Techmeme
November 18, 2017, 8:20 PM

Top News

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
Big tech's recent gaffes, on top of concerns over election interference, misinformation, and its unprecedented influence, further erode trust in the sector  —  Mark Zuckerberg's virtual reality tour of Puerto Rico in October.  —  Facebook Live  —  Since summer's end …
Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed:
Peter Thiel is no longer affiliated with Y Combinator; source says Thiel did not rejoin YC after the startup accelerator ended its part-time partners program  —  Billionaire venture capitalist and Facebook board member Peter Thiel is no longer affiliated with startup accelerator Y Combinator, according to an edited company blog post.
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
US Defense Department's Centcom found hosting at least 1.8B posts of scraped internet content from last 8 years on open AWS server  —  There are two big WTFs in this story.  First, the Defense Departments Central Command (Centcom) was collecting tons of data on social media posts …
Reuters:
3+ years after the demise of Mt. Gox, its customers still haven't received a cent, as the failed Bitcoin exchange remains stuck in a morass of litigation  —  More than three years after the demise of the Mt. Gox exchange, its customers still haven't received a crypto cent.  Here's why.
Bryan Menegus / Gizmodo:
Amazon Flex workers, who are self-employed “last-mile” delivery drivers, describe the job and how the Uber-like Flex app coordinates deliveries  —  Who delivers Amazon orders?  Increasingly, it's plainclothes contractors with few labor protections, driving their own cars …
Kevin Collier / BuzzFeed:
John Draper, aka Cap'n Crunch, who once hacked phone lines with Jobs and Wozniak, banned from conferences after reports of sexual misconduct towards young men  —  The claims against John Draper, better known as Cap'n Crunch, a pioneer hacker and an early associate of Apple cofounders Steve Wozniak …
DW.COM:
German regulator bans children's smartwatches that have SIM cards and one-way monitoring functions, saying they are unauthorized transmitters forbidden by law  —  A German regulator has banned the sale of children's smartwatches that have one-way monitoring functions.
John H. Richardson / Wired:
Profile of Bryan Johnson, founder of Braintree and Kernel, a startup trying to develop algorithms and commercial neural prosthetics for enhancing human memory  —  IN AN ORDINARY hospital room in Los Angeles, a young woman named Lauren Dickerson waits for her chance to make history.
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Apple says it is delaying HomePod release from December to early 2018  —  So much for the holiday rush.  Apple announced this morning that its premiumHomePod smart speaker won't be making the company's initial December ship date.  According to a brief statement issued by the company …
Katie Roof / TechCrunch:
Online fashion retailer Stitch Fix closes up 1% on its first day of trading, after raising $120M in a downsized IPO  —  Stitch Fix went up just 1 percent on its first day of trading.  After pricing at $15, the company closed at $15.15.  It's also below the opening trade of $16.90.
Tom Turula / Business Insider:
Spotify announces it has acquired Soundtrap, a collaborative online music recording startup, reportedly for at least $30M  —  Spotify is buying Swedish music tech startup Soundtrap for an undisclosed amount.  —  Soundtrap is a collaborative online recording studio that was valued at $25 million (SEK 207 million) last year.

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Earlier Picks

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch: