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December 11, 2020, 5:20 PM
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Gizmodo:
Public records show school districts across the US are purchasing phone hacking tools from companies like Cellebrite to search students' personal devices  —  In May 2016, a student enrolled in a high-school in Shelbyville, Texas, consented to having his phone searched by one of the district's school resource officers.
BuzzFeed News:
Four key Facebook staffers who dealt with hateful or violent speech have left in recent weeks, calling out leadership for lack of action in their farewell posts  —  On Wednesday, a Facebook data scientist departed the social networking company after a two-year stint, leaving a farewell note for their colleagues to ponder.
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Microsoft: “Adrozek” malware campaign is distributing an ad-injecting browser modifier which changes security settings; Chrome, Firefox, Edge, Yandex at risk  —  Chrome, Firefox, Edge, and Yandex are all affected in widespread ad-injection campaign.
Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:
Twitter says it has acquired screen-sharing social app Squad whose team will join Twitter, and it will shut down the app tomorrow  —  Today, Twitter announced that it is acquiring Squad and that the team from the screen-sharing social app will be joining Twitter's ranks.
Kyunghee Park / Bloomberg:
Hyundai buys an 80% stake in Boston Dynamics in a deal that values the robot company at $1.1B  —  - SoftBank, affiliates to retain 20% interest in U.S. company  — South Korean group develops robots for practical use  —  Hyundai Motor Group agreed to buy a controlling stake …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Text inside Twitter's app code suggests that live broadcasting app Periscope may get shut down  —  Twitter has been doubling down on video services within its app, building out Twitter Live and recently launching Fleets so that users can share more moving media alongside their pithy 180-word observations, links and still photos.
John Gruber / Daring Fireball:
AirPods Max sound great and are very well made, but they're expensive, heavy, and make Apple TV's lack of support for spatial audio that much more glaring  —  What a fascinating product Apple's new AirPods Max are.  At $550, they are indisputably expensive, and at 385 grams, they are undeniably heavy.
Jessica Bursztynsky / CNBC:
Oracle says it is moving its corporate headquarters from Redwood City, CA to Austin, TX and will implement “a more flexible employee work location policy”  —  - Oracle is the latest tech company to relocate from California to Austin, Texas.  — HPE announced its move to Houston earlier this month.
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Some iPhone users say iOS 14 is not showing notifications when receiving SMS texts and iMessages  —  An iOS 14 bug doesn't show notifications when some new messages arrive  —  If you've noticed that you're receiving SMS texts and iMessages from people but aren't getting any notifications about them, you're not alone.
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Microsoft releases a preview of x64 emulation on Windows for ARM, available to Windows Insiders in the Dev Channel  —  All your apps should now run on ARM  —  Microsoft is finally releasing x64 emulation on Windows for ARM to testers today, after announcing that the feature was coming back in September.
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:
Facebook doxes and suspends accounts of APT32, one of the most active state-sponsored hacking groups that began in 2014, linking it to an IT group in Vietnam  —  Facebook suspends accounts linked to APT32, says the group used its platform to spread malware.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple says it is retiring Music Memos, an app released in 2016 to let musicians record song ideas, on March 1, 2021, directs users to export to Voice Memos app  —  Apple is planning to retire its Music Memos app, which was first released in 2016 as an app designed to allow musicians and songwriters to capture song ideas on the fly.
New York Times:
Legal experts say FTC and state AGs will find it challenging to prove their allegations against Facebook because the standards of proof are formidable  —  The U.S. and states cases against the social network are far from a slam dunk because the standards of proof are formidable.
Washington Post:
FTC and state AG antitrust complaints use dramatic language, bolstered by emails, to portray Zuckerberg as a villain who vowed to “crush” the competition

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:20 PM ET, December 11, 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.

From Mediagazer

Dan Mangan / CNBC:
President Trump files a $10B defamation lawsuit against the BBC, alleging it intentionally doctored a Panorama documentary to misrepresent his January 6 speech

Aidan Ryan / The Boston Globe:
The Boston Globe says Brian McGrory will return as editor, after Nancy Barnes' departure at the end of 2025; McGrory previously was editor from 2012 to 2023

Sara Fischer / Axios:
WSJ launches Free Expression, a newsletter-focused opinion brand that will be available via its own channels and Substack, initially offering free content

More News

Kayleigh Barber / Digiday:
Axios plans to launch Axios HQ in Feb. to help companies write internal memos styled like Axios newsletters, with real-time feedback and “Smart Brevity” score
Yunan Zhang / The Information:
A look at China's online grocery business, as tech titans like Didi Chuxing offer community group buying where households pool orders to buy directly from farms
Julia Alexander / The Verge:
Disney will raise the cost of Disney+ to $7.99 per month, up from $6.99, starting March 2021 in the US, as the company heavily invests in content offerings

Earlier Picks

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Tim Cook says it “seems likely” that the majority of teams at Apple won't be back at the office before June 2021
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Brave introduces Brave Today, a news reader designed around privacy, powered by Brave's new CDN which delivers feeds anonymously to users
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: SVP of hardware tech Johny Srouji told staff that Apple has started working on its own cellular modem for future devices, to replace Qualcomm chips
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Uber's CEO sent a letter to all 50 US governors asking them to prioritize giving drivers and delivery workers the vaccine as essential workers
The Daily Beast:
Source: at an all-hands meeting, Mark Zuckerberg told Facebook employees they will not be required to get vaccinated before returning to work in their offices
Jennifer Surane / Bloomberg:
Mastercard won't allow its cards to be used on Pornhub after its review of the site uncovered unlawful content; Visa suspends its card usage pending a probe
Lauren Feiner / CNBC:
Airbnb closes at $144, up from its $68 IPO price, on its first day of trading, giving it a market cap of about $86.5B and more than doubling its IPO valuation
Mitchell Clark / The Verge:
Twitter says iOS users can now add tweets to Snapchat Snaps as stickers, and it will soon test sharing tweets to Instagram Stories
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