Techmeme
August 19, 2016, 6:05 PM

Top News

Sam Biddle / The Intercept:
Previously unreleased Snowden documents confirm ShadowBrokers leak contains authentic NSA software that was used to attack systems in Pakistan and Lebanon  —  On Monday, a hacking group calling itself the “ShadowBrokers” announced an auction for what it claimed were “cyber weapons” made by the NSA.
David Shepardson / Reuters:
AT&T, Alphabet, Apple, Verizon, Comcast, others form “Robocall Strike Force” that will work with FCC to combat robocalls  —  The chief executive of AT&T (T.N) will announce Friday that 33 companies including the telecom giant, Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O), Apple Inc (AAPL.O) …
Hannah Karp / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Pandora nears licensing deals with major record companies for on-demand streaming; $10 per month would give subscribers unlimited access to tracks  —  The internet radio service is aiming to start offering new paid tiers as soon as next month  —  Pandora Media Inc. is aiming …
New York Times:
Sources: Lyft held talks or made approaches to sell to Apple, Google, Amazon, Uber, and Didi Chuxing in addition to GM  —  Ride-hailing companies increasingly face a brutal set of competitive conditions.  Lyft, the second-biggest ride-hailing company in the United States behind Uber …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Microsoft open sources PowerShell, brings it to Linux and OS X  —  Microsoft today announced that it is open sourcing PowerShell and bringing it to Linux and OS X.  —  PowerShell is Microsoft's command line shell for Windows power users, as well as an extensible scripting language for automating system tasks.
Kara Swisher / Recode:
Dropbox CFO Vanessa Wittman leaving due to health reasons, her deputy Ajay Vashee will take over on September 1  —  Vanessa Wittman will be replaced by Ajay Vashee.  —  Dropbox CFO Vanessa Wittman is stepping down due to what the San Francisco-based storage company described as “health reasons.”
Matt Weinberger / Business Insider:
Atlassian's HipChat desktop apps get group video chat and screen sharing  —  Atlassian's popular workplace chat app HipChat, used by companies like Uber and Expedia, is getting team video chatting and screen sharing, starting today.  —  It might seem small, but it speaks to a big trend in tech.
Biz Carson / Business Insider:
Kalanick on self-driving cars as an existential threat, Uber's response to that threat, and how the number of human drivers will go up in the foreseeable future  —  Travis Kalanick has to get Uber's bet on self-driving cars right.  —  “It starts with understanding that the world …
J.K. Trotter / Gawker:
Gawker.com announces it will shut down next week, after nearly 14 years of operation  —  After nearly fourteen years of operation, Gawker.com will be shutting down next week.  The decision to close Gawker comes days after Univision successfully bid $135 million for Gawker Media's six other websites …
Financial Times:
Vevo is seeking to raise up to $500M, hired Goldman Sachs for help  —  Vevo, the online music video service owned by the world's largest record labels, has hired Goldman Sachs to secure up to $500m of capital from new investors, according to three people briefed on the plans.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple planned to add cellular data to Watch this year but is delaying the feature due to battery life concerns; new models launching this year have GPS  —  Battery concerns delay versions with integrated cellular data  —  Models coming this fall improve health tracking with GPS chip

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Earlier Picks

Sydney Ember / New York Times:
Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:
Katie Benner / New York Times:
Todd Bishop / GeekWire: