Techmeme
January 1, 2019, 11:00 PM

Top News

Drew Harwell / Washington Post:
How deepfakes, AI-generated videos that graft a person's face onto another's body, have been weaponized to harass and humiliate their subjects, mostly women  —  “Deepfake” creators are making disturbingly realistic, computer-generated videos with photos taken from the Web, and ordinary women are suffering the damage.
Jennifer Ouellette / Ars Technica:
Researchers used a series of auctions to find that, on average, it would take more than $1,000 to entice a Facebook user to deactivate their account for a year  —  Some users required more than $1,000 to deactivate their account for one year. … A series of auctions revealed …
Babu Mohan / MySmartPrice:
Leaked video of Nokia 9 PureView shows a smartphone flagship with 5 rear-facing cameras, a 5.99" display with 2K resolution, and an in-screen fingerprint sensor  —  The Nokia 9 PureView will sport a 5.99" PureDisplay with 2K resolution and run on a Snapdragon 845 SoC under the hood.
Wall Street Journal:
Tech trends for 2019: foldable phones, 5G, cashierless retail, privacy legislation, autonomous delivery wagons, IoT edge computing, and more  —  From delivery wagons and foldable phones to privacy crackdowns and corporate health tracking, the coming year will make good on some of the tech industry's biggest promises
Natasha Singer / New York Times:
Experts say Facebook's opaque approach toward flagging possible suicide threats to police around the world may not be accurate, effective, or safe  —  A police officer on the late shift in an Ohio town recently received an unusual call from Facebook.  —  Earlier that day …
Theodore Schleifer / Recode:
All Raise: 14 women were added to US VC firms in senior roles in Q2 2018, the most of any recent quarter, but about 75% of firms still have no female partners  —  Venture capitalists spent 2018 welcoming women to the fold, but the welcome has been fitful, uneven and, scariest of all, tentative.
Zen Soo / South China Morning Post:
A look at a comprehensive Chinese e-commerce law, which was passed in August to address the sale of counterfeit and copycat merchandise, that is now in effect  —  - E-commerce platform operators are jointly liable with merchants for selling counterfeit and copycat merchandise on their websites
Selim Chtayti / Agence France-Presse:
Parents are often shocked by inappropriate videos on TikTok, a major hit with teens that Sensor Tower says was the most downloaded app on iOS in H1 2018  —  TikTok's video-sharing app was the most downloaded on Apple's App Store in the first half of 2018, beating out Facebook, Instgram and Snapchat
Brad Sams / Petri:
In 2018, Microsoft said it would start giving app developers an 85%-95% cut for non-game apps, up from 70%, but the new pricing hasn't been implemented yet  —  Back in the spring of 2018, Microsoft published a blog post saying that the company would soon be more generous with its revenue share in the Microsoft store.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Gemini 2.5 Pro: Our most intelligent AI model  —  Gemini 2.5 Pro (experimental) is now available, with thinking capabilities, enhanced performance, and improved accuracy.  Try it at no cost in the Gemini app.
UiPath:
Introducing the UiPath Platform™ for agentic automation  —  UiPath's new platform empowers enterprises to experience the full power of AI to transform industries
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Savoir for Zoho Books  —  App Spotlight brings you hand-picked solutions that enhance your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all of our apps, integrations …
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.

Featured Podcasts

Techmeme Ride Home:
Apple's Coming For The Meta Ray-Bans
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Hard Fork:
Bad Apple + The Rise of the AI Empire + Italian Brain Rot
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
The Logan Bartlett Show:
Yotam Segev (CEO, Cyera) on Growing One of the Fastest Security Startups on the Planet
A podcast hosted by Logan Bartlett, an investor at Redpoint Ventures, covering tech with industry insiders.
Subscribe to The Logan Bartlett Show.
Great Chat:
Great managers, and what makes them great
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
Reuters is ready to stand up for the press -- and embrace AI
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Lenny's Podcast:
How have I been complicit in creating the conditions I say I don't want? | Jerry Colonna (CEO of Reboot, executive coach, former VC)
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 11:00 PM ET, January 1, 2019.

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

Frank Chaparro / The Block:

Earlier Picks

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times: