Techmeme
January 11, 2018, 10:00 PM

Top News

Mike Isaac / New York Times:
Zuckerberg says News Feed will focus on what friends share, de-emphasize content from publishers and brands as it moves to favor interactions over passive posts  —  SAN FRANCISCO — Facebook introduced sweeping changes to the kinds of posts, videos and photos that its more than two billion members …
Alex Barinka / Bloomberg:
Sources: Dropbox has confidentially filed for an IPO, with Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan leading the listing; Dropbox was valued at $10B in 2014  —  File-sharing company valued privately at $10 billion  —  Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan are said to lead potential listing
Erin Griffith / Wired:
New York Times:
House votes 256 to 164 to extend Section 702 FISA warrantless surveillance program for six years with minimal changes; bill now proceeds to the Senate  —  WASHINGTON — The House of Representatives voted on Thursday to extend the National Security Agency's warrantless surveillance program …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
AMD says it is making firmware updates available for Ryzen and EPYC processors this week to fix Spectre flaws, updating older processors “over the coming weeks”  —  Zero risk, but not zero impact  —  AMD's initial response to the Meltdown and Spectre CPU flaws made it clear “there is a near zero risk to AMD processors.”
Mariella Moon / Engadget:
Intel releases breakdown of performance slowdown on Windows 10 after Spectre and Meltdown patches: ~6% for 8th-gen CPUs, ~7% for 7th-gen, ~8% for 6th-gen  —  Your personal computers will be less than 10 percent slower after you install the Spectre/Meltdown fix, Intel has revealed in a blog post.
James Vincent / The Verge:
Skype partners with Open Whisper Systems, which makes Signal, to begin testing of end-to-end encrypted “Private Conversations”  —  Secured using the same encryption standard behind the Signal app  —  Microsoft is testing a new feature for Skype: end-to-end encrypted chat conversations …
Giles Turner / Bloomberg:
Filings show Google quietly bought UK sound tech startup Redux, which turns surfaces like phone displays into speakers  —  Alphabet Inc.'s Google has quietly acquired a U.K. startup focused on technology that turns surfaces such as phone displays into speakers.
Jessica DiNapoli / Reuters:
Sources: Peter Thiel joins other bidders in making an offer in bankruptcy court for Gawker's remaining assets, including domains and 200K+ articles  —  NEW YORK (Reuters) - Venture capitalist Peter Thiel has made an offer for Gawker, hoping to overcome legal hurdles and rival bidders …
Mark Bergen / Bloomberg:
Sources: Google to vet videos in the Google Preferred ad program with human moderators and AI, after concerns from marketers over videos including Logan Paul's  —  Google is planning a new push to vet top-tier YouTube videos that it bundles for major advertisers, people familiar with the plan said.
Bloomberg:
Sources: in 2015-2016 Uber used “Ripley” tool to remotely shut down the company's devices and shield files and data from police raids in foreign countries  —  At least two dozen times, the San Francisco headquarters locked down equipment in foreign offices to shield files from police raids.
Jeff John Roberts / Fortune:
Ripple partners with global payment company MoneyGram to pilot the use of XRP tokens on MoneyGram's network using Ripple's xRapid service  —  Ripple, a blockchain company and rival to bitcoin, on Thursday announced a tie-up with Dallas-based money transfer giant MoneyGram.

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Emil Wallner / FloydHub Blog:
Jon Russell / TechCrunch: