Techmeme
August 5, 2022, 9:15 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:
Lawrence Abrams / BleepingComputer:
Twitter confirms that a now-patched bug was used to link phone numbers and emails to user accounts; a threat actor offered to sell 5.4M records in December 2021  —  Twitter has confirmed a recent data breach was caused by a now-patched zero-day vulnerability used to link email addresses …
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 AI built and released BlenderBot 3, letting users engage in general chitchat and ask BlenderBot questions to collect feedback on its capabilities  —  What could possibly go wrong?  —  Meta's AI research labs have created a new state-of-the-art chatbot and are letting members …
Elena Schneider / Politico:
A look at FTX CEO Sam Bankman-Fried's range of 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 — at least not on the party's terms.
New York Times:
A look at Japan's efforts to counter chip supply chain disruptions, including investing in domestic production and seeking a coalition with the US and the EU  —  As it reckons with supply chain vulnerabilities, the country is spending billions to revitalize domestic production and seeking to form a coalition with “like-minded” nations.
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 …
Nupur Anand / Reuters:
India's Enforcement Directorate freezes the assets, worth ~$8.16M, of Binance-linked 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 …
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

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More News

Joanna Ossinger / Bloomberg:
Barry Schwartz / Search Engine Land:

Earlier Picks

Andrew Romero / 9to5Google:
Michelle Price / Reuters:
Dan Primack / Axios:
Oliver Knight / CoinDesk:
Bloomberg: