Techmeme
May 19, 2018, 11:10 PM

Top News

Rhett Jones / Gizmodo:
Report: Snap CEO was inspired by Chinese apps for Snapchat redesign, wanted to make the app friendlier to older users, launched redesign despite staff concerns  —  Snap's stock price is now hovering around its lowest point ever since the company went public last year.
Ernie Smith / Motherboard:
A history of the music industry's first efforts at creating music streaming services after Napster and why they failed given the importance of streaming now  —  Lessons from the music industry's initial consumer-hostile reaction to the Napster saga.  Going from $16 CDs to unlimited streaming is really hard.
More: Techdirt
Washington Post:
Sources: Trump personally pushed US Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the Postal Service charges Amazon and other companies, but was rebuffed  —  President Trump has personally pushed U.S. Postmaster General Megan Brennan to double the rate the Postal Service charges Amazon.com …
Ashlee Vance / Bloomberg:
Interviews with pioneers of AI and PM Justin Trudeau about the history of neural networks and how the Canadian government brought the AI researchers together  —  Over the past five years, artificial intelligence has gone from perennial vaporware to one of the technology industry's brightest hopes.
Patrick Winn / GlobalPost Investigations:
Interviews with experts and defectors detail North Korea's Reconnaissance General Bureau, whose hackers are estimated to have stolen $650M+  —  The Reconnaissance General Bureau, North Korea's equivalent to the CIA, has trained up the world's greatest bank-robbing crews.
Kate Conger / Gizmodo:
Google removed “Don't be evil” from the top of its code of conduct in late April or early May, Wayback Machine archives show, but kept one mention at the bottom  —  Google's unofficial motto has long been the simple phrase “don't be evil.”  But that's over, according to the code …
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
Source: Google edited some Duplex calls used in demo to protect identity of businesses involved; one restaurant in the demo may have been identified by Mashable  —  - Company is said to tell staff that robo-caller will ID itself  — Duplex demo at company's I/O conference caused a firestorm

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 11:10 PM ET, May 19, 2018.

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

Music Business Worldwide:
Cyrus Farivar / Ars Technica:
Nick Statt / The Verge: