Techmeme
April 20, 2017, 11:10 AM

Top News

Jack Marshall / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Google plans to introduce ad-blocking in Chrome, considers blocking all ads on sites with ads that don't meet Coalition for Better Ads' standards  —  Filter could strip out ads that provide bad experiences for users  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google is planning to introduce an ad-blocking feature …
Cherlynn Low / Engadget:
Mastercard begins testing fingerprint sensors on cards in South Africa, plans to roll them out globally by end of 2017  —  Our fingerprints are quickly replacing PINs and passwords as our primary means of unlocking our phones, doors and safes.  They're convenient, unique …
Ben Thompson / Stratechery:
Facebook copying Snapchat's features reduces the competition to just who has the stronger network, illustrating how monopolies are bad for innovation  —  The shamelessness was breathtaking.  —  Having told a few jokes, summarized his manifesto, and acknowledged the victim of the so-called …
Richard Nieva / CNET:
Inside Building 8, Facebook's moonshot lab working on a brain interface that translates thoughts into words and a project to use skin vibrations to “hear” words  —  The social network finally unveils what its secretive Building 8 hardware lab has been working on for the past year.
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Verizon reports Q1 revenue of $29.81B compared to estimates of $30.4B, with net income of $3.6B, sees net decline of 307K postpaid connections  —  Verizon lost postpaid retail customers in the first quarter, but the damage could have been worse without the launch of Verizon Unlimited.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft makes its Wunderlist successor, To-Do, available in preview as part of Office 365; Wunderlist will “eventually” be retired  —  Microsoft's ‘Project Cheshire,’ the successor to its Wunderlist to-do app, is now in public preview for many Office 365 users on a variety of devices.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Mozilla releases Firefox 53 with two new themes, separate graphics process on Windows that utilizes system's GPU, reader mode, no support for Windows XP, Vista  —  Mozilla today launched Firefox 53 for Windows, Mac, Linux, and Android.  The new version includes two new themes on desktop …
Ian Murphy / Enterprise Times:
UK government report: 46% of UK businesses had a cybersecurity breach in the last year, 67% lack a cybersecurity risk policy, only 24% report breaches to police  —  The 2017 UK Govt produced Cyber Security Breaches Survey is out and it says nothing new.  Across 66 pages it repeats what businesses and the industry already know.
Tony Romm / Recode:
Amazon, Facebook, Google, Snap, and 150+ more file brief in federal court arguing against Trump's revised travel ban  —  Amazon, Facebook, Google and Snap are among those filing.  —  Amazon, Facebook, Google, Snap and more than 150 other tech companies told a federal court in Virginia today …
Jeffrey Dastin / Reuters:
Amazon opens Amazon Lex, the tech powering Alexa, to all developers and will charge based on how many text or voice requests Lex processes  —  Amazon.com Inc's chief technology officer is working toward a day when people can control almost any piece of software with their voice.
Nick Statt / The Verge:

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Earlier Picks

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