Techmeme
May 17, 2018, 7:45 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Analysis of 1,450 ICOs finds 271 have red flags including plagiarized white papers, fake execs, promised returns; investors poured $1B+ into these 271 offerings  —  A Wall Street Journal analysis of 1,450 cryptocurrency offerings reveals rampant plagiarism, identity theft and promises of improbable returns
Dan Primack / Axios:
Google declines to provide the names of hair salon and restaurant used in controversial Google Duplex demo, or say whether the calls were edited  —  Google made headlines by demonstrating an AI-powered voice assistant that made haircut and restaurant reservations, without betraying that it isn't human.
Zack Whittaker / ZDNet:
A bug in the website of LocationSmart, which sells real-time phone location data, let anyone track people's locations across North America without consent  —  The bug allowed one Carnegie Mellon researcher to track anyone's cell phone in real time.  —  A company that collects the real …
Apple:
Apple's Everyone Can Code curriculum for Swift is expanding to schools serving blind and deaf students in the US  —  Apple is teaming up with leading educators for blind and deaf communities across the US to bring accessible coding to their schools.  Beginning this fall …
Jessica Conditt / Engadget:
Hands-on with the $99.99 Xbox Adaptive Controller, designed for long-neglected video game players with disabilities, on sale later this year  —  Microsoft stumbled into the accessibility market about three years ago, with the launch of the Xbox One Elite controller.
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Instagram will now let users share posts from their own and public accounts to Stories as a sticker on Android; coming to iOS next week  —  The line between posts and stories is getting even thinner  —  The line between Instagram posts and stories is getting even thinner today.
Max Chafkin / Bloomberg:
Peter Kafka / Recode:
YouTube launching a paid version of YouTube Music next week at $10/month; YouTube Red being replaced by YouTube Premium at $12/month  —  YouTube Music is launching Tuesday, and YouTube Red is going away.  It's being replaced by YouTube Premium, and it will cost extra.
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:
PayPal confirms it is acquiring Swedish payments company iZettle for $2.2B in an all-cash deal, making it PayPal's biggest-ever transaction  —  PayPal is taking its biggest bet yet on point-of-sale transactions, small businesses, and markets outside of the US, as it looks to raise its game against Square …
Sara Fischer / Axios:
Facebook announces partnership with US-based think tank Atlantic Council aimed at helping deter manipulation of the platform during elections around the world  —  Facebook today will announce a partnership with the Atlantic Council aimed at helping deter manipulation of the platform during elections around the world.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook to start testing ads in Stories today in the US, Mexico, and Brazil, says Stories has 150M daily users, defines a user as anyone who watches one story  —  After 14 months of silence since launching, Facebook Stories has finally announced a 150 million daily active user count for its Snapchat Stories clone.

Sponsor Posts

Subquadratic:
Subquadratic: the LLM built for 12M-token reasoning  —  SubQ can reason across entire codebases and document sets in one pass with no RAG workarounds.  Read how SubQ 1.1 Small holds near-perfect retrieval out to 12M tokens.
Cloudflare:
Cloudflare Connect 2026: The Agentic Conference  —  Stop preparing for agents.  Start running them.  100+ sessions, workshops, and speakers from OpenAI, Arm, and Cloudflare across AI, security, and performance.
Zoho:
The 90-day recognition cliff: Why praise programs fade, and what keeps them alive  —  Recognition programs often start with enthusiasm.  Employees participate, managers share shoutouts, and teams have a new way to celebrate achievements.
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

Uncapped with Jack Altman:
David George from a16z
Conversations with people I admire about things I'm genuinely interested in.
Subscribe to Uncapped with Jack Altman.
Big Technology Podcast:
SAP CEO: AI Won't Kill Software, But It Will Change Your Job — With Christian Klein
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.
Channels with Peter Kafka:
David Ellison's Paramount-Warner Empire & The Fight That Comes Next
Media and tech aren't just intersecting - they're fully intertwined. To understand how those worlds work, Peter Kafka talks to industry leaders, upstarts and observers.
Subscribe to Channels with Peter Kafka.
Sources:
Factory CEO on why AGI is already here
Candid conversations with the leaders shaping what's next in AI and the broader tech industry. Hosted by Alex Heath, who has covered Silicon Valley for more than a decade.
Subscribe to Sources.
Invest Like the Best:
Noah Shinn - Building Instinct: The Personal Agent
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Lenny's Podcast:
The grief, loneliness, and burnout sweeping through the tech industry right now | Molly Graham
Interviews with world-class product leaders and growth experts to uncover actionable advice to help you build, launch, and grow your own product.
Subscribe to Lenny's Podcast.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 7:45 PM ET, May 17, 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

Alex Konrad / Forbes:

Earlier Picks

Ashlee Vance / Bloomberg:
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Graham Rapier / Business Insider: