Tech Releases

Niche online communities and media grew in 2017, through Patreon, TinyLetter, "finstagrams", and more as people looked for alternatives to Facebook and Twitter (Kaitlyn Tiffany/The Verge)

Ripple may be a great blockchain-based tech for banks, but the valuation of its XRP token reflects the unlikely hope it becomes a global reserve cryptocurrency (Kyle Samani/Forbes)

Three interrelated macro themes dominated this year in tech: the breakout of crypto, beginning of the end of white male dominance, and the backlash against tech (Fred Wilson/AVC)

Iran blocks access to Instagram and Telegram apps amid anti-government protests (Ben Kentish/The Independent)

Analysis of code from the top 10K websites on Alexa finds that 30.5% employ anti-ad blocking measures, many of which are hidden from the sites' visitors (Devin Coldewey/TechCrunch)

How Sweden, Norway, Finland prepare for AI-driven automation: employer-financed placement programs for those laid off, big public spending on social safety nets (Peter S. Goodman/New York Times)

Reports say Iranian authorities have cut off internet access to mobile phones as anti-government protests spread across the country (The Times of Israel)

Telegram, citing ToS, suspends public channel that incited violent anti-government protests in Iran; Telegram is a major platform with ~40M users in Iran (Theodore Schleifer/Recode)

Startups are seeking an alternative route to internet access via VPNs and mesh networks, amid net neutrality repeal, but the projects are as yet unproven (Douglas MacMillan/Wall Street Journal)

Apple makes $29 iPhone battery replacement price effective immediately, rather than in late January, but warns initial supplies of some batteries may be limited (Ina Fried/Axios)

OKCupid's rating sinks as users rebel over new 'real name' policy (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Ripple surged 50%+ on Friday and is now valued at ~$85B, surpassing Ethereum's market cap and becoming the second-most valuable cryptocurrency (Evelyn Cheng/CNBC)

How quantum computers will speed up the breaking of public-key cryptography and how "post-quantum cryptography" researchers are trying counter that threat (Joshua Holden/Nautilus)

Amazon's "Alexa everywhere" strategy is winning the smart speaker battle and Apple's delayed and high-priced HomePod may not be able to compete (M.G. Siegler/500ish Words)

Nielsen: Netflix's "Bright", which had a ~$90M budget, had 11M viewers on its opening weekend, roughly equivalent to $99M at the box office (Crayton Harrison/Bloomberg)

Indian mobile operator Reliance Jio to buy Reliance Communications' spectrum, tower, fiber optic, other telecom infrastructure assets; sources say for $3.75B (Reuters)

Sensor Tower: consumers spent $196M on apps across the Google Play and App Store on Christmas Day, up 12.3% YoY (Sarah Perez/TechCrunch)

Gamers say deadly shooting of a man Thursday night by Wichita police was the result of a swatting prank (Brian Krebs/Krebs on Security)

Gamers say deadly shooting of a man Thursday night by Wichita police was the result of a swatting prank (Nichole Manna/Wichita Eagle)

Pavel Lerner, an executive of Bitcoin exchange Exmo who was kidnapped in Ukraine, was released after paying $1M+ ransom in bitcoins, according to a Ukrainian MP (Financial Times)

Apple Store designers appear to have forgotten about Chicago winters

AT&T says all 50 states will participate in FirstNet wireless broadband network for emergency responders, funded with $6.5B over 5 years by federal government (Anjali Athavaley/Reuters)

In a tweet, President Donald Trump calls on the United States Postal Service to charge Amazon "much more" in postage fees (Justin Sink/Bloomberg)

Samsung, LG, HTC, and Motorola say that they do not slow down phones with older batteries (Victor H./PhoneArena)

Two Romanians arrested for hacking Washington DC police surveillance cameras just days before President Trump's inauguration (BBC)

Huawei's Ken Hu expects 2017 revenue to rise 15% to ~$92B, the firm's slowest growth in 4 years, amid shipment of 153M smartphones for 10%+ global market share (Sijia Jiang/Reuters)

Facebook says it removed Chechnya's Ramzan Kadyrov's accounts due to US sanctions, prompting questions on why others, like Venezuela's Maduro, are still active (Megan Specia/New York Times)