Techmeme
January 17, 2018, 3:20 PM

Top News

Apple:
Apple says it plans a $350B “direct contribution” to US economy over next five years through repatriating overseas profits, new infrastructure projects, more  —  $350 Billion Contribution to US Economy Over Next Five Years  —  Cupertino, California — Apple today announced …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google launches Cloud AutoML, a service to build image recognition and other custom AI models for developers, including those with no ML expertise  —  Google today announced the alpha launch of AutoML Vision, a new service that helps developers — including those with no machine learning …
Fitz Tepper / TechCrunch:
Anonymously-run cryptocurrency lending and exchange platform BitConnect, long suspected of being a Ponzi scheme, shuts down  —  Bitconnect, the lending and exchange platform that was long suspected by many in the crypto community of being a Ponzi scheme, has announced it's shutting down.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Google to make page speed a factor in mobile search ranking starting in July, says change will only affect pages that “deliver the slowest experience to users”  —  Google today announced a significant change in how it ranks websites for mobile searches: it will now take page speed …
Casey Newton / The Verge:
Facebook begins testing Watch Party, a new feature for groups that lets members watch videos simultaneously while continuing to comment and interact  —  A new feature for groups  —  Facebook today began testing Watch Party, a new feature available to groups that lets members watch videos …
Brian Boucher / artnet News:
Google's Arts & Culture app becomes the number one free app on the iOS App Store after its face-matching feature that was added in December goes viral  —  The search behemoth's app was all the rage on social media this weekend.  —  Googling yourself took on a whole new meaning this weekend.
Zeynep Tufekci / Wired:
Free speech online has grown even as Facebook, Google, Twitter control more attention; most effective censorship now is meddling with trust, not muzzling speech  —  FOR MOST OF modern history, the easiest way to block the spread of an idea was to keep it from being mechanically disseminated.
Greg Ip / Wall Street Journal:
Examining the arguments for antitrust regulation against Apple, Facebook, Google, and Amazon suggests they are safe for now, but history shows that could change  —  A few technology giants dominate their worlds just as Standard Oil and AT&T once did.  Should they be broken up?
Liz Hamren / Windows Blog:
Microsoft brings 15-inch Surface Book 2 to 17 more countries starting today; both 15-inch and 13-inch variants will come to more countries over next two months  —  Surface Book 2 is the most powerful Surface we've ever built, and customers love that they can run their most demanding applications from anywhere.

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Featured Podcasts

Big Technology Podcast:
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The Talk Show With John Gruber:
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The director's commentary track for Daring Fireball. Long digressions on Apple, technology, design, movies, and more.
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Channels with Peter Kafka:
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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.
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BG2 Pod:
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Open-source podcast on all things tech, markets, investing, and capitalism, hosted by Brad Gerstner.
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Ted Sarandos: Netflix and how tech changed storytelling
Microsoft Vice Chair and President Brad Smith speaks with leaders in government, business, and culture to explore the most critical challenges at the intersection of technology and society.
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Earlier Picks

Todd Spangler / Variety:
Evelyn Cheng / CNBC:
Cecilia Kang / New York Times: