Techmeme
January 4, 2017, 9:35 PM

Top News

Ev Williams / Medium:
Medium says it's laying off 50 employees, about a third of its staff, and closing its NY and DC offices, as it refocuses on a “less proven” means to pay writers  —  We've decided to make some major changes at Medium.  —  I'll start with the hard part: As of today …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
With Alexa, Amazon is building the operating system of the home, a strategy that's more evident with each new Alexa-integrated device announcement  —  The concept of an operating system is pretty straightforward: it is a piece of software that manages a computer, making said computer's …
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
New York Times:
Apple removed news apps made by The New York Times from its App Store in China, complying with what it vaguely described as a request from Chinese authorities  —  Apple, complying with what it said was a request from Chinese authorities, removed news apps created by The New York Times from its app store in China late last month.
Nathan Ingraham / Engadget:
Samsung debuts two stylus-enabled 12.3" Chromebooks that run Android apps: ARM-based Plus, shipping in Feb. for $449, and Intel-based Pro, coming in Spring  —  Late last year, I lamented that Google didn't make Chromebooks a priority over the holiday season.
Tripp Mickle / Wall Street Journal:
Apple confirms $1B investment in SoftBank's $100B technology-focused Vision Fund; SoftBank is investing $25B, and Saudi Arabia's government is investing $45B  —  Apple says fund will support ‘strategically important technologies’  —  Apple Inc. confirmed Wednesday that it plans …
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
ASUS debuts the 5.7-inch ZenFone AR, with Tango and Daydream VR support, Android 7.0, 23MP camera, Snapdragon 821 CPU, 6GB RAM, coming Q2 with pricing TBD  —  The Asus phone leaked earlier this week is now an official product: the ZenFone AR, which puts virtual and augmented reality center stage.
Sean Hollister / CNET:
LG's claim that its Gram laptop will last 24 hours on one charge comes from decade-old benchmark assuming minimal use without Wi-Fi, low brightness on screen  —  If you built one of the lightest laptops in the world, but critics complained about poor battery life, what would you do?
Bloomberg:
BMW, Intel, and Mobileye partner to test 40 autonomous vehicles in urban areas starting in second half of 2017, with aim of fully autonomous cars by 2021  —  40 test sedans to operate in cities in U.S. and Europe  —  BMW, Mobileye urge industry alignment on common architecture
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
SEC docs show that Zuckerberg could run Facebook while serving in government indefinitely, with stricter limitations if he owned under 30% of the capital shares  —  Mark Zuckerberg is not limited to just two years working in the government while still controlling Facebook, as has been widely misreported.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Sponsor Posts

Meta:
Open Source AI: Available to all, not just the few  —  Meta's open source AI enables small businesses, start-ups, students, researchers and more to download and build with our models at no cost.
Zoho:
Transform sales efficiency with VoIP-CRM integration  —  This is a guest post by CallHippo.  Sales efficiency is critical for success in today's competitive business landscape.  However, many businesses struggle …
Genesys:
Executive Insights: The Era of Contact Center AI Copilots  —  How AI copilots are transforming customer experience and agent performance.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Wed. 12/18 - Is Your Home Internet Router About To Be Banned?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:35 PM ET, January 4, 2017.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Heather Caygle / Politico:
Bicycle Retailer and Industry News:

Earlier Picks

Dong Ngo / CNET:
Chuq Von Rospach: