Techmeme
October 18, 2018, 11:50 AM

Top News

Chris Welch / The Verge:
Samsung debuts $1,000+ Galaxy Book 2, a Windows 2-in-1 to compete with Surface, with 12-inch OLED display, LTE, 4GB RAM, Snapdragon 850, on sale from November 2  —  A couple weeks after Microsoft announced the Surface Pro 6, Samsung is today unveiling the $1,000 Galaxy Book 2 …
Alexis C. Madrigal / The Atlantic:
How one company spent between $1.2M and $4.6M over five months to get 45M+ impressions on Facebook political issue ads, without saying who's paying for the ads  —  Over just two weeks in September, a limited-liability company calling itself News for Democracy spent almost $400,000 …
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
How a loophole in Facebook's political ad review system, letting verified buyers put anything in the “paid for by” field, has been weaponized in a Virginia race  —  A competitive race in Virginia's 10th Congressional District has an alarming new element: anonymous attack ads on Facebook.
Rob Copeland / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: data mining giant Palantir is weighing an IPO as soon as H2 2019; some bankers have told the firm it could IPO with a valuation of as much as $41B  —  Bankers have told the firm it could go public with a valuation as high as $41 billion  —  Data-mining giant Palantir Technologies Inc. …
Dave Zohrob / Chartable:
An in-depth analysis of how the Apple Podcasts top charts are being manipulated, and how that affects the podcast ecosystem, which relies on Apple's directory  —  How did an unknown show about real estate beat out Serial, Dr. Death, and The Daily?  —  Something weird has been happening on the Apple podcast charts lately.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it will show whether a tweet was deleted by the user who posted it or because Twitter took an action, starting in the coming weeks  —  Twitter is making a change to how its tweet reporting procedures will work.  Before, Twitter had experimented with both showing or hiding …
Bloomberg:
Laura Hazard Owen / Nieman Lab:
A close look at the suit against Facebook on video metrics and a look back at many statements from publishers pivoting to video as Facebook touted the medium  —  “It will probably be all video.”  —  In June 2016, Nicola Mendelsohn, Facebook's VP for Europe, the Middle East and Africa …
Suzanne Vranica / Wall Street Journal:
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Facebook tentatively finds that the hack affecting 30M users was perpetrated by spammers posing as a digital marketing company, not by a nation-state  —  Facebook Inc. FB .40% believes that the hackers who gained access to the private information of 30 million of its users …
For The Record:
Spotify Premium gets streamlined navigation, personalized search, and endless artist radio, rolling out globally on iOS and Android starting today  —  We're always looking for ways to provide the best possible methods for people to discover and enjoy the music they love.
Valentina Palladino / Ars Technica:
Financial Times:
Softbank COO says “there is no certainty” that there will be another Vision Fund, as the firm is “anxiously looking” at fallout from Khashoggi's disappearance  —  SoftBank has voiced its doubts about the likelihood of a second $100bn Vision Fund for the first time …

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Featured Podcasts

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"Neither Side Is Used to Losing." Lucas Shaw on What's Next for Netflix and Paramount in the Battle for Warner Bros.
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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.
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Earlier Picks

Laura Stevens / Wall Street Journal:
Eric Geller / Politico:
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Wall Street Journal:
Kate Fazzini / CNBC: