Techmeme
January 14, 2017, 10:05 PM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Andy Rubin's new startup, Essential, is working on a suite of consumer hardware products; source says the company aims to launch a smartphone this year  —  Android's creator is building a high-end smartphone to be the centerpiece of a series of AI-infused consumer gadgets.  —  by
Barb Darrow / Fortune:
Microsoft buys Maluuba, a Canadian AI startup focused on natural language processing  —  Microsoft is buying Maluuba, a Canadian startup focused on giving software a better understanding of human language.  This natural language processing technology is a key underpinning of artificial intelligence (AI.)
Moxie Marlinspike / Open Whisper Systems:
Contrary to Guardian's report, Signal Protocol contains no “backdoor”; WhatsApp's encryption implementation is appropriate given the company's scale  —  Today, the Guardian published a story falsely claiming that WhatsApp's end to end encryption contains a “backdoor.”  —  Background
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Outgoing FCC chair Tom Wheeler uses his final public speech to make a case for maintaining net neutrality  —  The outgoing head of the Federal Communications Commission, Tom Wheeler, used his final public speech to make a closing argument for maintaining net neutrality, the signature achievement of his time at the agency.
Avery Hartmans / Business Insider:
Report: Lyft lost $600M in 2016, up from $412M in 2015, as revenue rose to $700M, up from about $200M in 2015  —  Lyft lost $600 million in 2016 in its battle with Uber for ride-hailing dominance, according to leaked financial data obtained by The Information's Amir Efrati.
Brooks Barnes / New York Times:
Sony Entertainment CEO Michael Lynton stepping down; he will become chairman of the board of Snap, where he was an early investor  —  LOS ANGELES — The chief executive of Sony's underperforming entertainment division, Michael Lynton, announced Friday that he would step down to focus …
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
After failing to get 10K bitcoins for stolen NSA exploits, Shadow Brokers post farewell message, dump a cache of Windows hacking tools online  —  With 8 days before inauguration of Donald Trump, leak is sure to inflame US officials.  —  Shadow Brokers, the mysterious group …
Devin Coldewey / TechCrunch:
Nintendo Switch console/tablet hybrid will launch worldwide on March 3 for $299.99, has a 6.2-inch 720p capacitive touchscreen, 32GB storage, and no region lock  —  Nintendo has announced the launch date and price of the Nintendo Switch at an event in Tokyo; the company's next console …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Jason Del Rey / Recode:
Walmart streamlines retail, web teams internal memos show; e-commerce CTO to oversee tech teams at retail stores, US CMO to lead Walmart.com & Jet.com marketing  —  Can the brick-and-mortar retailer become a tech company?  —  If Walmart is going to better compete with Amazon …
More: CNBC and Consumerist
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Timehop CEO and co-founder Jon Wegener steps down, with design lead Matt Raoul taking his place; outgoing CEO says company will be cash-flow positive by March  —  Some changes at the top of Timehop, the quirky app that shows you reminders of photos and other content that you've taken and posted on Facebook …

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
How to create an omnichannel customer engagement strategy  —  Let's talk customer engagement—the holy grail of any business.  If you look at any real-world examples, Sephora is what most consider the 'Sensei …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Henry Shukman, Lessons from an Authentic Zen Master
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Thu. 03/28 - Claude 3 Opus Surpasses GPT-4 For The First Time
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:05 PM ET, January 14, 2017.

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

Todd Spangler / Variety:

Earlier Picks

Jane Wakefield / BBC:
Ken Yeung / VentureBeat:
Joseph Cox / Motherboard: