Techmeme: Screenshots suggest Google is testing group calling and a low light mode in its Duo video chat app for Android (Scott Scrivens/Android Police)

Top News

Frank Chaparro / The Block:

Intercontinental Exchange subsidiary Bakkt raises $182.5M to build its cryptocurrency exchange; sources: regulatory hurdles delay its plans for bitcoin futures — Bakkt, the cryptocurrency venture by Intercontinental Exchange, has scored $182.5 million to build out its platform aimed …

More: Bakkt Blog, HuffPost, CCN, TechCrunch, Bitsonline, SludgeFeed, Intercontinental Exchange, Ethereum World News, Bitcoinist.com, NewsBTC, CoinDesk, and Cointelegraph.com News

Tweets: @bullyesq, @coindesk, @fintechfrank, @mdudas, @mdudas, and @pierre_rochard

Drew Harwell / Washington Post:

How deepfakes, AI-generated videos that graft a person's face onto another's body, have been weaponized to harass and humiliate their subjects, mostly women — “Deepfake” creators are making disturbingly realistic, computer-generated videos with photos taken from the Web, and ordinary women are suffering the damage.

More: The Verge, Business Insider, and Gizmodo

Tweets: @tonyromm, @hshaban, @histoftech, @lorenzofb, @mantzarlis, @niemanlab, and @chriskrycho

Agence France-Presse:

Parents are often shocked by inappropriate videos on TikTok, a major hit with teens that Sensor Tower says was the most downloaded app on iOS in H1 2018 — TikTok's video-sharing app was the most downloaded on Apple's App Store in the first half of 2018, beating out Facebook, Instgram and Snapchat

Madhumita Murgia / Financial Times:

Privacy International: popular Android apps like TripAdvisor, Kayak, Indeed, MyFitnessPal share data with Facebook without user consent, possibly violating GDPR — Some of the most popular apps for Android smartphones, including Skyscanner, TripAdvisor and MyFitnessPal …

More: Privacy International, Android Police, SiliconANGLE, 9to5Google, Engadget, Mashable, BGR, TechSpot, PYMNTS.com, Lifehacker, iPhone in Canada Blog, and TechLifeWeb

Tweets: @antoniocasilli, @went1955, @vishnurajeevan, @dgwbirch, @johnwilander, and @carnage4life. Thanks:@cremnob

Scott Scrivens / Android Police:

Screenshots suggest Google is testing group calling and a low light mode in its Duo video chat app for Android — Group calling and a low light mode in Google Duo have been rumored for some time, but we now have our first glimpse of the features in action.

More: SiliconANGLE, Engadget, Android and Me, Android Beat, BGR, and 9to5Google

Kenneth Li / Reuters:

Source: Netflix to hire Activision Blizzard's Spencer Neumann as its new CFO starting in early 2019; Activision said it intended to fire Neumann in a filing — (Reuters) - Netflix Inc is expected to announce in the next few days that it has poached media finance veteran Spencer Neumann …

More: VentureBeat and CNBC. Tweets: @mgsiegler

See also Mediagazer

Simon Romero / New York Times:

Since Waymo started testing driverless vans in Chandler, AZ in 2017, nearly two dozen attacks have been made on them including slashed tires and thrown rocks — CHANDLER, Ariz. — The assailant slipped out of a park around noon one day in October, zeroing in on his target …

More: The Hill, Boing Boing, 9to5Google, and Quartz

Tweets: @nytnational, @kimmurphy, @pakman, @kressaty, @changeist, @alexstamos, @ivanski, @brooklynspoke, and @tjmisa8

Meng Jing / South China Morning Post:

Beijing plans to adopt facial recognition-enabled smart locks in its public housing projects involving 120K tenants in 2019 to crack down on illegal subletting — - The smart lock is one of the latest hi-tech tools authorities are using to keep an eye on its citizens

More: Engadget. Tweets: @chinamonitoring and @jc_mittelstadt

Wall Street Journal:

Tech trends for 2019: foldable phones, 5G, cashierless retail, privacy legislation, autonomous delivery wagons, IoT edge computing, and more — From delivery wagons and foldable phones to privacy crackdowns and corporate health tracking, the coming year will make good on some of the tech industry's biggest promises

Tweets: @lars_ruud, @priyankamogul, @djg_media, @yunheekim22, and @msquinn

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

All photos uploaded to Twinning, Popsugar's tool to match a user's photo with a celebrity's, were accessible from a public AWS storage bucket that is now locked — I thought the worst thing about Popsugar's Twinning tool was that it matched me with James Corden.

More: Mashable, 9to5Mac, Gizmodo, Engadget, iPhone in Canada Blog, and Notes from Silicon Valley. Tweets: @mgsiegler

Echo Huang / Quartz:

China-owned spacecraft maker CASIC launches first of 156 satellites intended to provide internet service by 2022 to rural China and then to developing countries — Over the weekend, China launched a satellite into low-earth orbit, the first step of a plan to provide global satellite internet …

Katie Hafner / New York Times:

Lawrence Roberts, who helped design the Arpanet and oversaw its implementation in 1969, dies at 81 — In late 1966, a 29-year-old computer scientist drew a series of abstract figures on tracing paper and a quadrille pad. Some resembled a game of cat's cradle; others looked like heavenly constellations …

More: Gizmodo, BBC, and The Tech Report

Tweets: @stevenlevy, @katiehafner, @vgcerf, and @nytimes

Sponsor Posts

Google:

Try Gemini 3 Pro — Google's newest and most intelligent AI model that helps you bring any idea to life

Shopify:

Shopify: Revolutionizing Commerce with Winter Edition '26 — Over 150+ new features transform how merchants build, design, and grow—with technology that amplifies creative vision.

Zoho:

Email fatigue is real: Here's how smart email tools help you regain control — Picture this: It's Monday morning. You walk into the office feeling energized and ready to take on the week.

IDrive:

Protecting your Cloud Applications Data — Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Sponsor Techmeme

Featured Podcasts

Grit:

How Evan Spiegel Is Building the Future of Computing

Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.

Subscribe to Grit.

Acquired:

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.

Subscribe to Acquired.

Lenny's Podcast:

Why humans are AI's biggest bottleneck (and what's coming in 2026) | Alexander Embiricos (OpenAI Codex Product Lead)

Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.

Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.

Big Technology Podcast:

OpenAI's 2026 Priority, Disney's AI Play, Datacenter Buildout Trouble

The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.

Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.

Hard Fork:

Australia Kicks Kids Off Social Media + Is the A.I. Water Issue Fake? + Hard Fork Wrapped

The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.

Subscribe to Hard Fork.

Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:

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.

Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:40 PM ET, December 31, 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.