Techmeme
November 29, 2018, 5:00 PM

Top News

Ryan Gallagher / The Intercept:
Sources detail the measures Google took to keep Dragonfly under wraps, including shutting out some members of the security and privacy teams from key meetings  —  The secrecy surrounding the work was unheard of at Google.  It was not unusual for planned new products to be closely guarded ahead of launch.
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
YouTube begins rolling out Stories, which last for seven days on its mobile app and can be viewed by everyone, to accounts with over 10,000 subscribers  —  Amid some concern from the community  —  YouTube is expanding its Instagram-like Stories capability to more creators today …
Gabe Rivera / Techmeme News:
Techmeme now publishing paid and free “Leaderboards” showing the most influential reporters around a specific news topic  —  Today Techmeme has begun publishing Topic Leaderboards, which list the top authors and publications covering 24 topic areas such as cloud computing, autonomous vehicles …
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
Facebook will exempt ads from eligible news outlets from its political ad archive in the UK, a policy it plans to extend to the US and Brazil pending UK tests  —  Social network to act against ‘dark adverts’ with compulsory disclaimers saying who paid  —  Every political advert on Facebook …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft debuts redesigned icons for its Office suite, alongside other cosmetic changes, and says Outlook Mobile is getting a redesign soon  —  A new modern look  —  Microsoft is modernizing its Office icons as part of a broader focus on design for its various Office apps.
Wall Street Journal:
Memo: the White House plans to host a roundtable on December 6 to discuss innovation with tech executives, including Satya Nadella, Sundar Pichai, and others  —  Guest list includes heads of Microsoft, Google, Qualcomm, Oracle  —  The Trump administration will hold a roundtable discussion …
Nat Levy / GeekWire:
New book outlines Microsoft's product roadmap: new Surface Pro and Laptop, “ambient devices”, and cheaper Xbox One S in 2019; new Surface Book and Hub in 2020  —  Next year will be a busy one for Microsoft's Surface division, if a new book about the organization is any indication.
David Barnard:
How iOS developers game the App Store: naming apps with popular keywords, tricking users to sign up for subscriptions, buying fake ratings and reviews, and more  —  I've been pestering Apple for years publicly and privately about the manipulation and outright scams going on in the App Store.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Sennheiser's HeadSetup software makes PCs and Macs vulnerable to MITM attacks due to flawed self-signed TLS certificate, which users should now manually remove  —  Poorly secured certificate lets hackers impersonate any website on the Internet.  —  Audio device maker Sennheiser has issued …
Mark Wilson / Fast Company:
Airbnb's innovation lab Samara announces Backyard, an initiative to design and prototype new ways of building homes, starting in 2019  —  After launching a home-sharing revolution, Airbnb's founders started asking themselves, “What's next?”  They successfully created a global network …
More: Washington Post, Curbed, and EngadgetTweets: @deannating
Thomas Ricker / The Verge:
Tidal is now available on Plex for $9.99/month, the first streaming music service to be fully integrated into Plex  —  A milestone moment for the XBMC fork  —  Plex users can now stream Tidal music directly from the Plex app.  Moreover, subscribers can save up to $60 a year on the price of both Tidal and Plex Pass subscriptions.
New York Times:
Law enforcement authorities, working with Microsoft, have arrested dozens of scammers in New Delhi over fake PC virus pop-up alert ads during the past month  —  MUMBAI, India — You know the messages.  They pop up on your computer screen with ominous warnings like, “Your computer has been infected with a virus.
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
GM's President Dan Ammann to become CEO of self-driving car unit Cruise; current Cruise CEO and co-founder Kyle Vogt will stay on as unit president and CTO  —  General Motors on Thursday announced that company president Dan Ammann will take a new job as CEO of its self-driving unit, Cruise.
More: TechCrunch and ABC News
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
DOJ indicts two Iranian nationals for creating and deploying the SamSam ransomware, which crippled Atlanta, caused $30M in losses, and had 200+ victims  —  U.S. federal prosectors have indicted two Iranian nationals for creating and deploying the notorious SamSam ransomware.
Bloomberg:
Germany's Federal Cartel Office says it has opened an antitrust investigation into Amazon's “double role” as retailer and host for other stores  —  - German Cartel Office looking at how firm treats site's sellers  — Probe focuses on terms, adding to EU scrutiny of data abuse

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Wall Street Journal:
Jeff Barr / AWS News Blog:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Larry Cermak / The Block: