Techmeme
December 29, 2016, 3:00 PM

Top News

Alessandro Sabatelli / The Twitter Blog:
Twitter introduces live 360-degree videos on Periscope and Twitter from select partners  —  Today, we're introducing a new way to see what's happening on Twitter - through live 360 video.  —  Starting today, you can check out live, interactive 360 videos from interesting broadcasters and explore what's happening with them.
David Barboza / New York Times:
How China built “iPhone City”, the world's largest iPhone factory, in Zhengzhou by giving Foxconn billions in perks, tax breaks, and subsidies  —  A hidden bounty of benefits for Foxconn's plant in Zhengzhou, the world's biggest iPhone factory, is central to the production of Apple's most profitable product.
Erin Griffith / Fortune:
As the list of SV startup scandals grows, entrepreneurs' “fake it till you make it” ethos garners continued scrutiny from reporters, while investors defend bets  —  As the list of startup scandals grows, it's time to ask whether entrepreneurs are taking “fake it till you make it” too far.
Andrew E. Kramer / New York Times:
How Russia has bolstered its cyberwarfare capabilities in recent years by working with outside firms and recruiting convicted hackers, scientists, college grads  —  MOSCOW — Aleksandr B. Vyarya thought his job was to defend people from cyberattacks until, he says, his government approached him with a request to do the opposite.
Darrell Etherington / TechCrunch:
Ford debuts upgraded self-driving car with extra compute power, better vision with improved LiDAR sensors; Ford plans to triple fleet to 90 vehicles in 2017  —  Ford has developed a new generation of autonomous development vehicle, a hybrid Fusion that uses the same essential platform …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Oculus acquires The Eye Tribe, a 16-person startup that makes software and a $99 developer hardware kit for eye-tracking  —  The direction you look could one day control your VR or mobile experience thanks to Facebook and Oculus' latest buy, The Eye Tribe.  Oculus confirms to me that this …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Amazon announces “Amazon Digital Day”, a sales holiday on December 30 with 1K+ digital deals on subscriptions, TV shows, music, movies, and more  —  Amazon is known for creating its own, exclusive sales holidays and events to boost its bottom line, as it has done with Prime Day …
Flurry Blog:
44% of global smartphone and tablet activations from December 19-25 were iOS, down 5% YoY, while 21% were Samsung devices; Pixel, Pixel XL not among top sellers  —  With the dates of Christmas and Chanukah synced this year, smartphones were once again predominate on everyone's wish lists.
Se Young Lee / Reuters:
South Korea's antitrust regulator fines Qualcomm $850M+, says firm forced phone makers to pay royalties for too broad a set of patents on modem chip sales  —  South Korea's antitrust regulator said on Wednesday it fined U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm Inc 1.03 trillion won ($854 million) …
Brett Howse / AnandTech:
Lenovo updates Thinkpad lineup with Microsoft Precision TouchPad drivers, Thunderbolt 3, USB-C, Intel Optane SSD support, unveils Thunderbolt 3 and USB-C docks  —  Today Lenovo is announcing a refresh of most of its ThinkPad lineup, and although the model numbers have only changed a bit …

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Earlier Picks

Kevin McCoy / USA Today:
John Callaham / Android Authority:
Billy Steele / Engadget: