Techmeme: The US Army says Microsoft won a $480M contract for prototypes of AR systems for combat missions and training which could lead to 100K+ headset purchases (Joshua Brustein/Bloomberg)

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November 29, 2018, 9:05 AM

Top News

Jeff Barr / AWS News Blog:

A summary of AWS launches, previews, and pre-announcements from AWS re:Invent 2018 — As promised in Welcome to AWS re:Invent 2018, here's a summary of the launches, previews, and pre-announcements from Andy Jassy's keynote. I have included links to allow you to sign up for previews, as appropriate.

More: Beyond Search, SiliconANGLE, ZDNet, and The Register. Tweets: @zseward

Bloomberg:

AWS debuts Amazon FSx for Windows File Server, to sway customers from Microsoft, and Glacier Deep Archive as a cheaper data storage option, coming in 2019

More: AWS News Blog, AWS News Blog, AWS News Blog, TechCrunch, ZDNet, and The New Stack

Tweets: @ldignan, @awscloud, @patrickmoorhead, @ericjhonsa, and @patrickmoorhead

Taylor Soper / GeekWire:

AWS announces DeepRacer, a 1/18th scale radio-controlled car with a cloud environment to train reinforcement learning models, and an autonomous racing league

More: AWS News Blog, SiliconANGLE, Business Insider, SlashGear, CNET, VentureBeat, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Business Insider, and TechCrunch

Tweets: @dinvesting, @awscloud, and @ryan

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Amazon announces new blockchain services: Amazon Quantum Ledger Database, in preview today, and AWS Managed Blockchain

More: CNBC, Cointelegraph.com News, The Next Web, NewsBTC, PYMNTS.com, GeekWire, ZDNet, TechCrunch, Blockonomi, GeekWire, SludgeFeed, The Register, CoinDesk, and SiliconANGLE

Tweets: @kateclarktweets, @iankar_, and @semil

Kate Clark / TechCrunch:

AWS debuts Amazon Elastic Inference, to let users add GPU-powered inference acceleration to any Amazon EC2 instance and reduce deep learning costs by up to 75%

More: AWS News Blog, InfoWorld, and Slashdot

Frederic Lardinois / TechCrunch:

Amazon launches an automated data labeling service called SageMaker Ground Truth to boost its machine learning toolset, available today

More: AWS News Blog, ZDNet, and VentureBeat. Tweets: @patrickmoorhead

Tom Krazit / GeekWire:

Amazon announces AWS Outposts, in partnership with VMware, to let customers order and run data center hardware seamlessly alongside their cloud servers

More: TheStreet, Amazon Web Services, Inc., cloudcomputing-news.net, TechCrunch, and ZDNet

Ron Miller / TechCrunch:

AWS announces Inferentia, a new dedicated machine learning chip coming next year, to compete with Nvidia's chips and Google's TPU efforts

More: SiliconANGLE, CNBC, VentureBeat, and Julien Simon. Tweets: @scottthurm

Wall Street Journal:

Unredacted emails from Six4Three case show Facebook staff seeking to charge devs and advertisers for user data in 2012-2014; Facebook says it decided against it — Internal emails in court filings viewed by The Wall Street Journal provide a window into a document trove a British lawmaker plans to release soon

More: 9to5Mac, ABC News, The Verge, Engadget, Fossbytes, Ars Technica, PYMNTS.com, Telegraph, and CNET

Tweets: @joshconstine, @ashk4n, @ashk4n, @dseetharaman, @kirstengrind, @dseetharaman, @nitashatiku, @joshconstine, @iamjohnburnett, @dseetharaman, and @joshconstine

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Following 2012 IPO, Facebook considered, but rejected, charging devs $250K/year for API access, offering Tinder extended access to users' friends' data

More: Inquirer. Tweets: @ibd_ecarson

Shara Tibken / CNET:

Amid worries about demand for iPhone XR, Apple VP of product marketing Greg Joswiak says it's “been our most popular iPhone” every day since it became available — Apple's iPhone XR has been outselling the iPhone XS and iPhone XS Max every day since the cheaper, colorful phone hit the market last month.

More: Macworld, TechSpot, Axios, AppleInsider, Softpedia News, The Verge, TechCrunch, SlashGear, Neowin, MSPoweruser, Gizchina, Cult of Mac, USA Today, MacStories, MacDailyNews, Mashable, iDownloadBlog.com, Thurrot, MacRumors, iPhone Hacks, Apple Must, and 9to5Mac

Tweets: @gartenberg, @markgurman, @jimcramer, @shiraovide, @sharatibken, and @ow. Thanks:@iansherr

Joshua Brustein / Bloomberg:

The US Army says Microsoft won a $480M contract for prototypes of AR systems for combat missions and training which could lead to 100K+ headset purchases — Microsoft Corp. has won a $480 million contract to supply prototypes for augmented reality systems to the Army for use on combat missions and in training, the Army said.

More: Engadget, Inquirer, BetaNews, TechCrunch, Forbes, Silicon Republic, Road to VR, Gizmodo, Reuters, CNET, UploadVR, GeekWire, Neowin, Windows Central, SlashGear, Axios, The Verge, and Thurrot

Tweets: @joshuabrustein, @counternotions, @joshuabrustein, @joshuabrustein, @alexeheath, @robertmclaws, @chriscornillie, and @joshuabrustein

Dan Goodin / Ars Technica:

Sennheiser's HeadSetup software makes PCs and Macs vulnerable to MITM attacks due to flawed self-signed TLS certificate, which users should now manually remove — Poorly secured certificate lets hackers impersonate any website on the Internet. — Audio device maker Sennheiser has issued …

More: en-us.sennheiser.com, Engadget, 9to5Mac, ZDNet, Digital Trends, BleepingComputer, Threatpost, bit-tech.net, Softpedia News, The Register, Cyberscoop, and CSO

Tweets: @__agwa, @spazef0rze, @dakami, @gayleyoungs, and @alshakarti

Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet:

Dell says it detected hackers “attempting to extract Dell.com customer information”, such as customer names, email addresses, and hashed passwords, on Nov. 9 — Company says it detected an intrusion at the start of the month, but financial data was not exposed.

More: Dell, Reuters, Inquirer, BetaNews, PYMNTS.com, Gizmodo, The Hacker News, SecurityWeek, Digital Trends, SlashGear, The Register, Boing Boing, Threatpost, Softpedia News, KFOR-TV, CRN, and CNET

Tweets: @nicolecobler, @sai, and @zackwhittaker

New York Times:

Law enforcement authorities, working with Microsoft, have arrested dozens of scammers in New Delhi behind fake PC virus pop-up alert ads over the past month — MUMBAI, India — You know the messages. They pop up on your computer screen with ominous warnings like, “Your computer has been infected with a virus.

More: BBC, CNET, The Next Web, and TechSpot. Tweets: @vindugoel

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

Asana, which provides work management and collaboration software for teams, raises $50M Series E led by Generation Investment Management at a $1.5B valuation — Asana, a service that teams and individuals use to plan and track the progress of work projects, is doubling down on its own project …

More: Telegraph, VentureBeat, Business Insider, Bloomberg, and Forbes. Thanks:@ingridlunden

Ashley Carman / The Verge:

Instagram begins rolling out a tool that describes photos for visually impaired users using AI or user descriptions — They'll know what they're seeing — Instagram announced today that it's rolling out new features that'll make the app easier to use for people with visual impairments.

More: Instagram, Social Media Today, Firstpost, TechCrunch, Gizmodo, Search Engine Journal, MSPoweruser, Engadget, Thurrot, and Adweek. Tweets: @mrrossmullen

Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:

DOJ indicts two Iranian nationals for creating and deploying the SamSam ransomware, which crippled Atlanta, caused $30M in losses, and had 200+ victims — U.S. federal prosectors have indicted two Iranian nationals for creating and deploying the notorious SamSam ransomware.

Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:

T-Mobile quietly launches T-Mobile MONEY, a mobile banking solution with an app available now for Android and iOS; T-Mobile ended a similar offering in 2016 — T-Mobile, the self-titled “Un-Carrier,” is further separating itself from the competition by getting into the booming world of mobile banking with “T-Mobile Money.”

More: App Store, PYMNTS.com, SlashGear, Android Police, Pocketnow, TechRadar.com, TmoNews, and Android Authority

Kate Clark / TechCrunch:

Qualcomm Ventures says it will invest up to $100M in startups building on-device AI, investing between $1M and $10M per deal — Qualcomm Ventures, the corporate venture capital arm of the chipmaker, has plans to invest up to $100 million in artificial intelligence.

More: Light Reading, VentureBeat, ZDNet, Qualcomm, Telecoms.com, PE Hub Blog, and CNET

Larry Cermak / The Block:

Steemit, a social network that rewards users with its own cryptocurrency, says it's laying off nearly 70% of its team, after its currency declined 96% — Steemit, the company behind a blogging website that uses the Steem blockchain and cryptocurrency to reward publishers and curators …

More: Steemit, CoinDesk, Decrypt Media, Bitcoin Magazine, CCN, SiliconANGLE, Cointelegraph.com News, ETHNews, and The Information

Tweets: @hasufl, @koush, @alexstamos, @chrismessina, @jason, @julianhosp, @howardlindzon, @thestalwart, @hasufl, and @mdudas

Lauren Feiner / CNBC:

Amazon says its own services will run 97% of Amazon's “mission critical databases” by year's end and 88% of its databases previously on Oracle by January — - Amazon Web Services CEO Andy Jassy said Amazon will be off of Oracle databases by the end of 2019.

