Techmeme
- Researchers find malware operators are now using steganography techniques to hide malicious code in WAV audio files (Catalin Cimpanu/ZDNet)
- A game made with a real world dataset of defendants shows the shortcomings of COMPAS, an AI-powered risk assessment tool used in the US criminal legal system (MIT Technology Review)
- A behind-the-scenes account of a cyberattack that disrupted the opening ceremony of the 2018 Winter Olympics, which was tied to a specific unit of Russia's GRU (Andy Greenberg/Wired)
- Inside Intuit's 20-year fight to make it harder to file taxes for free, including a pact with the IRS that kept a US-run service from competing with TurboTax (ProPublica)
- A nonprofit is fighting illegal logging via a treetop monitoring unit that uses AI to detect sounds of chainsaws recorded and uploaded by used cellphones (Mike Ives/New York Times)
- Seven US lawmakers, including Wyden, Cruz, Ocasio-Cortez, and Rubio accuse Apple of "censorship of apps" at the "behest of the Chinese government", in a letter (Bloomberg)
- Wing starts first commercial drone delivery service in the US, delivering orders from FedEx Express, Walgreens, and Sugar Magnolia in Christiansburg, Virginia (Wing Blog)
- Facebook reaches licensing deal with News Corp to feature headlines from WSJ, NY Post, and others in a coming news tab; sources: WaPo, BuzzFeed News, BI also in (Lukas I. Alpert/Wall Street Journal)
- Paris-based Lemon Way, which offers an API for payment processing, wallet management, and third-party payments, raises €25M, bringing its total raised to €35M (Annie Musgrove/Tech.eu)
- MediaLab, a holding company that owns the Whisper app, buys Kik messenger from Kik Interactive, which now focuses on development of Kin cryptocurrency (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)
- Massive protests erupt in Lebanon after a now-withdrawn government proposal to levy ~$6/mo tax on calls via WhatsApp and similar apps, amid an economic crisis (An-Nahar)
- Cybersecurity startup Corelight, which is building a network traffic analysis platform for enterprises, raises $50M Series C, bringing its total raised to $84M (Kyle Wiggers/VentureBeat)
- Imgur says it will no longer support communities associated with NSFW Reddit subreddits because they've put Imgur's "user growth, mission, and business at risk" (Bijan Stephen/The Verge)
- Data analytics startup Sisu emerges from stealth with $52.5M Series B led by NEA, with a16z and Green Bay participating, bringing its total raised to $66.7M (Jillian D'Onfro/Forbes)
- After buying Poloniex in 2018 for $400M, Circle spins it out into Polo Digital Assets, backed by an unnamed Asian firm, says it won't serve US customers anymore (Nikhilesh De/CoinDesk)
TechCrunch
Silicon Alley Insider
- Tesla has always struggled to build cars. Now that critical fundamental is really hurting its business. (TSLA)
- Why giant squid, the once mythical kraken of the deep, are still mystifying scientists 150 years after they were discovered
- Teens keep outsmarting Apple's features for limiting screen time, and parents are starting to get frustrated (AAPL)
- Peloton users are complaining about the slew of '80s music in its workouts after it stopped using popular songs named in a $300 million copyright lawsuit
- The top 9 shows on Netflix and other streaming services this week
- I tried both Amtrak's new food service and its traditional dining car, and now I understand why people were so upset about the change
- The top 8 most popular Silicon Valley Airbnb listings tech workers book for business travel proves price and location are everything
- 149 cars including Teslas and classic muscle cars were seized by the FBI in an investigation into an alleged 'Ponzi-type' scheme. Now they're up for auction.
- Breaking up big tech was a big topic of discussion at the most recent Democratic debate ? here?s where all the candidates stand
- Two major changes happening in comic books could shape the industry's future ? and comic shops will have to adapt to survive
- What Netflix's roller-coaster week and earnings report say about its pricing power and growth potential (NFLX)
- The world's biggest video game launched a massive update after going dark for 2 days ? here's everything that's changed in 'Fortnite: Chapter 2'
- Mozilla's CMO on what marketers get wrong about data, why it's still boycotting Facebook, and how it plans to eat into Chrome and Safari's share
- IoT 101: Your Essential Guide to the Internet of Things
- T-Mobile is outpacing the rest of the Big Four US carriers on value, loyalty, and satisfaction ? here's what consumers say is most important when selecting a mobile provider (TMUS, S, VZ, T)
- AI IN TELECOMMUNICATIONS: Why carriers could lose out if they don't adopt AI fast ? and where they can make the biggest gains
- Read the pitch deck that Uber founder Garrett Camp created for the ride-hailing giant back in 2008 ? before the company became the $120 billion giant it is today (UBER)
- How to reset and change your voicemail password on an iPhone without calling your voicemail
- AOC, Marco Rubio, and 5 more lawmakers just wrote a letter to Tim Cook calling Apple's decision to remove an app used by Hong Kong protesters 'deeply concerning' (AAPL)
- How to change the name of your Mac computer in 4 steps, so that it's easier to find on your local network and AirDrop
Mashable