Techmeme
August 29, 2018, 5:10 PM

Top News

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google redesigns Wear OS with a Google Assistant feed, one-swipe access to Fit, and revamped notifications  —  And adding a Google Assistant feed  —  If you have a newer Wear OS watch, sometime in the coming month, you'll get a software update that will change what happens when you swipe on your watchface.
Robert Mitchell / Variety:
Facebook announces the international rollout of Facebook Watch, which first launched in the US a year ago this month, starting on Thursday  —  Facebook has announced the international rollout of Facebook Watch, its video destination for episodic content, which first launched in the U.S. a year ago this month.
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Blockchain-based cloud computing project DFINITY raises $102M from Andreessen Horowitz, Polychain Capital, and others  —  An ambitious blockchain project called Dfinity wants to reinvent computing by replacing large platforms like Amazon Web Services and Salesforce with a cheaper, decentralized alternative.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sonos says it will open its developer program to all partners on September 6, opening the door to audio notifications and more  —  The company is opening its developer program to all in September  —  Alongside the announcement of its brand new Sonos Amp today, Sonos has also revealed an expansion of its developer program.
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Dell unveils its fall line-up of Alexa-ready Inspiron, XPS, and Vostro laptops and 2-in-1s, updated with 8th Gen Intel Core processors  —  Dell revealed its new line-up of laptops, 2-in-1 laptop-tablet hybrids, and monitors with the latest components from Intel.
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Skagen unveils a minimalist Wear OS-based Falster 2 smartwatch with a heart-rate sensor, GPS, and NFC, available September 12 and priced from $275  —  Skagen's Falster has been one of the darlings among Wear OS smartwatches thanks to its posh yet minimalist look, but it was hard to recommend …
Catalin Cimpanu / BleepingComputer:
Reports: data of 130M guests at Chinese company Huazhu Hotels, including booking and personal info like phone numbers and email addresses, sold on the dark web  —  A hacker is selling the personal details of over 130 million hotel guests for 8 Bitcoin ($56,000) on a Chinese Dark Web forum.
Jason Del Rey / Recode:
A look at the recent $100M+ acquisitions of direct-to-consumer startups, including MVMT and Native, that raised little to no venture capital  —  A new breed of entrepreneurs is creating huge consumer brands — like MVMT and Tuft & Needle — without venture capital, and laughing all the way to the bank.
Sarah Jeong / The Verge:
An excerpt from Sarah Jeong's book “The Internet of Garbage”, which discusses online harassment as a threat to the useful functions of the internet  —  Today, The Verge is publishing an interim edition of Sarah Jeong's The Internet of Garbage, a book she first published in 2015 but has since gone out of print.
Ellen Pao / Wired:
CEOs of social media companies should not hide behind “naiveté” and “free speech” as an excuse for letting fake news and harassment flourish on their platforms  —  IT'S NOT OFTEN you hear some of the richest, most powerful men in the world described as naive, but it's becoming pretty commonplace.
Dan Primack / Axios:
Sources: a16z is shifting from multi-sector to specialized funds and plans an early stage $750M fund for consumer and enterprise software startups next year  —  Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz is changing up its fundraising strategy, moving away from multi-stage, multi-sector flagship vehicles …
New York Times:
Charlie Osborne / ZDNet:
New zero-day flaw found in Microsoft Windows task scheduler that can allow a local user to gain system privileges in Windows 10  —  Updated: There is no known workaround for the security flaw.  —  Microsoft has quickly reacted to the disclosure of a previously unknown zero-day vulnerability in the Windows operating system.

Sponsor Posts

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.
SignalFire:
SignalFire raises another $1 billion to back applied AI startups  —  We build AI too.  It tracks 650M tech employees so we can help companies with recruiting and GTM across enterprise, infra, healthcare, security, and consumer.
Zoho:
Mileage tracking made easy with Zoho Expense  —  When just a swipe of your finger could raise mileage expenses, why waste time remembering and logging every mile driven on your spreadsheets, emails, or shared files?
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:
Meta And Apple Fined By The EU
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe to Techmeme Ride Home.
Azeem Azhar's Exponential View:
Sir Niall Ferguson decodes Trump, China, and the new world order
Azeem Azhar explores how AI and exponential technologies are shaping our future.
Subscribe to Azeem Azhar's Exponential View.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Roblox CEO David Baszucki knows what your kids are doing.
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:
CrowdStrike's George Kurtz on building a generational company
A podcast from Accel about how companies are built, from the people doing the building.
Subscribe to Spotlight On.
Invest Like the Best:
Matt Huang - Investing At The Frontier
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Diggnation:
Tiki Bar TV, Appendixes, and Rideable Robot Horses
Kevin Rose and Alex Albrecht give you their unique, sometimes awkward, and always hilarious take on the edges of the internet.
Subscribe to Diggnation.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:10 PM ET, August 29, 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

Ars Technica:
Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed News:

Earlier Picks

Reuters:
Leigh Cuen / CoinDesk:
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet: