Amazon might buy a chain of movie theaters, why the Saudis invest the way they do, Twitter pisses everyone off because… what else is new? And reviews of the Note 9 and Android Pie are in. Links:Amazon in Running to Acquire Landmark Movie Chain (Bloomberg)Saudi Arabia Goes High-Tech in Approach to Investing (WSJ)Twitter company email addresses why it’s #BreakingMyTwitter (TechCrunch)Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review: A better Note for most of us (Engadget)You Can Really Feel the Samsung Note 9's $1000 Price Tag (Gizmodo)Samsung Galaxy Note 9 review: Sleek and new, but too much déjà vu (BGR)ANDROID 9 PIE REVIEW: THE PREDICTIVE OS (The Verge)

Today, Twitter takes action on Alex Jones, a new Intel chip vulnerability, Alexa and Cortana play nice together, consolidation in podcasting and a “rest and vest” for the ages. Stories from: @AnneMarieSteele, @dseetharaman Tweets: @MattRosoff Links:SPECTRE-LIKE FLAW UNDERMINES INTEL PROCESSORS' MOST SECURE ELEMENT (Wired)After a year's wait, Amazon and Microsoft bring Alexa and Cortana to each other's devices (CNET)OneDrive can now automatically backup your PC’s documents, pictures, and desktop folders (The Verge)Public Radio Networks to Merge in Big Bet on Podcasts (WSJ)Uber’s Losses Mount at Self-Driving Car Unit (The Information)Cash Wildfire Spreads Among Young Tech Companies (Bloomberg)WhatsApp Co-Founder’s ‘Rest and Vest’ Reward From Facebook: $450 Million (WSJ)

NVIDIA announces its next generation GPUs, Apple wants developers to get SaaS-y, what if we just rebuilt the cable bundle with streaming channels, Tinder founders file suit and is Kevin Durant teaming up with Marc Andreessen? LinksNVIDIA Reveals Next-Gen Turing GPU Architecture (AnandTech)How an invite-only meeting at Apple's luxury loft in New York set the stage for one of the biggest subscription businesses in the world (Business Insider)Banks and Retailers Are Tracking How You Type, Swipe and Tap (NYTimes)Netflix, Amazon Video, and Xfinity are accidentally re-creating cable TV (The Verge)Kevin Durant, Will Smith Top the Lineup for a New Venture-Capital Fund for Black Investors (WSJ)

Is Google tracking you even when you tell it not to? Big executive departure at Netflix, Elon expounds on taking Telsa private, and how machine learning can identify devs simply by the way they code. Links:Lenovo Launches Ultra-Thin ThinkPad P1: X1 Carbon Meets Workstation (AnAndTech)EVEN ANONYMOUS CODERS LEAVE FINGERPRINTS (Wired)Update on Taking Tesla Private (Tesla)China has outspent the US by $24 billion in 5G technology since 2015, study shows (CNBC)An 11-Year-Old Changed The Results Of Florida's Presidential Vote At A Hacker Convention. Discuss. (Buzzfeed News)Dozens of Vegas slots went offline simultaneously during a hacker convention (Mashable)

Is Apple’s secret car project back on? Is Elon Musk in trouble with the SEC? How many people use Apple Pay? Is Alexa coming to cars? And the weekend Longreads suggestions. Stories from: @gruber Tweets: @jbarro, @kairyssdal Links:Tesla is now worth less than it was before Elon...

The new Galaxy Note 9 is unveiled, New York City caps ride hailing companies, Discord kneecaps Steam—as expected, the continuing saga of Alex Jones and what’s up with Elon Musk now? Links:Samsung Galaxy Note9: Design, specs, features, and pricing (VentureBeat)New York Plans to Cap Uber and Lyft (WSJ)Where’s the Money Coming From, Elon? (Bloomberg Businessweek)

We can actually, finally find out what Magic Leap does, Snap reports earnings, Slack gets ready for war, Patreon is building a patronage empire and why you’re probably getting ripped off if you’re paying for DSL. Links:I TRIED MAGIC LEAP AND SAW A FLAWED GLIMPSE OF MIXED REALITY’S AMAZING POTENTIAL (The Verge)Magic Leap Headset Test Drive: Off Your Phone and Into Your World (WSJ)Magic Leap’s headset is real, but that may not be enough (MIT Technology Review)Patreon buys Memberful but keeps it indie as patronage consolidates (TechCrunch)Tinder’s business will double this year to more than $800 million (Recode)Study Shows How Bad Most of the Country Is Getting Ripped Off By Their ISPs (Motherboard)

Voting via app will be tested during the midterms, Old Bitcoin Money and New Bitcoin money are in a power struggle, the truth about how we use Alexa, and a new combatant joins the fray in the Streaming Video Wars. Links:West Virginia to introduce mobile phone voting for midterm elections (CNN Tech)A Culture War Is Brewing Between Bitcoin’s Old and New Money (Bloomberg)Wall Street isn’t boosting bitcoin (Quartz)Twitter says Alex Jones and InfoWars accounts don't violate policy, will remain live for now (CNBC)The Reality Behind Voice Shopping Hype (The Information)Jeffrey Katzenberg’s ‘NewTV’ Startup Closes $1 Billion, All Major Studios Among Investors (Variety)Cloudflare Stream makes it easy (and cheap) for developers to work with video (TNW)Airbnb for Work claims 700,000 businesses as bookings tripled for second year in a row (VentureBeat)

Nearly every major tech platform bans Alex Jones to one degree or another, does Facebook really want to know your bank balance, MoviePass comes with another subscription pivot, Apple’s plans for India and why $1,000 smartphones might only be the beginning. Links:Facebook, Apple, YouTube and Spotify ban Infowars' Alex Jones (The Guardian)Facebook to Banks: Give Us Your Data, We’ll Give You Our Users (WSJ)Facebook taps banks, but for chatbots not purchase data like Google (TechCrunch)MoviePass Abandons Price Hike, But Will Limit Films to Three a Month (Variety)iPhone Chipmaker Races to Recover After Crippling Computer Virus (Bloomberg)Here’s Apple’s Plan to Keep From Losing the World’s Fastest-Growing Smartphone Market (Bloomberg Businessweek)Why iPhone and Android phone prices will get even higher (CNET)

Fortnite snubs Google, Amazon Prime Video is coming to Comcast, Peloton raises a ton, the top ten programming languages of 2018 and, of course, the weekend longreads suggestions.  Links: Epic Games sidesteps the Play Store with Fortnite for Android launch (TechCrunch)Ready, Aim, Hire a ‘Fortnite’ Coach: Parents Enlist Videogame Tutors for Their Children (WSJ)Google Maps location sharing shows your contact's battery level (Android Police)The 2018 Top Programming Languages (IEEE Spectrum) The Betterment.com/ride Weekend Longreads:How Robot Hands Are Evolving to Do What Ours Can (NYTimes)Why the Next Silicon Valley Will Probably Be Outside the U.S. (Citylab)Masayoshi Son’s secret to running his $100 billion fund: Telling start-ups to treat each other like family (CNBC)What Happened to General Magic? (NYMag/SelectAll)Growing Up Jobs (Vanity Fair)

Apple hits a trillion, a midwestern unicorn cashes in, the Surface Go reviews are in, there are no perfect tools for making memes, and Tesla is adding video games to its cars. Links:Cisco to acquire Ann Arbor-based Duo Security in $2.35 billion deal (Crain's Detroit Business)Surface Go review: The ideal cheap Windows tablet... almost (Engadget)The tiny Microsoft Surface Go is available now, and it’s an overachiever (The Verge)Microsoft Surface Go review: Barely better than a netbook (Mashable)The Microsoft Surface Go Is Practically Perfect (Gizmodo)RideOS raises $25M to become the traffic control center for self-driving cars (TechCrunch)As Memes Evolve, Apps Are Struggling to Keep Up (The Atlantic)How Software Ate the Point of Sale (The Atlantic)

Google has a secret plan to return to China, the Apple earnings analysis, Masayoshi Son goes “Brandless” and in praise of microfilm! Links:GOOGLE PLANS TO LAUNCH CENSORED SEARCH ENGINE IN CHINA, LEAKED DOCUMENTS REVEAL (The Intercept)Apple tops 300 million paid subscriptions as it reportedly preps new subscription services (Digiday)This No-Brand Startup Won $240 Million to Fight Amazon on Price and Quality (Bloomberg)Microfilm Lasts Half a Millennium (The Atlantic)

Facebook reveals fresh election meddling, Galaxy 9s might not be selling well, but Nintendo Switches sure are, and Playstation 4s still are, Uber stops truckin’ and Google Maps will predict which restaurant you’ll like.  Stories from: @kerby, @fredwilson Tweets: @LDrogen Links:Smartphone Slowdown Hits Profits at Samsung Electronics (Bloomberg)Sony can't stop making money from PlayStation (Engadget)Uber’s self-driving trucks division is dead, long live Uber self-driving cars (TechCrunch)Where Did you Go to School? (Richard Kerby)Where Did You Go To School? (AVC)WhatsApp group calls are rolling out to everyone, but don’t ditch Skype just yet (Android Authority)Google Maps can predict how much you'll like a restaurant (Engadget)

The king of the bitcoin miners mulls an IPO (not an ICO), the prediction market Augur gets dark, a “Netflix for gadgets” and a “Dallas Cowboys for e-sports” both raise money, advice for Twitter and Facebook, and why autonomous cars need to talk to us. Links:Scoop: Bitcoin Mining Company Bitmain Hit $1.1 Billion in Profits in Q1 2018 (Fortune)The First Augur Assassination Markets Have Arrived (CoinDesk)Grover raises €37M Series A to offer latest tech products as a subscription (TechCrunch)Twitter is prioritizing its network ‘health’ over adding new growth features. Is that the right move? (Recode)Why unskippable Stories ads could revive Facebook (TechCrunch)Retailers set sights on Facebook, Google ad revenue (Reuters)The self-driving cars hitting the road in Texas today are unlike any we’ve seen before (The Verge)

Slack takes out some competitors, Twitter get its own earnings shock, Amazon is just fine, thank you very much, Stripe issues credit cards, MoviePass… still alive at the time of this recording… and the weekend longreads suggestions. Stories from: @neilstrauss, @lmatsakis Tweets: @sparkycollier Links:Goodbye HipChat: Slack and Atlassian Team Up on Chat Software (Bloomberg)This is the Amazon everyone should have feared — and it has nothing to do with its retail business (Recode)Stripe Starts Issuing Credit Cards (Bloomberg) Weekend Longreads:Brock Pierce: The Hippie King of Cryptocurrency (Rolling Stone)How Silicon Valley Has Disrupted Philanthropy (The Atlantic)THE 'GUERRILLA' WIKIPEDIA EDITORS WHO COMBAT CONSPIRACY THEORIES (Wired)Inside Google’s Shadow Workforce (Bloomberg)MySpace and the Coding Legacy it Left Behind (Code Academy)

The Facebook earnings disaster. What else? But also Qualcomm walks away from an acquisition, Amazon’s facial recognition tech seems pretty flawed, and Samsung might have invented unbreakable displays for smartphones! Links:Samsung announces new 'unbreakable' display that survives punishing UL certification (Android Central)

Another internal Facebook memo leaks, China tells Facebook “not so fast,” Steam battles Discord, why the iPhone can’t compete in China, and a Y2K bug for the new millennium. Links:Departing Facebook Security Officer's Memo: "We Need To Be Willing To Pick Sides" (BuzzFeed News)China Said to Quickly Withdraw Approval for New Facebook Venture (NYTimes)Steam is rolling out its new Discord-like chat features to all users (The Verge)General Motors wants its customers to rent their cars to other people (The Verge)Why the iPhone can’t compete in India (The Verge)Big tech warns of 'Japan's millennium bug' ahead of Akihito's abdication (The Guardian)

Alphabet earnings, Google’s Translation app takes over the world, potentially two new Xbox consoles, Verizon wants to deliver TV over 5G and the thin-and-light laptop revolution has gone too far! Links:Alphabet surges to all-time high as Wall Street says internet giant’s big bets are ‘paying off’ (CNBC)Alphabet’s experimental investments in the future continue to cost it a fortune (The Verge)Google CEO Sundar Pichai revealed a jaw-dropping fact about its translation app that shows how much money is still sitting on the table (Business Insider)Miles is an app that tracks your every move in exchange for deals and discounts (The Verge)A Few More Details About Microsoft’s Xbox Scarlett Game Streaming Service (Thurrott.com)Verizon Is Seeking Google or Apple as 5G TV Provider (Bloomberg)Thinner and Lighter Laptops Have Screwed Us All (Motherboard)

Susan Fowler Rigetti gets a high profile new job, a Lyft and Uber driver was live-streaming without consent, Samsung takes a big step toward a 5G world, and why is Google Translate spitting out religious prophecies? Links:St. Louis Uber driver has put video of hundreds of passengers online. Most have no idea. (St. Louis Dispatch)$20K in Crypto: The First Bets on Prediction Market Augur Just Paid Out (CoinDesk)Qualcomm's new chips fix a major problem for 5G phones (CNET)Why Is Google Translate Spitting Out Sinister Religious Prophecies? (Motherboard)Pinterest nears $1 billion in ad sales and valuation rises as it looks to go public in mid-2019 (CNBC)Consumer startups are dead. Long live consumer startups. (Eric Feng)

WhatsApp limits forwards, Microsoft announces earnings, emergency alerts on Netflix, grocery chain Kroger throws shade at Amazon Prime Day, and the Weekend Longreads Suggestions. Links:WhatsApp will drastically limit forwarding across the globe to stop the spread of fake news, following violence in India and Myanmar (Recode)https://techcrunch.com/2018/07/18/senate-wants-emergency-alerts-to-go-out-through-netflix-spotify-etc/ (TechCrunch)First Test Drive of the Tesla Model 3 Performance: A Thrilling, Modern Marvel (WSJ) Weekend LongreadsHow ‘Small’ Security Errors Lead to a Security Breach (Alex DeFreese)Robots Are Ready to Shake (and Stir) Up Bars (WSJ)AI Could Make Detecting Autism Easier (The Atlantic)Best Buy Should Be Dead, But It’s Thriving in the Age of Amazon (Bloomberg Businessweek)When a DNA Test Shatters Your Identity (The Atlantic)

Facebook and Zuckerberg address misinformation and censorship, Reddit rolls out live chatrooms, will Fuchsia replace Android, and who is online journalism’s newest savior? Links:Facebook says it will begin removing misinformation that leads to violence (The Verge)Full transcript: Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg on Recode Decode (Recode)Mark Zuckerberg clarifies: ‘I personally find Holocaust denial deeply offensive, and I absolutely didn’t intend to defend the intent of people who deny that.’ (Recode)REDDIT REINVENTS THE CHAT ROOM WITH COMMUNITY CHAT (Wired)The European Commission Versus Android (Stretechery)Project ‘Fuchsia’: Google Is Quietly Working on a Successor to Android (Bloomberg)Google’s Fuchsia OS on the Pixelbook: It works! It actually works! (Ars Technica)

Google faces a record European fine, Nest gets a major reshuffle inside Google, Walmart guns for Netflix, Venmo transactions can be public, and can cool camera tech destined for smartphones actually improve autonomous vehicles?

Netflix’s subscriber miss, Amazon’s troubled Prime Day, Walmart and Microsoft team up against Amazon, some big problems with voting machines and the big autonomous vehicle startup you’ve probably never heard of. Links:What Netflix's big miss means for the new tech economy (Axios)STRIKES, BOYCOTTS, AND OUTAGES MAR AMAZON PRIME DAY (Wired)Amazon warehouse workers are striking across Europe on Prime Day (The Verge)Andreessen Horowitz Names Connie Chan A General Partner, Ending VC Firm's No-Promotion Policy (Forbes)Top Voting Machine Vendor Admits It Installed Remote-Access Software on Systems Sold to States (Motherboard)VC Firm Social Capital Set Out to Fix Capitalism. Now It’s In Turmoil (Bloomberg)Amazon Foes Walmart and Microsoft Deepen Tech Partnership (WSJ)$800 Million Says a Self-Driving Car Looks Like This (Bloomberg Businessweek)

