Techmeme
December 24, 2018, 12:05 AM

Top News

Deepa Seetharaman / Wall Street Journal:
A look at Joel Kaplan's growing sway at Facebook as he pushed against News Feed changes designed to reduce polarization, promoted The Daily Caller partnership  —  Joel Kaplan has emerged as the social-media site's protector against allegations of political bias
Craig Mod / Wired:
Although the functionality of digital books has largely remained the same for 10 years, technology has improved everything that goes into publishing a book  —  THE FUTURE BOOK was meant to be interactive, moving, alive.  Its pages were supposed to be lush with whirling doodads, responsive, hands-on.
More: kottke.org
Owen Williams / Charged:
As social media becomes ever more toxic, Fortnite has become the new social network and a place to hang out where you go to talk to friends  —  I've played a lot of Fortnite this year, and I was struggling to understand why I liked the game so much.  It's fun to play, but usually I get bored …
Josh Dzieza / The Verge:
Inside the cutthroat world of Amazon's Marketplace, where sellers live in fear of getting suspended and use Amazon's rules against each other  —  “These schemes really require the mind of someone whose depravity knows no bounds.”
Kate Kelly / New York Times:
Profile of Epic Systems, a privately held healthcare software company based in Wisconsin that claims to hold medical records for more than 50% of US patients  —  The engineers at Epic Systems work on a campus full of childish whimsy but also sit in on open-heart surgery.
Brian Barrett / Wired:
How Alexa has used machine learning to get smarter over the last year, with a 25% error rate reduction, carrying over context from one query to the next, more  —  IT'S FAIR TO say that when Amazon introduced the first Echo speaker in the fall of 2014, most people weren't quite sure what to make of it.
More: VentureBeat and Reuters
Wall Street Journal:
As Snap hits an all-time low, sources describe Evan Spiegel's instinctual and imperious management style that can stifle dissent and led to the redesign debacle  —  Snap, once seen as a viable competitor to Facebook, is struggling after the CEO ignored warnings about a redesign that proved unpopular
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Sources: Uber has offered to pay 11 cents for every mile driven for Uber to drivers who have been in individual arbitration over their employment classification  —  Uber is reportedly on track to go public in the first quarter next year, and in the lead up to that, it's sewing up some loose ends.
More: Engadget
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Crew, a chat app targeting businesses that employ shift workers like multi-store retailers and fast-food chains, raises $35M Series C  —  When it comes to shift workers communicating with each other in the workplace when they are not face-to-face, gone are the days of cork announcement boards.
Kyle Samani / Multicoin Capital:
A look at the state of crypto at the end of 2018 and a list of questions to consider as the ecosystem evolves in 2019 and beyond  —  As 2018 comes to a close, we've been thinking about some of the big questions that crypto still needs to answer.  —  Although there is some clarity …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
All new Zoho Workerly 2024  —  Staffing businesses around the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing their temporary workforce.  With a constantly shifting job market and changing staffing needs …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Henry Shukman, Lessons from an Authentic Zen Master
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 03/28 - Claude 3 Opus Surpasses GPT-4 For The First Time
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 12:05 AM ET, December 24, 2018.

The most current version of the site as always is available at our home page. To view an earlier snapshot click here and then modify the date indicated.

More News

Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Ryan Mac / BuzzFeed News: