Techmeme
February 3, 2018, 6:20 PM

Top News

Nellie Bowles / New York Times:
Dozens of entrepreneurs, made newly wealthy by blockchain startups and cryptocurrencies, attempt to build a crypto utopia in the tax haven of Puerto Rico  —  SAN JUAN, P.R. — They call what they are building Puertopia.  But then someone told them, apparently in all seriousness, that it translates to “eternal boy playground” in Latin.
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple launches repair program for small percentage of iPhone 7 devices affected by a bug that shows no available cell service even when cell coverage available  —  Apple today launched a repair program for iPhone 7 devices that are impacted by an ongoing bug that causes them to have no available service …
Paul Lewis / The Guardian:
How YouTube's recommendation algorithm can promote divisive clips and conspiracy videos and may have spread disinformation during the 2016 election  —  An ex-YouTube insider reveals how its recommendation algorithm promotes divisive clips and conspiracy videos.  Did they harm Hillary Clinton's bid for the presidency?
Brian Heater / TechCrunch:
YouTube CEO Wojcicki promises more transparency, better appeals process for demonetization, including more human reviews, and consequences for “egregious” cases  —  YouTube CEO Susan Wojcicki took to the service's Creator Blog last night to issue some broad goals for the year forward.
Jack Nicas / Wall Street Journal:
YouTube says it will start labeling videos from state-funded broadcasters like PBS and RT, considers surfacing videos from credible sources alongside hoaxes  —  Google unit to provide more context around some videos  —  YouTube said it is planning changes to give users more context …
Brad Stone / Bloomberg:
How Amazon may prevent Alexa ads from activating Echo devices: acoustic fingerprint comparison and inaudible sound signals  —  Amazon.com Inc. is advertising its Alexa-powered speakers in the big game on Sunday.  It's an amusing 90 seconds that features celebrities like Gordon Ramsay …
Alana Semuels / The Atlantic:
Amazon's warehouse expansion around San Bernardino, CA brought jobs but data shows Amazon's warehouse staff earn less than similar US workers employed elsewhere  —  SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.—This community was still reeling from the recession in 2012 when it got a piece of what seemed like good news.
Matt Weinberger / Business Insider:
Former employee of Ripcord, a paper record digitization service, says she was fired after reporting harassment, asserts CEO made lewd comments about her  —  - A former female employee of high-flying startup Ripcord said she was fired after reporting harassment and a toxic environment at the company.
Pranav Dixit / BuzzFeed:
Users in India shed light on the dynamics of family WhatsApp groups, which have become an integral extension of the families themselves  —  A still from Hum Aapke Hain Koun, a high-grossing 1994 Bollywood film that tells the story of large Indian joint families grappling with their values.

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.
Cape:
Most carriers track everything.  Cape doesn't.  —  Unlimited talk, text & data, 24-hr metadata deletion, network ID rotation, SIM-attack defense, and more.  Switch today and get 29% off for life.
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Zoho WorkDrive named a Leader in the Nucleus Research CSC Technology Value Matrix 2026  —  Enterprise content management is evolving rapidly with about 80% of the data unstructured.  The growing challenge is not about storing information anymore.
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:
OpenAI's Bots Break Containment and Hack Hugging Face Autonomously — With Alex Stamos
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.
Great Chat:
Too big to laugh: how tech lost its sense of humor
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
Substack Wants To Become A Social Network; Beehiiv Wants To Stay Invisible
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.
Training Data:
Factory's Matan Grinberg: The Coming 'Dark Factory' Where Software Builds Itself
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
Matthew Smith — Natural Gas: The Next Bottleneck
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
Connecting the Unconnected: Doreen Bogdan-Martin
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.
Subscribe to Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 6:20 PM ET, February 3, 2018.

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

Mike Dano / FierceWireless:
Steve Ranger / ZDNet: