Techmeme
October 4, 2018, 10:55 AM

Top News

Bloomberg:
Sources: Chinese spies inserted tiny chips onto products from US-based motherboard giant Supermicro to infiltrate almost 30 US companies like Amazon and Apple  —  In 2015, Amazon.com Inc. began quietly evaluating a startup called Elemental Technologies, a potential acquisition to help …
Takashi Mochizuki / Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Nintendo plans to release a new version of Switch in the latter half of 2019, perhaps as soon as summer  —  Updated console isn't expected to adopt the OLED panels used in Apple's iPhone X series  —  TOKYO— Nintendo Co. NTDOY -1.78% plans to release a new version …
Dan Seifert / The Verge:
LG V40 ThinQ review: 6.4" QuadHD display, 6GB of RAM, Snapdragon 845, available for preorder now for $900+; five camera system is versatile but not high-quality  —  The V40 gives you a camera bag full of lenses in one device  —  All too often, when we evaluate smartphone cameras, we are looking at incremental improvements.
Chris Velazco / Engadget:
LG announces Watch W7 with a 1.2" display, mechanical hands, Android Wear, Snapdragon 2100 chipset, and a watch-only mode, available Oct. 14 for $449  —  Android Wear recently got a substantial overhaul, and now it needs some fancy new hardware to run on.  That's where LG's new Watch W7 comes in.
Tom Warren / The Verge:
The upcoming Android app mirroring feature in Windows 10 is just the latest step Microsoft has taken to help align Android as the mobile equivalent of Windows  —  Android is the obvious choice for Windows users now  —  Microsoft unveiled a bunch of Surface hardware during a press event in New York City last night.
Valentina Palladino / Ars Technica:
Dell unveils the 15.6-inch Alienware m15, its thinnest and lightest gaming laptop, with Nvidia Max-Q GPUs, available October 25 starting at $1,099  —  Dell hopped on the ultra-portable gaming-PC bandwagon with a revamped Alienware laptop designed to appeal to serious and wannabe gamers alike.
Paul Sawers / VentureBeat:
DevOps platform JFrog raises $165M Series D led by Insight Venture Partners, at a valuation “way north” of $1B, says CEO  —  DevOps platform JFrog has raised $165 million in a series D round of funding led by Insight Venture Partners, with participation from Battery Ventures …
Frank Chaparro / The Block:
TD Ameritrade and a slew of Wall Street firms invest an undisclosed amount in cryptocurrency exchange ErisX, which plans to launch spot trading in Q2 2019  —  Brokerage giant TD Ameritrade, a slew of high-speed traders, and a long list of Wall Street firms are getting behind a brand new market …
Ryan Gilliam / Polygon:
Blizzard co-founder Michael Morhaime steps down as president, will remain an advisor, is succeeded by World of Warcraft executive producer J. Allen Brack  —  World of Warcraft executive producer J. Allen Brack is new president  —  Mike Morhaime, co-founder of Blizzard Entertainment …
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Yahoo launches Together, formerly Squirrel in beta, a group messaging app that lets groups organize chats by topics  —  Farewell, Yahoo Messenger.  Hello, Yahoo Together?  Yep, Yahoo is returning to the messaging space today after closing its older app due to lack of use.
CNBC:
Barnes & Noble to look at strategic alternatives including a possible sale, after receiving interest from multiple parties including Chairman Leonard Riggio  —  - The announcement follows expressions of interest from multiple parties, including its chairman Leonard Riggio, it said in a statement.
Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:
Google launches a redesign for its Assistant app on Android and iOS, introduces larger visuals and controls for smart home 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 …
Jon Russell / TechCrunch:
SoftBank and Toyota partner to develop mobility services powered by autonomous cars, combining SoftBank's focus on IoT and Toyota's connected vehicles platform  —  SoftBank is getting into self-driving car services after the Japanese tech giant announced a joint-venture with Toyota in its native Japan.
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 …
Brian Fung / Washington Post:
US government ran the first nationwide test of its wireless emergency alert system at 2:18PM ET Wednesday, with a message going to all US wireless users  —  Beginning at 2:18 p.m. Eastern time Wednesday, Americans across the country were interrupted by an urgent notification on their cellphones.

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More News

Spencer Soper / Bloomberg:
Craig Timberg / Washington Post:

Earlier Picks

Tim Fernholz / Quartz: