Techmeme
July 13, 2017, 12:30 PM

Top News

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Facebook plans to unveil a $200 standalone wireless Oculus VR headset for 2018, which will be more compact than the Rift and lighter than Gear VR  —  The new device will work without being tethered to phone or PC  —  Company bets gadget will popularize VR as Apple did smartphone
Eric Newcomer / Bloomberg:
Uber and Yandex merge ride-sharing services in Russia in a $3.7B JV, in which Yandex will invest $100M for a 59.3% stake, Uber will invest $225M for 36.6% stake  —  Yandex to take controlling stake in new combined venture  —  Deal marks Uber's second major global retreat after China
Eduard Kovacs / SecurityWeek:
Info on millions of Verizon users, including phone numbers, addresses, PINs were left exposed online; Verizon disputes early reports of 14M, says it affected 6M  —  The personal details of millions of Verizon customers were exposed online due to a misconfigured Amazon Web Services (AWS) …
Mark Sullivan / Fast Company:
Source: Apple working on rear-facing 3D laser system for new iPhone that will enable better depth detection for AR apps and improved autofocus  —  The addition will make future iPhones far better suited to the AR experiences being created by developers using the ARKit development platform.
Megan Rose Dickey / TechCrunch:
Apple debuts HomeKit smart home experiences in retail stores worldwide to show off controlling various product like the Philips Hue light bulb with Home app  —  Unless you've had a chance to try some Apple HomeKit products in someone's home or apartment, it can be hard to understand how it all works.
John Anon / Android Headlines:
Google releases Backup and Sync as a single desktop backup app, eliminating need for individual uploader tools for Google Drive and Google Photos  —  Google has today announced the launch of its new Backup and Sync tool.  This is a feature which is now available for both Windows and Mac …
Taylor Soper / GeekWire:
Pet-sitting startup Rover raises $65M round led by Spark Capital for international expansion  —  Typically in today's technology world, startup founders sit on one side of the room, pitch ideas to investors, and hope to land funding for their company.  —  But when you're growing as quickly as Rover …
Dustin Volz / Reuters:
US General Services Administration removes Kaspersky Lab from two lists of approved vendors used by government agencies to purchase IT  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Trump administration on Tuesday removed Moscow-based Kaspersky Lab from two lists of approved vendors used by government agencies …
Jeremy Kahn / Bloomberg:
Microsoft launches Microsoft Research AI lab in Redmond, involving 100+ AI scientists, focused on developing general purpose AI, challenging Google's DeepMind  —  Will move toward developing general-purpose learning systems  —  Also launches AI project for environmental sustainability

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More News

Adrienne LaFrance / The Atlantic:

Earlier Picks

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Reuters:
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