Techmeme
December 20, 2016, 5:40 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: the Mac is getting far less attention inside Apple than it once did, amid lack of clear direction from senior management and departures of key people  —  Inside the company, the once iconic computer is getting far less attention than it once did.  —  by
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
On an internal message board, Tim Cook says Apple has “great desktops in our roadmap”, responding to media reports  —  One of the memes to come out of the somewhat contentious rollout of the MacBook Pro is that Apple has given up on the desktop Mac.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Instagram debuts stickers for Stories, including location, time, weather, and emoji overlays and now lets users save 24-hours of updates, again copying Snapchat  —  Instagram is launching its answer to Snapchat geofilters, offering a way to spice up your photos and videos …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook Live Audio launches with select publishers and authors including the BBC, LBC, and Harper Collins, will open up to more next year  —  Book readings, interviews, and news radio are coming to Facebook thanks to its new Live Audio feature launching today with a few publishers and authors before opening up next year.
Julia Fioretti / Reuters:
EU officials: Facebook gave misleading info during takeover of WhatsApp on ability to match WhatsApp, Facebook IDs; this won't affect merger, may result in fine  —  European Union antitrust regulators have charged Facebook Inc (FB.O) with providing misleading information during its takeover of WhatsApp …
Sam Levin / The Guardian:
Uber says its self-driving cars have a problem when crossing bike lanes, is working on a fix; SF Bicycle Coalition had warned Uber about problem before launch  —  Engineers were working to fix programming flaw that could have deadly results for cyclists days after Uber announced it would openly defy California regulators
Mitchel Broussard / MacRumors:
AirPods teardown yields a “hot mess” of close-knit components and a 0/10 repairability score; quality issues with charging case may have been the cause of delay  —  iFixit today published a teardown of Apple's AirPods, uncovering the internal components of both the AirPods themselves …
Joe Rossignol / MacRumors:
Apple extends discounts for USB-C adapters and other accessories from December 31 to March 31  —  Last month, Apple dropped the price on all of its USB-C adapters and accessories by $6 to $20 until December 31.  Today, it has extended that discount until March 31, 2017 for many of the products.
Wall Street Journal:
Indian government officials say Apple has outlined plans and sought inventives to build products in India, paving the way for official stores in the country  —  Apple is seeking financial incentives to move ahead with plan, Indian officials say  —  NEW DELHI— Apple Inc. is discussing …
Joseph Cox / Motherboard:
Egypt blocks encrypted messaging app Signal; Open Whisper Systems says it'll debut a fix over the coming weeks, suggests Tor, VPN workarounds in the meantime  —  Egypt has been censoring access to encrypted messaging app Signal, according to Open Whisper Systems, the company behind the app.
Ginny Marvin / Marketing Land:
Russian hackers use “Methbot” botnet to steal $3M-$5M video ad revenue per day from over 6K premium publishers in largest ad fraud uncovered to date  —  The botnet has been siphoning an estimated $3 to $5 million in ad revenue per day, making it the largest ad fraud scam uncovered to date.

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More News

Ben Bajarin / Tech.pinions:

Earlier Picks

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Eric Newcomer / Bloomberg:
Chris Pereira / GameSpot: