Techmeme
May 17, 2016, 8:05 AM

Top News

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:
Source: Twitter will stop counting photos and links in the 140-character limit as soon as within next two weeks  —  Company said to make the change in next couple of weeks  —  CEO Jack Dorsey aims to make it easier to compose tweets  —  Twitter Inc. will soon stop counting photos and links …
Mark Harris / Backchannel:
Otto, founded by ex-Google engineers, exits stealth to sell self-driving kits for retrofitting semi-trailers  —  A group of ex-Google engineers have just launched Otto, an autonomous trucking startup  —  Otto's first vehicle is twice as long and six times as heavy as Google's cute prototype car …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
MCX postpones rollout of Apple Pay rival CurrentC, lays off 30, will focus on bank deals  —  As merchants like Walmart move aheadon their own mobile payment strategies, a consortium that once counted Walmart — along with a number of other big retailers and brands — behind it, has taken a step back.
Luke Wroblewski / Official Google Blog:
Google announces Spaces, a new app for small group sharing around any topic, for Android, iOS, and web  —  Group sharing isn't easy.  From book clubs to house hunts to weekend trips and more, getting friends into the same app can be challenging.  Sharing things typically involves hopping between apps to copy and paste links.
Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:
Blockchain announces Thunder, an alternative network for enabling fast off-blockchain transactions that settle against the bitcoin blockchain at a later date  —  Blockchain, the company behind the world's most popular bitcoin wallet, has been quietly working on an interesting project called Thunder.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Apple releases iTunes 12.4, brings back left sidebar, but doesn't address core issues with navigation and possibly makes it worse  —  Apple knows that the iTunes interface is extremely confusing and needs work.  But apparently its solution is to add even more menus.
Wall Street Journal:
Inside the Final Days of LendingClub CEO Renaud Laplanche  —  The allegations around Mr. Laplanche also raise tough questions for the fast-growing fintech industry  —  On April 22, LendingClub Corp. founder and Chief Executive Renaud Laplanche took the stage at a New York ceremony …
The Intercept:
The Intercept begins releasing installments of NSA's internal newsletters starting from 2003  —  SIDtoday is the internal newsletter for the NSA's most important division, the Signals Intelligence Directorate.  After editorial review, The Intercept is releasing nine years' worth of newsletters in batches, starting with 2003.
Connie Loizos / TechCrunch:
Debra Lee, chairman and CEO of Viacom's Black Entertainment Television, joins Twitter's board  —  Debra Lee, who has been CEO of Viacom's Black Entertainment Television (BET) since 2005 and its chairman since 2006, has joined the board of Twitter.  She tweeted out the news earlier today.

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More News

The Economic Times:

Earlier Picks

Ellen Huet / Bloomberg:
San Francisco Chronicle:
Tim Peterson / Marketing Land:
Lauren Pollock / Wall Street Journal:
Greg Bensinger / Wall Street Journal: