Techmeme: Pwn2Own Tokyo 2019 hacking contest: Amazon Echo speakers, Samsung and Sony smart TVs, Xiaomi Mi9, others hacked; Facebook Portal and Google Nest not attempted (Catalin Cimpanu/ZDNet)

Top News

Bob Iger says Disney+ will be on Amazon's Fire TV when it launches on November 12 — - Analysts will be looking to see if Disney gives any color on expected subscriber numbers for Disney+. — Disney shares were up about 3% after the company reported an earnings beat for its fiscal fourth-quarter on Thursday.

More: Wall Street Journal, CNET, BGR, Tor.com, Thurrott, Pocket-lint, GeekWire, Business Wire, AppleInsider, TechCrunch, The Streamable, 9to5Mac, The Verge, Seeking Alpha, iPhone in Canada Blog, Engadget, and Fast Company

Tweets: @discussingfilm, @cnbcnow, and @cnbcnow

See also Mediagazer

Donie O'Sullivan / CNN:

YouTube has run the Trump ad wrongly accusing Biden of corruption, which was seen 10M-30M times, but Google says it strives to ensure ads are “honest” — (CNN Business)You'd be forgiven for thinking that the only tech platform that allows politicians to run false ads is Facebook.

More: Wired, Politico, and Business Insider

Tweets: @oliverdarcy, @ericboehlert, and @donie

Emily Glazer / Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Google has been holding internal meetings on changing its political ad policy, and plans to share more information with employees soon

More: The Guardian, The Independent, Washington Post, Politico, CNN, Rude Baguette, MIT Technology Review, The Hill, Axios, Wired, and CNET

Tweets: @whotargetsme, @glynmoody, @sivavaid, @emilyglazer, @jason_kint, @jason_kint, @dseetharaman, and @profcarroll

Romain Dillet / TechCrunch:

Andreessen Horowitz is launching a free crypto startup school, with a seven-week program that starts in February 2020 — Last month, Andreessen Horowitz (a16z) general partner Chris Dixon announced at TechCrunch Disrupt that the VC firm would run a free crypto startup school.

More: Decrypt and a16z. Thanks:@ninasuthers

Will Oremus / OneZero:

US safety investigators report: dilemma for self-driving cars is not saving one innocent victim over other; it's between caution and competitive advantage — It has nothing to do with the ‘trolley problem’ — he advent of self-driving cars revived the decades-old philosophical conundrum known as the “trolley problem.”

More: The Verge, Axios, Android Central, TechSpot, Ars Technica, and 9to5Google

Tweets: @willoremus, @alexhern, and @meganmorrone

Alnoor Peermohamed / The Economic Times:

AngelList launches its VC and angel fund product in India, which will allow individuals to raise small blind pools of capital and deploy them within 6-12 months — AngelList will manage the legal and regulatory aspects of raising capital and investing it, while the byte-sized funds will be able …

More: Medium, Crowdfund Insider, Inc42 Media, and Entrackr

Tweets: @samidhas, @somani_utsav, and @svickram

Sarah Frier / Bloomberg:

Internal chats from 2012 and 2013 show Facebook staff lamenting its “unethical” practices, as Zuckerberg argued that the company's survival was more important — - New documents show dissent within Facebook's top ranks — Disclosures come as company faces multiple antitrust probes

Tweets: @sarahfrier, @campuscodi, and @autiomaa

Bloomberg:

Sources: Alibaba is planning to launch a Hong Kong IPO next week with plans to raise as much as $15B — - It's said to proceed with listing hearing early next week — Alibaba's share sale comes after a U.S.-China agreement — Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. is moving ahead with plans …

More: New York Times and Forbes

Alex Kantrowitz / BuzzFeed News:

Twitter says it will begin a series of experiments within two weeks that tweak functions like the retweet and reply to promote healthier conversations — Twitter knows we treat each other terribly on Twitter. We dunk, ridiculing friends and strangers via quote-tweets. We ratio, piling on replies to bad tweets.

More: The Verge, Slate, The Overspill, Reclaim The Net, Thurrott, Social Media Today, Digital Trends, and The Verge

Tweets: @kantrowitz, @jimwaterson, @pashulman, @justagirl515, @thekarami, @lizkelley, @jesseltaylor, @lottelydia, @ryanlawler, and @kantrowitz

Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:

Small-satellite startup Kepler provided satellite broadband connectivity to the Arctic at over 100Mbps to a German icebreaker sea vessel — Small-satellite startup Kepler has done something never before accomplished with satellite-based broadband connectivity: providing a high-bandwidth to the Arctic.

More: Slashdot

Alex Wilhelm / Crunchbase News:

Cloudflare, in its first earnings report after IPO, announces Q3 revenue growth of 48% YoY to $73.9M as GAAP loss increased to $40.9M from $38M in Q3 2018 — Update: After rising in after-hours trading, shares of Cloudflare are down as we prep the Daily for publication.

More: Business Wire, The NyseNasdaqLive News, Yahoo Finance, and StreetInsider.com. Tweets: @alex. Thanks:@marisahaleyyy

Bloomberg:

Google contractors recall the often absurd predicament of representing Google, like escorting job candidates around campus, while not working for the company — Kevin Kiprovski had a lofty title, “Expeditions Associate,” and a fun job — he got to demo Google virtual reality gear to young students.

Tweets: @thestalwart, @mhbergen, @ron_miller, @josheidelson, @business, @menakadoshi, @mattmday, @ellenhuet, @kevintkrueger, @dougdavid14, and @shiraovide

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Pwn2Own Tokyo 2019 hacking contest: Amazon Echo speakers, Samsung and Sony smart TVs, Xiaomi Mi9, others hacked; Facebook Portal and Google Nest not attempted — Amazon Echo, Samsung and Sony smart TVs fall on first day of Pwn2Own Tokyo 2019 hacking contest.

Tweets: @campuscodi

Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:

Some users across all major US carriers received text messages overnight that appear to have been sent around Valentine's Day, causing distress in some cases — It's happening to people across all major US carriers — Something strange is happening with text messages in the US right now.

More: Washington Post, Android Police, Popular Mechanics, VICE, Gizmodo, Engadget, AppleInsider, Inquirer, CNET, The Sun, Android Central, SlashGear, BGR, The Daily Dot, MacDailyNews, Digital Trends, Android Authority, 9to5Mac, and GeekWire

Tweets: @jake_k, @chillmage, @adamtodbrown, @jake_k, @mb, @kami, @alexhern, @backlon, @reckless, @reckless, and @kashhill

Eudora Wang / DealStreetAsia:

Lori Systems, a Kenyan logistics platform that connects cargo owners with truck fleets, raises $30M Series A led by Chinese investors — Lori Systems, an African logistics platform that connects cargo owners with truck fleets, has secured nearly $30 million in a Series A round of financing led …

More: China Money Network

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

YouTube rolls out a new homepage design with larger thumbnails and features like an “add to queue” option, a desktop version of “Don't recommend channel”, more — YouTube's homepage is getting a makeover. The company announced today an updated …

More: YouTube Blog, Techdows, The Verge, Thurrott, Social Media Today, Geek.com, Search Engine Journal, MSPoweruser, Android Police, iPhone Hacks, SlashGear, 9to5Google, and Digital Trends

Tweets: @nicknimmin, @mattnavarra, and @loudmouthjulia

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