Techmeme
January 15, 2020, 4:50 PM

Top News

Alan Boyle / GeekWire:
Sources: Apple has acquired Seattle-based Xnor.ai, which develops low-power, edge-based AI image recognition tools, for around $200M  —  Apple has acquired Xnor.ai, a Seattle startup specializing in low-power, edge-based artificial intelligence tools, sources with knowledge of the deal told GeekWire.
James Vincent / The Verge:
In a Q&A, Jack Dorsey discusses Twitter's thinking around an edit button and says “we'll probably never do it”  —  You've got to live with your mistakes, which includes joining Twitter  —  Twitter users have been asking for the option to edit tweets ever since the service launched in 2006 …
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Google Smart Lock on iOS now leverages Secure Enclave to enable the iPhone's use as a physical 2FA key to sign in to Google apps via Chrome on nearby devices  —  Last year, Google announced that all Android 7+ devices can be used as two-factor authentication when signing into Gmail, Drive, and other first-party services.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft begins rolling out its Chromium-based Edge browser, available now for Windows and macOS  —  Right on schedule, Microsoft today launched its new Edge browser based on Google's Chromium open source project.  You can download Chromium Edge now for Windows 7, Windows 8, Windows 10 …
Kif Leswing / CNBC:
In a tweet, Trump criticizes Apple for refusing to unlock phones of violent criminals and says his administration helps Apple “all of the time” on trade  —  - In a tweet, president Donald Trump addressed the conflict between the FBI and Apple over locked iPhones used by the suspected Pensacola shooter.
New York Times:
Sources: Apple is preparing for a legal fight with the DOJ, similar to San Bernardino, which was not legally resolved before FBI dropped the case  —  The Silicon Valley giant is preparing for a legal fight over encryption, even as it works to reduce tensions with the Justice Department.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Internal memo: Mozilla lays off ~70 as its plans to increase revenue from new subscription products and sources outside search in 2019 did not pan out  —  Mozilla laid off about 70 employees today, TechCrunch has learned.  —  In an internal memo, Mozilla chairwoman and interim CEO Mitchell …
More: CNET and Mercury News
Bloomberg:
Blake Hester / Polygon:
Former Microsoft employees and third-party developers reflect on the rise and fall of Microsoft Kinect, which was once billed as the future of Xbox  —  For a moment a decade ago, the game industry looked like a very different place  —  Illustrations by Cobysoft Joe for Polygon
Kashmir Hill / New York Times:
As companies comply with privacy laws like GDPR and CCPA, many have insecure practices for giving users their data and some outsource user identity verification  —  A new California privacy law gives consumers the right to see and delete their data.  But getting access often requires giving up more personal details.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Nicholas Thompson / Wired:
Interview with US CTO Michael Kratsios on the government's recent regulatory framework for AI, the potential for an AI cold war with China, and more  —  In a WIRED Q&A, the US chief technology officer warns against overregulating tech, underestimating the Chinese, and losing America's lead in quantum computing.
Yuan Yang / Financial Times:
A look at how US pressure, driven by national security and trade concerns, has led to China seeking increased technological self-sufficiency  —  The acrimony between China and the US over technology transfers has created plenty of losers during the past year.
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Amid an antitrust probe and protests by small merchants, Jeff Bezos travels to India to announce a further $1B investment into Amazon's operations over 5 years  —  India welcomed Jeff Bezos this week with an antitrust probe.  On top of that, thousands of small merchants who typically compete …

Sponsor Posts

Airtable:
Meet Airtable ProductCentral  —  The unified solution for managing your entire product development process in the AI era.
Tribe AI:
Build AI products that matter  —  Tribe AI helps organizations rapidly deploy AI solutions that have real business impact.  We bring together world class AI talent and tooling to drive differentiated results.
Zoho:
Zoho Forms for successful Black Friday sales  —  Black Friday is a retail frenzy that can significantly impact your bottom line.  To make the most of this shopping bonanza, you need a strategy that not only attracts customers …
Hamming:
Make AI Voice Agents trustworthy  —  Hamming AI automatically tests AI voice agents and continuously monitors them in production.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Mon. 11/04 - Apple Buying And Investing In Things
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:50 PM ET, January 15, 2020.

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

Earlier Picks

Jeff Stone / CyberScoop:
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Thomas Germain / Consumer Reports:
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security: