Techmeme
March 13, 2018, 11:45 AM

Top News

Andrew Ross Sorkin / New York Times:
Larry Page-backed flying taxi firm Kitty Hawk signs agreement with New Zealand government to test autonomous planes as part of an official certification process  —  Since October, a mysterious flying object has been seen moving through the skies over the South Island of New Zealand.
Chloe Aiello / CNBC:
President Trump signed an order blocking Singapore-based Broadcom's proposed acquisition of US-based Qualcomm, citing national security concerns  —  President Donald Trump killed Broadcom's proposed buyout of Qualcomm, citing national security concerns, according to a statement issued by the White House on Monday.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Fitbit launches its second mainstream smartwatch, Versa, for $200, and the first fitness wearable for kids, Ace, for $100; both available for preorder today  —  Fitbit has announced new wearables Fitbit Versa, which runs the upcoming Fitbit OS 2.0, and Fitbit Ace.  Both are available for preorder today.
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Sources: Facebook is aiming to launch a news section for its Watch platform this summer and is testing different video partnerships with roughly ten publishers  —  Facebook is getting ready to launch a news section for its Watch platform and it's testing different video partnerships with roughly 10 publishers, Axios has learned.
Sam Levin / The Guardian:
Rise in reports of TSA searching devices of passengers of domestic flights has led ACLU to sue the agency, demanding it disclose its policies; TSA denies claims  —  Exclusive: growing number of reports raises concerns US government may be increasing surveillance and privacy violations at airports
iFixit:
Galaxy S9+ teardown: two blades for changing aperture versus the usual five on normal cameras; battery, iris scanner, front cam are basically unchanged from S8+  —  Tools Featured in this Teardown  —  Introduction  —  While phone makers and operating system developers of dubious numeracy skip straight …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
RapidAPI, an API marketplace that processes 400B API calls each month, raises $9M led by A16Z  —  APIs — lightweight application interfaces that developers use both to integrate third-party services into their own apps, and to let their apps get used more easily by other developers …
Shannon Liao / The Verge:
University of Arizona tracks freshman students' usage of ID cards, which can be swiped at library, snack machines, and more, to intervene with likely dropouts  —  The University of Arizona is tracking freshman students' ID card swipes to anticipate which students are more likely to drop out.
More: Quartz
Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:
Calendar 2 for Mac updated to mine Monero by default; after poor reviews, dev removes app from App Store, says mining will be gone in new version, citing bugs  —  Popular Calendar 2 app mines Monero by default, but at least it discloses it.  —  Resource-draining currency miners …
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
Apple acquires digital newsstand Texture, which gives its readers access to ~200 magazines for $10/month, as it doubles down on content “from trusted sources”  —  As the debate continues over fake news and the role that aggregators like Facebook have played in spreading it …
Zac Hall / 9to5Mac:

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Earlier Picks

Zeynep Tufekci / New York Times:
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters:
Andrew Marantz / New Yorker: