Techmeme
March 27, 2019, 10:05 PM

Top News

Motherboard:
Facebook says it will ban white nationalist and white separatist content, pointing users to nonprofits, after initially only banning white supremacist content  —  After a civil rights backlash, Facebook will now treat white nationalism and separatism the same as white supremacy …
Joanna Stern / Wall Street Journal:
Apple says it is “sorry” that a “small number of users” are still experiencing issues with third-generation butterfly keyboards in newer MacBooks  —  Nop, I havn'tt fogottttn how tto witt.  No did my ditto go on vacattion.  —  You s, tto sha tth pain of using …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Apple releases watchOS 5.2 with support for the second-generation AirPods, extends ECG functionality to Hong Kong, the UK, and 18 other countries in Europe  —  Apple today released watchOS 5.2, the fifth update to the watchOS operating system that runs on modern Apple Watch models. watchOS 5.2 comes …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Microsoft granted US court order to take control of 99 websites the company says are linked to Iranian hacking group Phosphorus and host them on its own servers  —  Microsoft has won a restraining order in a U.S. court in order to take control of domains used by an Iranian hacker group.
Russell Brandom / The Verge:
Google CEO Sundar Pichai met with President Trump to discuss contracts and other ongoing partnerships with the US government  —  ‘Meeting ended very well,’ Trump tweeted  —  On Wednesday, Google CEO Sundar Pichai met with President Trump to discuss contracts and other ongoing partnerships with the US government.
Jacob Kastrenakes / The Verge:
Spotify says it will begin to personalize some of its human-curated playlists  —  Spotify is starting to algorithmically personalize some of its curated playlists, making a major change to how people discover music on the streaming service.  —  Spotify is already known for having …
Cade Metz / New York Times:
Three pioneers of AI, Geoffrey Hinton, Yann LeCun, and Yoshua Bengio, win the $1M Turing Award for their work on neural networks  —  SAN FRANCISCO — In 2004, Geoffrey Hinton doubled down on his pursuit of a technological idea called a neural network.  —  It was a way for machines …
Benjamin Mayo / 9to5Mac:
Hands-on: new AirPods have markedly reduced sound latency, faster device sync, and Hey Siri, a big step up from double-tapping; sound quality is mostly the same  —  The Apple AirPods have led the truly-wireless earphone industry and maintained their crown ever since their release in late 2016.
Adi Robertson / The Verge:
FTC says it has shut down and settled lawsuits with four robocalling companies responsible for “billions” of US calls  —  Four “robocalling” companies, including an operation that allegedly scammed businesses by pretending to be Google, have shut down and settled lawsuits with the Federal Trade Commission.
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Twitch launches Squad Stream, a new feature that will let up to four Twitch streamers go live simultaneously in one window, available for Partners first  —  A feature perfect for battle royale games  —  Twitch today announced a new feature designed to help creators boost the profile …
Sergiu Gatlan / BleepingComputer:
Office Depot and tech support vendor Support.com to pay the FTC $35M for allegedly persuading customers to buy computer repair services using fake malware scans  —  Office Depot and Support.com, Inc, a tech support software provided from California, will pay $35 million and $10 million respectively …
Ryan Gallagher / The Intercept:
Sources: Google is secretly assessing work completed on Dragonfly, its censored search engine for China, leaving some staff concerned work on it continues  —  Google executives are carrying out a secret internal assessment of work on a censored search engine for China, The Intercept has learned.
Reuters:
Sources: Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun is seeking to sell Grindr, the popular gay dating app, after a US govt panel raised concerns about its ownership  —  (Reuters) - Chinese gaming company Beijing Kunlun Tech Co Ltd is seeking to sell Grindr LLC, the popular gay dating app it has owned since 2016 …
Tom Warren / The Verge:
Memo: Microsoft's marketing chief Chris Capossela tells employees not to engage in any public-facing April Fool's Day pranks because of “unwanted news cycles”  —  No Clippy pranks this year  —  Everyone hates April Fools' Day, and Microsoft is taking a stand against its own corporate pranks.
James Vincent / The Verge:

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Earlier Picks

Shane Harris / Washington Post:
Caroline Haskins / Motherboard: