Techmeme
January 16, 2017, 12:40 PM

Top News

Matthew Humphries / PC Magazine:
With Google's RAISR machine learning-driven image enhancement technique, images can be up to 75% smaller without losing their detail  —  With unlimited data plans becoming increasingly expensive, or subscribers being forced to ditch their unlimited data due to overuse, anything that can reduce the amount of data we download is welcome.
Amar Toor / The Verge:
Facebook says it will soon expand tools to fight fake news to Germany, will send flagged posts to Berlin-based nonprofit news org Correctiv for fact-checking  —  Social network introduces fact-checking tools ahead of national elections later this year  —  Facebook will begin rolling …
Matt Weinberger / Business Insider:
How Amazon's Echo made Alexa the most successful smart voice assistant at home, and how Google, Microsoft, and Apple are fighting back  —  We're barely halfway through January of 2017, and it's already looking like this is going to be the year of Amazon's Alexa, the virtual assistant at the heart of the Amazon Echo.
Thomas Fox-Brewster / Forbes:
Law enforcement has used services like SiriusXM and GM's OnStar to track cars and listen in on conversations since at least 2001, review of court filings shows  —  The rapid spread of connected devices that can listen and locate has been a boon for law enforcement.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Nvidia Shield TV 2017 review: best balance for home entertainment with smart home features, gaming, streaming 4K HDR video, and the upcoming Google assistant  —  Nvidia's Shield line of devices is now over six years old, and the latest member of the family is the new Shield TV …
Justin Baragona / Mediaite:
In interview with The Sunday Times, Trump says he'll keep using @realDonaldTrump Twitter account  —  With President-elect Donald Trump on the brink of officially becoming the country's Commander-in-Chief, it appears we are getting the answer to what he will do with his personal Twitter account …
Brian Armstrong:
Coinbase CEO likens IRS subpoena to asking Fidelity or PayPal for all customer records, suggests Coinbase could send 1099-B forms to customers and IRS instead  —  A few weeks ago the IRS sent Coinbase a subpoena asking us to disclose records on all U.S. customers over a three year period (this covers millions of customer accounts).
More: CoinDesk and Forbes
Kate Conger / TechCrunch:
Cloudflare discloses 2013 National Security Letter, joins CREDO and EFF to challenge the constitutionality of the FBI's NSLs and their accompanying gag orders  —  For more than a decade, CEOs of major tech companies have opened innocuous envelopes to find letters from the FBI inside …
Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:
Proposed Virginia Broadband Deployment Act would favor private ISPs by restricting municipal broadband deployment  —  Bill would ban muni networks where private ISPs offer 10Mbps download speeds.  —  Virginia lawmakers are considering a bill called the “Virginia Broadband Deployment Act …

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Paul Mozur / New York Times:

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