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Washington Post : China's three state-backed wireless carriers launch 5G in some cities, ahead of original 2020 date; China Mobile aims to bring 5G to 50+ cities by year's end   —  BEIJING — Chinese cellphone carriers will begin offering super-fast, next-generation 5G service on a commercial basis Friday … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2N4UY55

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat : Amazon says Alexa skill personalization, which allows developers to provide personalized experiences for different customers, is now generally available   —  Future voice skills built for Alexa might respond uniquely to your voice.  That's thanks to Alexa skill personalization … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2puEGcM

Alex Marshall / New York Times : How Netflix is navigating strict, sometimes vague, censorship standards in countries like Turkey and India, while viewers decry the concessions to censorship   —  The streaming giant is having to navigate different political and moral landscapes, and calls for government oversight, as it seeks subscribers worldwide. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2pjidPX

Johana Bhuiyan / Los Angeles Times : Github is doubling down on its ICE contract, saying cancellation could “hurt the very people we all want to help” in internal memo, among rising employee anger   —  When Github Chief Executive Nat Friedman announced on Oct. 9 his company would donate half a million dollars … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2C0rAXy

Khari Johnson / VentureBeat : The Defense Innovation Board, a Pentagon advisory board led by Eric Schmidt, unveils principles for the US military to apply to combat and non-combat AI systems   —  The Defense Innovation Board, a panel of 16 prominent technologists advising the Pentagon, today voted to approve AI ethics principles for the Department of Defense. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2oyoner

Manish Singh / TechCrunch : Qoo10 acquires Indian ecommerce company Shopclues; sources: the deal values ShopClues, which claimed a valuation of $1.1B in 2016, between $50M and $80M   —  Qoo10, a Singapore-based e-commerce firm has acquired India's online marketplace ShopClues in an all-stock deal, the two companies said Thursday. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/3240Dwy

Reuters : Sources: senior government and military officials in at least 20 countries, including US allies, were among the known targets of NSO Group's WhatsApp malware   —  WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Senior government officials in multiple U.S.-allied countries were targeted earlier this year with hacking software … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2NwFFBh

Drew Harwell / Washington Post : ACLU sues DOJ, FBI, and DEA in federal court, detailing their use of facial recognition software and arguing it constitutes a nationwide surveillance system   —  The American Civil Liberties Union on Thursday sued the Justice Department, the Drug Enforcement Administration and the FBI … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2C1Wrmh

FireEye : FireEye: Chinese state-backed hacker group APT41 is using malware called MESSAGETAP to parse and save SMS traffic from a telecom's network at scale   —  FireEye Mandiant recently discovered a new malware family used by APT41 (a Chinese APT group) that is designed to monitor and save SMS traffic … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/322q3un

Canalys : Canalys: Huawei shipped 41.5M smartphones in China in Q3, up 66% YoY, growing its country marketshare to 42% from 25% last year   —  The China (mainland) smartphone market improved sequentially in Q3 2019 as shipments reached 97.8 million, from 97.6 million units in Q2.</a> China is still shrinking … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2WEvPl7

Kyle Wiggers / VentureBeat : DotData, which offers automation tools for data science tasks, raises $23M Series A led by JAFCO, bringing its total raised to $43M   —  DotData, a San Mateo, California-based provider of automation tools that operationalize data science processes, today announced that it's raised $23 million … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2PBPtML

Bloomberg : Sources: Alibaba is deciding whether to launch a reduced $10B Hong Kong IPO in November or wait until next year, as global economic uncertainty mounts   —  - Its required Hong Kong listing hearing is still pending  — The company is pondering when to launch its mega listing from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2q4H6yS

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch : Namogoo, which helps e-commerce sites prevent unauthorized ad injections that attempt to divert customers to competitors, raises $40M Series C led by Oak HC/FT   —  Namogoo, the Herzliya, Israel-based company that has developed a solution for e-commerce and other online enterprises to prevent … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2oxYY4B

Josh Barro / New York Magazine : A look at how US airports like LAX and O'Hare are trying to solve congestion caused by ride-hailing pickups by experimenting with ideas like PIN-based pickup   —  Earlier this month, I landed at McCarran Airport in Las Vegas and got out my phone to call an Uber. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2Nw8s95

Casey Newton / The Interface : Twitter's political ad ban will run into enforcement issues on defining issue ads and possibly disadvantage lesser-known or nontraditional candidates   —  If you've ever wondered about the value of having multiple social networks competing to develop the best products and policies, Wednesday offered us a clear example. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2C1pTcm

Steve O'Hear / TechCrunch : Freetrade, which offers commission-free stock investing in the UK, raises $15M Series A led by Draper Esprit   —  Freetrade, the U.K. challenger stockbroker that offers commission-free investing, has closed $15 million in Series A funding.  The round includes a $7.5 million investment from Draper Esprit … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2N35cTK

Jager McConnell / Crunchbase : Crunchbase, a platform for finding business information about private and public companies, raises $30M Series C led by Omers Ventures   —  We are excited to share that Crunchbase just closed a $30 million dollar Series C funding round led by OMERS Ventures. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2C0IGnU

Pavel Alpeyev / Bloomberg : Nintendo beats estimates in Q2 with sales of 4.8M Switch consoles, up 50% YoY, and operating income of ~$615M on revenue of ~$2.5B   —  - Switch sales climb 50% from a year ago to 4.8 million units  — Nintendo sticks with conservative full-year earnings outlook from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2PwipWu

Sarah Emerson / OneZero : An investigation into the supply chain of AmazonBasics batteries shows how Amazon masks its private label operations through a discreet network of outsourcing   —  One of Amazon's smallest and most popular products has a surprisingly large footprint  —  heard the “pop!” from my living room … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/323tBN9

Kevin Townsend / SecurityWeek : Report: 21M stolen credentials from global Fortune 500 organizations were found for sale on the dark web, 16M of which were compromised in the last 12 months   —  There have been many studies and investigations into the number of stolen credentials available on the dark web. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/31VlPVu

Dropbox Blog : Dropbox says Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python, is leaving the company after six and a half years and heading into retirement   —  After six and a half years, Guido van Rossum, the creator of Python, is leaving Dropbox and heading into retirement.  From the beginning, we knew Guido would be a great addition to our company. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2N3Nhfv

Jessica Huseman / ProPublica : An in-depth look at ES&S, which controls around 50% of the US voting machine market and retained its position over the years despite several mishaps   —  ProPublica is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates abuses of power.  Sign up for ProPublica's Big Story newsletter to receive stories … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2C08wZb

Kif Leswing / CNBC : Tim Cook suggests iPhone upgrade plans are akin to the idea of a “prime subscription”, says Apple sees it as a major growth area   —  - Some investors want Apple to sell its iPhone on a subscription basis to shift more of Apple's revenue from transactional sales to recurring revenue. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2PxUruc

Steven Musil / CNET : Samsung posts Q3 operating profit of $6.6B, down 56% YoY, on revenue of $53B, while the revenue from its mobile division grew 17.4% YoY to ~$25.2B   —  Declining demand for chips hurts the electronics giant's bottom line.  —  Samsung was hit hard in its third quarter by the slowdown in tech. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2N0QtIH

Kara Swisher / New York Times : Dorsey's political ad ban is a worthy dare to all social networks, which have become hostage to abuse and manipulation with their growth-at-all-costs mentality   —  Twitter will no longer allow political advertising, a move that places Twitter and Jack Dorsey in stark contrast to Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg. from Techmeme https://ift.tt/2N0Ry3n

Chance Miller / 9to5Mac : Tim Cook says Apple Pay transactions more than doubled YoY to 3B+ transactions in Q4, exceeding PayPal's volume and growing 4x faster   —  Apple Pay has been growing at a brisk pace recently, and Tim Cook is making a point to emphasize that fact.  During Apple's Q4 2019 earnings call today … from Techmeme https://ift.tt/337PrR2