Techmeme
March 7, 2018, 6:05 PM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google releases Android P preview with support for iPhone X-style notch, updates to Quick Settings and notifications, and more  —  But don't install it on your main phone  —  As it has for the last couple years, Google is releasing a developer preview of the next version of Android in March.
Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:
Android P preview: multi-camera API to better use dual cameras, Android Runtime speed boosts of up to 11% across popular apps, tightened API policies, more  —  Preview the next major version of Android with the Android P Developer Preview.  —  In what is quickly becoming an annual March tradition …
Shannon Liao / The Verge:
Amazon confirms some Alexa devices are randomly laughing and says it's working on a fix, after multiple users posted about it on social media  —  Wait, what?  —  Over the past few days, users with Alexa-enabled devices have reported hearing strange, unprompted laughter.
Russell Holly / Windows Central:
Oculus Rift users say a problem with Oculus Runtime Service's certificate has made all Rift devices useless until Oculus releases an update  —  Oculus goofed, and it's going to be a little bit before you can use your Rift again.  —  If you were hoping to get a little VR in today …
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica:
SEC issues strongly worded warning on unregulated cryptocurrency exchanges, saying “many” appear SEC-approved when they aren't; Bitcoin is down 8%+  —  Bitcoin falls 10 percent after regulators signal crackdown on exchanges.  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission issued …
Alex Heath / Cheddar:
Sources: Snap plans layoffs to its engineering department, the largest layoffs to date; source says about 100 people, less than 10% of the unit, are affected  —  Snap Inc. is preparing its largest round of layoffs to date, Cheddar has learned.  —  The Snapchat-maker plans to announce …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft confirms Windows 10 S will no longer be a dedicated operating system and will become a “mode” of Windows 10 in 2019  —  Windows 10 S will no longer be a dedicated version next year  —  Microsoft says its plans to move Windows 10 S from a dedicated operating system to a special …
David Streitfeld / New York Times:
Interview with Peter Thiel on Facebook's board dynamics, Russian interference in 2016 election, his continued support for Trump, his bid for Gawker assets, more  —  Peter Thiel is Silicon Valley's homegrown Cassandra.  He warned for years that the big tech companies were arrogant and clueless …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft announces new AI platform for Windows 10 developers ahead of Build, including ability to import different learning models, available in Visual Studio  —  Microsoft is planning to include more artificial intelligence capabilities inside Windows 10 soon.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Magic Leap raises an additional $461M from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia, on top of its $502M round in October, bringing total Series D funding to $963M  —  Magic Leap still hasn't released a product, but they're continuing to raise a lot of cash to get there.
Farhad Manjoo / New York Times:
NYT journalist Farhad Manjoo spent nearly two months relying solely on print for his news and concluded that digital has broken how we process information  —  I first got news of the school shooting in Parkland, Fla., via an alert on my watch.  Even though I had turned off news notifications months ago …
Kim Zetter / The Intercept:
Study of Shadow Brokers documents: in 2013 the NSA was tracking 45+ different nation state operations by detecting other hackers on machines it had infected  —  When the mysterious entity known as the “Shadow Brokers” released a tranche of stolen NSA hacking tools to the internet a year ago …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon launches a low-cost version of Prime at $5.99 per month for qualifying recipients of Medicaid  —  Amazon announced this morning it will offer a low-cost version of its Prime membership program to qualifying recipients of Medicaid.  The program will bring the cost of Prime …
New York Times:
US national security panel, CFIUS, calls for full investigation of Broadcom's bid for Qualcomm as tech companies are increasingly caught in US-China rivalry  —  WASHINGTON — As the United States and China look to protect their national security needs and economic interests …
Lisa Lee / Bloomberg:
Sources: Uber is seeking $1.25B for its second leveraged loan and has been approaching loan investors directly instead of going through banks  —  Uber Technologies Inc. is seeking $1.25 billion in its second foray in the U.S. leveraged loan market, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
DHS watchdog report says many agency computers run outdated operating systems and haven't had security patches in years; fixes coming by late September  —  An inspector general audit found dozens of computers across the agency's networks were running old and outdated software, and in some cases …

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