Techmeme
December 31, 2017, 1:35 AM

Top News

Ina Fried / Axios:
Apple makes $29 iPhone battery replacement price effective immediately, rather than in late January, but warns initial supplies of some batteries may be limited  —  Aiming to further stem controversy over how it handles aging iPhone batteries, Apple said Saturday that its lower replacement price …
Victor H. / PhoneArena:
LG, HTC, Motorola say they don't throttle phones with older batteries; Samsung says it doesn't throttle via software updates “over the lifecycles of the phone”  —  Two of the biggest Android phone makers - Samsung and LG - have just confirmed that they do not slow down phones …
Apple:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
OKCupid's average App Store rating for December sinks to 2.2 stars amid backlash over new policy requiring people to use their real names  —  OKCupid's users are angry - very, very angry.  Just ahead of the new year, the company made a radical change to its policies, and now requires people …
Justin Sink / Bloomberg:
In a tweet, President Donald Trump calls on the United States Postal Service to charge Amazon “much more” in postage fees  —  Latest criticism of online retailer and its CEO Jeff Bezos  —  Amazon stock opens as much as 0.6 percent lower after tweet
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
Gamers say deadly shooting of a man Thursday night by Wichita police was the result of a swatting prank; police in LA have arrested a man connected with it  —  A 28-year-old Kansas man was shot and killed by police officers on the evening of Dec. 28 after someone fraudulently reported a hostage situation ongoing at his home.
Theodore Schleifer / Recode:
Telegram, citing ToS, suspends public channel that incited violent anti-government protests in Iran; Telegram is a major platform with ~40M users in Iran  —  “There are lines one shouldn't cross,” says the CEO of the popular messaging app.  —  The executives of Telegram …
Evelyn Cheng / CNBC:
Ripple surged 50%+ on Friday and is now valued at ~$85B, surpassing Ethereum's market cap and becoming the second-most valuable cryptocurrency  —  - Officially called XRP, ripple climbed 55.9 percent to a record high of $2.23 Friday afternoon, according to CoinMarketCap.
Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:
Startups aim to provide an alternative route to internet access via VPNs and mesh networks, amid net neutrality repeal, but their approaches are as yet unproven  —  From VPNs to mesh networks, efforts to find an alternative route to internet access are gaining ground in Silicon Valley
Thanks:@vscpr
M.G. Siegler / 500ish Words:
Amazon's “Alexa everywhere” strategy is winning the smart speaker battle and Apple's delayed and high-priced HomePod may not be able to compete  —  And what that might mean for Apple's HomePod  —  My post a couple days ago about the opportunity for Amazon Echo devices in hotels …
Financial Times:
Pavel Lerner, an executive of Bitcoin exchange Exmo who was kidnapped in Ukraine, was released after paying $1M+ ransom in bitcoins, according to a Ukrainian MP  —  An executive of a UK-registered cryptocurrency exchange kidnapped in Ukraine this week has been released after paying a ransom …

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: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26  —  Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.
Zoho:
Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control  —  Picture this: It's Monday morning.  You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.
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

Big Technology Podcast:
OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble
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.
Hard Fork:
Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
Why the next AI frontier is phone calls, with Beside CEO Maxime Germain
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
Great Chat:
So what happens after AGI?
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.
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Lachlan Cartwright Started in Tabloids. Now He's a Must-Read Media Gossip.
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 1:35 AM ET, December 31, 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

Dylan / Hacker Noon: