Techmeme
November 15, 2018, 3:55 PM

Top News

Facebook:
Facebook responds to the NYT exposé, lists “number of inaccuracies” in the story, and denies it knew about Russian activity as early as spring of 2016  —  Yesterday The New York Times published an article about the past two years at Facebook.  There are a number of inaccuracies in the story, including:
New York Times:
Interviews with more than 50 people show how Facebook stumbled in dealing with multiple crises, which Zuckerberg and Sandberg initially tried to obscure  —  Sheryl Sandberg was seething.  —  Inside Facebook's Menlo Park, Calif., headquarters, top executives gathered in the glass-walled conference room of its founder, Mark Zuckerberg.
New York Times:
Facebook has ended its relationship with Definers Public Affairs, the consulting firm which cast George Soros as a force behind Facebook's critics  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook has ended its relationship with a Washington-based consulting firm, Definers Public Affairs, which spread disparaging information …
Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook:
Facebook plans to let users opt-in to borderline content, appeal content decisions to independent body in 2019, work with governments on content regulation  —  My focus in 2018 has been addressing the most important issues facing Facebook.  As the year wraps up, I'm writing a series of notes …
Alistair Barr / Bloomberg:
Facebook's board says it pushed Zuckerberg and Sandberg to respond to Russian interference faster and calls NYT report “grossly unfair”  —  Facebook Inc.'s board defended how Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg and Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg have handled mounting problems faced …
The Keyword:
Google adds business messaging to Google Maps for iOS and Android, which helps keep track of conversations with local businesses  —  Last year we enabled users in select countries to message businesses from the Business Profiles on Google.  Sending messages to businesses gives you the opportunity …
Brian Fung / Washington Post:
FCC gives SpaceX permission to deploy over 7,000 Starlink internet satellites, as part of a full network of 12,000  —  Federal regulators are allowing entrepreneur Elon Musk to use an expanded range of wireless airwaves for his plan to deliver cheap, high-speed Internet access — from space.
Nikkei:
Alphabet to close its Schaft robotics unit and dissolve the project later this year, after seeking other options when a deal to sell it to SoftBank collapsed  —  Tokyo-born unit Schaft lost its way after departure of robot chief Andy Rubin  —  TOKYO — Alphabet, the holding company behind Google …
Steven Bertoni / Forbes:
Airtable, which wants to make database management mainstream by using drag and drop, raises $100M at a $1.1B valuation  —  n the frenetic world of tech, where the ruling ethos is to move fast and break things, Howie Liu moves at a glacial pace.  With Andrew Ofstad and Emmett Nicholas, he launched Airtable in 2013.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Raspberry Pi Foundation announces $25 Pi 3 Model A+, with a quad-core 1.4GHz CPU but less RAM and USB ports than the $35 Model B+  —  The $25 Pi 3 Model A+  —  The Raspberry Pi Foundation's goal is to make computing as cheap and accessible as possible, so today, it's introducing …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Canalys: 19.7M smart speakers were sold globally in Q3, up 137% from 8.3M in Q3 2017; US and China now account for 70% of the global market  —  Market momentum for smart speakers shows no sign of slowing — quite the opposite, in fact.  A new report published by research firm Canalys shows …
More: CNBC and Canalys
Tom Spring / Threatpost:
Hackers breach iPhone X, Galaxy S9, and Xiaomi Mi6 and earn $325K for exposing 18 exploits at the Pwn2Own Tokyo 2018 contest  —  Three major mobile phone models - the Samsung Galaxy S9, iPhone X and the Xiaomi Mi6 - failed to survive the hacker onslaught at this year's Pwn2Own Tokyo 2018.
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
Citrix says it acquired Sapho, which makes micro-apps for team collaboration apps like Slack, for $200M in an all cash deal; Sapho has raised $27.9M  —  Citrix Systems today announced it acquired Sapho in an all-cash $200 million deal, a Citrix spokesperson told VentureBeat in an email.
More: TechCrunch

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