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Techmeme
February 4, 2019, 3:00 PM
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Top News

Mark Zuckerberg:
On Facebook's 15th anniversary, Zuckerberg says it will spend more on safety and security in 2019 than it had revenue at its IPO, pans critics' “negative” focus  —  Fifteen years ago today, I launched the first version of the Facebook website from my college dorm.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Google announces Live Transcribe, a near-real time transcriber, and Sound Amplifier; both are Pixel 3 accessibility features and available as apps on Play store  —  It's also releasing a Sound Amplifier feature — both only on Android  —  Google is announcing two new features for Android phones today …
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Slack says it has submitted a confidential draft IPO filing with the SEC  —  Slack confidentially filed to go public, according to a press release published Monday.  —  Slack is one of a number of tech IPOs expected in 2019, including Uber, Lyft and Airbnb.  —  Here is the full release from Slack:
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Crypto exchange Kraken acquires British trading startup Crypto Facilities in a deal worth at least $100M, says it is raising $100M from its largest customers  —  The cryptocurrency exchange Kraken says it has paid “nine figures” to acquire Crypto Facilities, a British trading firm that specializes in derivatives.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Instant Tethering, launched in 2017 to let Chrome OS easily share a Pixel's cell connection, is coming to dozens of non-Google Chrome OS and Android devices  —  Google introduced Instant Tethering in 2017 to let Chrome OS devices automatically share an Android phone's cellular connection.
Nat Levy / GeekWire:
New filing: Amazon spent $1.65B on acquisitions in 2018, headlined by Ring and PillPack deals  —  Amazon spent $1.65 billion on acquisitions in 2018, according to a new regulatory filing from the company.  That makes it the second most acquisitive year in the company's history by dollar volume …
More: TechCrunch.  Tweets: @jasonlk.  Thanks:@toddbishop
New York Times:
The Instagram egg account, with 10M+ followers, was started by an advertising professional; a Hulu ad based on the egg debuted Sunday promoting mental health  —  He works in advertising.  —  When Chris Godfrey learned in early January that the record for “likes” on an Instagram post was held …
Janko Roettgers / Variety:
Avi Bar-Zeev, veteran AR/VR pioneer and Hololens co-inventor, left Apple's AR team this past month; he joined the company in June 2016  —  AR/VR pioneer and Hololens co-inventor Avi Bar-Zeev left Apple last month, Variety has learned.  Bar-Zeev had been working on Apple's augmented reality headset …
More: 9to5Mac.  Thanks:@jank0
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Chicago-based Robotics Process Automation startup Catalytic raises $30M Series B, bringing its total raised to almost $42M  —  Robotics Process Automation (RPA) is as hot as any enterprise technology at the moment, as companies look for ways to marry their legacy systems with a more modern flavor of automation.
BBC:
UK police seize 60+ devices suspected of being used in attacks by Webstresser, a now-shuttered DDoS service, and plans action against 400+ Webstresser customers  —  UK police have seized more than 60 computers and other gadgets suspected of being used to carry out web attacks.
Jez Corden / Windows Central:
Microsoft will announce Xbox Live SDK, which will enable cross-platform play on iOS, Android, Switch, Xbox, and Windows PCs, at GDC 2019  —  At GDC 2019, Microsoft is set to debut a new cross-platform development platform with the goal of bringing Xbox Live support to games on Android, iOS …
Aaron van Wirdum / Bitcoin Magazine:
Chainalysis: two hacker groups are responsible for almost 60% of publicly reported cryptocurrency hacks and stole around $1B to date  —  Two “prominent professional hacking groups” are responsible for the majority of publicly reported hacks of cryptocurrency exchanges and other cryptocurrency organizations …
More: ZDNet
Jonathan M. Gitlin / Ars Technica:
From Alexa and Nuance to personal assistants that learn your moods, an overview of the AI-driven features that major auto companies plan to roll out soon  —  From Alexa and Nuance to personal AI helpers that learn your moods, it's happening.  —  LAS VEGAS—Like it or not …

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This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 3:00 PM ET, February 4, 2019.

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From Mediagazer

Benjamin Mullin / New York Times:
Arkansas PBS severs ties with the PBS network, the first state public TV system to do so since Congress cut CPB funds, citing the annual $2M+ membership cost

Pamela McClintock / The Hollywood Reporter:
Disney's Zootopia 2 surpasses $1B at the global box office, the fastest PG-rated film to do so after just 17 days in release

Trip Gabriel / New York Times:
R. Bruce Dold, a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist at the Chicago Tribune, where he became editor-in-chief and publisher, is dead at 70

More News

Earlier Picks

Lorenzo Franceschi-Bicchierai / Motherboard:
A college student who stole $5M+ in cryptocurrency via SIM hijacking gets 10 years in prison and is the first person in the US to be sentenced for such a crime
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