Techmeme
October 17, 2020, 9:55 PM

Top News

Filipe Espósito / 9to5Mac:
A filing with a regulator in Brazil says the iPhone 12 has a 2,815 mAh battery, and the iPhone 12 mini has a 2,227mAh battery  —  While the iPhone 12 and iPhone 12 Pro are now available for pre-order in the US, Apple is getting ready to bring its new smartphones to other countries as well.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
Thoughts on Apple's “Hi, Speed” event: the iPhone 12 lineup, camera differences, missing chargers and earbuds, focus on 5G and Verizon CEO's cameo, more  —  Last month's “Time Flies” event for the Apple Watch Series 6 and new iPad Air was about an hour long; this week's “Hi, Speed” event ran just a bit longer at 70 minutes.
More: The Verge
Stephen Totilo / Kotaku:
Interview: Microsoft's Phil Spencer on Xbox Series S vs. Series X, Bethesda deal, cross-gen gaming, ballooning game file sizes, and the storage size trade-off  —  There's nothing normal about interviewing Xbox chief Phil Spencer these days.  —  First, there's the location.
Marietje Schaake / Foreign Affairs:
Sean Lyngaas / CyberScoop:
Google says Chinese state-linked hacker group, known as APT31, has been using malware on GitHub to upload and download files on networks in targeted attacks  —  Former vice president Joe Biden.  Chinese hackers have unsuccessfully targeted the campaign, according to Google.  (Flickr / Gage Skidmore)
Vijaya Gadde / @vijaya:
[Thread] Twitter updates Hacked Materials Policy, says it won't remove content unless shared by hackers themselves and will label tweets instead of block links  —  Over the last 24 hours, we've received significant feedback (from critical to supportive) about how we enforced our Hacked Materials Policy yesterday. After reflecting on this feedback, we have decided to make changes to the policy and how we enforce it.
New York Times:
Wired:
18% of games announced by major studios this summer had female protagonists, with Sony accounting for over a third; E3 2019 games had 5% female representation  —  The data on female representation in games looked optimistic—but time will tell if these changes endure beyond a wildcard year.
Morgan Clendaniel / Fast Company:
A look at the pandemic's impact on Nextdoor and how CEO Sarah Friar has attempted to promote the concept of “kindness” amid a tumultuous year for the company  —  The social network for local communities bet on kindness to power it to an IPO.  If only the locals don't ruin it.
Tara Seals / Threatpost:
Broadvoice, a VoIP provider for SMBs, has leaked 350M+ customer records, including thousands of voicemail transcripts, many including medical and financial info  —  Broadvoice, a well-known VoIP provider that serves small- and medium-sized businesses, has leaked more than 350 million customer records related …

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