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Apple plans to hold off until at least 2020 before releasing an iPhone that works with 5G networks. Apple waited as long as a year after the initial deployment of 3G and 4G networks before its main product got the capability to deploy them; the company calculated that the new networks and first versions of rival smartphones would come with problems such as spotty coverage. The decision to sit on the sidelines may be related to Apple’s feud with Qualcomm, the leader in 5G-enabled chips, and its alliance instead with Intel, which won’t have chips available in time to support 2019 phones. The delay may make it easier for rivals like Samsung to win over consumers to phones that connect to the next-generation phone services, which will provide a leap forward in mobile data speeds when they are introduced in 2019. Sure enough, Samsung and Verizon will partner to release one of the world’s first 5G smartphones in the first half of 2019. [Ian King, Mark Gurman and Scott Moritz / Bloomberg]
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The inside story of how two coders — and friends — made Google huge. Jeff Dean and Sanjay Ghemawat aren’t the founders of Google, but they may be just as important. The only Level 11 Google Fellows at the company, the duo is responsible for conquering some of the search giant’s thorniest technical challenges. And always together. “I don’t know why more people don’t do it,” Ghemawat said of programming alongside a partner. [James Somers / The New Yorker]
Tumblr will permanently ban adult content from its platform on Dec. 17, in a move that will eradicate porn-related communities on the platform and fundamentally alter how the service is used. The ban — which includes photos, videos and GIFs of human genitalia, female-presenting nipples, and any media involving sex acts, including illustrations — comes just days after Tumblr was removed from Apple’s App Store over a child pornography incident. Exceptions include nude classical statues and political protests that feature nudity; the new guidelines exclude text, so erotica remains permitted. Users have a chance to appeal flagged content, but after Dec. 17, any explicit posts will be flagged and deleted by algorithms. [Shannon Liao / The Verge]
Chinese music-streaming company Tencent Music intends to move forward with plans for an initial public offering in the United States after pausing its efforts because of an October stock-market sell-off, saying in a regulatory filing that it expects to go public between $13 and $15 per American depositary share, which would value Tencent Music at $22.9 billion; it would be one of the largest U.S.-listed technology IPOs on record by market valuation. Tencent Music operates several popular apps, including QQ Music and an online karaoke platform; in the third quarter of this year, it had more than 800 million unique monthly active users. [Allison Prang / The Wall Street Journal]
Robot janitors are coming to a Walmart near you. The world’s largest retailer is rolling out 360 autonomous floor-scrubbing robots in some of its stores in the U.S. by the end of the January. Made by San Diego-based startup Brain Corp., the sensor-studded autonomous janitors can clean floors on their own even when customers are around. The robots, which look like a cross between a miniature Zamboni and a motorized wheelchair, already scrub floors at airports in Seattle, San Diego, Boston and Miami. [Pavel Alpeyev / Bloomberg]
Top stories from Recode
Why Amazon is a ‘bully’ and Facebook and Google are ‘the enemies of independent thought.’ “It takes a while for us to realize exactly what they’ve done that’s so terrible,” journalist Franklin Foer says on Recode Decode. [Kara Swisher / Recode]
This is cool
Neuroscience says listening to this song reduces anxiety by up to 65 percent.
”The only truly pleasant social network in existence.”
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
