Techmeme
January 2, 2017, 1:30 PM

Top News

Matthew Humphries / PC Magazine:
Researchers: ID codes printed on boarding passes, luggage tags for ~90% of flights let hackers access travelers' personal info, steal reservations, more  —  Booking a flight has become a simple process thanks to the Internet, and once you have flights secured you can relax, right?
Mark Spoonauer / Laptop Mag:
Dell's XPS 13 2-in-1 starts at $1K, has compact fanless design, fingerprint reader, support for optional stylus, and decent battery life of about 8.5 hours  —  Pros / Most compact 2-in-1 with 13-inch screen; Comfortable keyboard; Vibrant InfinityEdge display; Impressive audio …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
FBI-DHS report fails to make a hard case that Russia tampered with US elections, likely because the agencies want to protect methods for detecting hacks  —  US issued JAR billed itself as an indictment that would prove Russian involvement.  —  Talk about disappointments.
Jemima Kelly / Reuters:
Bitcoin jumps above $1,000 for first time in three years  —  Digital currency bitcoin kicked off the new year by jumping above $1,000 for the first time in three years late on Sunday, having outperformed all central-bank-issued currencies with a 125 percent climb in 2016.
Agence France-Presse:
French law requiring companies to give workers a “right to disconnect” from work-related messages after work hours now in effect  —  From 1 January, workers have ‘right to disconnect’ as France seeks to establish agreements that afford work flexibility but avoid burnout
Joseph Cox / Motherboard:
Security Without Borders project launches to help journalists and activists with cybersecurity by connecting them with volunteer group of InfoSec professionals  —  Some hackers have lost their way.  Today, countless techies have entered the for-profit cybersecurity business …
Kara Swisher / Recode:
Twitter's managing director for Greater China, Kathy Chen, leaves after 8 months  —  Kathy Chen follows others out the door of the social communications company.  —  Twitter lost yet another top exec with the departure of Kathy Chen, its managing director in Greater China.
Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:
Review of appeals court decisions from 2016 that benefited software patent holders and set the bar for software patents after Supreme Court's Alice decision  —  It's harder, but not impossible, for owners of software patents to win cases.  —  In 2014, the US Supreme Court dealt a major blow to software patents.
Eric Newcomer / Bloomberg Technology:
Review of overlooked tech trends in 2016: faster broadband speeds, growth of digital currencies, the success of tech M&A, more  —  I'm on a flight home to Macon, Georgia, reading Hillbilly Elegy like much of the rest of Silicon Valley.  I'm trying to figure out how I misread the American electorate so fundamentally.

Sponsor Posts

Google:
Try Gemini 3 Pro  —  Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life
Shopify:
Shopify's new AI commerce stack  —  Their VP of Product digs into just-launched products to help entrepreneurs and developers build with the latest AI and tech.
Zoho:
Connecting, collaborating, and growing: Zoho Mail 2025 wrap-up  —  Your inbox has been home to a lot this year—quick updates, long threads, approvals, reminders, and the occasional late-night draft you weren't sure about.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

BG2 Pod:
AI Enterprise - Databricks & Glean
Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
Subscribe to BG2 Pod.
Great Chat:
The stories we told ourselves in 2025
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Grit:
How Brands Stay Visible When AI Decides | Profound CEO James Cadwallader
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
Lenny's Podcast:
The coming AI security crisis (and what to do about it) | Sander Schulhoff
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's Potential, Google's Speedy Model, Copilot Hits Turbulence
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:30 PM ET, January 2, 2017.

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

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch: