Techmeme
April 26, 2018, 9:40 AM

Top News

Casey Newton / The Verge:
Snapchat launches slimmer Spectacles 2.0 with water resistance and faster photo download times for $150, available at Spectacles.com starting today  —  They're slimmer, they take photos, and you can take them in the pool.  But will you?  —  Snap today released the next generation of Spectacles …
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Snap announces Snappables, AR lenses that use touch, motion, and facial expressions for single and multiplayer games, rolling out globally with new games weekly  —  Snapchat wants to let you play its augmented reality Lenses, not just play dress-up.  Today it launched Snappables …
Lucia Moses / Digiday:
Snap says it will begin testing six-second non-skippable ads in select Snapchat Shows beginning May 15  —  Once reluctant to force ads on its users, still-unprofitable Snapchat is going to start testing nonskippable ads in its TV-like shows, according to three sources with direct knowledge …
Shara Tibken / CNET:
Samsung reports $14.4B profit in Q1 driven by memory chips demand, up 58% YoY, but warns of profit decline in Q2 due to “stagnant sales” of its flagship phones  —  Despite reporting record profits, Samsung says it's seeing the effects of a “sluggish” smartphone market.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook reports Q1 revenue of $11.97B, up 49% YoY, vs. $11.41B est, and net income of $4.99B, up 63% YoY; MAUs up 13% YoY to 2.20B and DAUs up 13% YoY to 1.45B  —  Amongst massive criticism over data privacy, Facebook showed the resiliency of its advertising machine by beating Wall Street's …
Facebook:
Facebook reports Q1 advertising revenue of $11.8B, up 50% YoY, of which ~91% comes from mobile, up from 85% in Q1 2017; headcount up 48% YoY to 27,742  —  Facebook, Inc. (Nasdaq: FB) today reported financial results for the quarter ended March 31, 2018.  —  “Despite facing important challenges …
Kif Leswing / Business Insider:
Facebook and Microsoft confirm plans to update their gun emoji designs to be more in line with Apple, Samsung, and Google; Microsoft shares water gun design  —  - Apple changed the design of the gun emoji into a squirt gun back in 2016.  — At the time, it was a controversial choice, but tech companies have since followed suit.
Sam Byford / The Verge:
Nintendo reports operating profit of $1.62B, up 505% YoY, on strong Switch sales of 15M units in the year ending March, and names Shuntaro Furukawa as president  —  Nintendo sold just over 15 million Switch consoles in the last financial year, matching its own raised expectations after a hugely successful launch.
Brian Krebs / Krebs on Security:
WebStresser, a DDoS-for-hire service with 136K users and linked to 4M+ cyberattacks is shut down; UK's NCA says service could be rented for as little as $14.99  —  Authorities in the U.S., U.K. and the Netherlands on Tuesday took down popular online attack-for-hire service WebStresser.org and arrested its alleged administrators.
Cale Guthrie Weissman / Fast Company:
Digg, formerly owned by Betaworks, has been sold to Boston-based ad-tech company BuySellAds; new CEO Todd Garland plans to streamline Digg and build up ad stack  —  This story has been updated.  —  Last month, Digg, an old beloved content aggregation destination, made the sad announcement …
Sui-Lee Wee / New York Times:
CBC News:
Researchers say ten countries are using internet-filtering tech by a Canadian firm to censor news, religious content, LGBTQ+ resources, political campaigns  —  A new Citizen Lab report says Netsweeper is being used to censor political critics, news, and LGBTQ+ resources
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
YouTube announces expanded opt-in YouTube Kids controls for parents, including locking down content to show only channels reviewed by humans  —  To address parents' concerns over inappropriate content on YouTube being seen by children, Google today is announcing an expanded series of parental controls for its YouTube Kids application.
Steven Levy / Wired:
Profile of Ray Ozzie, former CTO at Microsoft, and his quest to architect a backdoor for encrypted devices that won't lead to a security or privacy fiasco  —  Ray Ozzie thinks he has an approach for accessing encrypted devices that attains the impossible: It satisfies both law enforcement and privacy purists.

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
F5:
Accelerate AI Adoption at F5's AI Virtual Summit  —  Learn how to architect, secure, and scale AI for production with real-world insights from industry leaders on June 23.  Register now to save your spot.
Zoho:
Say hello to Zia Answer Bot: Your organization's knowledge, on-demand in every Zoho Lens session.  —  Imagine your technician is halfway through a live remote assistance session.
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:
Are AI Glasses Over?, Big Technology Audience Questions, Alex Stamos on AI Cybersecurity
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.
The Upstarts Podcast:
Mutiny's Jaleh Rezaei: Walking Away From Millions In Software To Grow Even Faster With Sales AI
Veteran tech reporter Alex Konrad sits down with breakout entrepreneurs taking on the status quo to shake up their fields in AI, design, nuclear energy, space, and more.
Subscribe to The Upstarts Podcast.
Hard Fork:
'Hard Fork' Live, Part 3: Differing Visions of an A.I. Future
The future is already here. Each week, journalists Kevin Roose and Casey Newton explore and make sense of the latest in the rapidly changing world of tech.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
Access:
The billionaire paying AI researchers to stay out of Big Tech
A show about the tech industry's inside conversation, hosted by tech reporter Alex Heath and founder whisperer Ellis Hamburger.
Subscribe to Access.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
The Race to the Middle
Nick Bilton, Dick Costolo, and Paul Kedrosky pull back the curtain on AI, startups, and the future rushing toward us, all with healthy dose of irreverence.
Subscribe to The Nick, Dick and Paul Show.
Tools and Weapons with Brad Smith:
AI's Mythos Moment: Rishi Sunak on preparing governments for AI
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 9:40 AM ET, April 26, 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

Wall Street Journal:
Andy Greenberg / Wired:
Mat Honan / BuzzFeed: