Techmeme
December 18, 2018, 9:20 PM

Top News

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:
Anthony Levandowski launches self-driving truck startup Pronto.ai, which plans to ship level 2 automated driving systems in 2019 starting at $4,999  —  Anthony Levandowski, the former Google engineer and serial entrepreneur who was at the center of a trade secrets lawsuit between Uber and Waymo …
Ina Fried / Axios:
AT&T to launch 5G mobile service on December 21 across 12 US cities via a $499 mobile hotspot device and $70/month data plan  —  The 5G era has arrived.  AT&T is launching 5G mobile service in a dozen U.S. cities beginning this Friday, becoming the first carrier to do so.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Twitter is relaunching the reverse-chronological feed as an option for all users starting today on iOS and other platforms in the coming weeks  —  Just hit that sparkle, fam  —  Twitter is offering users another escape hatch from its ranked timeline.  The company said today that it will introduce …
Guru Gowrappan / Verizon:
On January 8, Oath, which was created from Verizon's acquisitions of Yahoo and AOL, will be rebranded as Verizon Media Group  —  Verizon Media Group will replace the Oath brand, representing our strong alignment as a core pillar of Verizon's business.  —  I'm excited today to share …
New York Times:
Senate report on Russia's disinformation campaign accuses Google, Facebook, and Twitter of being evasive and withholding data about Russian activity  —  SAN FRANCISCO — When lawmakers asked YouTube, a unit of Google, to provide information about Russian manipulation efforts …
Bloomberg:
Ina Fried / Axios:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Spectrum's parent Charter reaches $174.2M settlement in New York AG's speed fraud lawsuit, which alleged that the ISP's speeds were 80% slower than advertised  —  The lawsuit, filed last year, alleged that Charter's speeds were 80 percent slower than advertised
Wall Street Journal:
iPhone prices are unpalatable in India, where reports say its marketshare has shrunk to ~1%, and a source says it's taking in <50% of the revenue once hoped for  —  With global smartphone sales flattening, Apple has looked to India for new growth, with little success so far
Mallory Locklear / Engadget:
Facebook posts a six-month update on its civil rights audit: 2018 changes included voting encouragement and banning voting disinformation  —  In May, Facebook agreed to conduct a civil rights audit, and now the company has released an update of its progress.
Manish Singh / VentureBeat:
Truecaller report: worldwide spam calls increased 300% YoY, reaching 17.7B in 2018; Brazil led with more than 37 spam calls per user per month  —  According to the yearly report published by Stockholm-based phone number-identification service Truecaller, spam calls grew by 300 percent year-over-year in 2018.
Taylor Lorenz / The Atlantic:
As shilling products has become a sign of success for influencers, up-and-comers on Instagram are posting fake sponsored content to boost their credibility  —  Tapping through Palak Joshi's Instagram Stories recently, you might have come across a photo that looked like standard sponsored content …
Mathew Ingram / Columbia Journalism Review:
NPR's podcast measurement technology RAD has sparked debate within the industry, with Overcast's Marco Arment expressing concerns about tracking and privacy  —  Until recently, it hasn't been easy to measure the success of podcasts, beyond how many people download them …
Emily Dreyfuss / Wired:
Amnesty International calls Twitter a “toxic place for women” in a study of 288,000 tweets aimed at 778 female journalists and politicians from the US and UK  —  FOR MANY WOMEN, especially journalists, politicians, and other public figures, Twitter is something to endure.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

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More News

Matthew Leising / Bloomberg:
Ry Crist / CNET:

Earlier Picks

Kelly Weill / The Daily Beast:
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk: