Techmeme
February 11, 2020, 3:10 PM

Top News

Greg Miller / Washington Post:
Sources: CIA secretly owned Crypto AG, the leading supplier of encryption systems globally, and could read allies' and adversaries' communications for decades  —  For more than half a century, governments all over the world trusted a single company to keep the communications of their spies, soldiers and diplomats secret.
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
US judge rules in favor of T-Mobile-Sprint merger, the final hurdle for the deal; Sprint's stock rises 70%+  —  - A U.S. District judge ruled in favor of Sprint's $26 billion deal to merge with T-Mobile.  — The ruling clears one of the final hurdles for the deal, which still can't close until …
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Samsung announces the 6.2" Galaxy S20, 6.7" Galaxy S20 Plus, and 6.9" Galaxy S20 Ultra, with starting prices ranging from $1,000 to $1,600, coming March 6  —  Samsung has announced its latest flagship phones: the Galaxy S20, Galaxy S20 Plus, and Galaxy S20 Ultra.
Chris Velazco / Engadget:
Kadhim Shubber / Financial Times:
The FTC is asking Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft about acquisitions from the past decade that were small enough to not be reported to the gov't  —  FTC to review acquisitions made by Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft  —  The Federal Trade Commission …
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft shows how containerized and dual-screen apps will work in Windows 10X with a new emulator and SDK and also refreshes its Android-based Duo SDK  —  Microsoft is delivering its promised Windows 10X emulator and SDK, plus a refresh of its Android-based Duo SDK as its next milestones along its dual-screen device path.
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Google partners with non-profit Defending Digital Campaigns to offer its Advanced Protection tools, including Titan keys, to US political campaigns for free  —  Candidates can also get trained up on how to use Advanced Protection to keep their accounts safe.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft backtracks on forcibly installing the Bing extension in Chrome for Office 365 ProPlus enterprise customers and changing the default search engine  —  Sanity prevails: Microsoft is no longer planning to automatically deploy its Microsoft Search in Bing browser extension to Office 365 ProPlus users.
Joan E. Solsman / CNET:
Nielsen: streaming makes up 19% of US TV watching, with Netflix comprising 31% of streaming on TVs, followed by 21% on YouTube, 12% on Hulu, and 8% on Amazon  —  Netflix is big and it's getting bigger.  And we're not just watching it on our phones and tablets: That dominance translates …
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Airbnb had a $322M net loss for the nine months through Sept. 2019, down from a $200M profit a year earlier, raising concerns ahead of its expected IPO  —  Coronavirus impact also could delay closely watched markets debut  —  Airbnb Inc. swung to a loss for the first nine months …
Scott Scrivens / Android Police:
Samsung unveils Galaxy Buds+ with claimed 11-hour battery life, up from six on the first-gen model, available in four colors on February 14 for $149  —  Samsung's upgraded Galaxy Buds+ may not be the noise-canceling true wireless earbuds of our dreams, but they do include some meaningful improvements that make them worth considering.
Financial Times:
Draft paper shows the EU backing off proposed five-year moratorium on facial recognition tech, instead leaving it to member states to set their own rules  —  New draft of AI paper drops suggestion of 5-year moratorium on surveillance technology  —  Brussels has backed away from plans to call …
More: Engadget

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Earlier Picks

Felix Salmon / Axios:
Danielle Abril / Fortune:
Joseph Cox / VICE:
Eric Geller / Politico: