Techmeme
December 21, 2017, 6:15 PM

Top News

Jillian D'Onfro / CNBC:
Eric Schmidt to step down as executive chairman of Alphabet's board of directors, will transition to technical adviser and continue to serve on the board  —  Eric Schmidt will be stepping down as the executive chairman of Alphabet's board of directors and transitioning to technical advisor, the company announced.
Alex Webb / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is developing an EKG heart monitor for Apple Watch  —  Electrocardiogram can help detect arrhythmia, stroke risks  —  Apple Watch already has a built-in heart rate monitor  —  Apple Inc. is developing an advanced heart-monitoring feature for future versions of its smartwatch …
Jem Aswad / Variety:
Universal Music Group and Facebook sign multiyear deal to license UMG's recorded music and publishing catalogs across Facebook, Instagram, and Oculus  —  Facebook and Universal Music Group today announced a global, multi-year agreement under which UMG becomes the first major music company …
Ben Kuchera / Polygon:
Apple says apps with loot boxes or other mechanisms that provide randomized virtual items for purchase must disclose odds of receiving items prior to purchase  —  This is a big change  —  The rise of loot boxes in premium video games was one of the most controversial stories of the year …
CNBC:
Comcast claims it will award $1K bonuses to 100k+ employees due to net neutrality repeal and tax cut; AT&T to award $1K bonuses to 200k employees and invest $1B  —  - The House of Representatives on Wednesday sent tax reform legislation to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it soon.
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Winklevoss twins reflect on their risky bet on Bitcoin, now worth ~$1.3B, made using the $65M settlement they received from Facebook  —  The virtual currency stockpile that Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss began amassing in 2012 is now worth around $1.65 billion.  They have no plans to sell.
Monica Alleven / FierceWireless:
3GPP, the organization that governs cellular standards, signs off on the first specification for 5G, dubbed 5G NR; full details coming later this week  —  As expected, members of the 3GPP ratified the Non-Standalone (NSA) 5G New Radio (NR) specification for what will form the basis of commercial 5G products …
Nicholas Megaw / Financial Times:
Long Island Iced Tea, an unprofitable soft drink maker, rebrands as Long Blockchain Corp and pivots to blockchain exploration, causing stock to rise up to 500%  —  A US securities regulator has warned investors against “potential scams” following a surge in stock prices of hitherto obscure companies …
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
Chinese ride-hailing company Didi Chuxing says it has raised $4B from undisclosed backers, which will be used for AI and international expansion  —  China's Didi Chuxing, the country's top ride-hailing company, said today that it has raised $4 billion in new capital to support a range …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Mozilla releases Firefox for Fire TV, touts ability to launch popular video sites like YouTube amid Amazon-Google feud over YouTube access on Amazon's devices  —  An alternative workaround to the Amazon-Google feud  —  Amid Amazon and Google's bitter and self-defeating feud over the right …
New York Times:
Job ads aimed at age groups on platforms including Facebook raise questions of age discrimination, prompt lawsuit; Amazon, LinkedIn change methods after query  —  This article was written through collaboration between The New York Times and ProPublica, the independent, nonprofit investigative journalism organization.
Rob Goldman / Facebook:

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: Google Sheets Magic Lookup for Zoho CRM  —  Our App Spotlight brings you hand-picked apps to enhance the power of your Zoho apps and tools.  Visit Zoho Marketplace to explore all apps, integrations …
IDrive:
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data  —  Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Salesforce data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.

Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
Special Report: Will AI Wipe Out Humanity? (And Who Profits)
The Big Technology Podcast takes you behind the scenes in the tech world featuring interviews with plugged-in insiders and outside agitators.
Subscribe to Big Technology Podcast.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
The Atlantic's CEO on AI, Billionaire Owners, and Moonlighting as a Creator
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Mark Zuckerberg on Muse, Meta's biggest AI bet yet
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Lenny's Podcast:
How we built Grok Bot in a month | Roman Ugarte (SpaceXAI)
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
Invest Like the Best:
Walter Russell Mead - How America Keeps Winning
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Grit:
The AI Race Has a Leaderboard | Arena CEO Anastasios Angelopoulos
Grit explores what it takes to create, build and scale world-class organizations.
Subscribe to Grit.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:15 PM ET, December 21, 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

Earlier Picks

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Facebook Design: