Techmeme
February 18, 2020, 10:40 PM

Top News

Karen Hao / MIT Technology Review:
Interviews with current and former employees reveal how OpenAI has become more secretive as it tries to juggle its ideals with the need to finance its research  —  The AI moonshot was founded in the spirit of transparency.  This is the inside story of how competitive pressure eroded that idealism.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Ring makes two-factor authentication mandatory and pauses use of most third-party analytics services as it devises ways to limit data sharing with third parties  —  Ring is continuing its bid to improve privacy and security after facing criticism.  As of today, the Amazon brand will start requiring …
Nicholas Quah / Hot Pod News:
Patreon has launched Patreon Capital, which provides creators with cash advances they pay back with slight interest using income earned on the platform  —  I was tempted to kick this story off with a platitude along the lines of: “Starting something is the hardest part.”
Bloomberg:
Sources: iPhone SE 2 is on track to launch in March despite coronavirus crisis, and updated iPad Pro models with a new camera system are expected in H1 2020  —  - Coronavirus has hurt both supply and demand for iPhone maker  — Low-cost iPhone plans said to remain on track for March launch
Apple:
Alfred Ng / CNET:
ElectionGuard, the open-source voting machine software Microsoft announced in May 2019, gets its first real-world test today in a local vote in Fulton, WI  —  ElectionGuard isn't designed to make voting machines safe from hackers.  It's meant to make hacking them pointless.
Robert Hof / SiliconANGLE:
Dell announces it is selling its RSA cybersecurity firm to a consortium led by private equity firm Symphony Technology Group for $2.075B  —  Updated:  —  Dell Technologies Inc. announced Tuesday it's selling its venerable RSA Security LLC business to a consortium led by Palo Alto …
Nilesh Christopher / VICE:
An Indian election candidate created multiple deepfakes of his own video with him speaking different languages to access voters, reaching ~15M WhatsApp users  —  On February 7, a day ahead of the Legislative Assembly elections in Delhi, two videos of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) …
Kurt Wagner / Bloomberg:
Twitter acquires Chroma Labs, which makes tools for video and photo creation, will split team across product, design, and engineering, shut down Chroma Stories  —  - Company builds photo, video-editing features for social media  — Chroma will join Twitter to work on ‘conversations’ products
Lauren Kaori Gurley / VICE:
Kickstarter employees vote 46-37 to unionize with the Office and Professional Employees International Union  —  Kickstarter employees voted to form a union with the Office and Professional Employees International Union, which represents more than 100,000 white collar workers.
Dr. Ian Cutress / AnandTech:
Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon X60 5G modem built on a 5nm process, offering up to 7.5 Gbps download and 3 Gbps upload speeds  —  To date Qualcomm has promoted two key standalone 5G modems for widespread adoption: the Snapdragon X50 and the Snapdragon X55.  Today the company is disclosing details …
Corbin Davenport / Android Police:
Mozilla releases its VPN service Firefox Private Network on Android in a closed beta for $4.99/month  —  Mozilla, the organization behind the much-loved Firefox web browser, has experimented with creating a VPN service for some time.  Unlike the VPNs packaged with browsers like Opera …
Steve Streza:
iOS users not subscribed to Apple's services are constantly forced to look at ads for those services, either in first-party apps or through push notifications  —  Over the years, Apple has built up a portfolio of services and add-ons that you pay for.  Starting with AppleCare extended warranties …

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More News

Steven Overly / Politico:

Earlier Picks

Amelia Lucas / CNBC:
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Jay Peters / The Verge: