Techmeme
February 7, 2018, 11:55 PM

Top News

Cindy Cohn / Electronic Frontier Foundation:
EFF cofounder John Perry Barlow has died at 70  —  With a broken heart I have to announce that EFF's founder, visionary, and our ongoing inspiration, John Perry Barlow, passed away quietly in his sleep this morning.  We will miss Barlow and his wisdom for decades to come, and he will always be an integral part of EFF.
Richard Nieva / CNET:
Alphabet says Nest will be brought back under Google with Nest CEO Marwan Fawaz reporting to Google's hardware chief Rick Osterloh  —  Nest has sold 11 million devices, so Google isn't ditching the brand.  The new strategy: Try to get Google Assistant into more of Nest's smart gadgets in a war against Amazon's Alexa.
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft outlines roadmap for Progressive Web Apps, will experiment with crawling and indexing PWAs from the web so they can be listed in the Microsoft Store  —  Microsoft will be ready to support PWAs in the Microsoft Store as of Windows 10 Redstone 4.  Here's its game plan.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
Reddit bans r/deepfakes, which was devoted to making AI-powered porn using celebrities' faces, and updates site-wide rules regarding “involuntary pornography”  —  Reddit has banned the r/deepfakes subreddit that's devoted to making AI-powered porn using celebrities' faces …
Motherboard:
Wall Street Journal:
Reddit cofounder Alexis Ohanian steps down from daily duties at the company to focus on early stage VC firm he cofounded and personal life, will remain on board  —  Reddit Co-Founder Alexis Ohanian announced on Wednesday he will step down from daily duties at the internet company and focus …
Motherboard:
Sources detail Azimuth Security, a boutique hacking shop finding 0-days for Tor, iOS, Android, more, which counts agencies from Five Eyes countries as clients  —  At first glance, Azimuth Security looks like any other bustling startup.  Photos tweeted by the firm's co-founder show …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Data from over 1.8M Uber drivers shows women earn $1.24/hour and $130/week less than men on average, in part because they drive slower and for fewer hours  —  Women drive slower than men, and for fewer hours  —  Men who drive for Uber earn roughly 7 percent more per hour than women …
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios:
Otto cofounder Lior Ron testified in Waymo v. Uber that Lyft made acquisition offer for Otto, but discussions stalled because Lyft wasn't interested in trucks  —  Lyft put “an acquisition offer on the table” for Otto, the self-driving truck startup that is at the center of the Waymo vs. Uber trial …
Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
US DoJ charges 36 people tied to seven-year cyber-fraud ring that secured $530M+ from selling stolen identities, more; 13 arrested in total with five in the US  —  Prosecutors said the case is “one of the largest cyber-fraud prosecutions” ever carried out by the Justice Department.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google Drive adds ability to comment on Office files, PDFs, and images in preview pane without having to convert them to Google formats  —  Google is launching an update to Google Drive today that will make it easier for teams and agencies to use a mix of G Suite and Microsoft Office while working with their colleagues and customers.
Abner Li / 9to5Google:
Report: Google is developing a subscription game streaming service codenamed Yeti that could either work with Chromecast or a Google-made console  —  Besides Android apps and the Play Store, Google's current gaming efforts are particularly centered around video livestreams on YouTube and Daydream VR.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Goldman Sachs is in talks with Apple to offer financing to Apple gadget shoppers, using its retail point-of-sale financing arm Marcus  —  Wall Street firm would lend to shoppers buying expensive Apple gadgets  —  As Apple Inc.'s AAPL 4.18% investment bank, Goldman Sachs GS 3.85% Group Inc …

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