Techmeme
February 12, 2020, 10:35 AM

Top News

Bojan Pancevski / Wall Street Journal:
US officials claim Huawei has, for over a decade, been able to covertly access mobile-phone networks globally through back doors designed for law enforcement  —  Trump administration ramps up push for allies to block Chinese company  —  U.S. officials say Huawei Technologies Co …
Financial Times:
Facebook says it has banned a network of two dozen fake pages and accounts linked to two South Asian telecom providers for using disinformation against rivals  —  South-east Asian providers said to have used fake accounts to discredit rivals  —  Facebook has alleged that one of south-east …
Chris Velazco / Engadget:
Hands-on with Samsung's new S20 lineup: 120Hz refresh rate makes the screens stand out, the Ultra is significantly bigger, and the cameras are ambitious  —  If you were planning to buy a premium Android smartphone this year, you can rest easy knowing they'll all come with more or less the same things.
Dieter Bohn / The Verge:
Alex Hern / The Guardian:
UK proposes plans to put media regulator Ofcom in charge of regulating social media, with a focus on removing illegal content and minimizing “harmful” content  —  Ministers unveil plans to block harmful content, while guaranteeing free speech  —  Ofcom will be put in charge …
Andrew Morse / CNET:
Flipboard launches Flipboard TV, an in-app feature that offers professional short-form video, for $2.99/mo; will be a Galaxy S20 exclusive for first 3 months  —  Flipboard , the popular news aggregator app, is introducing a new subscription video service.  Called Flipboard TV …
Juli Clover / MacRumors:
Malwarebytes detected 11 threats per endpoint for its Mac users in 2019, up from 4.8 threats per endpoint in 2018, while PCs saw 5.8 threats per endpoint  —  Antivirus software developer Malwarebytes today shared its State of Malware Report for 2020 [PDF], which suggests that Mac malware is growing much more common.
Ben Schoon / 9to5Google:
Samsung announces Galaxy Z Flip with a foldable 6.7" FHD+ AMOLED display, 3,300 mAh battery, dual front-facing cameras, coming February 14 starting for $1,380  —  Foldable phones still feel like a dream, but to kick off the 2020 smartphone season, Samsung is hoping to change that.
Kadhim Shubber / Financial Times:
The FTC is asking Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Microsoft about acquisitions from the past decade that were small enough to not be reported to the gov't  —  FTC to review acquisitions made by Alphabet, Amazon, Apple, Facebook and Microsoft  —  The Federal Trade Commission …
The Verge:
A look at online coding program Lambda School, which lets students defer tuition payments until they have jobs, but that many say is costly and under-delivers  —  Students at Lambda School say the program hasn't delivered on its promise  —  Bethany Surber was sleeping on friends' couches …
Tweets: @dhh, @dhh, @_danilo, @knguyen, @dhh, @dhh, and @dhh
Hired:
State of Software Engineers 2019: global demand for AR/VR engineers up by 1,400%, gaming developers up 146%, security engineers up 49% but slower than in 2018  —  Overview  —  The worldwide process of digital transformation, while something of a buzzword, reflects a critical truth: every company is now a technology company.
More: ZDNet
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Nvidia says that Activision Blizzard has removed its catalog of games like Overwatch, WoW, and Call of Duty from Nvidia's cloud gaming service GeForce Now  —  A bad precedent for cloud gaming  —  Nvidia's GeForce Now feels like one of the very best ways to get a free taste of cloud gaming …
Bloomberg:
The number of companies skipping MWC over coronavirus keeps rising, with Facebook, AT&T, Cisco, Sony, Intel, Amazon, Nvidia, and MediaTek among those missing it  —  - Organizers meet Friday to discuss situation and plan response  — Event draws more than 100,000 visitors from across the world
Mary Jo Foley / ZDNet:
Microsoft shows how containerized and dual-screen apps will work in Windows 10X with a new emulator and SDK and also refreshes its Android-based Duo SDK  —  Microsoft is delivering its promised Windows 10X emulator and SDK, plus a refresh of its Android-based Duo SDK as its next milestones along its dual-screen device path.
Charlotte Tucker / EU-Startups:
Paris-based CybelAngel, which helps companies manage digital risk in real time, raises €32.9M Series B, bringing its total raised to €47.6M  —  French startup CybelAngel, a digital risk management startup, has today announced closing a €32.9 million Series B funding round …
More: VentureBeat and FinSMEs
Eriq Gardner / Hollywood Reporter:
Profile of DOJ antitrust chief Makan Delrahim who has been privately telling people to expect a criminal antitrust case in Silicon Valley in the next few months  —  As Hollywood scales up to battle big tech, Makan Delrahim, the nation's top antitrust regulator (and a former movie producer) …
BBC:
China launches an app that uses its vast surveillance network data to let users check if they have come into close contact with coronavirus carriers  —  China has launched an app that allows people to check whether they have been at risk of catching the coronavirus.

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Peter Kafka / Vox:
Wall Street Journal: