|
December 21, 2018, 7:20 PM
|
Mediagazer
memeorandum
WeSmirchTop News
| Jeffrey Dastin / Reuters: |
Sources describe how Amazon's efforts to make Alexa a better communicator through its Alexa Prize competition led to a hack and chats about sex and murder — SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Millions of users of Amazon's Echo speakers have grown accustomed to the soothing strains of Alexa … | Will Oremus / Slate: |
Facebook has forfeited our trust to the point that we see nefarious motives in any misstep, as some overblown reactions to Spotify and Netflix integrations show — Facebook may or may not have lost its handle on our data. But it has definitely lost its handle on the public narrative—and the benefit of the doubt.
More:
Columbia Journalism Review, Washington Post, Techdirt, Vox, The Parallax, Techonomy, BestVPN.com, Motherboard, The Guardian, Infosecurity.US, NPR, InvestorPlace, Adweek, TidBITS, CNBC, CSO, and Silicon Valley Business …
Tweets: @netflix, @mathewi, @zittrain, @zittrain, @zittrain, @willoremus, @kylepope, @bigalittlea, @benadida, @facebook, @matthewstoller, @vickerysec, and @alexstamos
| Nick Statt / The Verge: |
Epic Games is facing lawsuits over Fortnite dance emotes, real-life dance moves used in the game, raising questions about whether dance moves are copyrightable — Epic Games' Fortnite is the biggest game on the planet right now, but one of its biggest sources of revenue — the ubiquitous dance …
More:
TMZ.com, Wall Street Journal, Business Insider, NBC News, BBC, Billboard, HotNewHipHop.com, Refinery29, CNN, Variety, Lifehacker, Business Insider, and TechCrunch
Tweets: @mathewi, @fortninety, @mattmcgee, @alancayce, @nickstatt, @undoomed, and @eugenewei
| Randy Nelson / Sensor Tower Blog: |
Sensor Tower: Apple's App Store had 164 publishers earn their first $1M in 2018, up ~15% YoY, nearly double the 88 on Google Play, which was up 24% YoY — Apple has long led its primary rival in the app economy in terms of monetization on its App Store, consistently generating close to twice … | Bloomberg: |
Google Payment receives an e-money license in Lithuania, enabling it to process payments, issue e-money, and handle electronic money wallets throughout the EU — Google Payment, a company owned by Alphabet Inc., obtained an e-money license in Lithuania, joining a growing number of fintech firms …
More:
9to5Google
| Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: |
Blind, an anonymous chat app used by staff at companies like Apple, Facebook, Google, and Uber, left one database server exposed from Nov. 1 to Dec. 19 — One of the company's servers was exposed without a password for weeks. — Thousands of people trusted Blind, an app-based …
More:
Engadget, Mashable, AppleInsider, Gizmodo, archive.li, and Notes from Silicon Valley
Tweets: @zackwhittaker, @tayhatmaker, @imeluny, @tayhatmaker, @alevskey, @carnage4life, @martinsfp, @dangillmor, and @caseynewton
| Sarah E. Needleman / Wall Street Journal: |
Chat app Discord has raised a $150M round at a $2.05B valuation and says it now has ~200M users, more than four times what it had a year ago — The company plans to spend $150 million to move into new areas, including selling videogames online — Discord Inc., which makes chat software … | New York Times: |
JD.com founder and CEO Richard Liu will not be charged with sexual assault following rape allegation in August, prosecutors in Minneapolis say — Richard Liu, the Chinese billionaire accused of rape nearly four months ago by a young Chinese student at the University of Minnesota … | Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed News: |
Indian government downplays its order that seemingly authorizes 10 government agencies to monitor, intercept, and decrypt data on all computers in the country — India's Ministry of Home Affairs, a federal government authority that controls the country's internal security …
More:
VentureBeat, The Hindu, Times of India, NDTV Gadgets 360, The Wire, The Hindu, News18, The Indian Express, Livemint, Firstpost, MediaNama, and Firstpost
| Jon Russell / TechCrunch: |
Sources: SoftBank's Vision Fund is planning to invest $1B in Singapore-based ride-hailing service Grab; source: investment could be as much as $1.5B — SoftBank's Vision Fund is set to continue its recent spree of investments in Asian tech unicorns. The mega fund — which is targeted at $100 billion — is planning| Paul Thurrott / Thurrott: |
Sources: Microsoft is planning to release 4K webcams in 2019, including one with Windows Hello-based authentication and one that is enterprise-focused — It's been several years since Microsoft has released a webcam. But two separate sources tell me that the firm is plotting a return to this market in 2019.
More:
Windows Central, Neowin, and MSPoweruser
| South China Morning Post: |
China is resuming video game approvals after a nine-month freeze; China's gaming industry expected to have its slowest growth this year in at least a decade — - Amid the regulatory hiatus, China's gaming industry suffered its slowest growth in at least a decade
More:
Reuters, TechCrunch, Gamasutra, Engadget, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, GamesIndustry.biz, and Bloomberg
| Josh Smith / Reuters: |
Woowa Bros, South Korea's largest food delivery startup, raises $320M at a valuation of $2.6B for international expansion and to develop autonomous robots — SEOUL (Reuters) - The operator of South Korea's largest food delivery app has secured a $320 million investment from Hillhouse Capital …
More:
pulsenews.co.kr, The Spoon, THE INVESTOR, and Wall Street Journal
| Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal: |
Sprint to pay $300M in a settlement with New York AG for failing to collect $100M+ in state and local taxes between 2005 and 2014 on some of its wireless plans — Carrier didn't collect proper taxes on some wireless plans for nearly a decade, New York attorney general saysSponsor Posts
Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model — Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy. Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model — Gemini 2.5 Pro is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy. Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future — Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
UiPath Unveils 10 Innovations that Will Shape the Agentic Future — Orchestration engine, API workflows and agentic testing among key features of new UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation, launched at UiPath DevCon 2025
Zoho:
The staffing formula for India's 10-minute gig economy — Leaving for an early morning meeting, but the dog ate your toothbrush? That's how the quick commerce market was born in the post-COVID era.
The staffing formula for India's 10-minute gig economy — Leaving for an early morning meeting, but the dog ate your toothbrush? That's how the quick commerce market was born in the post-COVID era.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.Featured Podcasts
Techmeme Ride Home:
Microsoft Build 2025
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Spotlight On:
Tines's Eoin Hinchy on rejecting the playbooks
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Gustav Söderström - How Spotify Thinks
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Microsoft CTO Kevin Scott on how AI can save the web, not destroy it
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Grit:
From Scaling Cisco to Seeding AI: John T. Chambers on Speed, Strategy, and Reinvention
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
Microsoft CPO: If you aren't prototyping with AI you're doing it wrong | Aparna Chennapragada
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
About This Page
This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:20 PM ET, December 21, 2018.
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.
From Mediagazer
Theodore Schleifer / New York Times:Matt Stevens / New York Times:
Dan Kennedy / Media Nation:
Upcoming Tech Events
More News
| Juli Clover / MacRumors: |
More:
Apple, CNBC, The Mac Observer, TechSpot, Engadget, SiliconANGLE, MacStories, iMore, and CNBC
Tweets: @stevekovach, @stanfordnlp, @iryantldr, @gartenberg, and @reneritchie
| Josh Constine / TechCrunch: |
More:
Financial Times, Firstpost, Gizmodo, Screen Savers …, CNET, and Business Insider
Tweets: @hypervisible, @malcolmmoore, and @joshconstine
| Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat: |
More:
TechCrunch, Silicon Valley Business …, Pocket Gamer.biz, Gamasutra, Zynga Inc., eqtventures, MarketWatch, Bloomberg, Pocket Gamer.biz, Tech.eu, and Reuters
Tweets: @anvu, @business, and @jowens510
| Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch: |
More:
U.S. Department of Justice, Krebs on Security, Threatpost, The Hacker News, Engadget, ZDNet, Kotaku, and Gamasutra
Tweets: @karolcummins, @blmohr, and @zackwhittaker
Earlier Picks
| Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat: |
More:
Wired and 9to5Google
| Russell Brandom / The Verge: |
More:
Techdirt, TechCrunch, Gamasutra, Inquirer, cloudpro.co.uk, Silicon Republic, SiliconANGLE, Motherboard, Mashable, The Register, BBC, VentureBeat, Neowin, Business Insider, and The Hill
Tweets: @a_h_a, @aaomidi, @farrokhi, @alexstamos, @aaomidi, @maasalan, @ehsanakhgari, @josephfcox, @brokep, @smarimc, and @lifewinning
| BBC: |
More:
NPR, The Guardian, Gizmodo, mediacentre.gatwickairport.com, Business Insider, The Next Web, DroneDJ, Newser, TechCrunch, Vox, SiliconANGLE, Associated Press, EE Times, Axios, DroneDJ, CNET, BBC, Sky News, Wall Street Journal, BBC, The Atlantic, BGR, Inquirer, Notes from Silicon Valley, Hackaday, BBC, The Verge, and Naked Security
Tweets: @skynewsbreak, @gatwick_airport, @alexhern, @alexhern, @tomwarren, @nycjim, @bbcnews, @wroetoshaw, @jonsnowc4, @los_fisher, @bbcnews, @jonsnowc4, and @skynews
| Lauren Feiner / CNBC: |
More:
Qualcomm, Patent Progress, Reuters, 9to5Mac, AppleInsider, PC Gamer, InvestorPlace, FOSS Patents, Softpedia News, MacRumors, Intel Newsroom, MSPoweruser, Firstpost, FOSS Patents, CNET, Thurrott, SlashGear, iPhone Hacks, Patently Apple, SiliconANGLE, The Register, Android Authority, Forbes, The Mac Observer, TechSpot, Neowin, Gizchina, BuzzFeed News, Xconomy, The Verge, and Fortune
Tweets: @natisho, @danielnewmanuv, and @benwood
| CNBC: |
More:
U.S. Department of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice, Washington Post, ZDNet, Reuters, Ministry of Foreign Affairs …, cse-cst.gc.ca, CNET, GOV.UK, SecurityWeek, Security Affairs, BBC, Silicon Valley Business …, Dark Reading, The Verge, Financial Times, IT PRO, Department of Foreign Affairs …, NCSC Site, The Hacker News, TechCrunch, SecurityWeek, BBC, SiliconANGLE, IT Management, TechNode, BuzzFeed News, Federal Computer Week, ZDNet, The Register, SupChina, The Daily Caller, PYMNTS.com, Security Boulevard, The Diplomat, The Guardian, Threatpost, TechSpot, and Telegraph
Tweets: @ridt, @foreignoffice, @x0rz, @joshuawongcf, @ambjohnbolton, @mikepillsbury, @david_s_dowling, @marisepayne, @ridt, @ebkania, @ridt, @ncsc, @spoxdhs, @jc_stubbs, @ridt, @gregghoush, @eamonjavers, and @ericgeller