Techmeme
December 27, 2018, 12:05 PM

Top News

Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Instagram briefly replaces vertical feed with horizontal scrolling for many users, says it was meant to be a small test that “went broader than we anticipated”  —  The new layout was caused by a bug, according to the company  —  Instagram has quietly started testing a horizontal feed …
Sankalp Phartiyal / Reuters:
Source: Apple will begin assembling its top-end iPhones in India through the local unit of Foxconn as early as 2019  —  Sankalp Phartiyal, Sudarshan Varadhan  —  MUMBAI/DELHI (Reuters) - Apple Inc will begin assembling its top-end iPhones in India through the local unit of Foxconn as early as 2019 …
Washington Post:
Reid Hoffman says he wasn't aware of disinformation campaign in Alabama race, apologizes for funding group linked to it; source says Hoffman invested $750K  —  Internet billionaire Reid Hoffman apologized on Wednesday for funding a group linked to a “highly disturbing” effort …
Don Reisinger / Fortune:
Amazon announces a record-breaking holiday season with the number of voice-activated shopping orders placed using Alexa tripling YoY  —  Shoppers are increasingly using their voices to buy products online.  —  Amazon on Wednesday said that the number of voice-activated orders placed via …
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Source: Epic Games has earned $3B in profits in 2018, fueled by the continued success of Fortnite  —  Epic Games had as good a year in 2018 as any company in tech.  Fortnite became the world's most popular game, growing the company's valuation to $15 billion but it has helped the company pile up cash, too.
More: PC GamerTweets: @thomasbcn
Wall Street Journal:
Analysis: SEC and state regulators brought 90+ crypto-related cases in the past two years, recovering just ~$36M; cases increased as the market crashed  —  SEC and state regulators have brought more than 90 crypto cases over the past two years, but tracing funds is hard because of the elusive nature of the currency
Aftab Ahmed / Reuters:
India tightens rules for e-commerce firms like Amazon, banning exclusive agreements with sellers and the sale of products from firms the platform has a stake in  —  Aftab Ahmed, Sankalp Phartiyal  —  NEW DELHI/MUMBAI (Reuters) - India will ban e-commerce companies such as Amazon.com …
Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:
A look at Speakr, a social media influencer management platform that some influencers say has failed to pay them, with trouble starting in late 2017  —  After rising to MySpace fame in the mid-aughts, the singer-songwriter Kaila Yu amassed a following of nearly half a million fans on Facebook and 70,000 on Twitter and Instagram.
Max Read / New York Magazine:
The internet now feels increasingly fake as trust declines and users begin to understand how bots fake page views, conversations, and more  —  In late November, the Justice Department unsealed indictments against eight people accused of fleecing advertisers of $36 million …
Meng Jing / South China Morning Post:
China's Airbnb rival Xiaozhu says it will install facial recognition-enabled smart locks at 80% of listings in Chengdu, its second largest market by revenue  —  Home sharing site plans to introduce face scanning for check in at 80 per cent of its listings in southwest China's Chengdu city

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