As part of its unorthodox plan to go public, Spotify reportedly wants to skip a traditional share sale, and list directly on the New York Stock Exchange. “With a stream of cash from its more than 60 million paying subscribers and awareness among investors, the company isn’t seeking to raise money or make itself known to potential stockholders -- key IPO objectives,” Bloomberg writes. “A direct listing also avoids underwriting fees and restrictions on stock sales by current owners, and doesn’t dilute the holdings of executives and investors.”

It may be to early to tell whether or Andy Rubin’s Essential phone is ready to challenge Apple and Alphabet, The Verge suggests. “There’s no way to judge whether it fits nicely into Rubin's vision for a connected home, since we’re still months away from really knowing what that will look like,” it writes. “Looking at the wireless module connector and guessing whether it will matter is like looking at an ancient altar and trying to guess what arcane rituals it was truly meant for.”

NBC News’ daily Snapchat Discover show, “Stay Tuned,” is doing well. In under a month, it’s attracted over 29 million unique viewers, sources tell Axios. As for why it matters, “Millennials are actually watching news shows,” it writes. “Getting nearly 30 million young people to watch a hard news show is an enormous feat, given that millennials don't typically watch TV news show on cable.”

Microsoft just debuted a Skype Desktop preview, which runs on Windows 7 and Windows 8.X.“Microsoft is bringing some of the features of its new Skype Mobile app to the Desktop with this preview,” ZDNet notes. “The new Desktop review ‘puts chat front and center’; adds more real-time screen and photo sharing; introduces @mentions, message reactions and a new notification panel … and adds more customization for group calls.”

Google just bought AIMatter, which, as TechCrunch notes, “has built both a neural network-based AI platform and SDK to detect and process images quickly on mobile devices, and a photo and video editing app that has served as a proof-of-concept of the tech.” Bigger picture, “Computer vision … is at the heart of how the next generation of tech is developing,” TC suggests.

In response to the events in Charlottesville over the weekend, Spotify is cracking down on what the Southern Poverty Law Center has deemed “hate bands.” In a statement, a Spotify spokeswoman told Billboard that “material that favors hatred or incites violence against race, religion, sexuality or the like is not tolerated by us.” Adds Billboard: “Spotify … is also reviewing the possibility of blocking this type of content from future music recommendations.”

As part of a broader fight against racism and bigotry in the country, Apple is making separate $1 million donations eac to the Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League. “The company will also match employee donations to these and other groups two-for-one until September 30,” Buzzfeed reports. “[CEO Tim] Cook also said that Apple would soon offer its users a way to contribute to the Southern Poverty Law Center through iTunes.”

Facebook, Apple, and other tech titans are asking the Supreme Court to set new limits on the ways law enforcement can obtain a suspect’s smartphone location data. “The case before the nation’s justices is Carpenter vs. United States, and it stems from a 2011 investigation into a series of robberies in Detroit,” Recode reports. “As part of the probe, law enforcement officials obtained information from nearby cell towers to determine the whereabouts of one of the suspects.”

It seems as if obituaries for social VR startup AltspaceVR were premature. “The company … announced last month that it was unexpectedly closing its virtual doors after a funding deal fell through,” TechCrunch recalls. “But oddly, less than a month later, the startup has shared that it’s not going anywhere thanks to new interest from ‘third parties.’”

Google is adding some new features to its G Suite service, including “new collaboration and organization tools, customizable templates with built-in add-ons, and enhanced search capabilities via Google Cloud Search integration,” 9To5Google reports. Additionally, “New templates arriving today include built-in add-ons and you’ll also now have the ability to customize your own templates with add-ons.”