Techmeme
February 6, 2018, 8:00 PM

Top News

Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Apple HomePod review: best-in-class sound for $349 and above, looks great, but Siri only works with Apple Music, bad support for third-party services  —  It sounds amazing.  Is that enough?  —  Photography by James Bareham; Video by Phil Esposito, Becca Farsace, Andrew Marino, and William Joel
Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:
HomePod review roundup: sounds great, but Siri is very limited, despite iCloud and iPhone integration, as it can't tell voices apart and recognizes few commands  —  Apple seeded HomePod review units to a number of websites, embargoed for today, and the first reviews are landing.  —  There are quibbles.
Snap Investor Relations:
Snap reports Q4 revenue of $285.7M, up 72% YoY, as DAUs rise 8.9M to 187M, up 18% YoY; net loss of $350M, up 106% YoY; stock up 23%+ after hours  —  02/06/18 VENICE, Calif.—(BUSINESS WIRE)— Snap Inc. (NYSE: SNAP) today announced financial results for the quarter and full year ended December 31, 2017.
Casey Newton / The Verge:
A pollster Facebook hired in April '17, who quit after 6 months, says his role was to measure Zuckerberg's approval ratings and track speeches amid US tour  —  Why Tavis McGinn quit after six months  —  Tavis McGinn applied for a job at Facebook last year hoping to work in market research.
Eric Zimmerman / The Keyword:
Google begins rolling out ability to book flights and hotels directly from search results  —  Planning a trip involves lots of searching for flights, hotels, things to do, itineraries and more.  The process is often cumbersome because we have to use multiple tools to gather everything we need—especially on a mobile phone.
Mark Maurer / The Real Deal New York:
Sources: Google to buy 1.2M sq. ft. Chelsea Market building in NYC, where it leases 400K sq. ft. already, for $2B+ in deal expected to close in two months  —  Jamestown in contract to sell the 1.2M sf office-and-retail property at 75 Ninth Avenue  —  Google did not have to search far and wide for results.
Reuters:
In letter to US lawmakers, Apple says it sees “strong demand” for replacement iPhone batteries and is considering refunding consumers who paid full price  —  WASHINGTON/SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Apple Inc (AAPL.O) has seen “strong demand” for replacement iPhone batteries …
Dustin Volz / Reuters:
Uber's CISO tells Congress 2016 breach should have been disclosed earlier, company should not have used bug bounty program to negotiate $100K payment to hackers  —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The two individuals behind the 2016 data breach at Uber Technologies Inc [UBER.UL] …
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Amazon says it will begin removing lock screen ads on its discounted Prime Exclusive Phone program on February 7 but will reportedly raise phones' prices by $20  —  New devices will drop the ads starting tomorrow  —  Amazon has announced that starting tomorrow, February 7th …

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Earlier Picks

Timi Cantisano / Neowin:
David Ingram / Reuters:
Johana Bhuiyan / Recode: