Sources: Facebook is developing a stablecoin for money transfers on WhatsApp, focusing first on the remittances market in India
- First focus will be on remittance market in India, people say — Social network is still working out its blockchain strategy
Voice assistant test involving 800 commands shows Google Assistant answered 88% correctly, Siri got 75% right, Alexa got 73%, and Cortana got 63%
We recently tested four smart speakers by asking Alexa, Siri, Google Assistant, and Cortana 800 questions each.
Sources: Reid Hoffman funded $100K project that secretly tested disinformation tactics against Roy Moore on Facebook and Twitter during the Alabama Senate race
As Russia's online election machinations came to light last year, a group of Democratic tech experts decided to try …
Apple says AI chief John Giannandrea, who joined from Google in April, has been promoted to its executive team as SVP of Machine Learning and AI Strategy
Apple today announced John Giannandrea, who handles machine learning and AI for the company, has been promoted to the Apple's executive team …
DOJ charges two alleged members of China's state sponsored hacking unit APT10 with stealing data from at least 45 US tech companies and government agencies
we've come a long way since that botched 2014 press release on the Sony Hack https://twitter.com/... Elsa B. Kania / @ebkania : According to the indictment, APT10 has targeted 45 U.S. companies and go...
Sources: state-sponsored Chinese hackers breached networks of HPE and IBM, then used access to hack into their clients' computers in campaign called Cloudhopper
- Hackers working on behalf of China's Ministry of State Security breached the networks of Hewlett Packard Enterprise Co and IBM …
Indian government downplays order that seemingly authorizes ten government agencies to monitor, intercept, and decrypt data on all computers in the country
India's Ministry of Home Affairs, a federal government authority that controls the country's internal security …
Blind, an anonymous community chat app used by staff at Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft and more, left one database server exposed from Nov. 1 to Dec. 19
One of the company's servers was exposed without a password for weeks. — Thousands of people trusted Blind, an app-based …
FBI has seized the domains of 15 high-profile DDoS-for-hire websites, including downtime.org and deacon.pro, and charged 3 men in US with operating the sites
Zack Whittaker / TechCrunch :
China is resuming video game approvals after a nine-month freeze; China's gaming industry expected to have its slowest growth this year in at least a decade
- Amid the regulatory hiatus, China's gaming industry suffered its slowest growth in at least a decade
NGO report finds WhatsApp groups spreading child pornography; WhatsApp says it recently banned 130K accounts for violating policies against child exploitation
Facebook fails to provide enough moderators — WhatsApp chat groups are being used to spread illegal child pornography, cloaked by the app's end-to-end encryption.
UK's Gatwick airport reopens after being shut down on Wednesday and Thursday after drones were seen flying over the runway; 120K+ passengers have been affected
Delivery Hero sells its operations in its home market Germany, including the Lieferheld, Pizza.de and foodora brands, to Dutch rival Takeaway.com for €930M
One more big consolidation play is underway in the highly competitive European food delivery business, amid more pressure from newer players like Uber Eats and Deliveroo.
The Blackmagic eGPU Pro, introduced in October for a November release, can now be purchased on the online Apple Store for $1,199, delivers in mid-January
Juli Clover / MacRumors :
Sensor Tower: Apple's App Store had 164 publishers earn their first $1M in 2018, up ~15% YoY, nearly double the 88 on Google Play, which was up 24% YoY
Apple has long led its primary rival in the app economy in terms of monetization on its App Store, consistently generating close to twice …
Apple says it will stop selling iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 in its 15 retail stores across Germany after Qualcomm was granted an injunction by a Munich court
and Are Not—Banned In Two Countries Tweets: Nati Shochat / @natisho : “Apple says it will stop selling the iPhone 7 and iPhone 8 at its stores in Germany. But all iPhone models will be available at th...
Zynga says it will buy 80% of Helsinki-based Small Giant Games for $560M in a deal expected to close Jan. 1 and will buy remaining 20% over the next three years
Dean Takahashi / VentureBeat :
iflix, a Netflix-like streaming service targeting emerging markets, is selling its Africa business to concentrate on Indonesia, Malaysia, and the Philippines
Iflix, the emerging market Netflix competitor that's backed by Sky, is leaving Africa to double down on its business in Asia.
Slack is deactivating accounts it says are linked to Iran to comply with US sanctions without warning the users
Russell Brandom / The Verge :
Microsoft says Xbox All Access, its subscription program to buy an Xbox, Xbox Game Pass, and Xbox Live, will end on Dec. 31, return in a revised format in 2019
Charlie Hall / Polygon :
Amazon gives a German Alexa user, who requested his personal data under GDPR, access to 1,700 audio files of another user; Amazon says it was due to human error
Arno Schuetze / Reuters :
Sources describe how Amazon's efforts to make Alexa a better communicator through its Alexa Prize competition led to a hack and chats about sex and murder
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Millions of users of Amazon's Echo speakers have grown accustomed to the soothing strains of Alexa … Thanks: @jldastin
Uber says it will bring its self-driving cars back on the road on Thursday in Pittsburgh, nine months after a fatal crash
Dara Kerr / CNET :
Facebook confirms Spotify, Netflix, Dropbox, and RBC had read/write/delete access for messaging integrations, says it was experimental and ended three years ago
Ime Archibong / Facebook :
Spotify settles the $1.6B copyright lawsuit by music publisher Wixen, which represents artists like Tom Petty, Missy Elliot, Stevie Nicks, and Neil Young
Sarah Perez / TechCrunch :
Square says it has leased all of the office space in Oakland's Uptown Station, which Uber sold to developer CIM Group in 2017, with room for up to 2,000 staff
Roland Li / San Francisco Chronicle : Tweets: @rolandlisf , @sfchronicle , and @kimmaicutler Tweets: Roland Li / @rolandlisf : Square leases all the office space in Oakland's Uptown Station (formerly...
Corel, which makes products like CorelDraw and WordPerfect, says it is acquiring virtualization company Parallels for an undisclosed sum
Michael Potuck / 9to5Mac :
Earnin, which develops a money management platform for workers, raises $125M Series C from DST Global, a16z, and others and says it has 1M+ downloads
Kate Clark / TechCrunch :
Navy Inspector General report says the US military used two Android apps containing severe vulnerabilities that could have given hackers access to troops' info
Catalin Cimpanu / ZDNet :
Amazon says it is rolling out an Alexa integration with Wolfram Alpha to users in US
Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat :
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