Techmeme
January 1, 2020, 2:25 AM

Top News

ProPublica:
IRS amends its deal with tax prep software firms, now barred from hiding free products from search, and ends its ban on making its own online filing system  —  Finding free online tax filing should be easier this year for millions of Americans.  —  The IRS announced significant changes Monday …
Fred Wilson / AVC:
Big trends and takeaways from the 2010s: the “capital as a moat” model has failed, machine learning has become table stakes for tech companies, and more  —  My friend Steve Kane suggested I take a longer view in my pair of year end posts this year: … And so I will.
Fox Business:
WSJ: Cloud Hopper, a hacking campaign by Chinese state-sponsored group APT10, was larger than formerly known, and may have been active as late as November 2019  —  The hackers seemed to be everywhere.  —  In one of the largest-ever corporate espionage efforts, cyberattackers alleged …
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
ProtonMail launches E2E encrypted calendar app ProtonCalendar in public beta, tied to users' paid ProtonMail accounts, encrypting event info and participants  —  Encrypted email provider ProtonMail has officially launched its new calendar in public beta.  The move is part of the Swiss …
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Trump signs TRACED Act into law to increase robocall fines, extend statute of limitations from 1 to 4 years, and require carriers to deploy STIR/SHAKEN protocol  —  The Pallone-Thrune TRACED Act, a bipartisan bit of legislation that should make life harder for the villains behind robocalls, was signed into law today by the president.
Brenda Goh / Reuters:
Huawei's Rotating Chairman Eric Xu estimates the company's 2019 revenue grew 18% YoY to $122B, says it shipped 240M smartphones, but forecasts “difficult” 2020  —  SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Huawei Technologies on Tuesday said its full-year revenue would likely jump 18% in 2019 to 850 billion yuan …
Bloomberg:
Uber, Postmates sue CA to block AB-5, days ahead of bill taking effect, say law unconstitutionally targets gig economy companies and benefits other industries  —  - Companies call labor rights measure unfair, unconstitutional  — A.B. 5 will qualify many contractors for employment benefits
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Microsoft wins court order to seize 50 domains run by North Korean cyber-espionage group Thallium, the fourth APT Microsoft has combated with this tactic  —  Microsoft takes control of 50 domains operated by Thallium (APT37), a North Korean cyber-espionage group.
Toby Sterling / Reuters:
2018 tax filings: Alphabet will no longer use the IP licensing scheme commonly called the “Double Irish, Dutch sandwich”, which had let it delay paying US taxes  —  AMSTERDAM (Reuters) - Alphabet (GOOGL.O), the parent company of Google, will no longer use the intellectual property …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Sonos should rethink its Trade Up program's “Recycle Mode”, which bricks old Sonos devices for a discount on newer ones, and consider a policy of reuse  —  An irreversible kill switch for a discount is a bad deal for the environment  —  Late last week, Sonos was called …
Politico:
A look at the increasing prevalence of facial recognition and AI tech across the globe, as the US and EU governments' efforts to limit their use have stalled  —  The result is an impasse that has left tech companies largely in control of where and how to deploy facial recognition.

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Azure Content Understanding: Building on lessons from a decade of Document Intelligence  —  What a decade of teaching machines to read real-world documents taught us about what LLMs can and can't do.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
Ask an Expert: How to effectively recover stuck TDS refunds with reduced TDS reconciliation time  —  The 26AS/Form 168 gets updated quarterly and often gets checked only during the time of ITR filing.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Great Chat:
The launch industrial complex
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Big Technology Podcast:
Can AI Keep Growing Exponentially? Let's Ask SemiAnalysis — With Dylan Patel and Jordan Nanos
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:
Larry Ellison's Media Ambitions & Kevin Roose on AI's Biggest Gamble
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.
Training Data:
Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Andrew Huberman - The Frontier of Neurotechnology
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Sources:
Reflection's founders on building a DeepSeek of the West
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 2:25 AM ET, January 1, 2020.

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.

More News

Kate Eichhorn / MIT Technology Review:
Hannah Frishberg / New York Post:

Earlier Picks

Yahoo News:
Alistair Gray / Financial Times:
Ron Miller / TechCrunch:
Reuters:
Peerzada Abrar / Business Standard: