you for a crime, and a fully functional Bugatti made out of Legos. Links:Apple buys startup focused on lenses for AR glasses (Reuters)Apple’s AR lenses purchase also sees future mobile storage (ComputerWorld)Google takes a step back from running the Kubernetes development infrastructure (TechCrunch)Uber Is Building Its Own Scooter to Compete in Frenzy (Bloomberg)Microsoft Requires Paid Parental Leave for Subcontractors (Bloomberg)Important Appeals Court Ruling States Clearly That Merely Having An IP Address Is Insufficient For Infringement Claims (TechDirt)FIRST EVER LIFE-SIZE AND DRIVABLE LEGO® TECHNIC BUGATTI CHIRON IS A PIONEERING PIECE OF ENGINEERING AND DESIGN (Lego)

A bunch of new laptops from Dell, Amazon might jump into the free tv game, Google updates Wear OS, and why the world’s oldest blockchain has been hiding in plain site since 1995. Links:Dell tempts Pixelbook lovers with premium $599 Inspiron Chromebook 14 (ArsTechnica)Dell shows its fall lineup of Alexa-ready Inspiron, XPS, and Vostro laptops and 2-in-1s (VentureBeat)Amazon Plans New Video App, Latest Step Into TV Ad Market (The Information)Google is revamping the Wear OS smartwatch user interface (TheVerge)The rise of giant consumer startups that said no to investor money (Recode)'World Computer' Project Dfinity Raises $102 Million (Fortune)The rise of crypto in higher education (Coinbase Reports)The Hot New Subject on Campus? It's Blockchain (Fortune)The World’s Oldest Blockchain Has Been Hiding in the New York Times Since 1995 (Motherboard)

President Trump accuses Google of rigged search results, Instagram updates its identity systems, Yahoo scans your mail for marketing purposes, BuzzFeed tests memberships and the rarest Apple device in the world comes to auction. Links:You can now apply to be verified in Instagram (The Verge)Yahoo, Bucking Industry, Scans Emails for Data to Sell Advertisers (WSJ)Toyota Investing $500 Million in Uber in Driverless-Car Pact (WSJ)AutoX is using its self-driving vehicles to deliver groceries (TechCrunch)BuzzFeed News quietly tests a membership program (Digiday)Buzzfeed, With Nearly $500M In Funding, Asks For Contributions (Crunchbase News)How ‘Grand Theft Auto’ Is Changing the Way the World Experiences Music (Rolling Stone)First Apple Computer Goes Up For Auction, Expected to Fetch More Than $300,000 (Paleofuture)

The three new iPhones Mark Gurman says are coming our way, Warren Buffet invests in an Indian tech company, Palmer Luckey pans Magic Leap and why Uber thinks e-scooters are cool. Links:Apple to Embrace iPhone X Design With New Colors, Bigger Screens (Bloomberg)Berkshire Hathaway in talks for a stake in Paytm (Economic Times)Microsoft Announces Xbox All Access (Thurrott.com)Public Bravado, Private Doubts: Inside the Unraveling of Elon Musk’s Tesla Buyout (WSJ)Why Elon Musk Reversed Course on Taking Tesla Private (NYTimes)Epic's first Fortnite Installer allowed hackers to download and install anything on your Android phone silently (Android Central)Magic Leap is a Tragic Heap (PalmerLuckey.com)Uber plans shift from cars to bikes for shorter trips (The Financial Times)

Tech’s version of the five families met today to get on the same page over election security, 23andMe shuts down its API just to be safe, robot puppies, and the weekend longreads suggestions.  Links:Google finds evidence of attack linked to Iran state media (Axios)Tech C...

Australia bans Chinese telecoms equipment, Microsoft might offer an Xbox subscription that includes the whole console, new DJI drones, Alex Stamos on hacking the 2018 election and the backlash against the “app store tax.” Links:Australia Bars China’s Huawei From Building 5G Wireless Network (NYTimes)'Xbox All Access' looks like a new subscription service with Xbox Live, Game Pass, and a console (Windows Central)DJI Mavic 2 Pro, Mavic 2 Zoom add Hasselblad quality and optical zoom to folding drones (CNET)How the U.S. Has Failed to Protect the 2018 Election--and Four Ways to Protect 2020 (Lawfare)Apple and Google Face Growing Revolt Over App Store ‘Tax’ (Bloomberg)The 30% Tax (Fred Wilson/AVC)

The fake Russians are back and they’ve brought some fake Iranians with them, Verizon throttles firefighters, Google wants to tell you something good, and day two of the Y Combinator demo days. Links:Sprawling Iranian influence operation globalizes tech’s war on disinformation (The Washington Post)Verizon throttled fire department’s “unlimited” data during Calif. wildfire (Ars Technica)Google Assistant's latest feature delivers just the 'good news' (TechCrunch)Walmart takes another jab at Amazon as it begins selling e-books for first time (USA Today)How Teens and Parents Navigate Screen Time and Device Distractions (Pew Research Center)‘Bitcoin Jesus’ Is Having a Hard Time Winning Over True Believers (Bloomberg)All 59 startups that launched today at Y Combinator’s S18 Demo Day 2 (TechCrunch)

Microsoft uncovers more Russian political hacking, a possible MacBook Air successor, Netflix “tests” bypassing the App Store, and are you paying for Amazon’s electricity bill? Links:New Russian Hacking Targeted Republican Groups, Microsoft Says (NYTimes)Apple Is Planning a New Low-Cost MacBook, Pro-Focused Mac Mini (Bloomberg)Netflix Tests Promotional Videos but Users See ‘Commercials’ (NYTimes)Netflix tests a bypass of iTunes billing in 33 markets (TechCrunch)Facebook is rating the trustworthiness of its users on a scale from zero to 1 (The Washington Post)Amazon Isn’t Paying Its Electric Bills. You Might Be (Bloomberg Businessweek)Here are the 63 startups that launched today at Y Combinator’s S18 Demo Day 1 (TechCrunch)

Fitbit doubles down on fitness trackers, new EU regulations might be coming for web platforms, Karma is a startup selling excess food, Trip Advisor has its own fake news problem, and are women the most valuable mobile gaming consumers? Links:With Charge 3, Fitbit blurs the sm...

A Google smart speaker with a screen, the crypto mining fad is fading, Silicon Valley has lost a piece of its history, the secret Netflix categories and the weekend longreads suggestions. Links:Google to debut display-equipped AI speaker before holidays (Nikkei Asian Rev...