Techmeme
October 3, 2018, 4:20 PM

Top News

Stephen Shankland / CNET:
Wi-Fi Alliance rebrands 802.11n as Wi-Fi 4, 802.11ac as Wi-Fi 5, and the upcoming 802.11ax as Wi-Fi 6  —  Quick quiz: Which is better, 802.11n or 802.11ac?  —  The answer, if you're familiar with Wi-Fi standards coming from the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, is 802.11ac …
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google launches a redesign for its Assistant app on Android and iOS, including introducing larger visuals and controls for smart devices  —  Google today is launching a major visual redesign of its Assistant experience on phones.  While the original vision of the Assistant focused mostly on voice …
Guy Rosen / Facebook:
Facebook says it has found no evidence “so far” that hackers accessed connected third-party apps and is building a dev tool to help log out affected users  —  We wanted to provide an update on the security attack that we announced that week.  This was a serious issue and we worked fast …
Laura Stevens / Wall Street Journal:
In cease-and-desist letter, eBay alleges that ~50 Amazon sales representatives worldwide used eBay's messaging system to try and poach sellers from its platform  —  In a cease-and-desist letter, EBay alleges Amazon sales representatives sent more than 1,000 messages to sellers on its platform
Karl Bode / Motherboard:
Report: after years of steady decline, BitTorrent usage is once again growing, thanks to the fragmentation of streaming services with exclusive content  —  BitTorrent usage has bounced back because there's too many streaming services, and too much exclusive content.
Jon Fingas / Engadget:
Amazon unveils Fire TV stick with 4K, Dolby Atmos, and HDR10+ support, with a new Alexa Voice Remote, for $50, available for preorder now, ships October 31  —  After years of offering 4K playback on its higher-end Fire TV devices, Amazon is ready to bring that extra resolution to its most affordable hardware.
Tim Fernholz / Quartz:
GM and Honda partner to develop autonomous vehicles, with Honda investing $750M in GM's Cruise Automation subsidiary and contributing $2B towards development  —  Japan is bringing big money to self-driving car partnerships: General Motors has struck a new alliance with Honda to produce …
Owen Williams / Charged Tech Blog:
After years of trying, and as Apple increasingly drops the ball, Microsoft's hardware event showed a coherent and appealing lineup of PCs, desktops, and tablets  —  At a low-key event held in a New York City warehouse, Microsoft unveiled its next iterations in the Surface lineup.
Matt Weinberger / Business Insider:
David McCabe / Axios:
US government ran its first nationwide test of its wireless emergency alert system at 2:18PM ET today, with a message going to all US wireless users  —  Federal officials on Wednesday afternoon will run the first nationwide test of the wireless emergency alert system.
Zeynep Tufekci / New York Times:
More worrisome than foreign interference in US elections is how tech companies feed and profit from deepening domestic political polarization  —  More worrisome than foreign interference in our elections is how our own tech and media companies feed and profit from our deepening domestic political polarization.
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Microsoft announces its Windows 10 October 2018 Update is rolling out today, the OS' sixth update so far  —  Microsoft today announced that the free Windows 10 October 2018 Update is rolling out today.  For those keeping track, this update is Windows 10 build 17763 and will bring Windows 10 to version 1809.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Facebook confirms it recently increased the grace period to reinstate an account a user chooses to terminate from 14 to 30 days  —  Best to deactivate now if you want your data deleted  —  Facebook recently extended the deletion grace period for terminating your main account from 14 to 30 days, the company confirmed to The Verge.
More: VentureBeat and 9to5Mac

Sponsor Posts

Command Line:
Azure Content Understanding: Building on lessons from a decade of Document Intelligence  —  What a decade of teaching machines to read real-world documents taught us about what LLMs can and can't do.
Will Reed:
The best sales leaders aren't job hunting.  Here's how to reach them without months of cold outreach.  —  Our team came from Box, Square, and Brex, so we already know the GTM leaders worth meeting.
Zoho:
App Spotlight: TDS 26AS Reconciliation for Zoho Books  —  Automate 26AS/Form 168 reconciliation, ensuring that mismatches between your 26AS/Form 168 and books are flagged to make ITR filing seamless …
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

Sources:
Robinhood's CEO on letting AI trade your money
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.
Training Data:
David Silver and Lasse Espeholt of Ineffable Intelligence: A Superlearner for the Age of Experience
Sequoia Capital partners host conversations with leading AI builders and researchers to develop a deeper understanding of the evolving technologies and their implications.
Subscribe to Training Data.
Invest Like the Best:
David Vélez - Building Nubank and the Future of Global Banking
The leading destination to learn about business and investing. We do this by showcasing exceptional talent and ideas.
Subscribe to Invest Like the Best.
Cheeky Pint:
Muse Wonder: Zuckerberg and Wang's $100B AI
Stripe cofounder John Collison interviews founders, builders, and leaders over a pint.
Subscribe to Cheeky Pint.
Lenny's Podcast:
Why every company now needs to think and operate like a lab team | Josh Woodward (Google Labs, Gemini, AI Studio)
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Meta & Microsoft's Claude Slowdown, His Agent Leaked His Banking Info, Don't Bully Your AI
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 4:20 PM ET, October 3, 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

Ian Allison / CoinDesk: