Techmeme: Researchers have discovered OSX/Linker malware exploiting an unpatched macOS flaw that would allow a malicious binary to bypass the Gatekeeper scanning process (Catalin Cimpanu/ZDNet)

Top News

Apple says it has acquired autonomous driving startup Drive.ai, hiring dozens of Drive.ai engineers and, per sources, taking over its autonomous cars — Apple bought Drive.ai, an autonomous driving startup once valued at $200 million, Apple confirmed to Axios on Tuesday, and has hired dozens of Drive.ai engineers.

More: San Francisco Chronicle, Fast Company, Telegraph, Engadget, MacRumors, AppleInsider, Business Insider, iPhone Hacks, TechCrunch, The Verge, MACお宝 …, VentureBeat, iDownloadBlog.com, 9to5Mac, SlashGear, Cult of Mac, iPhone in Canada Blog, Crunchbase News, and Electrek

Tweets: @axios, @techchronicle, @matthewhughes, @meliarobin, @inafried, @inafried, @atulacharya, and @danprimack. Thanks:@inafried

New York Times:

Sources: US tech companies, including Intel and Micron, have found ways to sell millions of dollars of products to Huawei despite the Trump administration's ban — SHANGHAI — A number of the United States' biggest chip makers have sold millions of dollars of products to Huawei despite …

More: CNET, SiliconANGLE, Digital Trends, Gizmodo, Nikkei Asian Review, The Atlantic, and ExtremeTech

Tweets: @msbshoshani and @davidjoachim

Jon Fingas / Engadget:

Amid Huawei ban, FedEx sues US over mandate that it monitor all shipments, saying it violates due process and is unfeasible on the scale the government desires — FedEx has already been accused of diverting Huawei's shipments, and it's not keen on dealing with more complaints.

More: Wall Street Journal, Ars Technica, The Register, and Android Authority

Tweets: @evadou and @paulpage

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Researchers have discovered OSX/Linker malware exploiting an unpatched macOS flaw that would allow a malicious binary to bypass the Gatekeeper scanning process — Researchers find new OSX/Linker malware abusing still-unpatched macOS Gatekeeper bypass. — Mac malware developers have jumped …

More: The Mac Security Blog, iDownloadBlog.com, Security Affairs, Lifehacker, The Mac Observer, iPhone Hacks, 9to5Mac, MacDailyNews, Threatpost, Inquirer, and The Hacker News. Tweets: @campuscodi

Bloomberg:

Airbnb launches Airbnb Luxe, a new luxury tier of 2,000 listings with an average price of $14K a week to as high as $1M a week for a private atoll — Gone are the days of air mattresses on the floor. Airbnb Inc. is now catering to the mega-wealthy with a new tier of luxury rentals.

More: Airbnb Press Room, New York Times, The Verge, CNET, CNN, Mashable, Engadget, Quartz, Axios, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @business and @stshank

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

FTC and DOJ announce their latest crackdown on robocallers, taking 94 actions against several companies and people blamed for a recent wave of spam calls — Federal authorities have announced its latest crackdown on illegal robocallers — taking close to a hundred actions against several companies …

More: Federal Trade Commission, TechSpot, CNN, Digital Trends, Engadget, SlashGear, and The Hill

Tweets: @ftc and @karlbode

Sara Fischer / Axios:

LinkedIn says it will change its algorithm to favor posts that cater to niche professional interests as opposed to elevating viral content — Linkedin will today announce algorithm changes made over the past 12-18 months to favor conversations in its Feed that cater to niche professional interests …

More: Firstpost Tech. Tweets: @rmac18, @bmorrissey, @ashkan, @tomfgoodwin, @joelandren, @ingridlunden, @itsjeffhiggins, @jayrosen_nyu, @zck, @sarafischer, @rafat, @mikepilarz, and @stevesi

See also Mediagazer

Tom Warren / The Verge:

Microsoft unveils OneDrive Personal Vault, which protects folders with 2FA and is expected by year end, and ups OneDrive's $1.99/mo plan from 50GB to 100GB — Available to everyone by the end of the year — Microsoft is adding a new secured storage area to OneDrive where users can store more sensitive files.

More: Microsoft 365 Blog, TechCrunch, BleepingComputer, Ars Technica, Neowin, TechRadar.com, MSPoweruser, Thurrott, Engadget, Yahoo Finance, PCWorld, MobileSyrup, GeekWire, SlashGear, Windows Central, VentureBeat, OnMSFT.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, WinBuzzer, ZDNet, and Liliputing

Tweets: @tomwarren, @jaredhaight, and @jsnover

Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:

Executives at seven of Facebook's Libra partners say the companies have only signed nonbinding agreements and have not yet paid to join the Libra Association — SAN FRANCISCO — One of the biggest selling points of Facebook's ambitious plans for its new cryptocurrency, Libra …

More: The Block, Reuters, and Cointelegraph

Tweets: @mayazi, @robaeprice, @nathanielpopper, @kyletorpey, and @nathanielpopper

Kate Clark / TechCrunch:

Cameo, which lets fans pay for personalized videos from celebrities, raises $50M Series B led by Kleiner Perkins, reports suggest at a valuation of $300M — Instead of emailing a term sheet, Ilya Fushman paid $150 to have ‘Deep Blue Sea’ actor Michael Rapaport send the Cameo founders Steven Galanis …

More: PR Newswire, Tubefilter, Digital Music News, Crunchbase News, FinSMEs, and hypebot

Tweets: @robchesney and @kateclarktweets

Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:

Carbon, a 3D-printing platform used by Ford, Adidas, and others, says it has raised $260M at a $2.4B valuation, following its 2017 Series D at a $1.7B valuation — Digital manufacturer and 3D printing poster child Carbon has raised $260 million in a growth round of funding co-led …

More: FinSMEs, CNET, Carbon, ZDNet, Business Insider, and Silicon Valley Business …

Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:

A deep dive on which vendor may be responsible for a supply chain attack that Google said resulted in pre-installed malware on budget Android devices — Earlier this month, Google disclosed that a supply chain attack by one of its vendors resulted in malicious software being pre-installed on millions of new budget Android devices.

Tweets: @briankrebs and @mytechmusings

Jon Brodkin / Ars Technica:

FCC broadband committee ex-chair sentenced to five years in prison for fraud; as a telecom CEO, she forged contracts to raise $270M+ for a fiber network — Telecom CEO forged contracts in order to raise $270 million from investors. — The former head of FCC Chairman Ajit Pai's Broadband …

More: The Register. Tweets: @karlbode

Amir Efrati / The Information:

Uber to buy Seattle-based Mighty AI, which helps train computer vision models, to strengthen its self-driving car unit; Crunchbase: Mighty AI had raised $27.3M — Uber as soon as today expects to close its acquisition of Seattle-based “data annotation” firm Mighty AI in a bid to strengthen …

More: GeekWire

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

New Silex malware has begun bricking several hundred poorly secured IoT devices per hour, using default credentials to log in and then wipe devices — Over 2,000 devices have been bricked in the span of a few hours. Attacks still ongoing. — A new strain of malware is wiping the firmware …

More: Boing Boing and Tehrani.com. Tweets: @gcluley. Thanks:@campuscodi

Yuliya Chernova / Wall Street Journal:

NY-based Button, which links apps to other apps for smoother mobile shopping, raises $30M Series C led by Icon Ventures; source: deal values company at $200M+ — The New York startup that links apps to other apps to facilitate mobile shopping is valued at more than $200 million

Tweets: @chrismaddern and @mdudas

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Bill Gates says his “greatest mistake” was Microsoft losing the platform opportunity to Android on mobile, in an interview at VC firm Village Global — Gates calls Microsoft's smartphones failure a “$400 billion” loss. — Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates recently gave …

More: The Verge, AppleInsider, CNBC, Engadget, XDA Developers, CNN, Business Standard, Digit, Trusted Reviews, Forbes, Observer, The Register, Fossbytes, ZDNet, OnMSFT.com, Redmond Pie, ExtremeTech, ZDNet, TalkAndroid.com, and Neowin. Tweets: @firstadopter

Kirsten Korosec / TechCrunch:

Ford-backed Argo AI will invest $15M over five years in a center for self-driving car research at Carnegie Mellon University — Argo AI will invest $15 million over five years to create a center for autonomous vehicle research at Carnegie Mellon University, one of the latest efforts …

More: PYMNTS.com and Argo AI

Daniel Kuhn / CoinDesk:

Crypto exchange Kraken, a regulated platform for spot and futures trading, raises $13.5M from 2,263 participants in an online round at a $4B+ valuation — Regulated spot and futures crypto exchange Kraken has completed a $13.5 million round of financing on Bnk To The Future (BF), an online investment platform.

More: SiliconANGLE, Coinspeaker, CryptoGlobe, Cointelegraph, Anycoin.news, and The Block

Vlad Savov / The Verge:

Alienware co-founder Frank Azor says he is leaving Dell's gaming and XPS divisions; report suggests he will likely become AMD's first chief gaming officer — Frank Azor is taking up a new challenge after 21 years at Alienware — Frank Azor, the co-founder and public face of Alienware …

More: Wccftech and PC Gamer

Tweets: @caro_milanesi, @benbajarin, and @patrickmoorhead

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:

Cobalt Robotics, which makes indoor security robots designed to work alongside human guards, raises $35M Series B; it raised a $13M Series A in March 2018 — Cobalt Robotics, a three-year-old startup building indoor security robots designed to work alongside human guards …

More: FinSMEs

Mathieu Rosemain / Reuters:

French digital affairs minister says Facebook has agreed to share with judges the identity of French users suspected of hate speech, claiming it's a world first — PARIS (Reuters) - Facebook has agreed to hand over the identification data of French users suspected of hate speech on its platform to judges …

More: CNET, The Daily Dot, The Hill, MSPoweruser, and Engadget. Tweets: @reutersworld

Sponsor Posts

Google:

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

Shopify:

Transform ML Experimentation with Tangle — Save months of compute time with Tangle, built by Shopify. Try this open-source platform to simplify ML workflows, ensure reproducibility, and seamlessly share with collaborators.

Zoho:

Contract Signed. Project Ready. Tasks Created. — Every project begins with a promise; a contract that outlines the deliverables, the timelines, and the terms. But for most businesses …

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:

The Pull to Build: Joubin Mirzadegan on Grit and Starting Roadrunner

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

Subscribe to Grit.

Lenny's Podcast:

The 100-person AI lab that became Anthropic and Google's secret weapon | Edwin Chen (Surge AI)

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:

AI Device Wars Heat Up, RIP Metaverse?, Netflix Acquires Warner Brothers

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.

Channels with Peter Kafka:

"Hollywood is Truly Freaked Out." Inside the Netflix/WBD Deal with Lucas Shaw

Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.

Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.

Hard Fork:

OpenAI Calls a 'Code Red' + Which Model Should I Use? + The Hard Fork Review of Slop

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.

Access:

Is Roblox making the internet better or worse? We asked the CEO

A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.

Subscribe to Access.

Add your podcast here

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 11:25 PM ET, June 25, 2019.

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.