Techmeme
December 8, 2020, 5:40 PM

Top News

Dustin Volz / Wall Street Journal:
FireEye says some internal systems were hacked by nation state actors, compromising its Red Team tools, used to test the defenses of its thousands of customers  —  The cybersecurity company said the attack compromised its software tools used to test the defenses of its thousands of customers
Washington Post:
An internal Huawei document, found on its website, says Huawei tested facial recognition with a “Uighur alarm” to alert Chinese police when it detected Uighurs  —  An internal report claims the face-scanning system could trigger a “Uighur alarm,” sparking concerns that the software …
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch:
Cloudflare and Apple say they have developed a new protocol called Oblivious DNS-over-HTTPS, which decouples DNS queries from internet users for more privacy  —  Engineers at Cloudflare and Apple say they've developed a new internet protocol that will shore up one of the biggest holes …
Chris Welch / The Verge:
Apple announces AirPods Max, over-ear headphones with noise cancellation, adaptive EQ, spatial audio, and audio sharing, available from December 15 for $549  —  The first over-ear headphones with an Apple logo on them  —  It turns out Apple has one more major hardware announcement …
Nilay Patel / The Verge:
Q&A with Substack CEO Chris Best on why it is not a media company, content moderation, making a reader app for users to easily read their newsletters, and more  —  On today's episode of Decoder, I'm talking to Chris Best, co-founder and CEO of Substack, the subscription newsletter startup that's taken …
Mark Gurman / Bloomberg:
Sources: as Bob Mansfield retires, Apple puts AI chief John Giannandrea in charge of self-driving car project Titan; Doug Field runs the project day to day  —  - Company has been developing autonomous vehicle tech for years  — AI executive Giannandrea takes lead after Bob Mansfield leaves
Kyle Bradshaw / 9to5Google:
Google says it is opening up its open source Fuchsia OS to outside developers, the first formal announcement about the project  —  For the past four years, Google has been developing a new operating system, Fuchsia, from the ground up.  Starting today, Google's Fuchsia OS is now being developed more openly …
Nick Statt / The Verge:
Samsung's SmartThings will support Google Nest devices starting in January 2021  —  Support for Nest products through the SmartThings app arrives next month  —  Google and Samsung are bringing their smart home platforms together for the first time.  Samsung's SmartThings …
Natasha Lomas / TechCrunch:
In a private 2018 meeting between UK's digital chief and Zuckerberg, minutes show Zuckerberg said the UK was “anti-tech” and threatened to end UK investment  —  Round of applause for the Bureau of Investigative Journalism — which fought for two years to obtain details …
Mike Masnick / Techdirt:
Florida police raid home of former state employee and COVID whistleblower, claiming she breached a messaging system despite all its users sharing one password  —  This is insane.  Earlier this year, we wrote about Rebekah Jones, the data scientist working for Florida, who put together …
Karl Bode / VICE:
Senate votes 49-47 to appoint Trump ally Nathan Simington to the FCC for a five-year term, which could mire the FCC in partisan gridlock  —  Nathan Simington's was chosen to attack free speech and net neutrality.  He could gridlock internet policy for the next five years.
Associated Press:
Pornhub will no longer let users download videos or unverified users upload videos, after a NYT report alleged that it was hosting videos of rape, underage sex  —  NEW YORK (AP) — Pornhub said Tuesday it was halting unverified users from uploading video material after a report alleged …
Kim Lyons / The Verge:
Google announces Look to Speak, an experimental project for Android that helps users with speech and motor impairments by selecting phrases with their eyes  —  The Android app is designed to make communication easier for people with motor and speech impairments
Lily Hay Newman / Wired:
Researchers detail vulnerabilities found in four open source TCP/IP stacks used in millions of embedded IoT devices, collectively called Amnesia:33  —  Amnesia:33 is the latest in a long line of vulnerabilities that affect countless embedded devices.  —  YES, AT THIS point it's a cliche that cheap …
Michael Larabel / Phoronix:
CentOS, a free Linux distro functionally compatible with its upstream source, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, says it's ending support for recently announced CentOS 8  —  Well here is a surprise for those that have long used CentOS as the community-supported rebuild of Red Hat Enterprise Linux …
Manish Singh / TechCrunch:
Facebook adds carts to WhatsApp, allowing users to add multiple items from a business to the cart then send the order request as a message to the business  —  WhatsApp said on Tuesday it is adding a new shopping feature to its business app as the Facebook -owned instant messaging service looks …
Sean Hollister / The Verge:
Google says Stadia users will be able to live stream directly to YouTube starting December 8  —  Finally fulfilling its biggest original promise  —  From the very beginning, Google Stadia and YouTube were supposed to work together — thanks to the magic of cloud computing …
Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:
Paris-based NextMind says its wearable $399 Dev Kit, offering a claimed real-time brain computer interface, will begin shipping  —  NextMind has started shipping its real-time brain-computer interface Dev Kit for $399.  The device translates brain signals into digital commands …
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat:
Salt Security, which develops tools that discover APIs and detect vulnerabilities, raises $30M Series B led by Sequoia Capital  —  Salt Security, which is developing a threat protection solution that discovers APIs and detects vulnerabilities, today raised $30 million.
Hartley Charlton / MacRumors:
Apple says Fitness+, its workout class subscription service, will launch on December 14 in the US, UK, Australia, Canada, Ireland, and New Zealand  —  Apple has today announced that its fitness subcription service, Apple Fitness+, is set to launch on Monday, December 14.

Sponsor Posts

Tribe AI:
Is AI just hype?  —  Find out how top enterprises use Tribe to get real business results.
Techmeme Leaderboards:
Discover the top reporters on AI, VR, policy, and much more  —  We've analyzed Techmeme's news crawl to identify the most influential and prolific writers on 48 news topics.  Download reports immediately for just $100.
Zoho:
All new Zoho Workerly 2024  —  Staffing businesses around the world face a unique set of challenges when it comes to managing their temporary workforce.  With a constantly shifting job market and changing staffing needs …
Comprehensive.io:
Browse salary data from 3,000 startups for free  —  Click for FREE, immediate access to real-time compensation benchmarking data.  Paid version helps HR automate comp reviews and communicate total compensation to employees.
The Kevin Rose Show:
Henry Shukman, Lessons from an Authentic Zen Master
Gain unconventional wisdom and insights through conversations with top expert in AI, investing, wellness, technology, and culture.
Techmeme Ride Home:
Wed. 03/27 - Hulu Comes To Disney+; WWDC Gets A Date
The day's tech news, every day at 5pm ET. Fifteen minutes and you're up to date.
Subscribe via Apple Podcasts, Spotify, or RSS.
 

About This Page

This is a Techmeme archive page. It shows how the site appeared at 5:40 PM ET, December 8, 2020.

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

Dina Bass / Bloomberg:

Earlier Picks