More: The Register. Tweets: @fscavo

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From Mediagazer

Sara Fischer / Axios:

60 Minutes' CECOT segment, pulled by Bari Weiss, was mistakenly aired in Canada via an app owned by Global Television, which airs 60 Minutes in the country

Ali Watkins / New York Times:

Channel 4 says Jimmy Kimmel will share a message on Christmas Day as part of its Alternative Christmas Message show, emphasizing the importance of free speech

Reuters:

Israel's cabinet votes to shut down popular national radio station Army Radio, saying it has become a platform for views that “attack” its armed forces

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More News

Sam Kim / Bloomberg:

South Korea charges nine people and two companies with illegally selling Samsung's bendable OLED screen technology to Chinese rivals

Tweets: @samkimasia and @pelstrom

Sindhu Kashyap / Yourstory.com:

Bengaluru-based vehicle sharing marketplace Drivezy raises $20M Series B led by existing investor Das Capital and others including Yamaha Motor Co. Ltd.

More: The Economic Times, @businessline, VCCircle, Inc42 Media, Moneycontrol, and TechCrunch

Matt Leone / Polygon:

Former colleagues of Ken Kutaragi, known as “Father of the PlayStation”, share stories about his abrasive leadership style at Sony before stepping down in 2006

Tweets: @polygon, @thekarachikid, and @lattmeone

DW.COM:

CeBIT, one of the world's largest IT trade shows with up to 850K visitors a year, has been canceled for 2019 facing declining visitor numbers and space rentals

More: CEBIT Press, TSNN Trade Show News, Fudzilla.com, Guru3D.com, and TechRadar.com. Tweets: @cebit

Khari Johnson / VentureBeat:

Udacity says it will lay off 125 employees over the course of 2019 as part of a global restructuring plan and will close its Brazil office, losing 70 staff

Akanksha Rana / Reuters:

Box reports Q3 revenue of $155.9M, up 20.6% YoY, vs. $154.6M est., a net loss of $40.2M, down from $42.9M a year ago, 90K+ paying customers, up from 87K in Q2

More: Business Wire and ZDNet. Tweets: @levie

Katie Notopoulos / BuzzFeed News:

Pew survey of 743 US teens: 81% feel social media makes them more connected, 69% say it helps diversify friend groups; 26% say it makes them feel worse

More: Pew Research Center. Tweets: @zck, @pewinternet, @pewinternet, @pewinternet, @pewinternet, @pewinternet, @margarita, @pewinternet, @mims, @katienotopoulos, and @mat

Jessi Hempel / LinkedIn:

Silicon Valley should move past its glowing perception of the Zuckerberg-Sandberg paradigm, where the challenges created by a brash CEO are tackled by the COO

Tweets: @wnd, @moorehn, @danroth, @katies, @mekosoff, @melissagira, @mekosoff, and @kerrymflynn

Earlier Picks

Ellen Huet / Bloomberg:

Sources: a group of Google workers is campaigning to get recent sexual harassment changes, like ending forced arbitration, applied to its temporary workforce

Tweets: @josheidelson and @techworkersco

Wall Street Journal:

Amazon says it is phasing out sponsored product ads on baby registries, which attach a small “sponsored” label, after some users found them deceptive

More: Quartz, The Verge, Mashable, Engadget, Fast Company, and Telegraph

Tweets: @rolfewinkler, @rolfewinkler, @_lilchen, @slpng_giants, @shiraovide, @carnage4life, @gaberivera, @gregbensinger, @katienotopoulos, @katienotopoulos, @annesaurus, @scottmaustin, @larakiara, @rolfewinkler, and @rmac18

Eric Lam / Bloomberg:

Filing: Mike Novogratz's merchant bank Galaxy Digital reports $136M loss for the first nine months of 2018, due to losses on Ether, Bitcoin, and XRP

More: Coingeek, Cointelegraph.com News, SludgeFeed, Virtual Mining Bitcoin News, and CryptoGlobe. Tweets: @moorehn

Josh Constine / TechCrunch:

Facebook is launching its “Today In” local news section in 400 US cities, after beginning testing it in January

More: Facebook, Social Media Today, The Next Web, SlashGear, Search Engine Journal, Business Insider, Digital Trends, The Hill, and CNET. Tweets: @joshconstine