Techmeme
October 18, 2019, 4:50 PM

Top News

Jon Porter / The Verge:
Samsung says fingerprint bug on Galaxy devices is due to the sensor reading 3D patterns in screen protectors as fingerprints, will patch it as soon as next week  —  And advises removing silicone screen protecting cases for now  —  Samsung says that it plans to release a patch for its phones …
Jordan Novet / CNBC:
Mark Hurd, co-CEO of Oracle and former CEO of HP, dies at 62; Hurd took a health-related leave of absence from Oracle in September  —  Mark Hurd, CEO of Oracle, in an interview on January 20, 2016.  —  Co-CEO of Oracle Mark Hurd died on Friday, CNBC confirmed.
New York Times:
Zuckerberg gives a full-throated defense of Facebook as a champion of free expression and defends Facebook policy to opt out of fact-checking political ads  —  In an address at Georgetown University, the Facebook chief executive called for more free speech — not less …
More: Washington Post, Columbia Journalism Review, The Guardian, Axios, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Verge, CNET, South China Morning Post, The Guardian, Ad Age, Inc42 Media, Fortune, and TechCircle
Heather Kelly / Washington Post:
Facebook claims viewers saw mostly positive comments during Zuckerberg's live-streamed speech due to “ranking signals” that filter out low-quality comments  —  Viewers saw nearly entirely positive comments and emoji because of how the algorithms behind a live stream with tens of thousands of viewers work
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
The second beta of macOS Catalina 10.15.1 contains icons possibly depicting the widely rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro with slightly thinner bezels  —  Icons possibly depicting the widely rumored 16-inch MacBook Pro have been uncovered by French blog MacGeneration in the first two betas …
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
After buying Poloniex in 2018 for $400M, Circle spins it out into Polo Digital Assets, backed by an unnamed Asian firm, says it won't serve US customers anymore  —  Crypto exchange Poloniex is spinning out from its parent firm Circle, the companies announced Friday.
Nikhilesh De / CoinDesk:
MediaLab, a holding company that owns the Whisper app, buys Kik messenger from Kik Interactive, which now focuses on development of Kin cryptocurrency  —  The Kik messaging platform has been bought by MediaLab, a holding company which operates Whisper and a number of other apps, the company announced Friday.
Otillia Steadman / BuzzFeed News:
Sex workers say Instagram keeps taking down accounts, giving confusing guidelines and explanations; Facebook blames moderators' interpretation of guidelines  —  Sex workers and Instagram tried to make peace over takedowns in a meeting this summer.  Then porn star Jessica Jaymes' account was incorrectly removed — after she died.
Jillian D'Onfro / Forbes:
Data analytics startup Sisu emerges from stealth with $52.5M Series B led by NEA, with a16z and Green Bay participating, bringing its total raised to $66.7M  —  Peter Bailis can't resist dropping more than a dozen f-bombs as he explains how his startup Sisu aims to upend traditional business intelligence …
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
YubiKeys can now be used to log into PCs running Windows 7, 8.1, and 10, via the Yubico Login app, previously only available to Mac and Linux users  —  Yubico releases app that lets users configure YubiKeys to work on top of local Windows OS accounts.  —  Starting today, users …

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More News

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Earlier Picks

Chris Fox / BBC: