Techmeme
January 16, 2019, 10:25 PM

Top News

Wall Street Journal:
Sources: DOJ is pursuing a criminal case against Huawei for alleged trade secret theft from US business partners including T-Mobile; indictment is expected soon  —  Probe involves allegations that Huawei stole robot phone-testing technology from T-Mobile  —  Federal prosecutors are pursuing …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Microsoft is planning to decouple Windows search and Cortana in the next major Windows 10 update, expected in April, so typed queries will be handled separately  —  Windows search is now free to get more powerful  —  Microsoft is making some big changes to Cortana in Windows 10.
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Pew survey of 963 US Facebook users: 74% didn't know the company compiles lists of their interests and traits to target ads; 51% were uncomfortable with this  —  A study by the Pew Research Center suggests most Facebook users are still in the dark about how the company tracks and profiles them for ad-targeting purposes.
Larry Dignan / ZDNet:
Google to raise prices globally for G Suite on April 2; G Suite Basic will go from $5 to $6, G Suite Business will go from $10 per user per month to $12  —  The G Suite price increases are the first in a decade.  Google argues that the price increases reflect more value.  G Suite Enterprise prices unchanged.
The Seattle Times:
Microsoft pledges $500M to tackle housing crisis in Seattle: $475M for loans to housing developers over three years and $25M for resident services  —  The pledge is the largest in the company's 44-year history, and comes as Microsoft and other tech giants that have driven …
Washington Post:
Documents and eyewitnesses say T-Mobile execs have been frequently staying at Trump's D.C. hotel as VIPs as T-Mobile seeks approval for its $26B Sprint merger  —  Last April, telecom giant T-Mobile announced a megadeal: a $26 billion merger with rival Sprint, which would more than double T-Mobile's value …
Heather Kelly / CNN:
Joseph Cox / Motherboard:
Following AT&T and T-Mobile, Sprint says it will stop selling customers' real-time location data to third-parties but didn't provide a timeframe  —  After AT&T and T-Mobile said they would stop selling their customers' phone location data to third parties, Sprint followed suit.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Lenovo is partnering with Verizon to reintroduce the Motorola Razr phone with a foldable screen, at a price starting at ~$1,500  —  Motorola seeks to revive flip phone that was dethroned by the iPhone a decade ago  —  The Motorola Razr phone is making a comeback.
Nick Summers / Engadget:
Unity updates ToS so that any third-party software, like Improbable's SpatialOS, can be used with its game engine, following last week's fracas  —  Everything is back to normal.  Sort of.  —  Unity has had a change of heart.  The company is updating its Terms of Service so that any third-party software …
Rachel Yang / Variety:
Roku says it is removing two Infowars channels on its platform after criticism from users and a rebuke from some Sandy Hook families  —  Roku has taken the Infowars channel off its platform after the streaming device faced criticism for carrying the controversial program hosted by right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Privacy-focused search engine DuckDuckGo announces it will use Apple Maps to power map and address-related searches, using Apple's MapKit JS framework  —  Apple's MapKit JS has a big, new user  —  DuckDuckGo has spent the last few years making the case that it's the search engine …

Sponsor Posts

Soxton:
Fast, affordable law for startups  —  Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better.  We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts.  Join the waitlist for early access!
Equals:
Stop vibe coding analytics  —  Equals AI turns questions about your business into auditable spreadsheet models and dashboards.  Build once, iterate for years.
Zoho:
Zoho Mail MCP: Make your inbox work for you  —  Maya is the head of operations at a 500-person B2B software company.  She's sharp, she's busy, and she starts every morning the same way-with her coffee, laptop, inbox.Not to work.
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

Big Technology Podcast:
Anthropic's Mythos is Back, OpenAI Releases GPT 5.6, Apple's Price Increases
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.
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.
Subscribe to Hard Fork.
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.
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.
Subscribe to Great Chat.
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.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 10:25 PM ET, January 16, 2019.

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

Kate Conger / New York Times:
CoinDesk:
Dami Lee / The Verge:
Jonathan Stempel / Reuters: