Techmeme
September 17, 2019, 1:15 AM

Top News

Joseph Cox / VICE:
Richard Stallman has resigned as president and director of Free Software Foundation and from MIT's CSAIL over his comments related to Jeffrey Epstein  —  Stallman said the “most plausible scenario” is that one of Epstein's underage victims was “entirely willing.”
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Ahead of the planned September 19 release date, Apple Arcade is rolling out to users running beta versions of iOS 13 or iOS 13.1, with 50+ games to play  —  Apple Arcade appears to be rolling out to a handful of users ahead of its planned September 19 release date, based on a few tweets and emails sent to MacRumors.
Devindra Hardawar / Engadget:
Apple Arcade is a no brainer at $4.99/mo., with a strong selection of exclusives and a model that lets devs focus on fun instead of extracting money from users  —  Despite being just $5, Apple Arcade still seems like a tough sell for some gamers, who are already bombarded with other monthly services like Xbox Game Pass.
Dana Mattioli / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Amazon changed its search algorithm last year to boost items that were more profitable for it, overriding internal dissent from lawyers and engineers  —  The e-commerce giant overcame internal dissent from engineers and lawyers, people familiar with the move say.
Yahoo News:
Sources: Obama's move in 2016 to expel dozens of Russian diplomats and seize estates was in part due to a brazen Russian operation to breach FBI communications  —  On Dec. 29, 2016, the Obama administration announced that it was giving nearly three dozen Russian diplomats just 72 hours …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
LastPass fixes a bug in its Chrome and Opera extensions which exposed credentials entered on previously visited websites  —  LastPass has released a fix last week.  Vulnerability details are now public.  Users advised to update.  —  Password manager LastPass has released an update last week …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google announces a hardware event on October 15 in NYC, where it's expected to announce the Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, Pixelbook 2, and new Google Home speakers  —  Pixel 4, Pixelbook 2, new Google Assistant speakers, and more  —  Google has invited media to a hardware event on October 15th in New York City.
Ry Crist / CNET:
The Wi-Fi Alliance launches the Wi-Fi Certified 6 program for devices using next-gen 802.11ax Wi-Fi radios, expected to be up to 40% faster than Wi-Fi 5  —  Promising a “new Wi-Fi era,” the nonprofit Wi-Fi Alliance industry group launched the Wi-Fi Certified 6 program Monday.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Personal information of most of Ecuador's population, including 6.7M children, left exposed online with home addresses, phone numbers, work information, more  —  Elasticsearch server leaks personal data on Ecuador's citizens, their family trees, and children, but also some users' financial records and car registration information.
Bloomberg:
Sources: SoftBank Vision Fund backers Saudi Arabia's PIF and UAE's Mubadala are reconsidering how much to commit to Vision Fund II as a big bet on WeWork sours  —  - Saudis, Abu Dhabi consider dramatically cutting investment  — Discussions follow WeWork IPO process, drop in valuation

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Earlier Picks

Steven Melendez / Fast Company:
Colin Packham / Reuters: