Techmeme
October 4, 2018, 7:00 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Chinese spies inserted tiny chips onto products from US-based motherboard giant Supermicro to infiltrate ~30 US companies including Amazon and Apple  —  In 2015, Amazon.com Inc. began quietly evaluating a startup called Elemental Technologies, a potential acquisition to help …
Bloomberg:
Amazon, Apple, Supermicro, and the Chinese government issue statements disputing the allegations of Bloomberg Businessweek's hacking story  —  Complete text.  —  In emailed statements, Amazon, Apple, and Supermicro disputed summaries of Bloomberg Businessweek's reporting.
Fred Sainz / Apple:
Apple says it has never found malicious chips in its servers, calls Bloomberg reporters' claims unsubstantiated and untrue, says it is not under a gag order  —  The October 8, 2018 issue of Bloomberg Businessweek incorrectly reports that Apple found “malicious chips” in servers on its network in 2015.
Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Sources describe the internal turmoil at Facebook following Joel Kaplan's appearance in support of Brett Kavanaugh during his testimony to Congress last week  —  SAN FRANCISCO — “I want to apologize,” the Facebook executive wrote last Friday in a note to staff.
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Instagram begins rolling out Nametag, which displays usernames in a format that can easily be scanned by others  —  It's also testing School Community bios at some US universities  —  Instagram is rolling out a new way to quickly follow people you've met in real life.
BBC:
US DOJ indicts seven GRU officers with charges relating to cyberattacks on the global chemical weapons watchdog, anti-doping agencies, and a US nuclear company  —  Russian spies have been accused of involvement in a series of cyber-plots across the globe, leading the US to level charges against seven agents.
Takashi Mochizuki / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Nintendo plans to release a new version of Switch in the latter half of 2019, perhaps as soon as summer  —  Updated console isn't expected to adopt the OLED panels used in Apple's iPhone X series  —  TOKYO— Nintendo Co. NTDOY -1.78% plans to release a new version …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google says Assistant users can now compare ride-hailing prices and book a ride from Uber, Lyft, Ola, Grab, Go-Jek, and more  —  But you still need your phone to complete the request  —  After announcing some updates to the Google Assistant user experience yesterday, today Google is rolling …
Valentina Palladino / Ars Technica:
Dell unveils the 15.6-inch Alienware m15, its thinnest and lightest gaming laptop, with Nvidia Max-Q GPUs, available October 25 starting at $1,099  —  Dell hopped on the ultra-portable gaming-PC bandwagon with a revamped Alienware laptop designed to appeal to serious and wannabe gamers alike.
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Bird announces Bird Delivery, which brings scooters to users' homes or offices in six cities, and unveils Bird Zero, a rugged scooter with a digital screen  —  Bird, the electric scooter sharing startup worth $2 billion, is further differentiating itself from the rest of the pack with the launch of custom, rugged electric scooters.
More: The Verge
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
DevOps platform JFrog raises $165M Series D led by Insight Venture Partners, at a valuation “way north” of $1B, says CEO  —  DevOps platform JFrog has raised $165 million in a series D round of funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Battery Ventures …
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
TD Ameritrade and a slew of Wall Street firms invest an undisclosed amount in cryptocurrency exchange ErisX, which plans to launch spot trading in Q2 2019  —  Brokerage giant TD Ameritrade, a slew of high-speed traders, and a long list of Wall Street firms are getting behind a brand new market …
Steven Melendez / Fast Company:
MIT/Qatar project aims to use machine learning to detect fake news sites, taking into account their content, URLs, Wikipedia pages and Twitter presence  —  Thanks to social media, it's easy to come across reporting from unfamiliar news sources around the world.

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