A Roku wireless speaker, better Uber pickups, Instapaper goes solo, what to expect from the Galaxy S10 and it’s Amazon Prime Day everybody! Links:Wave Uber’s new Spotlight or send canned chats to find your driver (TechCrunch)Airbnb is grappling with how to treat people with criminal convictions (Quartz)A German court ruled you can inherit Facebook content like a letter or a diary (Quartz)Here's what to expect from the Samsung Galaxy S10, including a new feature you won't find on iPhones (Business Insider)Amazon’s share of the US e-commerce market is now 49%, or 5% of all retail spend (TechCrunch)

Full Photoshop is coming to iPads, PC sales are growing again, what now for the AT&T/Time Warner merger, what does an unlimited data plan really mean, and the weekend longreads suggestions. Stories from: @imkialikethecar, @ballmatthew Tweets: @renato_mariotti Links:T...

Surprise MacBook Pro updates, Broadcom goes for Plan B, the fate of Gawker and The Onion, who will be the first to a trillion dollars, and who wants to be the Pixar of VR. Links:APPLE’S NEW MACBOOK PROS HAVE THE LATEST INTEL PROCESSORS AND QUIETER KEYBOARDS (The Verge)Broadcom reaches deal to acquire CA Technologies for $18.9 billion in cash (CNBC)The Race to a Trillion (Above Avalon)

Facebook faces its first fine from the Cambridge Analytica scandal, a look at what Article 13 might do to the web, a juicy new Apple rumor, more hints from Magic Leap, and a look at Alphabet’s “Moonshot” factory. Stories from: @AlecMuffett, @adavies47 Tweets: @joshelman Links:Facebook is slapped with first fine for Cambridge Analytica scandal (Washington Post)Thread by @AlecMuffett: "Regards Article13, I wrote up a little command-line false-positive emulator; it tests 10 million events with a test (for copyrighted materia […]" #Article13 (Alex Muffett)European Networks Are Joining Forces to Take On Netflix and Amazon (The Hollywood Reporter)INSIDE X, THE MOONSHOT FACTORY RACING TO BUILD THE NEXT GOOGLE (Wired)

Microsoft unveils a new Surface tablet, police can probably still break into iPhones, YouTube fights fake news, the new silicon gold rush, and Netflix makes binging even easier. Links:Microsoft’s $399 Surface Go aims to stand out from iPads or Chromebooks (The Verge)Microsoft's $399 Surface Go is here to nuke Apple's iPad (Mashable)The AI revolution has spawned a new chips arms race (Ars Technica)Netflix Binge-Watching Just Got Even Easier: Now It Automatically Downloads New Episodes To Watch Offline (BuzzFeed)

Xiaomi’s IPO disappoints, Apple Music gains on Spotify, Amazon’s ad business could be a contender, and why half the members of a popular subreddit are getting banned. Stories from: @mikelaris, @noamscheiber Tweets: @danprimack Links:Shares of Chinese smartphone maker Xiaomi stumble on their debut, slipping as much as 6% (CNBC)Xiaomi's weak debut signals trouble for upcoming Hong Kong tech listings (Reuters)Apple slices into Spotify’s lead in the US music market (CNBC)High-Skilled White-Collar Work? Machines Can Do That, Too (NYTimes)Federal researchers are using data from Waze and Maryland to try to predict road dangers (Washington Post)The Thanos subreddit is gleefully heading for mass slaughter (The Verge)

Sonos files for an IPO, Netflix sunsets movie reviews, the iPhone is getting new colors, the memes are safe for now, and the weekend longreads suggestions. Links:MEPs vote to reopen copyright debate over 'censorship' controversy (TechCrunch)Kuo: New 2018 iPhone models to come in gold, grey, white, blue, red and orange colors (9to5Mac)Amazon Takes a Page From Toys ‘R’ Us With a Holiday Catalog (Bloomberg)Reddit — one of the world's most popular websites — is trying to cash in through advertising (CNBC) Longreads Suggestions:Xiaomi founder Lei Jun’s tech empire goes way beyond smartphones (Quartz)SELF-DRIVING CARS ARE HEADED TOWARD AN AI ROADBLOCK (The Verge)How to Make Piles of Money Using Instagram (Bloomberg)Ice Poseidon’s Lucrative, Stressful Life as a Live Streamer (The New Yorker)