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Techmeme
February 12, 2018, 10:15 PM
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Wired:
A behind-the-scenes look at two tumultuous years at Facebook as it battled with fake news, its impact on the election, global affairs, and users' minds  —  ONE DAY IN late February of 2016, Mark Zuckerberg sent a memo to all of Facebook's employees to address some troubling behavior in the ranks.
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: Apple is changing its iOS development strategy, moving away from an annual schedule crammed with major features and prioritizing reliability  —  The company is shaking up its development program to focus more on key features and push back others to the following year.
Aaron Tilley / The Information:
Source: Amazon is designing its own AI chip for use in Echo and other Alexa-powered devices, following its 2015 acquisition of chip maker Annapurna Labs  —  Amazon.com is developing a chip designed for artificial intelligence to work on the Echo and other hardware powered by Amazon's Alexa virtual assistant …
Google Cloud Platform Blog:
Google's Cloud TPUs, hardware accelerators custom-built to speed up TensorFlow ML workloads, are now available in beta, starting at $6.50 per Cloud TPU per hour  —  By John Barrus, Product Manager for Cloud TPUs, Google Cloud and Zak Stone, Product Manager for TensorFlow and Cloud TPUs, Google Brain Team
Matt Day / The Seattle Times:
Source: in a rare cutback, Amazon is laying off several hundred corporate employees in Seattle and hundreds elsewhere across its global operations  —  Amazon is cutting several hundred jobs in Seattle, and hundreds elsewhere, a rare layoff that appears to fall predominantly on its established consumer retail business.
Bloomberg:
Sources: Android P to have deeper Google Assistant integration, better battery life, support for iPhone X-like notches, multiple screens, and foldable displays  —  Search giant tries again to win over valuable iPhone users  —  Android P to integrate more tightly with Google's Assistant
Nicole Perlroth / New York Times:
Researchers: cyberattack caused disruption to Pyeongchang2018.com and local internet, which grounded drones and more during Winter Olympics' opening ceremony  —  A cyberattack caused the internet disruptions during the Winter Olympics' opening ceremony on Friday night, Olympic officials and security experts said.
Taylor Lorenz / The Daily Beast:
600K+ people sign Change.org petition calling for Snapchat redesign to be reverted as celebs including Chrissy Teigen, Kylie Jenner, MKBHD criticize update  —  Last week Snapchat rolled out its biggest redesign since the app launched in 2011.  —  The company split the app into two sections …
Andrew J. Hawkins / The Verge:
Uber will require drivers in the US to take six-hour breaks after driving a total of 12 hours in a single shift  —  The app will use GPS and telematics to track driving time  —  In an effort to combat drowsy driving, Uber announced today that it would require its most frequent drivers …
Louise Matsakis / Wired:
Snap Map now available on its own site and embeddable online as individual stories, a collection from a location or event, or stories from a specific area  —  WHEN HURRICANE HARVEY wreaked destruction in Houston last August, the country turned not just to cable television, but also to Snapchat.
Fitz Tepper / TechCrunch:
Instagram tests a feature showing users who has taken screenshots of their stories  —  Instagram is testing a feature that will show users when someone else takes a screenshot of their story.  Users included in the test are getting a warning that the next time they take a screenshot …
MIX / The Next Web:
Another cryptocurrency startup, LoopX, pulls exit scam, deleting its site and online accounts after raising $4.5M in a series of ICOs in January  —  Another day, another exit scam: an emerging cryptocurrency startup more commonly known as LoopX has suddenly vanished out of thin air along with millions worth of its investors' savings.
iFixit:
Teardown finds HomePod has great build quality, but a saw is needed to open the device; some parts, including the fabric mesh, can be easily removed  —  Tools Featured in this Teardown  —  Introduction  —  Apple's beloved voice assistant is back again, this time in more of a Mac Pro wearing a jacket.

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About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:15 PM ET, February 12, 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.

From Mediagazer

Steven Zeitchik / The Hollywood Reporter:
Q&A with California AG Rob Bonta about why David Ellison is “desperate”, some Hollywood guilds supporting Paramount's WBD deal, concerns about CNN, and more

Max Tani / Semafor:
Memo: MS NOW plans to launch a $7.99/month membership program for “super fans” on September 9, offering members-only content verticals, a 24/7 feed, and more

Todd Spangler / Variety:
José Suárez, president and general manager of three Telemundo-owned TV stations in Florida, died in a helicopter crash Wednesday in Kenya along with six others

More News

Adrian Kingsley-Hughes / ZDNet:
AMD unveils Ryzen “Raven Ridge” desktop APUs with Radeon Vega graphics, ranging from $99 to $169, to shake up the entry-level and mid-range desktop PC market

Earlier Picks

Kurt Wagner / Recode:
eMarketer says Facebook lost ~2.8M US users under 25 in 2017, predicts it will lose ~2.1M in 2018; Instagram's US users will grow 13%, Snapchat's by 9% in 2018
Chris Williams / The Register:
4,200+ websites, including USCourts.gov, UK's NHS services, other government sites were infected with cryptocurrency mining malware via hacked plugin
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