Techmeme
November 26, 2018, 9:15 AM

Top News

CNET:
The best Cyber Monday 2018 deals on phones, fitness trackers, smart speakers, streaming devices, and more, from Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Amazon, and others  —  Cyber Monday is almost upon us and that means deals, deals, deals.  Some are good, some are bad — here are the best of them.
Carole Cadwalladr / The Guardian:
UK parliament seizes documents, first obtained in a US civil case, allegedly shedding light on Facebook policies that led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal  —  Parliament has used its legal powers to seize internal Facebook documents in an extraordinary attempt to hold the US social media giant …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Interview with Atari CEO Frederic Chesnais on how the company has returned to profitability and paid off its debt ahead of a planned console launch in 2019  —  When Fred Chesnais took over the legendary Atari company in 2013, the new owners had about $34 million (30 million euros) in debt and about $1 million in revenue.
Ava Kofman / The Intercept:
AC Global Risk, a startup that touts Apple, Facebook, Palantir, and Google as clients, claims it can assess one's “risk level” via a 10 minute yes/no voice Q&A  —  Is it possible to tell whether someone is a criminal just from looking at their face or listening to the sound of their voice?
Daniel Oberhaus / Motherboard:
How Lenny, a chatbot made in 2009 to troll telemarketers, has gained a cult following and now gets ~300 calls/day, averaging almost ten minutes per call  —  Lenny is a decade-old chatbot designed to troll telemarketers that has developed a cult following online.  It's remarkably convincing, but is it actually effective?
Paul Vigna / Wall Street Journal:
Ohio treasurer's office launches OhioCrypto.com, enabling local businesses to pay taxes with bitcoin; payments are processed and converted to dollars by BitPay  —  State backs technology that has garnered lots of hype but failed to gain traction as a form of payment
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Low fees and high interest rates are allowing VC-funded “neo-banks” like Chime, Aspiration, Empower, and Varo to compete with the big consumer banks in the US  —  SAN FRANCISCO — After the financial crisis 10 years ago, unhappy customers were expected to flee the megabanks for smaller competitors.

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Featured Podcasts

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More News

Mike Dudas / The Block:
Nathan Vardi / Forbes:
John P. Carlin / Politico:

Earlier Picks

Kara Swisher / New York Times: