Techmeme
December 17, 2018, 9:45 AM

Top News

TMZ:
Colin Kroll, a co-founder of Vine and the CEO and co-founder of HQ Trivia, has died at 34; police source says a drug overdose is suspected  —  Colin Kroll, the CEO and co-founder of HQ Trivia, has died of an apparent drug overdose ... TMZ has learned.  —  Law enforcement sources tell TMZ …
Washington Post:
Leaked report prepared for Senate analyzes Russian disinformation that supported Trump across millions of posts on YouTube, Instagram, Tumblr, Pinterest, more  —  The report, a draft of which was obtained by The Washington Post, is the first to study the millions of posts provided …
Douglas MacMillan / Wall Street Journal:
In a major real-estate expansion in New York City, Google says it will invest $1B+ in a new 1.7M square foot campus in Google Hudson Square in Manhattan  —  Search giant joins Amazon, Apple in growing outside the West Coast; addition of 7,000 jobs a ‘conservative estimate’
Jon Porter / The Verge:
Facebook Messenger adds native support for looping Boomerang videos, a Selfie mode with automatic background blur, and AR stickers for photos and videos  —  Stickers are also getting AR support  —  Facebook today announced a host of new camera features for its Messenger app.
Siobhan Roberts / New York Times:
Profile of Stanford computer scientist Donald Knuth, author of The Art of Computer Programming, a Bible of its field with more than one million copies in print  —  Donald Knuth, master of algorithms, reflects on 50 years of his opus-in-progress, “The Art of Computer Programming.”
Hilary Potkewitz / Wall Street Journal:
How Calm has overtaken Headspace, which dominated the meditation app category, after winning the App Store's 2017 iPhone App of the Year award  —  A pair of apps preach relaxation to millions of customers—but still badly want to beat each other  —  The two smartphone apps taking meditation …
Devjyot Ghoshal / Quartz:
Inside Grab's efforts to map roads in 100 cities across Southeast Asia by next year; Grab's mapping team has grown to 250, of which 100 are based in India  —  In 2017, many months before its merger with Uber made it Southeast Asia's biggest ride-hailing app, Grab realized it had a “rendezvous” problem.
Wall Street Journal:
To increase profits in its retail business, Amazon is asking brands with cheap but heavy or bulky items to change packaging and ship from their own warehouses  —  Online giant pushes for changes in product packaging, quantities to improve earnings  —  Amazon.com Inc. AMZN -4.01% …
Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:
AI Index Report for 2018 shows global growth of the field, a sharp rise in papers published from China, and an increase in VC funding of AI startups  —  The AI Index 2018 report is out, and if you're interested in AI enough to read this newsletter, you really should read the report through for yourself.
Thomas Brewster / Forbes:
Test shows that Android phones like LG G7 ThinQ, OnePlus 6, and Samsung Galaxy S9 and Note 8 can be unlocked via facial recognition using 3D-printed head models  —  Facial recognition is cropping up everywhere.  From shopping malls to the workplace, it's likely something is scanning your face every day.

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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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Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
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Grit:
How Evan Spiegel Is Building the Future of Computing
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
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10 Years of Acquired (with Michael Lewis)
Learn the playbooks that built the world's greatest companies - and how you can apply them as a founder, operator, or investor.
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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.
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More News

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet: