Techmeme
July 11, 2019, 10:50 AM

Top News

Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Apple says it has temporarily disabled the Apple Watch Walkie Talkie app, due to a vulnerability that could allow iPhone eavesdropping, while it works on a fix  —  Apple has disabled the Apple Watch Walkie Talkie app due to an unspecified vulnerability that could allow a person to listen …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Apple pushes silent Mac update to remove the hidden web server in the Zoom app that could let websites add a user to a video call without their permission  —  Apple has released a silent update for Mac users removing a vulnerable component in Zoom, the popular video conferencing app …
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Todd Bishop / GeekWire:
Amazon says it will spend $700M to retrain 100K, or about a third of its US employees, by 2025, acknowledging the impact of technology and automation on jobs  —  Amazon is embarking on a $700 million effort to retrain its U.S. workforce, in a high-profile acknowledgment of the impact …
Tom Simonite / Wired:
Belgian broadcaster obtains 1,000+ Google Assistant audio clips from a Google contractor, some of which seem to be recorded inadvertently and may violate GDPR  —  GOOGLE, AMAZON, AND Apple say their AI-powered virtual assistants make it easier to get things done on smartphones or at home.
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
SEC approves the first-ever regulated token offering, letting blockchain startup Blockstack offer $28M in tokens under Regulation A+, an alternative to IPOs  —  The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) gave blockchain startup Blockstack the go-ahead today to conduct a $28 million digital …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: McAfee is in talks with bankers for an IPO listing as soon as this year, seeking to raise $1B at a $5B+ valuation  —  Cybersecurity-software company's IPO could raise at least $1 billion  —  Cybersecurity-software company McAfee LLC is planning to return to the public markets …
Ana Swanson / New York Times:
Trump administration to investigate whether a proposed French tax on big US tech companies amounts to an unfair trade practice that's punishable with tariffs  —  WASHINGTON — The Trump administration said on Wednesday that it would investigate whether a French plan to impose a tax …
E. Tammy Kim / New Yorker:
A look at the practice of personalized learning, an individual-comes-first approach usually aided by tech, and how it is applied in many Rhode Island schools  —  Untangling the mixed record of the latest big-fix educational trend promoted by Silicon Valley.
Alex Heath / The Information:
Sources: Facebook is looking to buy game studios and has signed deals for exclusive VR versions of Assassin's Creed and more to bolster its Oculus ecosystem  —  Facebook is looking to buy game studios and ink exclusive deals for virtual reality versions of well-known games to bolster …
Ryan Gallagher / The Intercept:
A US nonprofit org founded by Google and IBM is working with a company helping China's government secretly monitor phone and internet activity of 200M people  —  An American organization founded by tech giants Google and IBM is working with a company that is helping China's authoritarian …
Amrita Khalid / Engadget:
Google adds 60 new supported languages to its Translate camera tool, including Arabic, Hindi, and Vietnamese, rolling out over the coming weeks  —  Google Translate's instant camera feature will now make translating a foreign street sign as easy as aiming your phone — even if your native language isn't English.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Signavio, which offers tools for business process automation, raises $177M led by Apax Digital, sources say at a $400M valuation  —  Robotic Process Automation has been the name of the game in enterprise software lately — with organizations using advances in machine learning algorithms …
Isabel Woodford / The Block:
Near, which is developing a sharded, proof-of-stake protocol for making dApps, raises $12.1M Series A led by Metastable and Accomplice  —  If you haven't heard of NEAR, it may be time to familiarise yourself.  —  The blockchain-building firm has secured $12.1 million in its Series …

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More News

Josh Dzieza / The Verge:

Earlier Picks

Henry Giardina / Gizmodo:
Jonah Weiner / New York Times:
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Scott Stein / CNET: