Techmeme
May 8, 2017, 12:30 PM

Top News

Gerry Smith / Bloomberg:
Comcast and Charter announce wireless partnership to negotiate better contracts, will work only with each other on new wireless deals  —  Cable giants will collaborate to negotiate better contracts  —  Companies to work only with each other on new wireless deals
Sam Gustin / Motherboard:
John Oliver urges internet users to defend net neutrality again, temporarily crashes the FCC's comments submission site  —  HBO comedian John Oliver is a strong supporter of net neutrality, the principle that all internet content should be treated equally.  He made that clear in 2014 …
Marcus Ash / Windows Blog:
Harman Kardon unveils Invoke, a Cortana-enabled speaker with 360-degree sound and Skype integration  —  The Harman Kardon Invoke speaker combines the rich, captivating sound that Harman Kardon is known for with your personal digital assistant, Cortana, in an innovative and beautifully designed speaker for the home.
BBC:
Ahead of June 8 UK general election, Facebook publishes ads in UK papers, including The Times, The Guardian, Daily Telegraph, to raise awareness about fake news  —  Facebook has broadened its campaign to raise awareness about fake news, by publishing adverts in the UK press.
Steven Levy / Backchannel:
Behind the 10-year evolution of Scratch, a programming language from MIT Media Lab, which has introduced coding and collaboration to millions of kids  —  At 10, Scratch is a popular tool to teach kids programming.  But its real glory is how it imparts lessons in sharing, logic, and hackerism.
Tim Hardwick / MacRumors:
Server for HandBrake, a popular Mac video transcoder, hacked; users who downloaded app between May 2-6 have 50% chance of infection with a remote access trojan  —  The developers of open source video transcoder app Handbrake have issued a security warning to Mac users after a mirror download server hosting the software was hacked.
Yoolim Lee / Bloomberg:
Singapore-based e-commerce and online games startup, Garena, raises $550M, rebrands as Sea  —  Hillhouse, Cathay Financial, Farallon joined latest round  —  Startup adopts new name Sea Ltd. to signal regional ambitions  —  Garena has rebranded as Sea Ltd. after Southeast Asia's …
The Boston Consulting Group:
BCG study: in 2016 Chinese consumers spent $750B online, more than the US and UK combined, and 74% of China's e-commerce purchases were made with mobile phones  —  The New Retail: Lessons from China for the West  —  Imagine being in the middle of Times Square, surrounded by flashing lights …
Lauren Hirsch / Reuters:
Social music firm Smule raises $54M led by Tencent, source says at a $604M valuation, to expand in Asia  —  Social media music company Smule has raised $54 million in a financing round led by Chinese technology giant Tencent Holdings Ltd, which it will use to fuel international growth, the company said on Monday.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Music royalty collector Kobalt raises $75M Series D led by Hearst Entertainment at a $775M valuation, to expand its platform to cover more streaming sources  —  As music streaming continues to grow in ubiquity, a company that's built a platform to collect royalties on music played across billions …

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Earlier Picks

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica: