Techmeme
May 14, 2016, 9:35 AM

Top News

Dustin Slaughter / Motherboard:
Philadelphia Police Department admits it disguised a license plate surveillance truck as a Google Maps vehicle  —  The vehicle in question.  Image: Dustin Slaughter  —  The Philadelphia Police Department admitted today that a mysterious unmarked license plate surveillance truck disguised …
Bertel King, Jr / Android Police:
Android VR Placeholder Pops Up In The Google Play Developer Console  —  Yesterday we reported on a rumor that Google would unveil a new “Android VR” platform at Google I/O next week, along with a standalone headset.  Today we're seeing what looks like additional evidence.
Giuseppe Nelva / DualShockers:
Microsoft Discontinues Support for Project Spark; Online Services Going Down in August  —  Today Project Spark Community Manager Thomas Gratz announced on the game/creativity platform's official forums that support for the game is officially being discontinued.
Serenity Caldwell / iMore:
Apple acknowledges reports of music files lost while using iTunes, plans update with more safeguards next week  —  iTunes may play a role in reports that Apple Music was replacing user libraries with DRM-encumbered files.  —  Apple on Friday confirmed to iMore that a very small number …
Trista Kelley / Bloomberg:
SWIFT warns of a new hacker attack on a commercial bank similar to Bangladeshi heist, says it is part of a wider highly adaptive campaign targeting banks  —  Hackers used malware to target PDF reader of commercial bank  —  Warning comes after cyber heist from Bangladesh central bank
New York Times:
Sources: Apple and Didi were in contact for more than a year, closed the $1B deal in three weeks after CEOs met in April to discuss cooperation  —  HONG KONG — A $1 billion investment by Apple in a Chinese ride-hailing app is a rounding error for the Silicon Valley giant …
Julia Love / Reuters:
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
Samsung's $45 Charm fitness bracelet with color-coded LED alerts launches in South Korea, Italy, France, and Russia  —  Samsung has today officially launched its latest stab at the wearables market with the introduction of its new “Charm” activity band, available in a handful of markets.
Pradeep / MSPoweruser:
Microsoft adding fingerprint support to Windows 10 Mobile this summer  —  Biometrics is an increasingly popular technology that provides convenient access to systems, services, and resources.  Microsoft Windows added Biometrics support back in 2012.  The Windows Biometric Framework (WBF) …

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