Facebook says most of ~3K Russia-linked ads during US Presidential campaign referenced divisive social issues, not the election, and that ~25% were geo-targeted
There have been a lot of questions since the 2016 US election about Russian interference in the electoral process.
Facebook says it sold ~$100K of ads on politically divisive topics to Russia-linked accounts from 6/15-5/17; sources say FB told Congress ads targeted US voters
Representatives of Facebook told congressional investigators Wednesday that it has discovered it sold ads during …
Amazon seeks proposals from cities for a second HQ in North America, a “full equal” to Seattle HQ, and says it'll invest $5B+ and grow it to 50,000 employees
Amazon plans to build a second headquarters in a North American city to be determined, saying the new $5 billion campus will be a …
Google to sunset Drive app for desktop, with support ending December 11 and full shutdown on March 12, 2018, to be replaced by newer apps
Google will end support on December 11th — The aging Google Drive app for desktop is officially deprecated as of today, Google announced in a blog post.
Atlassian, the maker of HipChat, launches Stride, a Slack-like team workplace communication service, starting at $3/user/month for features beyond free tier
Atlassian, the company behind popular tools like Jira, Trello and Bitbucket, has also long offered a team communications service in the form of HipChat.
Ookla's US Speedtest report: average mobile download speeds increased 19% YoY; T-Mobile fastest for mobile internet and Comcast Xfinity fastest for broadband
Mobile and fixed broadband internet speeds in the U.S. are improving, but not all carriers and providers are created equal …
Spotify and Hulu partner to offer both services in a bundle to US students for $4.99/month, will offer other bundles to more customers in future
Hulu and Spotify announced a partnership today that will see the two companies working together to market entertainment bundles offering …
Sources: Apple secures deal for songs from Warner Music Group, plans to pay labels smaller percentage than it did under first streaming deal
IPhone maker plans to pay record labels smaller percentage — Paid streaming service has revived music industry; sales up
Instagram says it's testing a feature for users to share their Story directly to Facebook
Facebook really wants people to view Stories on its main app, so much so that the social network is now turning to Instagram to see if its teen-friendly app can get the feature to finally stick.
Federal judge dismisses libel suit against Techdirt from Shiva Ayyadurai, who claims he invented email, due to difficulty in defining email; appeal planned
Judge: Techdirt articles were opinionated and hyperbolic, but not libel. — A federal judge in Massachusetts has dismissed …
Microsoft and Adobe advance partnership by integrating cross-cloud productivity integrations such as Microsoft Teams and Adobe's Sign e-Signature service
Microsoft and Adobe are continuing to integrate more of their cloud services — such as Microsoft Teams and Adobe's Sign e-signature service — across each other's portfolios.
Square to apply for charter to form an industrial loan company, Square Financial Services, which will be capitalized with $56M in cash, chaired by Jackie Reses
The planned unit would offer loans and deposit accounts to small businesses and be capitalized with $56 million in cash
KGI's Ming-Chi Kuo says iPhone 8's Samsung-made OLED display costs $120-$130 per unit, over double the current LCD's $45-$55 per unit cost
Neil Hughes / AppleInsider :
Twitter begins rolling out its Night Mode feature on Twitter.com, following iOS and Android apps
Shannon Liao / The Verge :
Lyft and Drive.ai partner to bring self-driving car pilot program to the Bay Area, expecting to launch “soon”; no details on number of vehicles or participants
Kirsten Korosec / The Verge :
Researchers find all popular voice assistants, like Siri or Alexa, can be controlled via verbal commands emitted on ultrasonic frequencies using ~$3 hardware
How JPMorgan Banks Detroit's ‘Unbankable’ James Vincent / The Verge : Inaudible ultrasound commands can be used to secretly control Siri, Alexa, and Google Now Carl Velasco / Tech Times : Alexa, Siri,...
MIT and IBM partner on $240M research lab, named MIT-IBM Watson AI Lab, with 10-year research agreement focused on AI and its applications
Ron Miller / TechCrunch :
John Deere announces it has agreed to buy Silicon Valley startup Blue River, which develops agriculture tech that relies on machine learning, for $305M
Michal Lev-Ram / Fortune :
Overview of where regulators stand on ICOs in US, China, Hong Kong, South Korea, Russia, Singapore, and Canada
Kia Kokalitcheva / Axios :
Facebook is undermining its fact checking efforts by withholding data from its media partners, citing user privacy, such as which false stories are most popular
A once-touted plan to fact-check stories is being hindered by the company's refusal to share information. See also Mediagazer
Amazon and Microsoft file supporting statements in suit opposing end of DACA program, brought by District of Columbia and 15 states and filed in federal court
Hamza Shaban / Washington Post :
Facebook says ad reach estimates from Adverts Manager are based on how many could see the ad, not an area's population, explaining discrepancy with census data
David Meyer / Fortune :
Amazon's Souq acquires same- and next-day delivery platform Wing.ae, which serves Saudi Arabia, UAE and Egypt, for an undisclosed sum
Ingrid Lunden / TechCrunch :
Inside Uber's Michelangelo, its machine learning platform in use for about a year, built with HDFS, Spark, Samza, Cassandra, MLLib, XGBoost, and TensorFlow
Uber Engineering Blog :
Spotify hires Disney executive Courtney Holt to lead its efforts in original video and podcast programming
Andrew Wallenstein / Variety :
Tech firms are concerned about bill with bipartisan support in Senate, which aims to hold online platforms liable for illegal ads that led to sex-trafficking
David McCabe / Axios :
Sports e-commerce firm Fanatics confirms it has raised $1B led by SoftBank's Vision Fund, valuing it at $4.5B, and will use the funds to expand internationally
Liana B. Baker / Reuters :
Roku launches its own channel for users of its streaming players, sticks, and TVs, offers ad-supported content, including movies from studios like Warner Bros.
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch :
How Google's political influence has waned: loss of Obama administration insiders, Eric Schmidt's bet on Hillary Clinton in 2016, rising unease with monopolies
Timothy B. Lee / Ars Technica : Tweets: @brianmcc , @binarybits , and @binarybits Tweets: Brian McCullough / @brianmcc : The ways that Google has become Microsoft, and then begat (beginning?) Faceboo...
AI-powered law for startups
Soxton automates startup legal so founders can move faster and sleep better. We handle incorporation, advisor, employment and commercial contracts. Join the waitlist for early access!
Zoho CRM Plus in 2025: A year of thoughtful CX improvements
2025 marked 11 years of building a customer experience platform designed to support organizations as customer expectations, channels …
Protecting your Cloud Applications Data
Backing up Office 365, Google Workspace, Dropbox & Box data is critical to preventing data loss or corruption, complying with laws and avoiding critical downtime in case of a disaster.