Techmeme
March 29, 2019, 6:50 PM

Top News

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Apple cancels AirPower wireless charging mat, citing inability to meet its quality standards for the product  —  Apple has canceled the AirPower product completely, citing difficulty meeting its own standards.  —  “After much effort, we've concluded AirPower will not achieve our high standards and we have cancelled the project.
Sara Salinas / CNBC:
Lyft closes up 8.7% on its first day of trading after raising $2.3B in its IPO, which valued the company at over $20B  —  - The stock ended trading 8.7 percent up at $78.29 — something of a modest IPO for such a giant tech company.  —  Lyft's stock popped as much as 23 percent in its debut on the public market Friday.
Kevin Roose / New York Times:
Interview with YouTube Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan about its recommendation algorithms, radicalization, violent extremism, and the rabbit-hole effect  —  Neal Mohan discusses the streaming site's recommendation engine, which has become a growing liability amid accusations that it steers users to increasingly extreme content.
Brian Feldman / New York Magazine:
In his interview, Neal Mohan disingenuously fails to mention that YouTube gives users a heavily weighted single recommendation after each video via autoplay  —  There is perhaps no better pipeline to online radicalization, save for 4chan, than by watching videos on YouTube.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
A newly published exploit for a Magento vulnerability that can be used with no authentication required puts hundreds of thousands of e-commerce sites at risk  —  Magento admins: beware of SQL flaw that requires no authentication.  —  Attack code was published on Friday that exploits …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Apple to close Texture on May 28 following the launch of Apple News+, effectively ending the service for subscribers without Apple devices  —  A year ago, Apple acquired the digital newsstand app Texture to form the basis of its new subscription-based service, Apple News+, which launched on Monday.
Ian Allison / CoinDesk:
Coinbase Custody starts offering staking services to institutional clients, starting with Tezos  —  The Takeaway:  — Coinbase Custody is offering staking services to institutional clients, starting with Tezos.  — Client assets will remain inside Coinbase's fully insured cold storage at all times, mitigating risk to investors.
Ina Fried / Axios:
Google pulls “conversion therapy” app after prominent LGBTQ group Human Rights Campaign suspended Google's ranking from its influential Corporate Equality Index  —  Google is pulling a controversial app that LGBTQ rights groups say engages in a form of conversion therapy …
Angela Chen / The Verge:
Inmates at two Finland prisons are classifying data to train AI for a startup building a database of companies; some experts have concerns about exploitation  —  Empowerment or exploitation?  —  “Prison labor” is usually associated with physical work, but inmates at two prisons in Finland …
Arjun Kharpal / CNBC:
Huawei reports ~$8.8B profit in 2018, up 25.1% YoY on revenue of ~$107.13B, up 19.5% YoY, boosted by strong revenue growth of 45.1% YoY in its consumer business  —  - Huawei reported revenue of 721.2 billion yuan ($107.13 billion) in 2018, a 19.5 percent year-on-year rise.
Adam Satariano / New York Times:
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Toast, a cloud-based restaurant management platform, raises a $250M Series E led by TCV and Tiger Global at a $2.7B valuation  —  Restaurant sales hit $825 billion last year in the US, but with margins averaging at only three to five percent per business, they're always looking for an edge …

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More News

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Earlier Picks

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Sarah Krouse / Wall Street Journal:
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac:
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer: