Techmeme
October 24, 2018, 12:20 AM

Top News

Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
iPhone XR review: despite some drawbacks, the XR has a better price, battery, and more colorful design than the XS, making it hard to recommend the XS over XR  —  The iPhone XR has a few price-cutting compromises, but great battery life, Face ID and a colorful design make it the best iPhone to buy
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
iPhone XR review: competitive price for Apple's latest processor and cameras with a great battery life, but comes in only one size and the display is not great  —  Big screen, small compromise  —  Video by Phil Esposito & Becca Farsace  —  Here's a question: how much do you care about the display on a phone?
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Craig Silverman / BuzzFeed News:
Investigation reveals a network of 125+ Android apps and websites that are part of a massive ad fraud scheme; the apps were installed an estimated 115M+ times  —  Last April, Steven Schoen received an email from someone named Natalie Andrea who said she worked for a company called We Purchase Apps.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook rolls out a redesigned Messenger app with a focus on simplicity, using more white space and fewer tabs, and plans to add a dark mode in coming months  —  A powerful utility goes back to basics  —  Facebook is releasing a redesigned version of Messenger today that attempts to put the focus back on your chats.
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
Coinbase adds its first stablecoin, a Circle-issued coin called USDC tied to the US dollar, which US customers outside NY state can buy and sell  —  Crypto exchange Coinbase announced support for the Circle-issued stablecoin Tuesday.  —  In a blog post, the exchange said U.S. customers outside …
Jessica Toonkel / The Information:
Sources: Apple plans to offer TV subscription service in 100+ countries, debuting in US in first half of next year, will offer free shows to Apple device owners  —  Apple is planning to launch its upcoming TV subscription service in more than 100 countries, three people familiar with the company's plans told The Information.
Dami Lee / The Verge:
Mozilla launches Firefox 63, introducing Enhanced Tracking Protection, which blocks third-party trackers to increase privacy but is off by default, and more  —  Mozilla has released Firefox 63, which introduces Enhanced Tracking Protection, a feature that blocks third-party trackers to increase your privacy online.
Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / Motherboard:
FireEye says it has linked Triton malware that inadvertently shut down a Saudi petrochemical plant in 2017 to a Russian government-owned research institute  —  Cybersecurity firm FireEye points the finger at the Russian government and a government-linked facility for creating a destructive malware.
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
A look at Thalmic Labs' new normal-looking smart glasses, called Focals, that display info in the right lens and will ship next year for $1,000  —  Although few people seem to really want to wear smart glasses or goggles — think Google Glass or Snapchat Spectacles — a startup thinks it's figured …
Julian E. Barnes / New York Times:
Sources: US Cyber Command targets Russian operatives to deter them from spreading disinformation, in first known overseas cyberoperation to protect elections  —  WASHINGTON — The United States Cyber Command is targeting individual Russian operatives to try to deter them from spreading disinformation …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Lyft acquires UK-based AR startup Blue Vision Labs and unveils its first Ford test vehicle for its Level 5 self-driving initiative  —  The company has acquired the AR startup Blue Vision Labs and unveiled its first Ford test vehicle  —  Ingrid Lunden , Jonathan Shieber 7 hours
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Uber plans to expand Uber Eats to cover over 70% of the US by the end of the year, up from 50%+ today; rival Postmates recently said it covers 60%  —  Megan Rose Dickey @meganrosedickey / 9 hours  —  Uber is continuing to expand its on-demand food delivery service, Eats.
More: The Verge and Fortune
Alex Konrad / Forbes:
Envoy, which sells an iPad-based visitor management product, raises $43M Series B led by Menlo Ventures and plans new smart office products by end of year  —  Larry Gadea says he knew his startup Envoy was truly taking off when he found out WD-40 was using its software in multiple offices.

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