Techmeme: RBC Capital Markets: 41% of US consumers now own a smart speaker, compared to 21.5% in 2017; the growth was mostly driven by Alexa and Google Home devices (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

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December 31, 2018, 8:15 AM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Amazon is planning to build and expand Whole Foods stores across the US to put more customers within range of its Prime Now two-hour delivery service — Expansion would widen tech giant's delivery reach — Amazon.com Inc. AMZN 1.12% is planning to build and expand Whole Foods stores across …

More: Digital Trends, The Verge, PYMNTS.com, GeekWire, Gizmodo, Firstpost, Engadget, and CNET

Tweets: @cristinagberta, @devindra, @alexisohanian, @upstreamism, @drorpoleg, @retailprophet, and @laurastevens

Los Angeles Times:

Malware attack on Tribune Publishing's network disrupts the printing and distribution of Saturday editions of LA Times, WSJ, NYT, and other papers — A cyberattack that appears to have originated from outside the United States caused major printing and delivery disruptions at several newspapers across …

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

Privacy International: popular Android apps like TripAdvisor, Kayak, Indeed, MyFitnessPal share data with Facebook without user consent, possibly violating GDPR — Some of the most popular apps for Android smartphones, including Skyscanner, TripAdvisor and MyFitnessPal …

More: 9to5Google, Privacy International, PYMNTS.com, Engadget, and TechLifeWeb

Tweets: @johnwilander, @antoniocasilli, @went1955, and @carnage4life. Thanks:@cremnob

Eric Bellman / Wall Street Journal:

How Amazon is opening tiny stores, adding local language descriptors, and accepting cash payments to target the 800M people living outside India's big cities — The retailer is targeting hundreds of millions of new online shoppers in India's countryside by adding Hindi and videos …

Tweets: @bethblackshire, @wsj, @oraunak, @wsj, @ericbellmanwsj, and @sajithpai

Amy Nordrum / IEEE Spectrum:

How Facebook engineers keep Messenger from crashing on New Year's Eve, when more messages are sent than on any other day, through “graceful degradation” — Messenger's 1.3 billion users send more messages on New Year's Eve than on any other day of the year

Tweets: @ieeespectrum and @ieeespectrum

New York Times:

In a formerly undisclosed memo from March, a top FTC enforcement official said Facebook wasn't at fault for Cambridge Analytica's abuses; FTC says probe ongoing — Last spring, soon after Facebook acknowledged that the data of tens of millions of its users had improperly been obtained …

Tweets: @nickconfessore, @justinhendrix, @nytimes, @themoko, @nickconfessore, @matthewstoller, and @nickconfessore

Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:

Big players in autonomous driving like Uber, Tesla, and Waymo had a disappointing 2018, but several startups with a “minimum viable product” made good progress — Big companies struggled but small ones moved forward. — As 2018 dawned, expectations for self-driving vehicles were sky-high:

More: Mashable

Andrew Tarantola / Engadget:

AI image processing for computer vision, facial recognition, image generation, and other applications saw marked improvements in 2018 — Computer scientists have spent more than two decades teaching, training and developing machines to see the world around them.

Julia Reda:

European Commission to start offering bug bounties in January on 14 Free Software projects like Notepad++ and VLC that the EU institutions rely on — It's been a while since I last wrote about the Free and Open Source Software Audit project, FOSSA, so let me start with a quick recap …

More: BleepingComputer, ZDNet, Engadget, Softpedia News, TechSpot, Digital Trends, Forbes, BetaNews, AskWoody, and Slashdot

Tweets: @alolita, @senficon, @themadhacker, @phpc, @vessonsecurity, @vessonsecurity, and @campuscodi

Katie Hafner / New York Times:

Lawrence Roberts, who helped design the Arpanet and oversaw its implementation in 1969, dies at 81 — In late 1966, a 29-year-old computer scientist drew a series of abstract figures on tracing paper and a quadrille pad. Some resembled a game of cat's cradle; others looked like heavenly constellations …

More: Gizmodo. Tweets: @vgcerf, @nytimes, @katiehafner, and @stevenlevy

Stella Yifan Xie / Wall Street Journal:

How Booking Holdings, formerly Priceline, is betting on China's online travel market with partnerships and more than $2B in investments in Chinese companies — Booking, formerly Priceline, is investing heavily in Chinese travel startups — Nearly two decades ago, Priceline.com …

Abhimanyu Ghoshal / The Next Web:

Inside digital music piracy and sharing in the 2000s via P2P networks like Napster, LimeWire, Gnutella, as well as IRC and internet music service Audiogalaxy — A couple of decades ago - well before a $10 monthly fee would unlock access to virtually every song ever recorded through streaming services …

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 8:15 AM ET, December 31, 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

Brian Stelter / CNN:

In a letter to Bob Iger, incoming FCC Chair Brendan Carr raised concerns about ABC's negotiations with its affiliated stations, public trust in media, and more

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Fubo says TelevisaUnivision has pulled its networks from Fubo and that TelevisaUnivision offered terms “that would increase prices by 25%” for Fubo subscribers

Cecilia D'Anastasio / Bloomberg:

Riot Games says it spent $250M on an unusual deal to finance two seasons of League of Legends show Arcane on Netflix; sources: there was no plan to recoup costs

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Globes Online:

Der Spiegel: Volkswagen is planning to write off over $300M it invested in Gett, as the Israeli startup struggles to compete with Uber, Lyft, Didi, and others

More: Haaretz, CTECH, and Reuters

Aria Thaker / Quartz:

In an year of breaches, data leaks, and reports of starvation deaths due to faulty implementation, India's Aadhaar had its constitutional status upheld in 2018

Shannon Bond / Financial Times:

Inside Uber's serious incident team for US where ~130 investigators deal with reports of crashes, physical altercations, sexual misconduct, theft, and stalking

Tweets: @tonywest

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

RBC Capital Markets: 41% of US consumers now own a smart speaker, compared to 21.5% in 2017; the growth was mostly driven by Alexa and Google Home devices

More: Business Insider

Susan Fowler / New York Times:

The biggest challenges for US tech firms in 2019: GDPR-like privacy protections, large security breaches becoming routine, and anti-government employee protests

Tweets: @susanthesquark, @moiragweigel, @nytopinion, @mer__edith, @nytopinion, @wslack, @bradfordcross, and @alexstamos

Mike Cherney / Wall Street Journal:

As Alphabet tests Wing drone deliveries in a suburb of Canberra, some enjoy the convenience of orders arriving in minutes while others complain about noise

More: [H]ardOCP. Tweets: @wsj, @wsj, and @wsj

Earlier Picks

Al Jazeera:

Bangladesh orders mobile operators to shut down high-speed mobile internet services to “prevent rumours and propaganda” ahead of national elections on Sunday

More: Gizmodo, Engadget, CNN, and Reuters

Andrew Galbraith / Reuters:

China approves the release of 80 video games, none of which are from Tencent, a week after lifting a nine-month freeze on approvals

More: TechSpot, SlashGear, TechCrunch, Engadget, and The Verge

Washington Post:

How online hate and its long-term effects lingered for seven people in 2018, including a Parkland shooting survivor, a CNN journalist, and a track cyclist

Tweets: @cameron_kasky, @geoffreyfowler, @ejgibney, and @tonyromm

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

CenturyLink says all consumer services impacted by a ~32-hour outage that started on Thursday, including its 911 emergency services, have been restored

Kellen / Droid Life:

Essential says it won't restock Essential Phone anymore, will still sell accessories and provide software updates and is focusing on its “next mobile product”