Techmeme
November 26, 2018, 9:05 AM

Top News

CNET:
The best Cyber Monday 2018 deals on phones, fitness trackers, smart speakers, streaming devices, and more, from Walmart, Target, Best Buy, Amazon, and others  —  Cyber Monday is almost upon us and that means deals, deals, deals.  Some are good, some are bad — here are the best of them.
Carole Cadwalladr / The Guardian:
UK parliament seizes documents, first obtained in a US civil case, allegedly shedding light on Facebook policies that led to the Cambridge Analytica scandal  —  Parliament has used its legal powers to seize internal Facebook documents in an extraordinary attempt to hold the US social media giant …
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat:
Interview with Atari CEO Frederic Chesnais on how the company has returned to profitability and paid off its debt ahead of a planned console launch in 2019  —  When Fred Chesnais took over the legendary Atari company in 2013, the new owners had about $34 million (30 million euros) in debt and about $1 million in revenue.
Ava Kofman / The Intercept:
AC Global Risk, a startup that touts Apple, Facebook, Palantir, and Google as clients, claims it can assess one's “risk level” via a 10 minute yes/no voice Q&A  —  Is it possible to tell whether someone is a criminal just from looking at their face or listening to the sound of their voice?
Daniel Oberhaus / Motherboard:
How Lenny, a chatbot made in 2009 to troll telemarketers, has gained a cult following and now gets ~300 calls/day, averaging almost ten minutes per call  —  Lenny is a decade-old chatbot designed to troll telemarketers that has developed a cult following online.  It's remarkably convincing, but is it actually effective?
Paul Vigna / Wall Street Journal:
Ohio treasurer's office launches OhioCrypto.com, enabling local businesses to pay taxes with bitcoin; payments are processed and converted to dollars by BitPay  —  State backs technology that has garnered lots of hype but failed to gain traction as a form of payment
Nathaniel Popper / New York Times:
Low fees and high interest rates are allowing VC-funded “neo-banks” like Chime, Aspiration, Empower, and Varo to compete with the big consumer banks in the US  —  SAN FRANCISCO — After the financial crisis 10 years ago, unhappy customers were expected to flee the megabanks for smaller competitors.

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Featured Podcasts

Hard Fork:
'The Daily' and 'The Opinions': How A.I. Is Changing Loneliness and Taste
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.
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The Upstarts Podcast:
Writer's May Habib: Building AI Tools For Corporate 'Normal People' The Labs Leave Behind
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.
The Nick, Dick and Paul Show:
A Nick, Dick, and Paul Buffet!
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.
Big Technology Podcast:
Anthropic's Labs Lead On Fable's Capabilities + Building AI-Native Products — With Mike Krieger
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.
Great Chat:
How much data do we actually want about our bodies?
A podcast mostly about tech. Brought to you weekly by Angela Du, Sally Shin, Mac Bohannon, Helen Min, and Ashley Mayer.
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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.
 

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More News

Mike Dudas / The Block:
Nathan Vardi / Forbes:
John P. Carlin / Politico:

Earlier Picks

Kara Swisher / New York Times: