Techmeme
December 6, 2018, 7:00 PM

Top News

Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft says it will rebuild Edge to run on Google's open source Chromium project and will make it available on macOS, Windows 7, and Windows 8  —  A Chromium version of Edge will also arrive on Windows 7 and Windows 8  —  Microsoft is announcing some significant changes to its Edge browser today.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
As part of Microsoft's embrace of Chromium, Edge users will get access to Chrome extensions, and EdgeHTML will be replaced by Blink and Chakra with V8  —  Microsoft today embraced Google's Chromium open source project for Edge development on the desktop.  The company also announced Edge …
Aparajita Saxena / Reuters:
Lyft says it has filed with the SEC for an IPO, hasn't specified the number of shares it is selling or their price range; sources say IPO is slated for H1 2019  —  (Reuters) - Ride-hailing company Lyft Inc on Thursday filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission for an initial public offering …
The Keyword:
Google launches a personalized audio news feed on Google Assistant using Google News, rolling out to some users in the US in English  —  For the past century, radio has been a one-size-fits-all medium.  Turn on the radio and you're dropped into a show at a moment in time …
Christina Farr / CNBC:
Apple Watch Series 4 ECG feature goes live in the US as part of the watchOS 5.1.2 update, letting users detect irregular heart rhythms  —  Apple Watch users can now take a reading of their heart's electrical signal by holding a finger on the crown of the device.
Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:
Amazon says it is beta testing Amazon Answers, an invite-only program for users to help answer questions that Alexa doesn't know, starting today  —  Smartphones settle a lot of dinner table debates nowadays.  We argue about this or that, until somebody finally pops out a phone and Googles it.
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Australia passes sweeping anti-encryption bill giving police power to implant malware and insert backdoors, despite opposition from experts, tech companies  —  Australia's controversial anti-encryption bill is one step closer to becoming law, after the two leading but sparring party political giants struck …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Qualcomm announces the Snapdragon 8cx, an “extreme” processor for Windows laptops that it says is the first 7nm chip for a PC platform  —  Could Qualcomm replace Intel in your next Windows PC?  —  The “X” stands for “extreme.”  That's what Qualcomm's marketing department wants you to think about the new Snapdragon 8cx.
The Verge:
Financial Times:
Millions of users on O2 in UK are unable to use mobile data due to a software problem in Ericsson's equipment; SoftBank in Japan was affected for several hours  —  Millions of mobile phone users around the world have been unable to use their smartphones after a software issue in systems provided by Ericsson caused major disruption.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Google says it will stop working on Allo and instead focus on Messages; Allo will stop working March 2019  —  Google has officially announced that it's shutting down Allo, ending the run of yet another failed Google chat app experiment.  The news isn't entirely unsurprising …
Cat Zakrzewski / Washington Post:
A look at a proposed US national privacy law, backed by 200 retailers, banks, and tech companies, that would create universal data collection rules and more  —  Ctrl N  —  A broad coalition of more than 200 retailers, banks and technology companies is releasing new recommendations …
Damien Wilde / 9to5Google:
Video sharing app Byte, developed by the creators of Vine, opens creator registrations and plans a spring 2019 launch  —  Vine may have shut down in 2016, but the popularity of the platform still lives on through many a YouTube Vine compilation.  The new Vine 2. known as Byte is set to launch …
Upvoted:
Reddit says it now gets 1.4B native video views per month and serves 13M+ hours of video monthly, up 38% since the beginning of 2018  —  Community highlights, best-of's and the top trends for the year ahead  —  This time of year, there are recaps and best-ofs a-plenty …
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Months after Facebook was shown to surreptitiously collect Android call and SMS records, emails show Facebook's growth team added the feature amid “PR” fears  —  Internal emails show Facebook weighing the privacy risks of collecting call records — then going ahead anyway
Nate Lanxon / Bloomberg:

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