Techmeme: Longtime Apple employee and iPhone exec Frank Casanova named as Apple's first head of product marketing for AR (Mark Gurman/Bloomberg)

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Amazon announces it's acquiring mesh WiFi company eero to make it easier for customers to set up and connect their smart home devices — Amazon announced today that it has signed an agreement to acquire eero, a company that offers products and services for high-performing, reliable, and simple home WiFi

More: TechCrunch, The Verge, Ars Technica, Android Authority, TechCrunch, Business Insider, Bloomberg, Digital Trends, Android Police, SiliconANGLE, CNET, Stacey on IoT, Wired, Android Central, Forbes, GeekWire, Engadget, MSPoweruser, Firstpost, 9to5Mac, AndroidGuys, TechCrunch, PYMNTS.com, Neowin, MAC blog, BetaNews, AFTVnews, Adweek, Thurrott, Mashable, Gizmodo, VentureBeat, Liliputing, MacRumors, Pocket-lint, Droid Life, CNBC, Fortune, iDownloadBlog.com, ZDNet, Cult of Mac, TalkAndroid.com, Axios, iPhone in Canada Blog, and TJI Research

Tweets: @geteero, @backlon, @pkafka, @davepell, @geoffreyfowler, @geoffreyfowler, @johnsheehan, @mat, @ow, @_inside, @blakeir, @jaypeters, @fmbutt, @webster, @benadida, @semil, @tomwarren, @robaeprice, @rajnijjer, @brandonleblanc, @shiraovide, @reckless, @stevekovach, @sdkstl, @ohmdee, @martinsfp, @thoughtsofone, @davezatz, and @jank0

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Amazon's acquisition of eero is met with concerns over data privacy and that the independent company was absorbed by a tech giant with its own ecosystem — Consternation, concern, and exhaustion — Amazon sure does love surprises. The original Echo came as a bolt out of the blue …

More: Axios, Bloomberg, Boing Boing, Business Insider, TechCrunch, 9to5Mac, and CNBC

Tweets: @waltmossberg, @reckless, @karaswisher, and @lisaabramowicz1

Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:

Longtime Apple employee and iPhone exec Frank Casanova named as Apple's first head of product marketing for AR — - Company is betting on augmented reality as major initiative — Apple veteran Casanova helped market the iPhone via carriers — Apple Inc. assigned a longtime iPhone executive …

More: CNET, Philip Elmer-DeWitt, AppleInsider, Silicon Valley Business …, Neowin, iDownloadBlog.com, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacRumors, SlashGear, Mashable, Engadget, The Mac Observer, Cult of Mac, Patently Apple, 9to5Mac, and MAC blog

Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch:

LinkedIn debuts LinkedIn Live, a new live video broadcast service, as an invite-only beta in the US — LinkedIn — the social network for the working world with close to 600 million users globally — says that video is the fastest-growing format on its platform alongside original written work, shared news and other content.

More: Digital Trends, SiliconANGLE, KnowTechie, TechSpot, Social Media Today, Gizmodo, WinBuzzer, The Verge, MSPoweruser, Mashable, My Two Cents, GeekWire, CNET, Windows Central, OnMSFT.com, 9to5Mac, and Notes from Silicon Valley

Tweets: @zcabrams, @rubytrubes, @teddyamen, @mattnavarra, @qweety_, @theotherjeff, and @bradesposito

Ben Lovejoy / 9to5Mac:

South Korea's Supreme Court upholds Korean FTC's antitrust charges, orders Qualcomm to pay $180M+ — As Qualcomm fights the Federal Trade Commission on antitrust charges in the US, it has just lost a case against another FTC: the Fair Trade Commission in Korea.

More: THE INVESTOR, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, iPhone Hacks, Patently Apple, FOSS Patents, and MacDailyNews

Recode:

Q&A with Roger McNamee, former mentor to Mark Zuckerberg, and author of Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe, on Silicon Valley's abuse of user trust — McNamee was an adviser to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and helped recruit Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, but now he's speaking out against the social giant.

Tweets: @recode

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch:

Paris-based mobile-only car rental startup Virtuo raises €20M Series B from Iris Capital, Balderton Capital, and Raise Ventures, plans UK and EU expansion — Virtuo, the Paris-headquartered car rentals startup, has raised €20 million in Series B funding.

More: PE Hub Blog and FinSMEs

Antonio Regalado / MIT Technology Review:

Study: by the start of 2019, over 26M consumers have added their DNA to four leading commercial ancestry and health databases, primarily AncestryDNA — The genetic genie is out of the bottle. And it's not going back. — As many people purchased consumer DNA tests in 2018 …

Tweets: @antonioregalado and @legenet

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Sensor Tower: US iPhone users spent $79 on average on apps last year, up 36% from $58 in 2017 and up from $33 in 2015 — Apple's push to get developers to build subscription-based apps is now having a notable impact on App Store revenues. According to a new report from Sensor Tower due …

More: iPhone in Canada Blog, Gamasutra, PYMNTS.com, iPhone Hacks, AppleInsider, Cult of Mac, MacRumors, and 9to5Mac

Will Knight / MIT Technology Review:

Trump signs American AI Initiative executive order that will prioritize federal funding for AI, create resources for AI researchers, establish standards, more — Artificial intelligence may have been invented in the United States, but other nations, including China, Canada, and France …

Neil Cybart / Above Avalon:

As search interest in AirPods grew 500% YoY during the 2018 holiday season, they are becoming a cultural phenomenon with memes, videos, and tweets — Apple has a hit on its hands, or maybe we should say in its ears. AirPods have become the second best-selling Apple product out of the gate of all time.

More: The Guardian, Mashable, 9to5Mac, Daring Fireball, Cult of Mac, and iPhone in Canada Blog

Tweets: @kyleorl, @aboveavalon, and @vladsavov

Manish Singh / VentureBeat:

Axonius, which helps businesses track and secure their connected devices, raises $13M Series A led by Bessemer Venture Partners — As hackers get smarter and the magnitude of their damage expands, a growing number of cybersecurity firms are trying to persuade legacy companies to rethink their security strategy.

More: Business Wire, FinSMEs, Startups News, and CTech - 24/7

Chris Welch / The Verge:

Google Fi SIM cards for calls and texts are now available at 500+ Best Buy stores for $9.99 each, with a $10 credit toward service within a week of activation — They cost $10, but you get it back as a service credit — Google Fi is taking a big step into retail today …

More: Thurrott, Engadget, Best Buy, 9to5Google, Android Police, Neowin, Android Authority, and CNET

Becky Peterson / Business Insider:

Profile of Goldman Sachs partner Tammy Kiely, who helped Qualcomm navigate Broadcom's hostile takeover attempt and has worked on other big semiconductor deals — - Tammy Kiely, a partner at Goldman Sachs, made a name for herself in the esoteric but politically charged world of semiconductors.

Tweets: @goldmansachs

Cade Metz / New York Times:

Research details an AI system that diagnosed common medical conditions in childhood with high accuracy after analyzing records of nearly 600K Chinese patients — Each year, millions of Americans walk out of a doctor's office with a misdiagnosis. Physicians try to be systematic …

More: Salon, Nature Medicine, Forbes, MIT Technology Review, and WinBuzzer

Tweets: @nythealth, @nytimestech, @nytimes, and @erictopol

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