Techmeme
May 11, 2020, 1:15 PM

Top News

Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Researcher: PCs with Thunderbolt ports have an unpatchable flaw letting hackers with physical access circumvent data safeguards; some new PCs are not affected  —  The so-called Thunderspy attack takes less than five minutes to pull off with physical access to a device, and affects any PC manufactured before 2019.
Ashley Carman / The Verge:
Spotify announces Group Sessions in beta, letting multiple Premium users control a listening session  —  Share DJ time with your quarantine buddies  —  Spotify is giving premium users a new feature that'll allow them to share DJ duties with anyone in their immediate vicinity.
Travis M. Andrews / Washington Post:
Facebook, YouTube, and Vimeo say they are removing a viral 26-minute trailer for “Plandemic”, a conspiracy film that features well-known anti-vaxxers  —  Social media companies including YouTube, Vimeo and Facebook are removing a viral conspiracy theory video because of its claims regarding the coronavirus pandemic.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Premium email app Newton Mail says it has been bought by new owners and will still charge $50 per year  —  The $50-per-year email service has been bought again by new owners  —  Newton Mail is returning to life once again under new ownership, marking the unexpected third life for the premium email app.
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Qualcomm unveils Snapdragon 768G processor with faster graphics performance and global 5G support  —  Qualcomm isn't wasting any time following up last year's Snapdragon 765G gaming chip with a more powerful model.  It's unveiling the Snapdragon 768G, a follow-up that appears to address what many gamers want the most: raw performance.
Benedict Evans:
A look at what could be holding back VR, as a breakthrough moment seems unlikely to materialize despite ripe conditions and nearly a decade of big bets on VR  —  We tried VR in the 1980s, and it didn't work.  The idea may have been great, but the technology of the day was nowhere close to delivering it …
Sam Goree / The Conversation:
Study of websites from the top 1,000 US businesses shows colors, layouts, and AI-generated attributes have became more similar between 2010 and 2016  —  Over the past few years, articles and blog posts have started to ask some version of the same question: “Why are all websites starting to look the same?”
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
India-based Shiprocket, which works with multiple courier companies on behalf of direct-to-consumer sellers, raises $13M Series C led by Tribe Capital  —  Shiprocket, a New Delhi-based logistics aggregator that works with direct-to-consumer sellers including several social media influencers …
Ben Smith / New York Times:
As Australian and French regulators plan to make tech companies pay publishers for news content, leaders from Ireland to Malaysia say they are paying attention  —  News organizations have long hoped that tech platforms would pay them for news.  Now regulators abroad are moving to make that happen.
Tae Kim / Bloomberg:
The pandemic is creating opportunities for Amazon rivals, from upstart Shopify to retailers such as Target and Costco  —  Business turmoil sparked by the Covid-19 pandemic is creating opportunities for rivals from upstart Shopify to retailers such as Target and Costco.  —  The e-commerce rebels are making their advance.

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Earlier Picks

Siva Vaidhyanathan / Wired:
Wall Street Journal:
New York Times:
Jon Fingas / Engadget: