Techmeme
April 16, 2018, 6:50 PM

Top News

Reuters:
Dept of Commerce blocks sales from US firms to ZTE for seven years, after alleged false statements to officials that followed guilty plea on sanctions violation  —  LONDON/NEW YORK (Reuters) - The U.S. Department of Commerce has banned American companies from selling components …
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Coinbase confirms acquisition of Earn.com, which lets users earn bitcoin by replying to emails and completing tasks, with CEO Balaji Srinivasan joining as CTO  —  Coinbase is acquiring Earn.com, a paid inbox service formerly known as 21 inc., with CEO Balaji Srinivasan joining as chief technology officer …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft announces the Azure Sphere stack for securing IoT devices, includes a Linux-based OS, custom silicon for microcontrollers, and matching cloud service  —  Microsoft is introducing new custom silicon, a Linux-based embedded OS and cloud service aimed at securing microcontroller-based devices.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / Motherboard:
GrayKey, the tool law enforcement's been buying to unlock iPhones, appears to work by brute forcing passcodes, another reason to use a strong alphanumeric code  —  Now that police agents can allegedly crack iPhones protected with passcodes made of six numbers, it's time to use longer, harder to guess and crack alphanumeric passphrases.
New York Times:
China's Weibo backs down from censoring gay content following backlash from users, after saying it would ban it along with other content to comply with new law  —  BEIJING — With hashtags like #Iamgaynotapervert and images of hearts and rainbows, tens of thousands of Chinese residents took …
Laharee Chatterjee / Reuters:
Netflix reports revenue of $3.7B in Q1, up 40.4% YoY, and 7.41M global net adds, up 50% YoY, ahead of its 6.35M forecast, shares jump 6%+ in after hours trading  —  (Reuters) - Netflix Inc (NFLX.O) added more international subscribers than expected in the first quarter as a slate of original shows including …
David Shepardson / Reuters:
T-Mobile fined $40M by FCC for failing to fix rural calling problems and playing ringing sounds to mislead “hundreds of millions” into thinking calls connected  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - T-Mobile USA Inc (TMUS.O) agreed on Monday to pay $40 million to resolve a government investigation …
Issie Lapowsky / Wired:
Study: of 228 groups found running divisive Facebook ads during 2016 election, 122 were “suspicious” and ran 4x more ads than others, ~20 had known links to IRA  —  WHEN YOUNG MIE Kim began studying political ads on Facebook in August of 2016—while Hillary Clinton was still leading the polls …
CNBC:
Sources: Amazon Business has shelved its plan to sell and distribute pharmaceutical products after considering it last year; CVS stock up 5%+  —  - Amazon has shelved plans to sell and distribute pharmaceutical products through Amazon Business, its marketplace for business customers.
Dan Primack / Axios:
Swiss staffing and workforce development company Adecco acquires New York-based coding school General Assembly for $412.5M; General Assembly had raised ~$120M  —  Coding school General Assembly has agreed to be acquired for $412.5 million in cash by Swiss staffing and workforce development company Adecco.
Robert Draper / New York Times:
Profile of Dan Scavino, The White House's social media director and the only man that Trump trusts with his Twitter account  —  Unraveling the mystery of the inscrutable White House social media director, whose job is to help @realDonaldTrump stay unpresidential.
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Lyft says its drivers have earned $500M+ in tips since the company was founded in 2012; tip averages up 8% YoY in 2017 due to app encouraging higher tip amounts  —  Lyft drivers have earned more than $500 million in tips to date, Lyft announced today.  Since fleshing out tip functionality …
More: Lyft Blog and Mashable
Mathieu Rosemain / Reuters:
France says it's building its own encrypted messenger service to fend off state-level espionage; President Macron's inner circle has been fond of Telegram  —  PARIS (Reuters) - The French government is building its own encrypted messenger service to ease fears that foreign entities could spy …
More: Engadget and Mashable

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:
Introducing captions, dynamic cross-references, table of tables and figures, and more in Zoho Writer  —  Easily ensure that your documents—reports, manuals, research papers, or thesis—are neatly structured …
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:
Instagram iPad App But For REAL This Time?
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
The Social Radars:
Ron Conway, Founder, SV Angel (Part 3)
Come be a fly on the wall as Y Combinator's Jessica Livingston and Carolynn Levy talk to some of the most successful founders in Silicon Valley about how they did it.
Subscribe to The Social Radars.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
NYT publisher AG Sulzberger on Trump, OpenAi and the economy
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Spotlight On:
Corelight's Brian Dye on What He's Learned About Scaling
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Michael Ovitz - Turning Potential into Prominence
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Decoder with Nilay Patel:
UiPath CEO Daniel Dines on AI agents replacing our jobs
A show from the Verge about big ideas - and other problems.
Subscribe to Decoder with Nilay Patel.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:50 PM ET, April 16, 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.

More News

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Earlier Picks