Techmeme
March 13, 2018, 12:30 PM

Top News

Chloe Aiello / CNBC:
President Trump signed an order blocking Singapore-based Broadcom's proposed acquisition of US-based Qualcomm, citing national security concerns  —  President Donald Trump killed Broadcom's proposed buyout of Qualcomm, citing national security concerns, according to a statement issued by the White House on Monday.
Andrew Ross Sorkin / New York Times:
Larry Page-backed flying taxi firm Kitty Hawk signs agreement with New Zealand government to test autonomous planes as part of an official certification process  —  Since October, a mysterious flying object has been seen moving through the skies over the South Island of New Zealand.
Alfred Ng / CNET:
Experts reveal 13 alleged flaws in AMD Ryzen and EPYC chips, just 24 hours after showing AMD, that allow malware to be installed on secure portions of the chips  —  Researchers have discovered critical security flaws in AMD chips that could allow attackers to access sensitive data …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: Facebook is aiming to launch a news section for its Watch platform this summer and is testing different video partnerships with roughly ten publishers  —  Facebook is getting ready to launch a news section for its Watch platform and it's testing different video partnerships with roughly 10 publishers, Axios has learned.
Sam Levin / The Guardian:
Rise in reports of TSA searching devices of passengers of domestic flights has led ACLU to sue the agency, demanding it disclose its policies; TSA denies claims  —  Exclusive: growing number of reports raises concerns US government may be increasing surveillance and privacy violations at airports
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Fitbit launches its second mainstream smartwatch, Versa, for $200, and the first fitness wearable for kids, Ace, for $100; both available for preorder today  —  Fitbit has announced new wearables Fitbit Versa, which runs the upcoming Fitbit OS 2.0, and Fitbit Ace.  Both are available for preorder today.
iFixit:
Galaxy S9+ teardown: two blades for changing aperture versus the usual five on normal cameras; battery, iris scanner, front cam are basically unchanged from S8+  —  Tools Featured in this Teardown  —  Introduction  —  While phone makers and operating system developers of dubious numeracy skip straight …
Stephen Nellis / Reuters:
Annual Harris reputation poll of corporate brands says Amazon retained the top spot, Apple dropped from 5th to 29th, while Google dropped from 8th to 28th  —  (Reuters) - Apple Inc and Alphabet Inc's Google corporate brands dropped in an annual survey while Amazon.com Inc maintained the top spot …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
RapidAPI, an API marketplace that processes 400B API calls each month, raises $9M led by A16Z  —  APIs — lightweight application interfaces that developers use both to integrate third-party services into their own apps, and to let their apps get used more easily by other developers …
Shannon Liao / The Verge:
University of Arizona tracks freshman students' usage of ID cards, which can be swiped at library, snack machines, and more, to intervene with likely dropouts  —  The University of Arizona is tracking freshman students' ID card swipes to anticipate which students are more likely to drop out.
More: Quartz
Austin Powell / The Daily Dot:
The rising value of Spotify playlists by prominent users has spurred pay-for-play schemes despite Spotify updating its ToS explicitly prohibiting the practice  —  Tommie King could be the next rapper to breakout from Atlanta.  He's well-connected, has obvious swagger, and he's been quietly building …
More: BGRThanks:@dailydot
Sapna Maheshwari / New York Times:
For vetting Instagram influencers, marketing agencies are increasingly using services from firms that have developed tech to identify fake followers or bots  —  In a sunny office in the SoHo neighborhood of Manhattan, Mike Schmidt spends his time ferreting out fake Instagram accounts.
More: Adweek and Forbes

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