Techmeme
January 18, 2019, 8:55 PM

Top News

Washington Post:
Sources: FTC commissioners have met to consider a record fine against Facebook for potentially violating a 2011 consent decree about user privacy  —  U.S. regulators have met to discuss imposing a record-setting fine against Facebook for violating a legally binding agreement with the government …
Financial Times:
Sources: Spotify plans to launch a ~$100 voice-controlled in-car music player with preset buttons that correspond to Spotify playlists later this year  —  Spotify has a new target as it makes a break for independence from devices made by Apple, Google and Amazon: the car dashboard.
Alex Heath / Cheddar:
Sources: Snap fires security chief over secret relationship with a consultant and pushes out his boss, the head of HR, amid multiple departures in recent months  —  Snap's global security chief has been fired after an internal investigation found that he had an undisclosed relationship …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
Max Schrems files GDPR complaints against Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Spotify, YouTube, others for failing to provide required info about data they collect on users  —  European privacy campaigner Max Schrems has filed a fresh batch of strategic complaints at tech giants, including Amazon, Apple, Netflix, Spotify and YouTube.
Wall Street Journal:
Sources: Airbnb held informal talks to buy discounted hotel booking app HotelTonight; HotelTonight was valued at $463M in a March 2017 funding round  —  A deal would give the home-sharing company more inventory and help it move into hotel bookings  —  Airbnb Inc. has held talks …
Business Insider:
Satya Nadella says Cortana won't challenge Alexa and Google Assistant directly; Microsoft will focus on making it a skill on other voice platforms instead  —  - Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella says that it no longer sees its Cortana smart assistant as a competitor to Amazon's Alexa.
Josh Constine / TechCrunch:
Facebook confirms it is testing LOL, a feed of funny videos and GIF-like clips pulled from News Feed posts by top meme Pages  —  How do you do fellow kids?  After Facebook Watch, Lasso, and IGTV failed to become hits with teens, the company has been quietly developing another youthful video product.
Matthew Panzarino / TechCrunch:
Hands-on with Nike's $350 Bluetooth-enabled Adapt BB shoe with automated power-lacing, which will allow basketball players to change shoe tightness via an app  —  Nike's Adapt BB shoe has utility for pros, but is also a lens into a connected future  —  Why does the world need a self-lacing shoe?
Jordan Crook / TechCrunch:
HyperScience, which uses AI to extract structured data from hand-filled and other business forms, raises $30M Series B, bringing its total raised to $50M  —  HyperScience, the machine learning company that turns human readable data into machine readable data, has today announced the close …
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More News

Issie Lapowsky / Wired:
Naman Ramachandran / Variety:
Ashley Feinberg / HuffPost:

Earlier Picks

Sara Salinas / CNBC:
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:
Chaim Gartenberg / The Verge:
Paul Lamkin / Wareable:
Tim Cook / TIME:
Nathaniel Gleicher / Facebook:
Brian Barrett / Wired: