Techmeme
December 14, 2016, 3:20 PM

Top News

April Glaser / Recode:
Uber debuts self driving cars in San Francisco today with two operators: one backup for driving and another to collect and analyze data in the passenger seat  —  With drivers behind the wheels.  —  Uber is bringing its self-driving technology to San Francisco.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
California's Dept. of Motor Vehicles says Uber needs a permit for its self-driving cars in SF; Uber disagrees, as drivers are present during rides  —  Uberlaunched a small fleet of self-driving vehicles in San Francisco on Tuesday, but the second city to host the public test …
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Amazon Prime Video is now in 200+ countries, excluding China, at no additional cost for Prime members, and $5.99/month in countries with no Prime option  —  A month after it dropped major hints, Amazon has made its Prime Video service available in more than 200 countries worldwide bringing …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Twitter adds live video broadcast to its iOS and Android apps; Periscope will continue as a standalone app  —  Periscope down  —  Twitter released an update today that will let you broadcast live video from within its app for iOS and Android.  The feature is “powered by” Periscope …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Amazon begins Prime Air drone delivery trials in the UK, starting with two shoppers and expanding to a few dozen over time; first delivery took 13 minutes total  —  Amazon today announced that it has started a small private drone delivery trial in the UK.  It's currently working …
Instagram Blog:
Instagram introduces bookmarking for posts, letting users save them for later in a private tab  —  Starting today, you can save posts you'd like to revisit later.  —  Now you'll see a new bookmark icon underneath posts in your feed.  Simply tap it to save a post to a new, private tab on your profile.
Kate Conger / TechCrunch:
Evernote's new privacy policy, set to take effect on Jan. 23, would let some employees read user notes to aid with machine learning, although users can opt-out  —  Evernote announced that it will roll out a new privacy policy on January 23, and the changes have users threatening to abandon the service.
Brian Fung / Washington Post:
Uber CEO Travis Kalanick and Tesla CEO Elon Musk taking on strategic advisory roles with Trump, will “meet with the president frequently”  —  The heads of Uber and Tesla are taking on strategic advisory roles with President-elect Donald Trump.  —  Travis Kalanick …
John Cook / GeekWire:
Wynn Resorts to put Amazon Echo in 4.7K+ Wynn Las Vegas rooms, starting summer 2017  —  Alexa, open the curtains?  —  You may soon be able to ask that question when traveling to the Wynn Las Vegas hotel, which announced today that it will place Amazon's Echo device — powered by the voice assistant Alexa — in all 4,748 hotel rooms.
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
150 prominent filmmakers sign an open letter to major camera makers, including Canon, Nikon, Sony, and others, asking for default storage encryption  —  In the summer of 2013, when documentary filmmaker Laura Poitras was shooting a still-secret NSA leaker named Edward Snowden in a Hong Kong hotel room, she took security seriously.
Tony Romm / Politico:
IBM announces plan to hire 25K new workers in the US over the next four years, including 6K the next year, and a $1B investment for training and development  —  IBM CEO Ginni Rometty announced Tuesday that her company would hire 25,000 new workers over the next four years …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple's standalone support app for accessing product docs, scheduling Genius Bar appointments, more, hits the US app Store, rolling out to more countries later  —  Apple's recently launched standalone support application is now hitting the U.S. App Store.  The app, which had quietly debuted …
Peter Kafka / Recode:
Facebook is in talks with TV shows and video producers about licensing content including original, licensed, scripted, unscripted, and sports programming  —  The company says it wants to “kickstart” its video efforts.  —  Facebook, which has long relied on other people to provide it with content …
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Kickstarter open sources code for its native iOS and Android apps, making it available on GitHub, as part of the company's commitment to helping startups  —  Kickstarter is pulling back the curtain on its app development process.  This morning, the crowdfunding platform is taking …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Commenting platform Disqus lays off 20% of its workforce, or 11 people, as it shifts business models to focus on data services for publishers and advertisers  —  Some downsizing and refocusing is underway at Disqus, the startup incubated at Y-Combinator that became an early mover in the business …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Google Drive for iOS updated with ability to back up contacts, calendar, and camera roll, to make switching from iPhone to Android easier  —  Google has updated its website that guides iPhone owners through the process of making the change to Android.  But more importantly …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple temporarily pulls 3.1.1 watchOS update after reports of it bricking some Series 2 Watch models  —  Following complaints that the new watchOS 3.1.1 update is bricking some Series 2 Apple Watch models, Apple has temporarily pulled the update.  —  watchOS 3.1.1 is no longer available …

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Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: