Techmeme
February 8, 2020, 11:30 AM

Top News

Natt Garun / The Verge:
A roundup of the coronavirus outbreak's impact on the tech sector, from closures of offices, stores, and factories in China to affecting MWC attendance  —  The outbreak shows that what impacts China impacts everything  —  The tech sector is currently feeling the impact of the coronavirus …
Jay Peters / The Verge:
A group calling itself OurMine briefly compromised Facebook's Twitter and Instagram accounts, seemingly via a third-party service called Khoros  —  OurMine is taking credit for the hacks  —  Several of Facebook's Twitter and Instagram accounts were hijacked this evening …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: SoftBank's Vision Fund 2 may end up raising less than half of the planned $108B, with nearly all of its capital coming from SoftBank itself  —  The new pool could end up being less than half its planned size, with nearly all of its capital coming from SoftBank itself
Reuters:
Coronavirus exposes China's surveillance state as apps show locations of the infected, cameras detect people with fevers and identify them even with masks, more  —  BEIJING/HONG KONG (Reuters) - When the man from Hangzhou returned home from a business trip, the local police got in touch.
Nirave Gondhia / Android Central:
Motorola Razr review: front quick view display is useful but bumps can be felt while using the foldable screen, poor battery life, and the camera is lackluster  —  Too many compromises, for too much money.  —  Motorola RAZR: The review  — Stunning design  — Folding display  — Average Battery
New York Times:
How predictive algorithms are increasingly being used to set police patrols, prison sentences, and probation rules in the US and Europe  —  Across the United States and Europe, software is making probation decisions and predicting whether teens will commit crime.  Opponents want more human oversight.
Pam Kostka / All Raise:
In 2019, 52 women became new VC or general partners in the US, up 37% from last year's record of 38; 65% of VC firms still don't have a woman partner  —  Correction: In a previous version of this blog post we published that there were 50 new female VC partners in 2019 but the number was actually 52.
New York Times:
The number of reported videos related to online child sex abuse reached 41M in 2019, surpassing the number of reported photos; Facebook found 85% of the total  —  In a first, videos outnumbered photos in reports to the authorities last year.  Facebook found the most imagery, the bulk of it on its Messenger app.
Sean Gallagher / Ars Technica:
Some ransomware rings have started stealing data before they encrypt to use stolen data as leverage, ensuring that even victims with backups make the payment  —  Ransomware operators stealing data before they encrypt means backups are not enough.  —  Not every ransomware attack is an unmitigated disaster.

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Featured Podcasts

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Google's AI Infrastructure Chief, Amin Vahdat, on the Physics & Economics of Frontier AI
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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.
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More News

Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
AnandTech:

Earlier Picks

Wall Street Journal:
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Joe DeBlasio / Google Online Security Blog:
Uber: