Techmeme
December 8, 2020, 9:25 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
An internal Huawei document, found on its website, says Huawei tested facial recognition with a “Uighur alarm” to alert Chinese police when it detected Uighurs  —  An internal report claims the face-scanning system could trigger a “Uighur alarm,” sparking concerns that the software …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Apple announces AirPods Max, over-ear headphones with noise cancellation, adaptive EQ, spatial audio, and audio sharing, available from December 15 for $549  —  The first over-ear headphones with an Apple logo on them  —  It turns out Apple has one more major hardware announcement …
Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
FireEye says some internal systems were hacked by nation state actors, compromising its Red Team tools, used to test the defenses of its thousands of customers  —  The cybersecurity company said the attack compromised its software tools used to test the defenses of its thousands of customers
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Cloudflare and Apple say they have developed a new protocol called Oblivious DNS-over-HTTPS, which decouples DNS queries from internet users for more privacy  —  Engineers at Cloudflare and Apple say they've developed a new internet protocol that will shore up one of the biggest holes …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: as Bob Mansfield retires, Apple puts AI chief John Giannandrea in charge of self-driving car project Titan; Doug Field runs the project day to day  —  - Company has been developing autonomous vehicle tech for years  — AI executive Giannandrea takes lead after Bob Mansfield leaves
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Substack CEO Chris Best on why it is not a media company, content moderation, making a reader app for users to easily read their newsletters, and more  —  On today's episode of Decoder, I'm talking to Chris Best, co-founder and CEO of Substack, the subscription newsletter startup that's taken …
Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:
Google says it is opening up its open source Fuchsia OS to outside developers, the first formal announcement about the project  —  For the past four years, Google has been developing a new operating system, Fuchsia, from the ground up.  Starting today, Google's Fuchsia OS is now being developed more openly …
Michael Larabel / Phoronix:
CentOS, a free Linux distro functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, says it's ending support for recently announced CentOS 8  —  Well here is a surprise for those that have long used CentOS as the community-supported rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
In a private 2018 meeting between UK's digital chief and Zuckerberg, minutes show Zuckerberg said the UK was “anti-tech” and threatened to end UK investment  —  Round of applause for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism — which fought for two years to obtain details …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Researchers detail vulnerabilities found in four open source TCP/IP stacks used in millions of embedded IoT devices, collectively called Amnesia:33  —  Amnesia:33 is the latest in a long line of vulnerabilities that affect countless embedded devices.  —  YES, AT THIS point it's a cliche that cheap …
Max Weinbach / Android Police:
Sources: Samsung Unpacked will take place on January 14, and official marketing teasers for Galaxy S21, S21+, and S21 Ultra appear to have leaked  —  Samsung's next-gen Galaxy S21 series is just about a month away, and with that official debut coming up fast, renders of the device are inevitably …
Associated Press:
Pornhub will no longer let users download videos or unverified users upload videos, after a NYT report alleged that it was hosting videos of rape, underage sex  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Pornhub said Tuesday it was halting unverified users from uploading video material after a report alleged …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Google announces Look to Speak, an experimental project for Android that helps users with speech and motor impairments by selecting phrases with their eyes  —  The Android app is designed to make communication easier for people with motor and speech impairments
Dina Bass / Bloomberg:
GitHub expands its Sponsors program to let companies directly fund open source projects, starting with Amazon, AmEx, Daimler, Stripe, and others  —  Amazon.com Inc., American Express Co., Daimler AG and Stripe Inc. are among those joining a new GitHub program that will let companies directly …
Karl Bode / VICE:
Senate votes 49-47 to appoint Trump ally Nathan Simington to the FCC for a five-year term, which could mire the FCC in partisan gridlock  —  Nathan Simington's was chosen to attack free speech and net neutrality.  He could gridlock internet policy for the next five years.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Florida police raid home of former state employee and COVID whistleblower, claiming she breached a messaging system despite all its users sharing one password  —  This is insane.  Earlier this year, we wrote about Rebekah Jones, the data scientist working for Florida, who put together …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Paris-based NextMind says its wearable $399 Dev Kit, offering a claimed real-time brain computer interface, will begin shipping  —  NextMind has started shipping its real-time brain-computer interface Dev Kit for $399.  The device translates brain signals into digital commands …

Sponsor Posts

TELUS Digital:
Are you ready for the era of agentic AI?  —  Tech leaders are always talking about what's next, and right now, agentic AI is dominating the discourse.  Equip yourself with the info you need in this recorded webinar.
Tribe AI:
State of AI: Adoption, Challenges and Recommendations  —  Examining the current state of AI, the key challenges organizations face, and practical recommendations for utilizing AI integration alongside other best practices.
Zoho:
5 reasons why digital signatures are a must-have for small and medium enterprises  —  Every morning, Hazel stops by her favorite corner cafe, where the barista already knows her order—a double espresso, no sugar.
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:
The Google Antitrust Snowball
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:
Meta on Trial + Is A.I. a 'Normal' Technology? + HatGPT
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.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
How Trump's tariffs actually work on the ground
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
Great Chat:
Imposter syndrome is due for a rebrand
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.
Spotlight On:
*RSA Preview* 1Password's Jeff Shiner on balancing B2B and B2C customers in a rapidly evolving tech landscape
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Neil Mehta - Finding Future S&P 500 Companies
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 9:25 PM ET, December 8, 2020.

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

Earlier Picks

Hartley Charlton / MacRumors: