Techmeme
August 5, 2022, 5:01 PM

Top News

Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
Amazon plans to acquire Roomba maker iRobot in a $1.7B all-cash deal; Colin Angle will remain as iRobot's CEO  —  Amazon this morning announced plans to acquire Roomba maker iRobot for an all-cash deal valued at $1.7 billion.  —  “Since we started iRobot, our team has been on a mission …
Nikkei Asia:
Nikkei Asia:
The Verge:
After criticism, DuckDuckGo says its browser will now block Microsoft tracking scripts on third-party websites, formerly exempt due to a search syndication deal  —  After an uproar over an exception, DuckDuckGo is promising transparency.  —  After a revelation in May that DuckDuckGo's …
James Vincent / The Verge:
Meta's AI research lab releases its BlenderBot 3 chatbot, which searches the internet to answer questions, available to US users on the web, to collect feedback  —  What could possibly go wrong?  —  Meta's AI research labs have created a new state-of-the-art chatbot and are letting members …
Omer Benjakob / Haaretz:
A prototype of NSO's Pegasus for Israeli police in 2014 reveals the UI and features, including real-time wiretapping, reading texts, and remote camera control  —  Israel Police planned to present cabinet with the system eight years ago.  It was intended to be capable of turning the infected phone …
Nicola Kelly / The Guardian:
The UK government plans to require migrants convicted of a crime to scan their faces up to five times per day using smartwatches; locations will be tracked 24/7  —  Home Office and MoJ plans will require migrants convicted of crimes to take photos up to five times a day
Nupur Anand / Reuters:
India's Enforcement Directorate freezes the assets, worth ~$8.16M, of Binance-owned crypto exchange WazirX, citing suspected foreign exchange rule violations  —  India's financial crime-fighting agency said on Friday that it has frozen the assets of WazirX, owned by the world's largest digital …
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:
Elena Schneider / Politico:
A look at FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's increasing US political contributions, including $10M+ to back Biden in 2020, and uncertainty about his goals and leanings  —  NASSAU, Bahamas — One of the biggest donors in Democratic politics this year isn't sure if he really wants to be a Democratic megadonor …
CoinDesk:
How crypto developer Ian Macalinao posed as 11 independent developers and faked a web of DeFi protocols to temporarily inflate the total value locked on Solana  —  The Macalinao brothers used a web of bogus identities to create the illusion of a dev community, juicing value on the Saber protocol and Solana blockchain.
Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg:
Crypto bridge Nomad says anyone returning at least 90% of stolen tokens will be viewed as a white-hat hacker and the remaining 10% would become the reward  —  Cryptocurrency company Nomad is offering a bounty to recoup funds spirited away in a $190 million hack that again highlighted security vulnerabilities …

Sponsor Posts

ElevenLabs:
ElevenAgents by ElevenLabs  —  You know us for voice.  Now meet ElevenAgents — featuring Expressive Mode, our most human-sounding AI voice technology in 70+ languages with ultra-low latency.  Hear it for yourself.
Intel:
5G's most deployed platform  —  Powering live networks with built-in Inference across Core and RAN.  That's the power of Intel Inside®
Zoho:
Build vs Buy Embedded Analytics: The Decision That Defines Your Product Roadmap  —  Every SaaS product team eventually hits the analytics wall.  Your customers want insights inside your app.  Your roadmap has no room to spare.
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Great Chat:
Go touch some grass (but don't tweet about it)
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Lenny's Podcast:
An AI state of the union: We've passed the inflection point, dark factories are coming, and automation timelines | Simon Willison
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Access:
The future of AI might be on your finger
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Axiom's Carina Hong: Solving Math's Hardest Problems With AI, And AI's Problems With Math
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
Iran, Oil, and the US
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Ryan Roslansky: Turning AI Anxiety into Skills for the Future of Work
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:01 PM ET, August 5, 2022.

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.

More News

Andrew Romero / 9to5Google:

Earlier Picks

Soma Biswas / Wall Street Journal:
Michelle Price / Reuters:
Michael del Castillo / Forbes:
Nelson Wang / CoinDesk:
Dan Primack / Axios:
Oliver Knight / CoinDesk:
Bloomberg: