Techmeme
May 24, 2018, 6:35 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Essential, a startup co-founded by Android creator Andy Rubin, is considering selling itself and has canceled development of a new smartphone  —  - Company cancels development of second version of smartphone  — Startup has spent over $100 million on product development
Gary Horcher / KIRO:
After allegations Alexa recorded a private conversation and sent it to a person in contact list, Amazon says the case was extremely rare, is taking steps to fix  —  A Portland family contacted Amazon to investigate after they say a private conversation in their home was recorded by Amazon's Alexa …
Bloomberg:
Sources: DOJ and CFTC have opened a criminal probe into alleged market manipulation of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies  —  - Justice Department opens investigation into illicit trading  — Agency is working with CFTC, which oversees crypto futures  —  The Justice Department …
Rob Leathern / Facebook:
Facebook rolls out “Paid for by” disclosure labels on Facebook and Instagram for political ads in US, including issues ads that deal with 20 specific subjects  —  As we announced last month, we're making big changes to the way ads with political content work on Facebook to help prevent abuse, especially during elections.
Twitter:
Twitter to add badges and disclaimers for US federal political advertisers and require certification and account elements “consistent with online presence”  —  We believe transparency is key for both the people using our service and advertisers to feel confident in our platform.
Gabe Rivera / Techmeme News:
Sign up now for Techmeme's new newsletter, which goes out daily at 5pm Pacific  —  Today we're launching Techmeme's first newsletter.  Sign up here!  It goes out Sunday through Friday around 5pm Pacific/8pm Eastern and, like Techmeme.com, summarizes the day's top tech news and commentary …
Jason Koebler / Motherboard:
Documents from a “bendgate” lawsuit show Apple's tests found iPhone 6 and 6 Plus were 3.3x and 7.2x more likely to bend than 5S; Apple later made changes to fix  —  Apple publicly maintained that there were no engineering issues with the iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus …
Jeremy Horwitz / VentureBeat:
Apple wins $538.6M from Samsung in iPhone patent retrial: $533.3M for infringement of Apple's design patents and $5.3M for infringement of its utility patents  —  Nearly six years after a federal jury awarded Apple over $1 billion in damages against Samsung for infringing on iPhone design patents …
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Vevo is shuttering its Android, iOS, and Windows Mobile apps and website to refocus on YouTube following resignation of several execs and significant layoffs  —  Major-label owned Vevo is giving up on plans to build its own music video platform outside of YouTube's control …
David Shepardson / Reuters:
US NTSB report on Uber's self-driving car that killed a pedestrian in March in AZ says the car failed to identify the pedestrian or brake until it was too late  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - An Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] self-driving vehicle that struck and killed a woman in Tempe …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Instapaper, owned by Pinterest, says it will be temporarily unavailable to all European users on May 24 as it works to ensure GDPR compliance by May 25  —  The read-it-later app needs time to make changes ahead of GDPR going into effect on Friday  —  Popular read-it-later app Instapaper informed …
Michelle Castillo / CNBC:
Facebook users worldwide are being asked to review their privacy settings, including political and religious affiliations, as GDPR goes into effect in Europe  —  - Facebook is telling all users to review their privacy settings, including information they share on their profiles and facial recognition preferences.
Garrett Camp:
Sixteen years after it started, StumbleUpon to shut down and transition its accounts to content discovery platform Mix.com over the next couple of months  —  Sixteen years ago, we started StumbleUpon to help people discover new webpages.  The idea was simple: click a button to find a cool webpage.
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Pet-sitting startup Rover raises $155M round led by T. Rowe Price, bringing its total funding to $310M  —  When Rover started seven years ago, many in the startup community snickered.  There was no real business model, they said.  A marketplace that matched dog owners with caretakers wouldn't work, they said.
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Uber says it will open an Advanced Technologies Center in Paris focused on its Uber Elevate flying taxis project, will spend €20 million over five years  —  S'envoler  —  Uber's plan to fill the skies above cities with swarms of electric-powered flying taxis is getting its own dedicated laboratory.

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Bloomberg:
Mat Honan / BuzzFeed:
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
Kevin Poulsen / The Daily Beast: