Techmeme
January 26, 2017, 1:55 AM

Top News

Mark Zuckerberg / Facebook:
Hugo Barra to lead all of Facebook's virtual reality efforts including Oculus team  —  I'm excited that Hugo Barra is joining Facebook to lead all of our virtual reality efforts, including our Oculus team.  Hugo's in China right now, so here we are together in VR.  It seems fitting.
Will Cathcart / Facebook:
Facebook's Trending topics will show regional, not personalized, stories moving forward, publisher headline and name under each topic, more  —  Today we're announcing three updates to Trending, a feature that shows people popular topics being discussed on Facebook that they might not see in their News Feed:
Colin Lecher / The Verge:
Report: Donald Trump is still using his unsecured Android phone to tweet while watching TV in the evenings, despite protests by aides  —  Donald Trump's long-held Android phone is a security nightmare for a high-level politician, but according to a report from the New York Times …
Kurt Wagner / Recode:
Facebook is testing carousel ads inside Messenger in Australia and Thailand, says the ads aren't targeted based on content of messages  —  The experiment is just in Australia and Thailand.  For now.  —  Facebook said last summer that it was running out of places to show users ads in News Feed …
Ginny Marvin / Search Engine Land:
Google's 2016 “Bad Ads Report”: 1.7B ads removed compared to 780M in 2015, plus nearly 200 publishers banned from AdSense over misleading content like fake news  —  In its annual “Bad Ads” report, Google says it took down more than double the number of ads in 2016 than it did in 2015 …
Kaitlyn Tiffany / The Verge:
Amid Trump's gag orders on US agencies including EPA, anonymous Twitter accounts like @AltNatParkSer keep tweeting and gain traction  —  Rejecting Trump's science gag order, anonymous NPS Twitter accounts are still going  —  Government offices (and rogue employees therein) …
Kif Leswing / Business Insider:
Report: Apple hires Greg Duffy, the founder of Dropcam who sold it to Nest for $555M, likely to lead a “special project”  —  Apple has hired Greg Duffy, a well-known entrepreneur who previously founded Dropcam and worked at Alphabet company Nest, an Apple spokesperson confirmed to Business Insider.
Alex Heath / Business Insider:
Facebook is testing ephemeral Stories that sit at the top of News Feed in its main app in Ireland, mimicking Snapchat and Instagram  —  After successfully copying Snapchat with Instagram Stories, Facebook is at it again in its big blue app.  —  The same interface, which Facebook …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Sources: Alphabet is in advanced talks to sell Terra Bella satellite imaging unit to Planet Labs, also considered a sale to Monsanto's Climate Corp. for ~$300M  —  Sources tell TechCrunch that Google parent company Alphabet is in advanced discussions to sell its Terra Bella satellite business …
Erin Griffith / Fortune:
How the AppDynamics-Cisco deal came together at the last minute during the startup's IPO roadshow, aided by M&A firm Qatalyst, which worked largely on its own  —  This article first appeared in Term Sheet, Fortune's newsletter about deals and dealmakers.  Subscribe here.

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Earlier Picks

Agam Shah / Computerworld:
Stephen Hall / 9to5Google:
Shara Tibken / CNET: